Dragon Ball World, Earth, July, Age 750.
More than two months had passed since Son Goku, after getting second place in the 21st World Martial Arts Tournament, killing Tao Pai Pai, and defeating the Red Ribbon Army, reunited with his deceased Grandpa Gohan and embarked on his training again.
For these two months, he had been diligently and arduously training.
During this time, he also defeated two scoundrels who called themselves Kinkaku and Ginkaku, fought against the human martial artist Tenlong, learned the Illusion Star Fist, and went to the Demon World to rescue the princess.
"1121, 1122, 1123..."
On the sloping mountain path, the young Goku, whose tail had regrown, carried a huge rock and was doing frog jumps repeatedly in the pouring rain, gritting his teeth.
This was one of the Turtle School's training methods for physical conditioning.
Suddenly, a streak of light descended from the sky, hitting the young Goku directly between his eyebrows, causing him to roll his eyes and faint.
When he woke up again, he found himself in a vast, white space.
In this space, countless glowing doors were densely scattered, and each door was imprinted with patterns and text.
Most of the patterns were people dressed in different clothes, and although he didn't recognize the text, he strangely understood what it meant.
"Marvel, Harry Potter, Demon Slayer, Attack on Titan, Inuyasha, Naruto..."
He read the names on the doors one by one, and finally, his gaze stopped on the glowing door behind him:
"Isn't this me?"
He was surprised to find that the pattern imprinted on the glowing door behind him was indeed himself, and the text written on it was "Dragon Ball."
Somewhat curiously, he reached out and pushed open the door with his picture on it, and his mind immediately went blank.
When he opened his eyes again, he found himself back on the mountain slope where he had been training, and it was still raining outside.
"What's going on?"
The young Goku blinked, clearly unable to understand what had happened.
"Forget it, I won't think about it."
After thinking for less than five seconds, he gave up on the question and continued his frog jump training with the huge rock on his back.
For him, ever since he left Mount Paozu with Bulma, there had been too many things he couldn't understand.
But it didn't matter; if he didn't understand, he didn't understand. What was most important was to train well, improve his strength, and win the championship at the World Martial Arts Tournament three years later.
That night, the rain stopped, and the young Goku, carrying the huge rock, had frog-jumped to the mountain top.
"I'm hungry!"
He put down the huge rock, rubbed his stomach, and then muttered:
"I'll just catch a tiger to eat today."
With a few leaps, his figure disappeared into the nearby forest.
Half an hour later, the young Goku emerged from the forest, dragging a Sabretooth as large as a small car.
An hour later, the young Goku sucked the last bone of the tiger, rubbed his round belly, and closed his eyes contentedly.
In less than three seconds, he had fallen into a deep sleep.
However, exactly three seconds later, his figure suddenly vanished from the spot.
Eight hours later, the young Goku opened his eyes, stretched a big yawn, and prepared to find some breakfast.
However, after he clearly saw his surroundings, he fell into confusion again.
"How did I end up here again?"
Indeed, the place where the young Goku was now was precisely the space filled with glowing doors.
He walked around the white space, and this time, he still reached out and touched the door with his own picture on it.
As expected, he returned to the mountain top where he had fallen asleep.
It was then that he understood: as long as he touched the door with his own picture in that white space, he could return to the place he had left.
"Then how did I get in there?"
Another question mark popped up in his mind.
But the young Goku didn't think too much; he got up, caught a wild wolf in the forest for breakfast, and then resumed his arduous training.
Compared to the secret of the white space, he cared more about his own training.
At night, in the cave, the young Goku, who had trained all day, fell asleep normally.
Eight hours later, he opened his eyes and, sure enough, found himself in the white space again.
"So, I appear here whenever I sleep."
Although the young Goku was not very clear about many common facts and didn't care much about things unrelated to training, it didn't mean he was stupid.
So, after two or three experiences, he quickly figured out the pattern of entering the white space.
As long as he fell asleep, he would enter the white space, and as long as he touched the door with his own picture, he could return.
"Then what are these?"
This time, the young Goku did not touch the glowing door with his own picture. Instead, he reached out and touched another glowing door next to it.
His mind went blank, and when he regained consciousness, he found himself in a strange alley.
"So it's like Lord Karin's jars."
At this moment, the young Goku suddenly realized.
Earlier, when he fought Tao Pai Pai, he had climbed Karin Tower and received training from Lord Karin, the Cat Hermit.
During his training with Lord Karin, he knew that Lord Karin had several jars.
Those jars could lead to different places in the World.
Presumably, these doors could also take him to different places in the World.
"I'm hungry, let's go find something to eat!"
The young Goku rubbed his stomach, preparing to leave the alley to get some breakfast, and then continue his training.
For him, training was the same no matter where he was.
Moreover, he had just woken up and couldn't fall asleep again to enter the white space and use that door to return to the previous cave.
He would have to wait until night to go back.
"Gabrielle, you can't escape!"
Just as the young Goku took a step, a sharp shout came from the alley entrance.
Immediately after, he saw a woman holding a little girl rush into the alley, followed by a group of burly men with guns.
The loud shout just now was from the leader of the burly men.
"Oh no, a dead end!"
Seeing that the alley had no exit and that there was also a boy with a blank expression standing inside, Gabrielle's face immediately changed drastically. She turned to face the group of burly men.
The burly men, on the other hand, looked delighted.
"Gabrielle, the commander said that as long as you bring X-23 back to the Facility and tell us the locations of the other test subjects, he can offer you wealth that will absolutely satisfy you."
The leading captain ignored the strangely dressed, blank-faced boy in the alley and looked at the girl in Gabrielle's arms with some apprehension.
The girl was experimental subject X-23. Gabrielle had named her Laura, and she was the most dangerous mutant child in the Facility.
"You devils, I will not hand Laura over to you."
Gabrielle refused without hesitation.
She was originally a nurse in Mexico City, working at a place called the Genetic Modification Facility.
This Facility outwardly researched medicine, but in reality, it paid local Mexican women to be surrogate mothers to breed mutant children.
Then, they would train and cultivate these mutant children to become killing machines.
However, recently, the Facility's research had a new breakthrough, creating more powerful test subjects.
Therefore, they decided to kill all the mutant children who were unwilling to cooperate.
After she accidentally learned the truth, she risked her life to escape the Facility with all the mutant children.
However, they got separated during the escape, and she had to quickly take Laura to the initially agreed-upon meeting point to reunite with the other children.
"In that case, don't blame us for being impolite!"
The leading captain gestured to the team members behind him, and they immediately aimed their guns at the little girl Gabrielle had put down.
Gabrielle was just an ordinary nurse and posed no threat; the real threat was X-23.
"The commander said that if you don't agree, we can also bring back your corpses."
At this moment, two Adamantium claws slowly extended from the little girl's hands simultaneously, and her eyes were filled with murderous intent.
Just as a major battle was about to erupt, the boy behind them suddenly leaped and jumped in front of Gabrielle and Laura.
"Stop, what are you doing?"
The young Goku questioned the group of burly men in front of him.
The group of people in front gave him a feeling very similar to the Red Ribbon Army, whom he had annihilated for their heinous acts.
"Little friend, it's dangerous, move aside quickly!"
Seeing the boy protecting them from behind, Gabrielle immediately showed an anxious expression.
These armed personnel from the Facility were cold-blooded devils who wouldn't hesitate to kill, and they didn't care if their enemy was a child.
"Get lost, brat!"
As expected, the leading captain didn't hesitate at all; he raised his hand and fired a shot at the young Goku's head.
"Bang!"
The bullet whizzed towards the young Goku's forehead.
However, in the next second, everyone's faces showed an expression of disbelief.
"What!"
"It seems you are all bad people!"
The young Goku threw the bullet in his hand to the ground and assumed the Turtle School fighting stance.
It turned out that, facing the bullet attack just now, he had directly caught it with his hand.
If it had been when he first left Mount Paozu, he really couldn't have caught a bullet with his bare hands; at most, he could only endure the bullet with his body.
Getting hit by a bullet still hurt a bit.
But after subsequent adventures, after training with Master Roshi, after the World Martial Arts Tournament, and the battle with Tao Pai Pai, his strength had greatly improved.
"captain, look behind him, isn't that a tail?"
After recovering, a team member suddenly noticed something and quickly pointed to the young Goku's rised tail behind him.
"So that's it!"
The leading captain's face showed a look of realization after seeing the young Goku's tail.
"I didn't expect there to be a wild mutant; kill him too."
If he saw a little boy with a tail behind his butt on the street, he would only think that the other person had attached a tail-like decoration behind his butt.
Because after so many years of effort by his Facility, there were no wild mutants left in the World.
Among the escaped test subjects, none of the mutant children had tails either.
However, this boy could actually catch a bullet with his bare hands, so he must be a mutant.
Aside from mutants, how could an ordinary person, no matter how strong, catch a bullet with their bare hands?
However, he wasn't too worried. Being able to catch a bullet was nothing; many mutants could do it.
He had followed the commander to hunt mutants before; what kind of mutants hadn't he seen or killed?
Could he catch one, two, three, or a hundred bullets?
Not everyone was a pervert like Magneto.
Normal mutants, if not numerous and without much combat experience, were no match for them.
As long as it was a carbon-based life form, it couldn't withstand modern weapons, and mutants were no exception.
However, as soon as he finished speaking, he found that the boy standing there had disappeared.
"Where is he?"
The next second, he felt an unbearable heavy blow to his abdomen, rolled his eyes, and fainted on the ground.
As for the rest of the team members, they saw the target boy rush in front of the captain as if teleporting.
With just one light punch, their battle-hardened captain fell to the ground.
Before they could even turn their guns to aim, they all followed in their captain's footsteps.
Their eyes couldn't even see the trajectory of the opponent's movement.
"As weak as those people from the Red Ribbon Army."
Looking at the burly men lying on the ground, the young Goku clapped his hands and turned to Gabrielle, who was dumbfounded, smiling:
"Auntie, are you two alright?"
"N-no... we're fine."
The shock in Gabrielle's eyes was no less than that of the burly men who had been knocked down.
She hadn't expected to encounter a wild mutant child here, and such a powerful one at that.
"Quick, let's get out of here first!"
After reacting, she immediately picked up the little girl again, grabbed the young Goku, and ran out of the alley.
After that small team discovered them, they must have already reported to the Facility's commander.
If they stayed here, a large team of fully armed mercenaries specializing in hunting mutants would soon come to apprehend them.
Those people would not be carrying pistols then, but heavy weapons like submachine guns, sniper rifles, and Rocket launchers.
No matter how good the boy was at fighting, it would be useless.
Running out of the alley, Gabrielle quickly found her small car, put the young Goku and Laura in the back seat, and floored the accelerator, speeding towards her home in the west of the city.
"Where are we going?"
The young Goku sat in the back seat, tilting his head to ask Gabrielle.
Because he didn't feel any malice from Gabrielle, he didn't resist when she pulled him into the car.
"We're going to the west of the city. Little friend, what's your name, and where do you live? I'll take you home first."
Gabrielle only breathed a sigh of relief when they had driven out of the area they were just in.
The young Goku replied:
"My name is Goku, and I live on Mount Paozu. You don't need to take me home; I'm out training."
"Mount Paozu? Training?"
Gabrielle's face showed a confused expression.
She had never heard of a place called Mount Paozu, and as for training, what was there for an eleven or twelve-year-old boy to train for?
"Then where are your parents? Do you have their phone number?"
The little boy had just saved them, so even though their situation wasn't very good now, she still intended to take the little boy home.
And warn the little boy's parents to leave this city quickly, otherwise, if discovered by the Facility, they would definitely be captured for experiments or killed.
"I don't have parents; Grandpa Gohan picked me up and raised me."
The young Goku replied honestly.
Gabrielle looked back at the young Goku, her eyes full of pity.
This child must have been abandoned by his parents because he had a tail when he was born.
"Then where is your Grandpa now? Do you have his number?"
"Grandpa, Grandpa passed away. He's living in the Other World now."
The young Goku remembered the last time he saw Grandpa at Baba's place. Grandpa said he was very happy living in the Other World and didn't want to be revived with the Dragon Balls.
"I'm so hungry..."
At this moment, his stomach rumbled; he hadn't had breakfast yet today...