Frieza was dead.
After being heavily wounded by the Spirit Bomb, he was at the end of his tether and could not withstand Aomori's relentless pursuit. His life of villainy had come to an abrupt end.
Of course, in the world of Dragon Ball, death is rarely the final stop. Perhaps in the future, he would return before everyone with a fresh coat of gold.
…
"The Spirit Bomb is truly powerful; no wonder it could wipe out Buu," Aomori couldn't help but marvel.
In the original timeline, Goku had been too rushed and failed to gather enough energy, which is why he only managed to wound Frieza. That failure, however, paved the way for Goku's transformation into a Super Saiyan.
Now that Aomori had become the primary force in the battle, Goku never encountered the "sacrifice of a friend" necessary to trigger his transformation. However, since both he and Vegeta had already built a solid foundation, the perilous future of Earth would surely provide the natural opportunity for them to become the legendary Saiyan warriors.
Meanwhile, with King Kai's cooperation, Kami summoned the Earth's Shenron to resurrect all Namekians killed by Frieza's army.
Aomori, who had already mastered the Namekian language through Kami's memories, used the Namekian Dragon Balls to summon the colossal dragon, Porunga.
For the first wish, he transported everyone on Planet Namek to Earth. This was his deal with the Grand Elder: two wishes in exchange for the safety of his people. The remaining wishes were for Aomori to decide.
Under Vegeta's gaze, a mix of envy, jealousy, and hatred, Aomori pondered for a long time before making his two choices.
First, to master all technology regarding Androids. Second, the locations of every research facility where Dr. Gero conducted his experiments.
"Why is it that in the original story, after learning about the threat from Future Trunks, Goku and the others never thought to use the Dragon Balls to find them? They just waited for them to show up."
This question had always bothered Aomori in his past life. This time, he decided to strike first, dragging the Androids out while their research was only halfway finished. Furthermore, Aomori was fascinated by the technology. He wondered what kind of entity would be born if an Android combined the genes of Goku, Saitama, Naruto, Ichigo, and Luffy.
…
"Boss, this is the final set of data sent by Dr. Briefs."
A beautiful young woman with short blonde hair placed a thick stack of documents in front of Aomori.
She was Android 18. Half a year ago, while Aomori was cleaning up Dr. Gero and Androids 13, 14, and 15, he had rescued her from the lab. As for 16 and 17, Aomori wasn't close to them and didn't care where they had gone.
The documents before him detailed the creation of Hoi-Poi Capsules. After Aomori made a simple request, Dr. Briefs had organized the data and sent it over, along with a "gift," the infatuated Bulma.
"Aomori, can you even understand these? Why don't I teach you?" Bulma said affectionately, batting her eyelashes at him.
"Sigh." Aomori sighed, offering a second of silence for Yamcha and Vegeta. "No thanks, I can read them myself."
"Exactly. My Boss is amazing," 18 said, crossing her arms and shooting Bulma a sidelong glance. "You're useless here. You should head home early, Auntie."
"Auntie?!" Bulma's lip twitched. She shot 18 a furious glare and turned to leave.
Aomori breathed a sigh of relief and focused on the data. A few days later, he had mastered the production of Hoi-Poi Capsules. With that, his business in the Dragon Ball world was finished. It was time to leave.
"18, I have to leave for a while. Let the others know for me."
"Understood, Boss."
With a small nod to 18, Aomori vanished instantly.
…
Entering the Red Mist once more, Aomori held a small booklet. He intended to head to the Naruto world to ask the Otsutsuki for a Chakra Fruit to see what it tasted like.
However, after traveling for a time, he noticed something was wrong. The normally quiet Red Mist was churning rapidly, like boiling steam. In the blink of an eye, the turbulence reached Aomori, enveloping him. The sight that followed made his blood run cold and his scalp tingle.
Through the mist, a gargantuan figure the size of a planet moved slowly. It had a flat torso with countless long, slender tentacles stretching out in every direction, resembling a Ciliophora magnified millions of times. It was the rhythmic dancing of these tentacles that stirred the mist.
"What on earth is that?!" Sensing the indescribable, horrific aura radiating from it, Aomori held his breath and froze, not daring to move.
Being as small as a speck of dust, he seemingly failed to trigger a reaction from the terrifying creature. But just as he was about to relax, a jolt of horror struck him: "Wait! Relative to the churning mist, my stillness is actually equivalent to movement!"
By the time he realized it, it was too late.
A swarm of mountain-sized tentacles surged toward him. Aomori could see nodules on the tentacles opening up, turning into blood-red maws lined with sharp teeth.
He took a deep breath, his energy exploding as he transformed into a streak of light, darting out just before they closed in. The speed he was once so proud of was trivial before this thing. Even with teleportation, the tentacles would quickly catch up.
"I can't keep this up. If I run out of energy, I'm finished!" He didn't think for a second that such a creature was benevolent. To avoid being cornered, he had already veered off his original course; reaching the Naruto world was now impossible.
"Wait, I can enter a Dungeon World through the System!"
Aomori immediately opened the system interface and clicked "Enter Dungeon." A black hole the size of a millstone appeared before him. Without a second thought, he flashed inside.
The pursuing tentacles slammed into the black hole, propping the closing portal wide open. But given the creature's size, it couldn't fit through even if it tore the portal apart.
Just as he thought he was safe, Aomori's eyes widened. The tips of the tentacles split open, and dozens of miniature tentacle monsters, roughly Aomori's size crawled out.
"Damn! They can spawn minions?!" The scene felt hauntingly familiar, but he didn't have time to think. He gathered his energy and fired a Kamehameha. To his disbelief, the near full-power blast only destroyed a small fraction of the vanguard. By his estimate, he'd need at least 20 more shots to wipe them out.
Aomori turned and ran.
Soon, a white sphere of light appeared ahead. Just as he was about to tear open a spatial rift to hide inside, a young boy wearing a checkered beret appeared out of thin air in front of him. He wore a pink jacket and blue shorts; his multicolored eyes were patterned with diamonds and spades.
The boy looked at Aomori, smiled with narrowed eyes, and then extended his right hand toward the oncoming monsters. He whispered: "Mist Beasts are forbidden from living here."
As soon as he spoke, Aomori watched in shock as all the tentacle monsters disintegrated into dust. "Command over reality?"
The tunnel created by the system then closed, and the terrifying creature was gone.
"Just a simple application of rules. You're an Awakened, so you should understand," the boy said, sticking out his tongue. "Good thing those were just derivatives of a Mist Beast. If we faced the main body, it would be a real headache."
"Mist Beast? Derivatives?" Aomori exhaled, suppressing his questions for a moment. He nodded to the boy and said, "Thank you for your help."
"Don't mention it. It's rare to meet a guest from another world; I couldn't let you end up as Mist Beast food," the boy smiled. "Oh, right, I haven't introduced myself."
"I am Tet, the God of Games who holds the authority of 'Play,' and the One True God of this world. Welcome to my world."
…
Tet, as far as Aomori knew, was a character from No Game No Life. But this version, who could wipe out those monsters with a word and knew Aomori's identity, was clearly also an Awakened.
"So you're a rare space-type Awakened. No wonder you can move freely in the Red Mist even at your level," Tet said as he led Aomori to a mountaintop. He conjured a tea set and spoke with envy.
"You can't?" Aomori asked, taking a sip of tea.
"Of course not!" Tet pouted. "I tried it once out of curiosity and almost got lost in the Red Mist. You should know, that mist can even devour time. Only spatial power can protect you, not to mention the terrifying Mist Beasts that pop up out of nowhere."
"Devour time? What does that mean?"
"Once you enter the Red Mist, time loses its meaning. You might wander around and return to your original world only to find that time has flowed backward, or you might feel like only a few days have passed when it's actually been thousands of years."
"Strange. Then why can the System always open a dungeon for me based on a one-month interval?" Aomori rotated the cup in his hand and asked, "What exactly is a Mist Beast?"
"You really don't know anything, do you? Fine, let me explain," Tet said. "Mist Beasts are strange creatures that live in the Red Mist. No one knows how they are born. Their movements are unpredictable, and they prey on Awakened like you who wander the mist. However, their favorite food is 'Worlds.' That's why they are also called World-Eaters."
"World-Eaters?" Aomori recalled what Od Lagna had said in the Re:Zero world. "The crisis that world faced... it must have been caused by a Mist Beast." At the same time, the two terrifying giant eyeballs from his previous life appeared in his mind. "Was that a Mist Beast too?" Those small monsters looked a lot like "derivatives."
Aomori's gaze sharpened. "How strong are these Mist Beasts?"
"They vary. But even the weakest isn't something a novice like you can handle. You'd need to reach the realm of a Transcendent to have a chance at self-preservation."
"Transcendent?"
"The next stage after being an Awakened. You transcend the world, becoming a truly independent individual, a world unto yourself. Only then can you avoid being assimilated by the Red Mist and travel as you please."
"Do you know how to become a Transcendent?"
"Didn't I just say it?" Tet looked confused. "Transcend the world."
"Transcend the world... severing the connection to it?" Aomori closed his eyes, falling into deep thought. Tet smiled and didn't disturb him.
After a long time, Aomori opened his eyes and thanked Tet again. These words had resolved many of his doubts and given him a new direction.
"Don't mention it. I have a natural fondness for humans. If you were a Minotaur or a Pigman, I would have chased you away long ago," Tet said bluntly.
Aomori couldn't help but feel a liking for such a straightforward person.
"Since I've said so much, play a few games with me before you go," Tet laughed, pulling out various game props. "Do you want to play Poker or Chess? Or we could just flip a coin."
"..." Facing Tet's hopeful eyes, Aomori couldn't bring himself to say no.
…
After playing with Tet for a few days, and being utterly crushed in every game, Aomori spent some time wandering this world. He admired the beautiful scenery, met Sora and Shiro, and witnessed their legendary speech. Once the dungeon time was up, he left. Fearing the Mist Beast might still be waiting, he didn't leave through the system's portal but tore through space himself to enter the Red Mist.
…
After traveling through several more worlds, the items he had obtained from his ten-pull to act as landmarks were nearly exhausted.
"Wait, there's one more." Aomori pressed his hand to his chest. Inside the soul of Millenniummon curled there, a single card was floating.
"Let's go check that place out."
Target: The world of Yu-Gi-Oh!
After an unknown amount of time, a sphere of light finally appeared. Aomori tore through space and dove in.
…
On a grey, desolate land, a rift suddenly appeared, and Aomori jumped through. He looked up at the sky, which was thick with dark clouds and coiling lightning, and frowned.
"This is different from the Yu-Gi-Oh! world I know."
The surroundings were a vast expanse of dried, cracked, dark earth. There was not a living thing in sight, and the air was thick with dark energy. Aomori opened his Mind's Eye, and after searching for a while, he finally spotted a creature.
"No way..."
He used teleportation to appear in front of the creature. Looking at its furry body and large, round eyes, he exclaimed in surprise: "Kuriboh?"
"Kiki-kiki!" Kuriboh chirped at Aomori, seeming to speak urgently.
"You're saying a powerful monster is coming and I should be careful?" Aomori deduced the meaning from its emotional fluctuations.
"Kiki!" Kuriboh nodded.
"Don't worry. With me here, there's no monster to fear." Aomori picked up the adorable Kuriboh and placed it on his shoulder.
He walked toward the direction the monster was approaching from. Soon, Aomori saw a knight riding a purple steed, clutching two red lances.
"Gaia the Fierce Knight? So this really is a world where monsters exist..."