Zaiko's intention with this wish wasn't simply to get stronger in terms of brute force.
His true goal was to gain access to the Ultimate State.
He wanted exactly the same thing that Son Gohan would achieve years later, when the Elder Kai on the Sacred World of the Kai unlocked all his hidden potential through that ridiculous dance during the Majin Buu Saga.
With this state, not only would his base power level increase astronomically.
In the original story, the Ultimate State had proven to make Gohan even stronger than a Super Saiyan 3.
And unlike the massive energy drain and physical stress demanded by Super Saiyan transformations, the Ultimate State didn't deplete energy at all.
But...!
Even more important than all that, the Ultimate State was the fundamental basis to, in the future, reach Beast Mode.
Beast Mode is the direct evolution of the Ultimate State. Born from rage and the purest instinct, it was a savage transformation that equaled or even surpassed the raw power of Goku's Ultra Instinct and Vegeta's Ultra Ego.
Although this didn't mean he would ignore both transformations.
While Dende translated his request into the Namekian language, Zaiko did a quick mental review of the timeline.
Currently, the Z Fighters on Earth were facing the Androids, and they would probably have to deal with the threat of Cell very soon.
That meant he had exactly 7 years of relative peace until the Majin Buu Saga, and 11 years until the God of Destruction, Beerus, woke up and visited Earth in search of the Super Saiyan God, officially marking the beginning of Dragon Ball Super.
If his calculations didn't fail, he had a margin of about 12 years to prepare for the Tournament of Power.
Sure, that was without counting the intermediate headaches he would surely have to face if he decided to meddle in all these affairs, such as Golden Frieza's revenge, the Exhibition Tournament against Champa's Universe 6, and Goku Black.
Zaiko clenched his fists a little tighter.
His current power was incredible, enough to trample almost anyone right now with relative ease... but he knew it wasn't enough.
He needed to get ridiculously stronger as fast as possible, and he knew exactly how to achieve it by using his knowledge of the canon in his favor.
This wish was just the first step of many others in his master plan.
When Dende finished uttering his request in the Namekian language, Porunga remained silent, showing a thoughtful expression while his eyes locked directly onto Zaiko's figure.
It was only a couple of seconds of scrutiny, but suddenly, the dragon's attitude changed drastically.
His eyes opened wide, losing all his majestic and intimidating composure to give way to an expression of genuine and absolute surprise.
Bowing his head, Porunga reacted to Zaiko's presence with a level of respect, formality, and obedience that no mortal had ever witnessed from him before.
"GREETINGS, GREAT GOD OF CREATION!" Porunga's voice boomed.
Zaiko raised an eyebrow.
Had Porunga realized that his soul was the same as a god's?
Zaiko didn't want to get into this topic at all, and even less so with Porunga.
"Ignore that," Zaiko ordered him with a firm voice and a disinterested wave of his hand, taking advantage of the situation. "Just stick to fulfilling my wishes. And from now on, refer to me simply as Zaiko, not as God of Creation."
He didn't consider himself a Supreme Kai, and without a doubt, he would never be one.
They are too limited by rules he will never follow.
Dende, who was standing beside him, turned his head so fast he almost broke his neck.
He looked at Zaiko with bulging eyes and his mouth wide open, completely in shock, not understanding at all what the hell was happening or why the Great Porunga had just called Gohan's brother "God".
However, he remained silent, not daring to interrupt the conversation.
"As you command, Lord Zaiko..." Porunga nodded quickly.
However, after regaining his composure a bit, the dragon shook his head slowly. "But I'm afraid the wish you've asked of me is not entirely possible."
Zaiko frowned, crossing his arms again.
"Explain yourself."
"Your hidden potential is too immense, my lord," Porunga explained with an apologetic tone. "It is far beyond my capabilities, which are strictly limited by my creator's abilities. It is simply impossible for me to unlock it completely."
Zaiko raised an eyebrow again upon hearing the last part. Porunga had said it was impossible to unlock it completely.
"How much of my hidden potential can you unlock then?" Zaiko asked.
"Approximately 40%," the dragon answered honestly.
Although a part of Zaiko hoped Porunga would have been able to do the full job and save him time, surprisingly, he didn't feel disappointed at all.
Quite the contrary, actually.
If Porunga, with his newly increased powers, could only unlock a measly 40% of his latent power, that only meant one thing... his hidden potential was monstrously superior to Son Gohan's, and by a massive margin.
This only caused a wave of euphoria to wash over him.
It had to be remembered that Son Gohan was considered the character with the most potential out of all the Z Fighters, and even taking into account the existence of Frieza—that damn mutant monster who had an abysmal talent capable of reaching the level of the gods with just a few months of training—Zaiko's power ceiling still seemed unreachable.
If Megumi Fushiguro was considered the "Potential Man" of Jujutsu Kaisen, the spot in Dragon Ball was fiercely contested between Son Gohan and Frieza.
But now... He himself could proudly be considered the true Potential Man!
At that stupid and funny idea crossing his mind, Zaiko couldn't help but smile slightly, shaking his head.
"That's fine. Unlock as much hidden potential as possible," Zaiko finally said.
He had already decided.
In the near future, he would have to visit the Sacred World of the Kai, free that pervert Old Kai from the Z Sword, and ask him to do his ridiculous dance ritual to unlock the remaining 60% of his potential.
Apparently, this was still the only way to achieve it.
The instant Porunga heard his words, the dragon's enormous eyes lit up.
"YOUR WISH HAS BEEN GRANTED!"
Suddenly, Zaiko felt as if an entire mountain had fallen onto his shoulders.
An absurdly heavy pressure crushed his body, forcing him to grit his teeth and tense every muscle.
His ki erupted and began to escape uncontrollably from his body, making the ground tremble.
Zaiko could feel his power increasing by leaps and bounds.
It grew and grew without stopping, flooding his body to a point where he began to wonder if his body would withstand it.
Before the wish, his max base power level was 1,800,000,000,000,000,000 (one point eight quintillion).
But with 40% of his hidden potential unlocked...
Zaiko gave a half-smile.
His max base power level was now 8,280,000,000,000,000,000 (eight point twenty-eight quintillion).
His base power level had astonishingly increased about 4.6 times.
And this was only 40% of his potential unlocked, not even half of what he could truly reach!
Zaiko took a deep breath and controlled the violent ki escaping his body.
He smiled, fully satisfied.
"TELL ME NOW... WHAT IS YOUR SECOND WISH?" Porunga asked.
Dende looked at Zaiko, waiting for him to tell him his next wish, although the small Namekian was still observing him with his mouth slightly open and his face covered in sweat.
Even though, not being the Guardian of Earth yet, he completely lacked the ability to sense Zaiko's divine ki, the sheer pressure generated during the power increase had been genuinely terrifying.
If Dende had been able to feel it, he probably would have fainted.
Zaiko hesitated for a few moments.
The truth is he didn't know if Porunga would be able to grant his second wish.
Finally, somewhat reluctant, he turned toward Dende.
"My second wish is to obtain the exact knowledge of how to create and improve the Ultimate Dragon Balls. The very same ones that were created by Katas Jr. before splitting into Kami and the Demon King Piccolo."
Dende blinked in surprise, but nodded and turned toward Porunga, beginning to translate the wish into his language.
Zaiko carefully observed the dragon's large figure.
He really hoped this wish could be granted, but he still had his doubts.
After all, the Ultimate Dragon Balls (also known as the Black Star Dragon Balls) technically shouldn't exist in this canon timeline of Dragon Ball Super, originally belonging to the Dragon Ball GT universe, where an elderly Pilaf found them forgotten deep within Kami's Lookout.
But if they did exist, he wanted the knowledge to create them.
The Black Star Dragon Balls were the most powerful version of the Dragon Balls in existence, surpassed only by Zalama's Super Dragon Balls.
They could summon Ultimate Shenron, who could grant any wish without any kind of restriction. He could even kill extremely powerful individuals, something the original Earth's Shenron was strictly forbidden from doing.
But the biggest appeal was that, after granting a wish, the Black Star Dragon Balls didn't turn to stone for a year.
That meant that if someone managed to collect all seven again immediately, Ultimate Shenron could be summoned again with no cooldown time.
The downside...
Although they didn't turn to stone, the Black Star Dragon Balls scattered across the entire universe.
And if all seven spheres weren't successfully collected and returned exactly to the same planet where the last wish was granted within a year, said planet would explode.
It was largely because of this inconvenience that Zaiko had requested the knowledge not only of how to create them, but how to improve them.
He wanted to try and eliminate this problem from the equation if possible.
And in case it wasn't possible to improve them... well, he really didn't care that much.
The universe was full of countless barren worlds and space junkyards like the Dwarf Planet Vampa.
He could always travel to an uninhabited planet, summon Ultimate Shenron there, and let the world blow up a year later completely guilt-free.
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