Zuke sat cross-legged in the center of the training ground, covered in sweat, having obviously expended considerable stamina.
The projected swords in the training ground had been put away by Zuke, leaving only the riddled training ground and several palm-sized orange translucent spheres visible on the ground.
That's right, these spheres were the "Dragon Balls" Zuke barely managed to create—undoubtedly, seeing there were no stars inside, one could tell the projection had failed.
"Failed... Although I knew that something with such high functionality as Dragon Balls wouldn't be so easy to create."
Zuke rubbed his brow—attempting to project something as exaggerated as Dragon Balls made even his brain hurt.
After all, Dragon Balls were wishing machines. Reviving the dead was just a matter of one sentence. In terms of functionality, they were even stronger than the Type-Moon world's Holy Grail.
Moreover, Dragon Balls could be used once a year, with the prerequisite being simply collecting 7 orbs—much simpler than Holy Grail Wars where a group of people had to kill each other to earn a wishing opportunity.
However, such convenient things were obviously more complex to create. At least Zuke had failed to project them for now.
He initially tried to project Super Dragon Balls, but as soon as he started, he immediately felt severe brain pain.
That was Zuke's "instinct" frantically warning him. His body, his Stand, was reminding Zuke.
If he really tried to forcibly project Super Dragon Balls, Zuke would likely suffer immediate brain death.
With Zuke's current strength and knowledge, he wasn't yet able to project Super Dragon Balls that could repair universes—the gap was too large.
So Zuke settled for less and tried projecting Namek's Dragon Balls, but just after constructing the outline, his brain started hurting again.
Finally, Zuke tried projecting Earth Dragon Balls and Planet Cyril Dragon Balls—the results weren't ideal.
Although he successfully projected orange spheres, these spheres only had their appearance and didn't even have the stars inside Dragon Balls.
Perhaps they carried extremely weak Dragon Ball power and might even be detected by Dragon Radar, but they didn't have the power to summon Shenron.
"However, being able to project the orbs means projecting Dragon Balls is feasible. I just don't understand Dragon Balls' structure well enough, and my strength is also insufficient."
Zuke picked up an orb from the ground and looked at it with narrowed eyes—this orb was identical in size, feel, and color to the Planet Cyril Dragon Balls he'd touched.
Just one more step... just one more small step and he could project Planet Cyril's Dragon Balls. Just crossing that small step would do it.
Even though he wasn't a Namekian, wasn't classified as the "Dragon Clan" among Namekians, he could still "create" Dragon Balls.
"Speaking of which, although the projection failed, I can feel that Unlimited Blade Works also has a repair effect."
Zuke wasn't discouraged. He felt his "Unlimited Blade Works" seemed to have other abilities.
The projection ability could not only be used to copy things but could also be used to repair things.
Just like the original Shirou Emiya, who relied on Projection Magecraft to complete various repair work, Zuke seemed to have obtained similar abilities from Heroic Spirit EMIYA's "Unlimited Blade Works."
Putting down the failed product, Zuke extended his hand again—the golden ripples of "Gate of Babylon" appeared above his palm.
Then two stone balls fell out and landed in Zuke's hands, caught firmly by his palms.
Undoubtedly, these were Planet Cyril's Dragon Balls—after the last wish was completed, Zuke had grabbed the Planet Cyril Dragon Balls that were turning to stone and about to fly away.
Just like in the original when young Kakarot grabbed the Four-Star Ball before it flew away.
According to the normal Dragon Ball process, these two stone balls would have to wait until one year after the last wish to restore their original wishing function.
Here with Zuke, only a month or two had passed since these two stone balls' last wish—still quite some time until recovery.
But Zuke felt that his "Unlimited Blade Works" ability seemed able to act on these two stone balls.
"If the repair effect of 'Unlimited Blade Works' can restore these two stone balls back to Dragon Ball form..."
Zuke stared at the two stone balls in his hand. With a thought, he activated his own "Unlimited Blade Works" effect without hesitation.
Instantly, the stone balls trembled slightly, seeming to change.
The originally gray surface faintly showed a trace of golden light, and the cold stone surface seemed to become much smoother.
"'Repair' complete."
After a while, Zuke looked at the Planet Cyril Dragon Balls in his hand, his eyes flashing with brilliance.
Having nearly exhausted all the power in his body, Zuke successfully "repaired" the stone balls in his hand into Dragon Balls.
This time there were no accidents. Zuke could feel that the Dragon Balls in his hand were no different from the Dragon Balls he first encountered.
If there was any change, the "repair" process did consume too much stamina.
After all, this "repair" was based on Zuke's understanding of Dragon Balls—like using an understanding of "fakes" to repair "genuine articles."
One could only say that successful repair was already cause for celebration. Zuke couldn't ask for too much—so what if his stamina was exhausted? Just resting a bit would restore it.
"However, this is probably my limit. I barely stepped on the edge of the limit to turn these two stone balls back into Dragon Balls."
Zuke placed the Planet Cyril Dragon Balls on the ground and pondered.
"According to time calculations... that means if I want to 'repair' Planet Cyril Dragon Balls back now, I need to wait at least a month or two after the Dragon Balls turn to stone."
Simply put, if Zuke was willing, he could shorten Planet Cyril Dragon Balls' one-year cooldown to a month or two.
If his strength was stronger or he understood Dragon Balls better, this progress might be shortened even more, eventually becoming able to continuously repair Planet Cyril Dragon Balls for wishes.
"Then next, I should test whether the wishing effect of 'repaired' Planet Cyril Dragon Balls has been affected."
Zuke chuckled lightly and looked down at the Dragon Balls on the ground—fortunately, he still remembered the incantation Monaito used to summon Shenron last time.
After all, when he first entered the Dragon Ball world, he was already prepared to monopolize Planet Cyril's Dragon Balls, so naturally he'd deliberately remember the summoning incantation.
"Takara puto, Tete ron po..."
Zuke recalled the incantation he'd heard Monaito recite before and slowly chanted it.
"Pupiritto paro!"
The next moment, Planet Sadala's sky darkened. Golden lightning flashed and leaped across the surface of the two Dragon Balls before Zuke.
Then a huge beam of light shot straight up. Before Zuke appeared the figure he'd seen when he first came to the Dragon Ball world.
The dragon with a salamander-like head emerged from the light pillar, looked down at Zuke, and spoke in a deep, familiar voice:
"O one who has gathered two Dragon Balls, speak your wish. I will fulfill one wish to the best of my ability."