Looking up Hundreds of feet hight, above the increased large cubed furnace, was a proportionally large pot of boiling liquid was creating a constant steam that flew high into the sky.
This steam was what prevent evil spirits from escaping the otherworld's hell and what allowed human spirits to naturally enter the afterlife. If this eternal fire was shut off then sinners would enter the world of the living and human souls would be unable to enter the afterlife.
Stand even higher than the furnace itself was the shadow of a large woman, she lifted something out of the boiling liquid before her giant form began to shrink smaller and smaller until she was obscure by the pot.
There was a few seconds of silence when suddenly a beautiful woman appeared before Krillin holding a bowl of noodles, next to her was an old man who had a yellow halo around his head.
"I really am a good Chef, these noodle are superb" The beautiful woman and old man was close enough for Krillin to confirm their identity, it was Annin, the guardian of the gateway to the afterlife and Gohan, Goku's Grandpa!
"Lady Annin, I came here to reque-" "here try these noodle" Cutting off Krillin mid sentence, Annin grabbed a decent amount of noodle before moving her bowl close to Krillins face.
'This is the Annin I remember from the series, the super chill and friendly deity that only got mad when you wasted her food or insulted her age.'
Despiting having just ate the other half of a senzu bean, krillin didnt dare decline her request and opened his mouth to tastes Annins food and she was right, the taste was fantastic and led to Krillin actually craving for more!
Her delectable food was the result of her only hobby being cook on the eternal flames for the past thousands of years!
"Your noodles were delectable, but young lady Annin I've come here to request... i want to be your disciple!" Krillin said politely and respectfully.
"My disciple? Why would I need one and why would you want to be mine?" Annin was genuinely shocked the the human boys request, she thought he merely wanted to meet a deceased loved one.
"You are currently the strongest being on the planet, I wish to learn under you in hopes to overcome my turbulent future endeavors."
There was a moment of consideration from Annin before she ultimately slurped some more noodles.
"Sorry I don't want a disciple, I already have an attended to keep me company." Annin casually motioned to Gohan who only bowed slightly at Krillin
"What if I bring you entertainment?" Krillin quickly said, knowing which buttons to press with the ancient deity.
"Entertainment?" Annin eyes flickered with interest.
"I know you have the wonderful ability to conjure and create items, but you've still been stuck here guarding the gateway for over ten thousand years. The Human world has changed and entertainment you haven't even though possible exist, I can bring you this entertainment!"
Annin wasn't permitted to leave this gateway, she could summon spirits to keep her company and regale her with stories but that was it.
Krillin could see the interest in her eyes and decided to strike while the iron was hot.
"Just think about it Annin, I am the only human to have gotten here alive and can travel to the world of the living freely. Im your only chance at getting ten thousands years of human innovation, I am just asking for a year of studying under you."
Krillin tried his best to be persuasive and eventually he broke through the Deities walls.
"Fine human child, I'll take that deal but you must first bring me those human innovations now" Annin finished the rest of her noodles in one giant slurp.
"About that... Obtaining them is easy but quite expensive, would you mind if I brought you them at a later date when I aquire more wealth?"
"If riches is what you need child, then take these." With a wave of her hand a stack of gold bricks suddenly appeared out of existence.
The stack was atleast ten feet tall and ten feet wide, it was enough to buy a small country!
"Humans still use gold as currency right?" Annin asked quizzically
"Y-yes we still use gold... Can you really create objects out of nothingness?"Krillins wide eyes wandered over the gold.
"Yes and no. These gold bricks are real for all intensive purposes but they are still considered illusions. While my lesser peers use substanceless illusions, I actually give my illusions substance and create illusions bordering on Ki creations." The bowl in Annins hands disappeared and she patted her hands in satisfaction.
"So there still Illusions? Will people realize that the gold is fake once they try to test it's authenticity?"
"Haha human child, my illusions aren't some witches parlor trick. They look, feel and even taste real! My illusions have past every single test someone has thrown at them, it's impossible to distinguish them from the real thing!" Grabbing a brick out of the stack, Annin tossed it at Krillin "You test them out for yourself"
Krillin looked at the illusionary gold with shock, it was heavy and cold just like real gold. Grabbing the edges of the bar Krillin ripped it in half only to see that it looked like a normal block of gold even inside!
"So long as nothing that can absorb Energy touches them, they'll still exist for the rest of time, of course if they are heavily damaged like what you just did they'll eventually lose its Ki and disappear after a month or two"
"I see... Can you turn these bars into coins? Theres a much less likely hood of them being melted down" Annin casually shrugged and the 10x10ft stack of gold bars turned into a 10x10ft stack of gold coins.
With a gleeful smile Krillin touched the stack of Gold coins and absorbed them into his storage to Annins surprise, but before she could say anything Krillin was already at the exit of the furnace.
"I'll be back after a couple day, I'll buy you a little of everything so you can choose what you want more of!" With this money Krillin had a lot of things he can do!
Just one gold coin was worth more than 13,000 zeni, and he had tens of thousands of them! He could buy Annin everything she could every want and still be incredibly rich for the rest of his life!
As he exited the room of the Furnace Krillin suddenly found himself standing outside of the large wall that he first entered into, not having to bypass all of those illusions.
"So all of that, even the road I had walked in was just one big Illusion created with substance? I need to learn that! Flying nimbus!" The dark cloud flew down from the sky and greeted it's master with a nudge to make sure he was okay.
"I'm fine scared cat, too chicken to enter her illusions?" The nimbus lowered a little further in shame.
"It's fine nimbus, but we need to go shopping! I need to buy all of the entertainment Annin would want but also enough supplies to last me for the year under her privilege tutelage!"
***
Unbeknownst to Krillin, thousands of miles away, Dr Gero watched Goku Kamehameha the entire Navy wing of the Red Ribbon army to smithererings as he flew away in a helicopter.
"Even as a child Goku is still so troublesome to deal with, the harder I push him the further he seems to grow! No matter, when I finish my research I'll unleash my weapon upon this devil child!"