High above the clouds, Kami's Lookout remained as peaceful as ever.
The fresh air felt pure enough to cleanse the soul.
In one corner, the enormous hourglass silently continued its endless flow, marking the passage of time.
"Whoosh!"
Space rippled like the surface of a lake.
Krillin appeared in the center of the Lookout's plaza.
Mr. Popo was watering the flowers in the garden.
He glanced at Krillin, lazily raised an eyebrow, then continued his work.
Krillin had been teleporting to the Lookout every few days for years.
By now, Mr. Popo barely reacted anymore.
Nearby, Dende sat cross-legged in quiet meditation.
Since becoming Earth's Guardian, he had grown noticeably calmer.
A faint divine aura now surrounded him.
Sensing Krillin's presence, Dende opened his eyes and smiled warmly.
"Mr. Krillin, welcome."
"Dende, where's Piccolo?"
Krillin got straight to the point.
"I need to see him."
"Mr. Piccolo is inside the Hyperbolic Time Chamber."
Dende pointed toward the large white door.
"He said there's only one year left before the Androids arrive."
"He's making one final push."
"The Hyperbolic Time Chamber..."
Krillin frowned.
One day outside equaled one year inside.
The environment was unimaginably harsh.
Even for Piccolo, that level of training demanded incredible endurance.
"I'm going in."
He walked toward the entrance.
"Wait, Mr. Krillin!"
Dende hurried after him.
"Only two people can enter at once."
"And once you've gone inside, you can't enter again for another year."
"Rules are made by people."
"So people can bend them."
Krillin waved without even looking back.
Reaching the massive white door, he didn't bother opening it.
Instead, he simply placed one hand against its surface.
"Buzz..."
Supreme Kai Instant Transmission activated.
To Dende and Mr. Popo's astonishment, a swirling spatial vortex appeared before the chamber's supposedly impenetrable entrance.
It resembled a miniature black hole.
Krillin casually stepped inside.
...
The Hyperbolic Time Chamber.
An endless white world.
Gravity was ten times stronger than Earth's.
The air was painfully thin.
The temperature swung wildly between freezing cold and blistering heat.
"Haa..."
"Haa..."
Piccolo stood drenched in sweat.
He maintained a flawless horse stance.
He wore his familiar purple gi beneath a training cape weighing several hundred kilograms.
Around him floated over a hundred copies of himself.
Each clone had been formed entirely from his own ki.
Every one of them attacked relentlessly.
By controlling his own duplicates to assault him from every direction, Piccolo recreated the cruelest battlefield imaginable.
It sharpened both his instincts and his ability to fight multiple opponents simultaneously.
Boom!
One clone attacked from behind.
Its heavy punch slammed into Piccolo's back.
Piccolo didn't even stagger.
He drove an elbow backward, instantly dispersing the clone into particles of ki.
"Not enough!"
he growled.
"Faster!"
"Hit harder!"
He had to become stronger.
He had no choice.
He refused to repeat the tragedies of the future.
He wanted the power to protect Gohan with his own hands.
Every ounce of his potential had to be squeezed out.
Then...
A lazy voice suddenly echoed through the endless white world.
"Hey, antenna guy."
"Training pretty hard, aren't you?"
Piccolo froze.
Every clone vanished instantly.
He spun around.
Standing a short distance away was the bald man he respected...
And hated.
Hands in his pockets.
Looking completely relaxed.
"Krillin?!"
Piccolo's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.
"How did you get in here?!"
"Oh, that?"
"I said hello to Popo."
"He let me in."
Krillin lied without hesitation.
Piccolo's eye twitched.
He didn't believe a single word.
Ignoring the rules of the Lookout and entering the chamber this way...
Only one monster in the universe could pull off something like that.
"What do you want?"
Piccolo's tone turned cold.
His training had just reached a critical stage.
Being interrupted already irritated him.
Besides...
Whenever this bald man came looking for him...
Nothing good ever followed.
"I need a favor."
Krillin rubbed his hands together.
He wore what he believed was a friendly smile.
To Piccolo...
It looked incredibly suspicious.
"No."
Piccolo rejected him immediately.
He turned around, ready to resume training.
"Hold on."
"It's about Bulma."
Hearing Bulma's name, Piccolo stopped.
He frowned.
"What happened to her?"
"She's working on an incredible invention."
"Something that could benefit all humanity."
Krillin began improvising.
"But the project has reached a bottleneck."
"It needs..."
"A very special biological catalyst."
Piccolo narrowed his eyes.
His sense of foreboding grew stronger by the second.
"What kind of catalyst?"
Krillin inhaled deeply.
Then flashed a perfect eight-tooth smile.
"Piccolo."
"We've known each other for years."
"We fought Vegeta together."
"We beat Frieza together."
"My son even calls you Uncle Piccolo..."
"Get to the point."
Piccolo interrupted impatiently.
"Fine."
Krillin spread his hands helplessly.
"I need to borrow..."
"A tiny bit of your flesh."
Silence.
The air itself froze.
Piccolo's expression shifted from annoyance...
To confusion...
To disbelief...
And finally...
Pure rage.
The two antennae on his forehead shot straight upward.
"What..."
"...did..."
"...you..."
"...say?"
Every word escaped through clenched teeth.
The veins beneath his green skin bulged violently.
"KRILLIN!!"
His roar shook the entire white world.
Piccolo exploded into action.
He tore off his weighted cape.
His body became a streak of green lightning.
His fist rocketed toward Krillin's face.
"You bastard!"
"You actually want to harvest parts from my body?!"
"I'LL KILL YOU!!"
Every ounce of his fury was packed into that punch.
Ever since merging with Kami...
Piccolo had never lost control like this.
Yet...
Krillin didn't move.
Not even a single step.
He simply raised his chin...
And took the punch with his face.
BOOM!!
A deafening impact echoed throughout the chamber.
Violent shockwaves erupted outward.
Spiderweb cracks spread across the white ground.
Krillin remained rooted in place.
Perfectly still.
Piccolo, on the other hand, cried out in pain.
He stumbled backward while clutching his fist.
His entire hand had swollen.
The bones in his fingers groaned from the impact.
"Hiss..."
"Your head is ridiculously hard!"
Piccolo stared at Krillin as though he were an alien.
His punch could shatter a small planet.
Yet hitting Krillin's face felt like punching an indestructible wall of alloy.
"I told you not to attack."
"It only hurts your own hand."
Krillin casually rubbed his cheek.
There wasn't even a red mark.
"You already know I'm immune to physical attacks."
Piccolo trembled with rage.
"What are you really after?!"
"My flesh?!"
"What, are you planning to dissect me?!"
Krillin hurriedly waved both hands.
"Of course not!"
"I seriously need your cells as a biological catalyst!"
"Bulma's invention could become our greatest weapon against future enemies!"
"I don't care!"
Piccolo roared.
"My body is sacred!"
"You are not taking even a single hair from me!"
"You don't even have hair."
Krillin answered instinctively.
"..."
Piccolo's rage instantly exceeded its limit.
"SPECIAL BEAM CANNON!!"
This time he held nothing back.
His two fingers pointed toward Krillin.
A spiraling beam of energy rapidly condensed at their tips.
"Whoa!"
"You're serious?!"
Krillin wasn't afraid of the attack.
He was worried Piccolo would exhaust himself.
His figure flashed.
He instantly appeared behind Piccolo.
With one precise chop to the back of the neck...
Thud.
Piccolo rolled his eyes.
The half-formed Special Beam Cannon disappeared.
His body went limp.
He collapsed unconscious.
Krillin sighed as he caught him.
His gaze drifted toward the hand that had just broken itself punching his face.
"Hmm..."
"If you won't give it willingly..."
"I guess I'll have to borrow it."
He reached toward Piccolo's little finger.
"Holy Edict."
"Minimally Invasive Surgery."
A gentle green light flashed.
Without pain...
Without blood...
Piccolo's little finger was cleanly removed.
The cut was perfectly smooth.
Not a single drop of blood escaped.
Another flash of green light enveloped the wound.
Before the eye could fully blink...
A brand-new little finger regenerated.
The entire process took less than three seconds.
Krillin picked up the detached green finger bone, which was still bouncing slightly on the floor.
He nodded with satisfaction.
"Done."
Looking at the unconscious Piccolo, he thought for a moment.
Then reached into his pocket.
He took out a Senzu Bean and gently placed it into Piccolo's mouth.
"Eh."
"You did donate a finger."
"Consider this your compensation."
Once everything was finished...
Krillin activated Instant Transmission once again.
His figure vanished from the Hyperbolic Time Chamber.
...
Several minutes later...
Piccolo slowly opened his eyes.
He rubbed the back of his aching neck.
Then suddenly remembered what had happened.
"That idiot Krillin!"
He instinctively clenched his fist.
Ready to storm out and settle the score.
Then...
He froze.
He looked down at his hand.
It was completely intact.
His strength...
Actually felt even greater than before.
The Senzu Bean's energy surged through every cell of his body.
"Huh?"
"Wasn't I injured?"
Piccolo looked utterly confused.
He carefully inspected himself.
Everything seemed perfectly normal.
"No way..."
"Was I so exhausted from training that I hallucinated?"
He scratched his head.
No matter how hard he thought, nothing made sense.
In the end...
He blamed everything on overtraining.
Shaking his head, he returned to his brutal practice.
Completely unaware...
That the little finger on his left hand looked just a tiny bit...
Newer...
Than the one on his right.
--------------------------------
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