"Naruto, I've finished everything you asked for. Want to take a look?"
Bulma's family greeted Naruto warmly upon his arrival in West City.
After a hearty meal, Bulma led Naruto to the open space behind her house. Though she called it a backyard, it actually spanned a hilltop. The Briefs' estate was unimaginably vast.
Dr. Briefs had a habit of picking up stray cats, dogs, and wild dinosaurs. T-Rexes, specifically. A place capable of housing wild dinosaurs was naturally enormous.
"This is the spaceship you wanted," Dr. Briefs said, walking up to a spherical aircraft the size of a small hill.
Aside from its spherical shape, the vessel had been completely transformed. It was now divided into three floors. Goku's original pod could only fit one small child, but Dr. Briefs modifications had turned it into a luxurious three-story home.
"The first floor is the control room," Bulma explained as Naruto boarded. "We worried the controls might be too complicated, so we set it to smart operation."
"Just input your destination into the system."
"If typing is too troublesome, you can use voice commands."
True to her reputation as the master of Earth's black technology, Bulma had created a system capable of dominating the galaxy.
"The second floor is the gravity room you wanted. You can adjust it up to 100x gravity." She led Naruto upward and pointed to the central controller. "Just input the number and press confirm."
"But I suggest you start with simpler settings. 100x gravity is extreme."
"As for the third floor, now that's something special." Dr. Briefs beamed with pride.
Naruto nodded. Anything that made Dr. Briefs this proud had to be significant.
"This took me nearly two months to modify."
That meant Dr. Briefs had built both the gravity and control rooms in just one month. Even though Naruto had never built a machine in his life, he knew this was an incredible feat.
He grew curious about the third floor.
The three of them climbed the stairs and stepped onto the top level. Naruto saw a sofa, a bed, a refrigerator, and a restroom. It was clearly a living area.
What exactly had been modified here? A healing pod? That sounded like the Frieza Force's specialty.
As Naruto's imagination ran wild, Dr. Briefs walked over to two massive stereos and patted the machine. "It's this big guy. I spent two full months researching and developing a system that automatically plays music according to a person's mood."
"So the third floor's modification is just... the stereos?" Naruto looked at the speakers, which were each roughly the size of Dr. Briefs. He was speechless.
"That's right! My greatest invention."
"Don't you want music while you train and rest?"
Naruto remained silent.
Bulma handed a piece of clothing to Naruto. "The material for this battle armor isn't found on Earth, so we can't mass-produce it yet."
"But I modified the style to your requirements. Try it on."
It was Vegeta-style battle armor. It felt weightless, breathable, form-fitting, and offering a certain level of defense. However, that defense was intended for the vacuum of space. By Earth standards...
Even an ordinary person wearing it could easily block bullets, even a rocket launcher couldn't pierce through.
Of course, that assumes you don't get hit in the head.
"This Scouter is amazing. Despite its size, the technology is far beyond Earth's, integrating communication, scouting, tracking, and many other functions." Bulma pulled out the Scouter Naruto had given her. "The key is that it can actually display a person's power as a numerical value."
"I modified the internal settings."
"And changed the text to Earth's."
Bulma pressed the analyzer to her ear.
"I tested a few people earlier. Their numbers were basically between 3 and 6, with the highest being only 7."
Bulma looked at Naruto. "Naruto, come over here. Let me test your power."
She pressed the test button. A series of beeps rang out, and a string of numbers appeared before her eyes.
"Your combat power is 500!" Bulma covered her mouth in shock. "This is your power? You're over a hundred times stronger than an ordinary person."
"No, that wasn't my full strength." Naruto shook his head.
He had deliberately suppressed his power to 500. Mr. Popo's combat power exceeded 1,000, it was impossible for Naruto, who could defeat him head-on, to have a combat power of merely 500.
"I can freely control the Ki in my body, which means I can modify my power level. Like this." Naruto pointed to his eyes, signaling Bulma to test him again.
*Beep beep beep*
"I can't believe it." Bulma gasped. "The combat power dropped to 5."
After testing Naruto's fluctuating power a few more times, Bulma handed the analyzer back to him and briefly explained how to use it.
*Beep beep beep*
Naruto began testing. The analyzer's range wasn't limited to the immediate surroundings, it could cover an entire planet. It was true black technology, it achieved this level of capability without satellites or signals.
'Over 10,000 kilometers away, several energy signatures with combat powers between 300 and 600 are gathering.'
Those must be the Z Fighters training at The Lookout.
'In the Far North, there is an energy signature approaching 400.'
That would be Piccolo. After parting ways with Naruto, he had left the city and headed toward the Frigid Land.
Aside from the Z Fighters, the strongest combat powers in the remaining areas hovered around 100.
*Beep beep beep*
The analyzer rang again.
'Hmm? Two energy signatures above 200.'
According to the position display, these two signatures were near the World's Most Remote Village.
'Who could be that strong in that location? Yajirobe?'
"Can this thing be mass-produced?"
Naruto pointed at the Scouter. While relying on tools wasn't ideal, the device was convenient, essentially a portable Dragon Radar. If every Dragon Ball warrior had one, it would drastically reduce communication time. Ki was effective for short-distance communication, but once the gap grew too large, one could only sense changes in an opponent's energy without any way to relay actual words.
"The manufacturing isn't the hard part," Bulma explained, crossing her arms. "The difficulty is the computational load. Every time the reading increases by ten thousand, the computational volume doubles. The values would keep rising exponentially."
"I've already pushed this machine to its peak. Its limit is 300,000. Beyond that, it simply won't display rather than explode."
Modifying a Scouter with an original cap of 10,000 to reach 300,000 proved Bulma's sheer genius. It also highlighted the relative incompetence of the research team under the Frieza Force, the so-called premier real estate developers of the universe.
"If I want to build a new machine that can test higher values, I'm still missing some parts."
Bulma could design a system for higher values, she just lacked the physical components, many of which didn't exist on Earth.
Even so, she was amazing. A combat power reading of 300,000 was more than enough. Across the entire galaxy, very few individuals exceeded that limit.
Before the Emperor of the Universe, Frieza, was defeated, scarcely any characters possessed a combat power over 100,000. Even reaching 10,000 was exceptionally rare.
Now, they only needed the coordinates of Planet Namek. Naruto planned for the legendary world to be his first stop.
One shouldn't be fooled by how the Namekians were slaughtered like livestock by Vegeta, Dodoria, and the others during the Frieza Saga. In reality, the Namekians were a race of high combat power. An ordinary battle-type Namekian possessed several thousand points, and their trump card, Nail, reached as high as 42,000.
The planet was the perfect spot for Naruto's next phase of training. The simplest method would be asking Shenron for the coordinates, but three months ago, the Z Fighters had already asked Kami to repair the Shenron destroyed by Demon King Piccolo. They then wished to revive all the innocent people Piccolo had murdered.
The Dragon Balls were currently just ordinary stones. They had to wait another nine months before the orbs fully recovered their magic.
The only remaining option was to ask Kami to take him to the Other World, travel Snake Way, and find King Kai. He would have to go through the entire Other World bureaucratic process.
"By the way, this machine also stores a large number of planetary coordinates," Bulma added casually.
Naruto froze in disbelief.
Talk about a lucky break. Just as he was getting sleepy, someone handed him a pillow.
According to Bulma, these coordinates were specifically programmed by Bardock and his wife when they sent Goku away. Without exception, they all belonged to peaceful races, places like Planet Namek, Yardrat, and Metamor. (Metamorans created Fusion Dance.)
"So you're going on an interstellar journey?"
Bulma's eyes sparkled with excitement when she learned Naruto planned to travel to Planet Namek.
As the wealthy young lady and sole successor of Capsule Corporation, she had lived a life of luxury since childhood. From birth, she stood at the finish line most people dreamed of. She possessed an intellect far beyond ordinary scientists, learning any subject with a single glance.
Over time, everything had become boring. To find a genuine thrill, and a boyfriend, she had flipped through her family's massive library and discovered the secret of the Dragon Balls. That was how her grand journey began.
Adventuring with Goku had been the happiest time of her life. Now, there was a chance for an actual interstellar adventure. Of course she was tempted.
She immediately proposed joining his crew.
Naruto decisively refused.
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