Chapter 9: 9: Human Terror.
Bulma spent the rest of the day repairing a spaceship that was supposed to be a challenge for her but was just a way to get free benefits without Jaco knowing.
It was just too easy! At first, she didn't believe it, but when she realized that this ship was even more backward than the one that brought Goku to this planet, Bulma thought for a moment about the reason.
While the Galactic Patrolmen were essentially the police of the Northern Galaxy, Freezer's army was more of a galactic conglomerate with its army, scientists, and who knows how many worlds dedicated to resource extraction and machine building.
To constantly invade worlds, you had to have a logistical base, even if it seems simple, do you know how many planets a galaxy has? Enough for Freezer's supposed empire to grow with only a fraction of 1% of them.
Ignoring the fact that there are only a few planets with life, in the words of a certain incompetent Kaio-Shin, the Northern Galaxy, in Jaco's words, has places that have not even been mapped or fully explored, even though every day there are reports of discoveries of new worlds with exotic and diverse species.
"Are there species that can stop time? Aren't they mutants?" asked Bulma as she used her tools to check certain key components of the ship.
"Yes, there are many different species out there with incredible abilities, these guys seem to be able to stop time for a split second, and until we found them, they hadn't developed a real civilization because they used their talents to kill each other.
There are only a few left, those who didn't like to fight or the strongest, some joined the Galactic Patrol, though I think they only did it to legally kill criminals," he replied dismissively, not realizing that Bulma had started stealing his ship's data, he didn't think a girl from a backward planet could do much more than repair his ship.
If only he knew that Bulma had even started to snoop through the Galactic Patrol database that he had access to and saw some things that caught her eye and made her little eyes sparkle.
"Do you think we humans have special abilities?" asked Bulma carelessly, although her attention was on Jaco, she wanted to know what the guys who had discovered her world but did not interact with it thought.
"Earth is a different planet, you know? It's a kind of place where we have certain special orders that I can't tell you about, but to answer your question, I will use what I learned from them but don't tell anyone," Jaco looked around furtively before he approached Bulma and began to whisper.
"It is said that the humans of this planet, or Earthlings, are a rare case of 'forced evolution', someone intervened in the beginnings of your planet, who or who, it is not known, but it made human evolution accelerate, making them lose the advantages of slow evolution, having a considerably high level of fighting.
But it made humans one of the strangest races in the galaxy, they are weak but possess remarkable intelligence, even some species in the cosmos based on their intellect praise humans for the same.
It is also said that this intervention made humans adaptable to other species, integrating them into their lineage, which is very dangerous for some radical types. Especially because if a species is caught unawares, it can be wiped out.
It is said that the Triclops ignored this warning in the past and mixed with humans, but are there any three-eyed people among your acquaintances?" asked Jaco in a low voice, making Bulma shake her head, but the shocking news made the little girl's head boil.
What the hell is wrong with Earth!!!? Aside from the fact that she was kind of pissed at the History Channel guys, the idea that many in the cosmos saw humans as a replacement for the dragon fucking everything that moves made her eyes twitch a little.
What kind of bullshit racial advantage is that? It's kind of cool, but it also explains why the Saiyan lineage was devoured by two and three women until it left no trace beyond the mighty Ki.
Examples of trunks and bras with hair colors that ignore the classic convention that the Saiyan always has black hair only reinforces the idea of human panic in the galaxy.
The intelligence thing, you could say it's a good ability, the influx of geniuses of all kinds in the human race is too unusual, even if they don't reach high levels of power, the things they produce are terrible.
Right now, they had a guy next door who created a machine that stopped the time of the universe, even for a moment, but no other species in the Northern Galaxy could do something like that they wouldn't even dare.
Besides, Bulma thought about the 'power increases' caused by the techniques that came from Earth, maybe it was a human talent to increase the production of energy or increase the intensity of it at certain times. Or maybe it was just a peculiarity of human martial arts itself.
"Why isn't Freezer's army approaching Earth, even though we are registered as weak?" asked Bulma, curious about this point.
"Because it's not worth it, only humans or those assimilated by them can survive here, that's why I'm very surprised that they want to keep that Saiyan boy," Jaco pointed out to Goku, who was organizing geometric figures despite his constant attempts to fit everything into the square hole.
"I don't understand," Bulma emphasized her confusion, causing Jaco to sigh.
"Look, not every planet has a divine system, and this information is super secret, I just got this news from my friend Merus, don't tell anyone, okay?" Jaco asked, and Bulma nodded, waiting silently for him to continue.
"According to Merus, few planets have systems connected to the other world, a place where souls go after death, where figures recognized as gods live.
Earth, though weak, is full of curiosities. Not only does it have an indigenous species whose evolution has been altered by unknown beings, which means some risk, but it also has a gateway to an area of the demonic world.
It has a divine system, it has intelligent species other than humans, which means another kind of intervention in the local ecosystem. Freezer and his men are like explorers or discoverers of new spaces, plus they speculate in real estate.
To whom would you sell a piece of land where things might suddenly appear that could harm you? Not to mention that many beings in the galaxy are not thrilled to know that they can go to hell, especially hell on earth, which is said to be the cruelest of all.
If it weren't for my mission and the fact that my ship broke down, I wouldn't stay in this shitty place, no offense. But this planet is an exposed mine, only a fool or desperate would come here," Jaco's words were heard not only by Bulma but by everyone present in Doctor Omori's courtyard.
Not only they, but a certain Kami, who was curious about the alien visitors, had set his eyes on this place and listened to what was said. He looked down at his hands, aged but of an unmistakable green color.
'What if I am an alien assimilated by this world? At least I'm a god' After a small existential crisis, Kami-Sama decided to pay more attention to Bulma and her family, especially since the youngest daughter of the family was so talented.
'Maybe she can replace me in the future,' Kami thought, already planning her retirement, but he would let things flow, for now, there was no kind of danger or special situation that would warrant a replacement.
"What a thing..." muttered Tights, who wrote down everything Jaco said, not caring that this was technically confidential news.
"Looks like I'll have new things to investigate in my old age," Doctor Omori said with excitement in his eyes, Jaco's words had enlivened the old man's spirit a little, he felt that he might be able to look for new directions to explore.
"Ha, looks like humanity isn't so disadvantaged," Gohan beamed proudly, knowing that a group of 'weaklings' had the galaxy in fear made him happy.
After Jaco had told them about the feats that many extravagant species in the northern galaxy were capable of, he felt a certain fear, especially since he knew that his grandson and his apprentice would have to face such people in the future.
He had known this since Bulma had mentioned it long ago when they first met, but this feeling only grew stronger when he heard it from someone who had experienced it firsthand.
Fighting was a way to train and improve, if both Goku and Bulma wanted to improve, they would have to leave this planet to look for fights, so in his mind, he decided to change the way to train them.
Because even Heaven, in its tolerance, could unleash endless fury. At first, he wanted to teach them only the peaceful and calm side of the Heavenly Way, and then slowly the dangerous side, but both sides should be in balance.
"Hm..." Gohan blurted out as an ethereal aura emerged from him and Jaco's ship's detector reacted at that moment, showing a series of numbers.
"120, 130, 140, 150.... 100? 50! 0! Old man, don't die!" Jaco said urgently to Gohan after seeing that his power level had reached 0, but the old man just gave him a strange look.
"I'm not dead, I just thought about something and got some new ideas," the old man said with a smile, but Jaco touched him several times before he realized that the old man was very much alive.
"Earth is scary, these guys are like Merus, they can hide their fighting level, no, I have to get out of here fast," Jaco muttered, constantly looking at Bulma and his ship, annoying the little girl.
"Stop being such a coward," Bulma scolded, making Jaco finally calm down, then she looked at her master.
Her Ki control was mediocre at best, but even she could feel Gohan's subtle difference now. He was there, she couldn't ignore him or any other fantasy, but she felt something different about the older man.
If before it was a calm sky with some clouds in it, now it looked like a starry sky, albeit with bright spots, it was full of darkness, but not an evil feeling, rather...
"You feel 'void' ironically, that's the meaning of Goku's name," Bulma joked, making Gohan nod with a smile on his lips.
"Not at all, I just thought about some things I had in mind and came to a conclusion, I didn't expect such changes in myself," Gohan replied to his apprentice, he felt quite comfortable now.
He knew for sure that he could train Goku and Bulma in the best possible way, so he was completely relaxed and even went over to see the things the blue-haired girl was working on, although he didn't understand anything about the tangle of machines scattered all over the place.
"Honestly, even though I don't understand anything of what you're doing, it's relaxing to see you working on something so complicated, you seem to be doing it well, I guess the aliens' fear of human weirdness is well deserved," Gohan joked, making Jaco realize one thing.
Bulma had completely dismantled his ship and he hadn't even noticed!