It was not just their strength that increased. After coming to Bulma's house, perhaps because they had not eaten well enough at Master Roshi's place, or maybe because they were just late bloomers, the originally short Krillin and Goku finally started growing taller.
At first, they grew together, and the height difference was not very noticeable. But after living there for two years, the gap became increasingly obvious. Although Krillin was still getting taller, compared to Goku, whose height was rapidly catching up to Yamcha's, it seemed quite tragic.
Furthermore, after a few years in the Dragon Ball world, Ethan had once again shed his teenage identity and become a young man. His physique and appearance had also returned to the state he was most satisfied with.
Looking at the increasingly handsome Ethan, the still handsome Yamcha, and now the rapidly growing Goku, Bulma was momentarily unsure who to choose.
"I can't believe Goku has turned into such a fine young man," she thought. "It seems not making a decision earlier was the right move!"
Perhaps because of Ethan's influence, Yamcha had been living there for several years, and there had been no clear progress in his relationship with Bulma. Aside from their initial mutual attraction, Yamcha had been led astray by Ethan. He became so engrossed in hellish training that he could not pull himself away, leaving him with no time or energy to think about getting a girlfriend.
After more than two years of training, everyone could freely train under ten times gravity. They had also started training together in the same Gravity Room, allowing them to spar and test their techniques against each other, which was much more effective than training alone.
Furthermore, the Gravity Room was a special piece of equipment that required regular maintenance and repair, so even though Tien, Goku, and the others knew Ethan's training methods, they did not leave Bulma's house and continued living there.
Over time, everyone gradually came to see the place as their own home, and Mr. and Mrs. Brief also treated them like family, getting along very well with them.
"Where's Launch?"
"She went shopping with Tien and Chiaotzu!"
In the original story, Launch had a crush on Tien, but after chasing after him when he left Kame House, she completely disappeared. This time, because of Ethan's influence, Tien had also moved into Bulma's house. Although Launch did not fall for him at first sight, after spending some time together, she developed feelings for him and began trying to pursue him.
Although it is much easier for a woman to pursue a man, especially for a great beauty like Launch, the prerequisite is that the man is normal.
Tien, well... he does not seem entirely normal...
"I wonder if Tien will ever catch on."
Everyone could see Launch's intentions. Only Tien, the martial arts fanatic, remained completely oblivious. All he thought about all day was training, aside from Chiaotzu.
Perhaps that was related to how Tien had always lived alone in remote, desolate mountains. Now that he was living with everyone in West City at Bulma's house, he would hopefully come to understand social interactions a little better.
Not just Tien, even Goku, who had originally been like a wild child, had now learned a lot of life skills and had gradually stopped doing things that left people speechless.
As his physique and appearance matured, the already good-looking and well-built Goku attracted many girls in West City who chased after him, much to Krillin's envy.
Aside from these changes, the biggest change was still their strength.
Ten times gravity was no longer enough for everyone's training needs. Ethan and Goku, for example, had already started trying to adapt to twenty times gravity.
Although they had not succeeded yet, based on their current strength, Ethan estimated their battle power had to be at least several thousand.
If things continued like this, Piccolo was naturally no longer worth mentioning. Anyone present could go out and deal with him easily.
Master Roshi, who had not originally come there to train, had also tried the Gravity Room many times. By acting as a martial arts master with extensive knowledge to guide the younger generation, he had also raised his own strength considerably. Now, if he were to fight Piccolo one-on-one, he might not necessarily lose.
In other words, excluding non-combatants like Bulma, Oolong, Launch, and Puar, anyone here could utterly dominate Piccolo, beat him until he doubted his existence as a demon, and then make him completely give up his demon status and join the protagonist's team as a dedicated and excellent babysitter...
When Raditz arrived later, he would probably think his spaceship's navigation system had malfunctioned and that this definitely was not Earth.
"If Goku doesn't die when Raditz arrives, will he still have the chance to learn the Kaio-ken?"
However, whether he learned the Kaio-ken or not did not really matter. For Saiyans, transforming into a Super Saiyan was the essential skill. Besides being difficult to learn and use, the Kaio-ken also put too much strain on the body. Therefore, after becoming able to transform into a Super Saiyan, Goku stopped using the Kaio-ken.
As for transforming into a Super Saiyan and using the Kaio-ken in Super Saiyan form, that kind of scene never appeared in the original manga.
Both of those are abilities that increase energy output and boost instantaneous battle power, belonging to the category of burst techniques. He was not sure whether using two skills of the same nature together would make them stronger, but the person using them would definitely die.
In the speculation of many Dragon Ball fans, one possible reason for Goku's heart disease was the excessive strain placed on his body by the Kaio-ken.
Of course, there are many possible reasons why Goku might contract that strange viral heart disease: drinking the Ultra Divine Water, holding a mouse in his mouth, learning the Kaio-ken, since he was the only one who mastered both Super Saiyan and Kaio-ken at the same time, traveling alone by spaceship to an unknown planet to learn Instant Transmission and getting infected by an unknown alien virus...
Any of those could be the reason, or it could simply be bad luck, the will of the great universe deciding that you had to die of heart disease.
"Speaking of which, are you really not participating in this World Martial Arts Tournament?"
Everyone had been training together for over two years, and as time passed and their strength increased, they all harbored the desire to have a proper match.
The World Martial Arts Tournament was undoubtedly a very suitable stage.
However, Ethan had already made his stance clear. He would not participate in this World Martial Arts Tournament.
"I've already won the championship," he said. "There is no point in going again."
"That's great then!" Yamcha exclaimed. "I'm sure I can get a good result this time!"
Yamcha had been too unlucky in the previous two tournaments. Although he always passed the preliminaries smoothly, he would run into the reigning champion as soon as the main tournament started, always getting eliminated in the first round, making it seem as if he were very weak.
"But even though you're not participating this time, winning the championship is still only a slim hope!"
After training together for over two years, Yamcha had already realized that Goku, Tien, and even Krillin had greater talent than he did. Despite having an initial advantage, they had gradually caught up to him, and recently, he no longer had any advantage when sparring with them.
"Plus Yoruichi..."
Everyone knew Yoruichi was very strong. When Goku and Tien fought against her, their chances of winning were not high, and her fighting style gave everyone a headache.
Thinking it over, Yamcha realized that if he was unlucky again, he really might get eliminated in the first round once more.
There are only eight participants in the main World Martial Arts Tournament. Even excluding Ethan, their group alone already made up more than half that number. This meant that if they all passed the preliminaries, there would definitely be infighting among themselves.
Considering his consistently bad luck, the possibility of a tragic outcome was quite high.
"If I get eliminated in the first round again this time, I'm never participating in another tournament."
"Hahaha, why take it so seriously?" Krillin laughed. "But this might be the last time I participate too."
Krillin did not have many thoughts about winning the championship. He knew he did not have a chance, and the World Martial Arts Tournament was becoming less and less attractive to him. His strength had already created an enormous gap between himself and ordinary martial artists, and participating in that kind of competition would no longer benefit him.
Instead of wasting time on such a tournament, it would be better to train with Goku, since that led to faster improvement.
"Oh, by the way, where's Goku?"
"He seemed to have gone to Kami's Lookout. He should be back by evening."
Hearing this, Ethan knew that Kami still favored Goku and likely wanted him to take over the position of Kami. However, given Goku's personality, he definitely would not agree.
Furthermore, Ethan did not intend to kill the newly born Piccolo. After all, this so-called second-generation demon had not even had time to do anything bad before becoming the Son family's babysitter, and from then on became one of Earth's guardian warriors, no longer having anything to do with the words "Demon King."
If Piccolo did not die, Kami would not die. This meant Kami could still live at the Lookout for several more years. Perhaps the issue of a new Kami would not need to be considered until Piccolo decided to fuse with Kami again.
"There's still over half a year left," Ethan said. "I'm thinking of going out for a while."
"Oh? What a coincidence, I also want to go out and travel around a bit."
Having trained to this extent, everyone had already accumulated enough. At this point, wanting to go out and travel was more about verifying some ideas and finding a quiet place to practice powerful special moves.
Training together all day had made everyone too familiar with each other. To win in a tournament, having more techniques that the opponent was not familiar with was undoubtedly a good strategy.
When Goku returned, Yamcha, Tien, and Krillin all brought up the idea of leaving. Even Goku said he would stay at Kami's Lookout for a while.
Adding Master Roshi, who had already returned to Kame House, only Ethan remained living at Bulma's house.
"Aren't you going out and traveling around too?"
"What would I go out and travel for?" Ethan replied. "They need to find a deserted place to work on their special moves and increase their chances of winning. I'm not participating in the tournament, so there is no need for that."
And Yoruichi? Everyone else had gone out, leaving no competitors at Bulma's house. She could just continue researching her killing techniques there without worrying about anyone seeing them.
Besides, she did not even need to deliberately research them. As her strength increased, some of the techniques she had mastered in the past but could not use after getting a body could now be performed. She just needed to figure out which techniques were suitable for this world.
(To be continued.)
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◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)