A wind carrying the scent of raw earth blew across the dried wasteland. Ten slender fingers danced elegantly in the air, playing an invisible piano.
Doflamingo hovered in the sky, stepping on invisible, transparent strings. His pink feather coat whipped wildly in the wind. He was thoroughly enjoying the show playing out below—a brotherly bloodbath that he had personally directed.
Son Gohan's eyes rolled back, his once-clear pupils completely losing focus. The body of the Saiyan-hybrid child was moving entirely against his own will. Parasite strings, so thin they couldn't even reflect the sunlight, had pierced into his spinal nerves. The conceptual rules of the Devil Fruit had forcibly hijacked this flesh that harbored terrifying potential.
Gohan's hands clamped around Krillin's throat like a pair of iron tongs. The sheer force was staggering. Krillin's round face had already turned a deep, choking purple. His thick arms desperately grabbed at Gohan's wrists, trying to pry them open, but he didn't dare channel his "ki" to fight back.
He knew exactly how much terrifying power resided within his nephew. If they truly clashed head-on, one of them was guaranteed to die here today. Besides, this was Goku's only flesh and blood. How could he ever lay a lethal hand on his best friend's son?
"Gohan! Snap out of it!" Krillin squeezed the broken syllables through his clenched teeth.
The veins on his forehead bulged, twisting like earthworms. He could feel the oxygen in his lungs being squeezed out drop by drop, and the edges of his vision were already beginning to darken with hypoxic spots.
From midair, Doflamingo took it all in, a grotesquely exaggerated grin splitting his face.
"Fuffuffuffuffu."
His signature, eerie laugh echoed across the wasteland.
"What a touching display of loyalty. You'd rather be strangled to death than hurt your comrade?"
Doflamingo adjusted the pink sunglasses perched on the bridge of his nose. He loved watching naive fools who championed justice and kindness squirming in despair. In the New World, these so-called naive bonds weren't worth a single Beri.
"Baldy, how about we make a deal?" Doflamingo looked down at Krillin from on high. "Hand over that radar that finds the beads, and I might just show you some mercy and let the kid release his grip."
As he spoke, he purposefully twitched his right index finger. Below, Gohan's fingers tightened further following his master's movement. Krillin's neck bones let out an agonizingly sharp crack, a sound that pierced the desolate silence of the wasteland.
Blaring warning sirens wailed in Krillin's mind. If this kept up, his neck was genuinely going to be snapped by Gohan. That tall man in the pink coat wasn't joking. Krillin had only seen that kind of gaze—one that treated human life like worthless weeds—in the absolute worst scum of the Frieza Force. In fact, the sheer, unadulterated malice radiating from this man felt even more intrinsic. It was a madness and cruelty bred into his very bones.
Krillin's vision grew increasingly blurry. He knew he couldn't hold on much longer. To save Gohan's life, and his own, he had no other choice.
He bit down hard on his tongue. The rusty taste of blood flooded his mouth, and the sharp pain temporarily shocked his fading consciousness into clarity. Trembling, he released one hand from Gohan's wrists and fumbled clumsily for the special pouch at his waist.
His fingers dug in, grasping the disc-shaped metal device.
"Take it!" Krillin roared with the last dregs of his strength, hurling the Dragon Radar high into the air. "Let him go!"
The metal radar traced an arc through the sky. Doflamingo's smile widened. He didn't even bother reaching out his hand. With a casual flick, he shot out a white thread that accurately snared the midair radar, yanking it back into his palm with a zip.
Feeling the cold metal casing against his skin, Doflamingo tossed his prize lightly in his hand. He was always a pirate who kept his word, especially when he had absolute control over the situation.
A slight twitch of his right fingertips, and the Parasite strings connected to Gohan's nerve endings were instantly severed.
Deprived of the puppeteer's control, Gohan collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut. His arms fell limply to his sides, and he crumpled onto the cracked earth, his chest heaving violently as he gasped greedily at Namek's murky air.
Krillin fell back onto his rear, both hands clutching the purple bruises circling his neck, erupting into a fit of agonizing coughing. The sensation of oxygen finally refilling his lungs left him with the dizzying relief of surviving a disaster.
But he didn't dare let his guard down. That terrifying man was still hovering right above them.
Doflamingo didn't spare another glance for the two figures on the ground. His attention was completely captivated by the intricate device in his hands. He looked down at the blinking green screen. In the center was a grid-like radar display, pulsing with several blinking dots.
Using his thick thumb, Doflamingo pressed the raised button on the top of the radar.
Beep.
The display rapidly zoomed out, projecting a complete outline of Namek's geography onto the screen. Seven dots representing the Dragon Balls were scattered across the map. Three of them were clustered together far off in the distance, while a few others were spread randomly.
Doflamingo looked at the clear coordinates on the screen and grinned again.
"What a convenient little cheat code," he couldn't help but mutter.
In the pirate world, finding a treasure usually required crossing countless perilous seas and deciphering ancient Poneglyphs. Yet in this bizarre universe, all it took was this little metal plate to pinpoint the exact location of orbs that could grant any wish. Sometimes, the power of technology was far more practical than a Devil Fruit.
"It seems obtaining what Manager Blake wants won't require much effort at all."
He tossed the radar in his hand again. He had spent ten million Beri on a ticket to enter this place, and it wasn't to play house with the locals. Manager Blake had issued a quest to collect the Dragon Balls. As long as he brought these beads back, he could exchange them for the kind of power that could upend the very balance of his world.
He had seen with his own eyes how that idiot Kaido had been completely reborn in this dungeon. That terrifying constitution known as the Demon Dragon Body left even the Heavenly Yaksha profoundly wary. If he didn't capitalize on this opportunity to strike it rich, the Donquixote Family might not even have a place to stand in the New World.
Doflamingo slipped the radar into the inner pocket of his pink coat, preparing to move out and hunt down the nearest Dragon Ball.
Just then.
A massive red dot flared to life on the edge of the radar screen. This dot hadn't been within the initial scanning range; it had violently barged in. And it was moving at a jaw-dropping speed. It was drawing a straight line, hurtling frantically toward the cluster of three Dragon Balls on the map.
Doflamingo froze. The smile faded from his face. He reached his hand back into his pocket, pressing against the radar through the fabric. His eyes narrowed behind his pink sunglasses. His Observation Haki surged outward like an invisible net, frantically extending in the direction of that moving red dot.
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