Upon seeing this, Yamiru smiled faintly.
The power of the Dragon Balls had finally been revived. The seven Dragon Balls were gathered in the large bowl, and as long as someone nearby shouted "Come forth, Shenrong," the Dragon would be summoned immediately. Though, it might destroy the kitchen of this house... would it? Yamiru suddenly had a thought: what would happen if Shenrong was summoned in such a confined space? Would Shenrong break through the roof, and would it damage private property?
"Whoosh, whoosh..."
Yamiru kept thinking but continued washing the vegetables. For now, the Dragon Balls could wait—his girlfriend's little belly was the priority.
---
In the living room, Tights had finished her work and was lying sideways on the sofa.
Her loose white tank top was disheveled, exposing her flat, pale belly. She lifted her long, slender white legs, swinging them in the air, her delicate and cute toes curling.
Her expression seemed like she was deep in thought.
But at that moment, the delicious scent from the kitchen wafted over, and Tights smiled happily.
"Time to eat~"
Yamiru walked in holding the steaming rice cooker with his bare hands, placing it on the coffee table in front of Tights.
He opened the lid, and the steam and aroma hit them immediately. Tights straightened up, her appetite piqued.
"You really weren't wrong when you said you're a rice cooker chef~" Tights grabbed an empty bowl and served a portion for Yamiru. "Here you go, chef, you first."
"Where are the chopsticks?" Yamiru raised his hand, acting all official.
In the next moment, chopsticks were placed in his hand.
Yamiru smiled broadly. "Alright, weren't you hungry? Go ahead and eat."
They ate together happily.
Yamiru told Tights about the revival of the Dragon Balls and jokingly mentioned his curiosity about what would happen if Shenrong was summoned indoors.
"Wouldn't that be fun?" Tights's eyes lit up, excited. "Let's summon it inside the house!"
Yamiru wiped a bit of rice and meat from the corner of her mouth and popped it into his own. He agreed happily, "The house is yours, so if you're okay with it, then no problem."
"Then after we finish eating, you can prepare the Dragon Balls, and I'll tidy up the 'agreement'."
Tights hungrily devoured her meal, not at all ladylike, finishing a bowl of rice with just a bit of clear soup.
After eating a little, Yamiru cleaned the rice cooker, returned it to its capsule, and pocketed it. He then carried the large bowl containing the seven Dragon Balls into the living room. Tights had already cleaned the coffee table and closed the bedroom door. She had changed into her clothes and, holding a stack of "Spiritual Realm" plans, walked over.
A bowl of Dragon Balls was placed on the coffee table. Both of them looked up at the not-so-high ceiling, then shouted in unison, calling for Shenrong.
The seven Dragon Balls in the bowl glowed, their radiance coming together in a brilliant golden hue.
At the same time, the sky outside, which had already cleared after the rain, suddenly turned dark again, as if night had fallen in an instant—
People from all around the world noticed the sudden darkness in the sky, as if they had fallen into a black night.
Gohan, who was taking a walk in the mountains; Goku, who was practicing; Master Roshi, reclining in his lounge chair; Tien Shinhan, hitting waves with his martial arts; Bulma, playing in the backyard pool; Dr. Brief and his wife, walking their cat; Korin, in Korin Tower; Mr. Popo and the Kami of Earth, in the temple; Gine, who was picking wildflowers; and even Bardock, who had been meditating—all of them looked up at the sky at that very moment.
"The Dragon..."
Most of them knew what the sudden darkening of the sky meant. Tien Shinhan and Chiaotzu were confused, but Master Roshi informed them of the situation.
Meanwhile, some others who didn't know about the Dragon Balls or Shenrong, but had noticed the strange phenomena of the sky darkening in recent years, were also paying attention.
"What exactly is this phenomenon? The nanobots we sent out haven't transmitted the data back yet..." Dr. Gero frowned, troubled by the lack of progress in his research.
He walked deeper into the lab, passing by numerous cultivation chambers. He stopped in front of three chambers that were not numbered in order, but grouped together.
These three unfinished projects were critical to solving key technological issues. They were the three artificial humans that Dr. Gero considered the perfect creations. He believed that two of them would be unimaginably powerful killing machines, while the third would be a perfect machine capable of self-evolution—his ideal artificial human.
Labels on the chambers read: 17, 18, and... No. 0.
"Sigh..." Dr. Gero left with a troubled expression, gulped down a huge mug of coffee, and returned to his research.
Meanwhile, in Penguin Village, Dr. Norimaki had once again been rejected by the beautiful older woman, suffering a serious blow to his ego.
"I'm such an idiot..." Norimaki sulked, sitting on the toilet, feeling constipated, and began smoking. "Maybe I should settle for making a decent wingman robot... No... I may be like this, but at least I'm a perfectionist..."
Just then, he noticed the sky outside turning pitch black.
"Again?" Norimaki glanced at it but didn't pay much attention. "Earth's so weird... is it sick? Constipated?"
Underneath Korin Tower.
The little chubby boy groaned in pain, his body covered in bruises, as he recovered under the care of the large Indian man, Bora, and his wife. Angrily, he cursed, "That guy, I'll make him pay sooner or later! How could this damn tower possibly be climbed? Almost killed me... Ouch..."
"Stop complaining. Yamiru actually climbed it back in the day, and even received guidance from an immortal, making unimaginable progress," Bora advised. He believed the chubby boy was exceptionally talented and a fine young warrior. Although his personality was a bit rough, he was kind-hearted. His simple nature made him even more likable than Yamiru from back then.
Suddenly, the sky darkened. Yajirobe pointed at the sky and said perplexedly, "It's happening again. I'm saying, this sky is suddenly darkening, do you have any strange legends like the one about that weird tower?" Bora and his wife also stared at the sky, shaking their heads in confusion.
---
Yamiru had no idea what people in other parts of the world were thinking.
At this moment, he and Tights were staring in awe at the ceiling.
From the large bowl with seven dragon balls, Shenrong surged out, indeed leaping through the roof. However, the part of the dragon that made contact with the roof, along with the section below connecting to the dragon balls in the bowl, didn't turn into solid form. It remained in the state of golden electrical energy...
Outside the house, Shenrong hovered in the air, observing this, and went silent.
"Ah, so amazing..." Tights exclaimed, then tucked a stack of agreements under her armpit. She suddenly picked up the large bowl from the coffee table. The seven dragon balls were still emitting golden electric light, connected to Shenrong. Curiously, she asked, "What... about this?" Yamiru couldn't help but laugh. After being influenced by him, his girlfriend had already surpassed him in clever tricks! Tights was walking around with the large bowl glowing in golden light...
The golden electrical light connecting to the dragon balls inside the bowl moved as she did...
"............"
Yamiru seemed to feel the silence from the sky outside...
Tights was having fun. She raised the large bowl in her hands and said to Yamiru, "I can't feel the weight at all! This is so fun. Yamiru, you try it?"
"Forget it..." Yamiru helplessly replied. "Stop fooling around, make your wish already."
"Oh..." Tights agreed but glanced at the ceiling. "But let me take it outside first... I can't see Shenrong like this..."
Yamiru followed Tights, who was holding the dragon ball bowl, as they walked outside. The door had been fixed by Capsule Corporation's Mr. Ah-Wa.
When he looked back at the sky, Yamiru clearly saw that the position of Shenrong was moving with the bowl in his girlfriend's hands... He suddenly felt Shenrong had lost its imposing presence...
Tights was really a bad influence!
Yamiru grinned. Over there, Tights had already placed the bowl on the ground, watching as the small section of golden electrical light at the tail of Shenrong swiftly turned into a solid dragon tail, connecting to the dragon balls in the bowl.
"Here, for you," Tights handed the stack of agreements to Yamiru.
Yamiru took it and looked up to meet the gaze of Shenrong.
"......."
Shenrong seemed to recognize this person. After a brief silence, it slowly recited the lines, "You've gathered all seven dragon..."
"Actually," Tights suddenly said, "Just now, I realized your concept of the Spiritual Realm seems like..."
"Like what?" Yamiru asked.
Although Shenrong was reciting its usual opening lines, neither Yamiru nor Tights was really listening, as it was pretty much the same every time.
Tights looked up, her golden hair gently blown by the golden light from the dragon balls. She softly said, "It's like a refuge."
"......." Yamiru's pupils shrank, and he turned his head to look at her sharply.
Tights smiled, winked at Yamiru, then raised both arms and said, "But, it must just be my imagination~!"
"...You've made your wish." Shenrong finished its opening lines.
"......." Yamiru was silent for a moment before speaking, "It could indeed serve as a refuge. Let's just hope we never have to face the destruction of Earth."
Is it just Earth? Tights glanced at Yamiru's profile. She felt that Yamiru was deliberately pretending not to understand. The scope of the Spiritual Realm was what Shenrong had mentioned last time as the "whole realm." According to Shenrong's tone back then, the area of this "whole realm" was, at the very least, at a cosmic level...
"Divine Dragon," Yamiru directly looked up and called to Shenrong, "I know you are wise, I know you know everything, and I know you still remember us."
He raised the thick stack of paper in his hands, filled with detailed explanations.
"So, this time I won't ramble on. Let me just say it—my wish is to create a Spiritual Realm that meets these requirements. Please, I beg you."
Yamiru shouted loudly, his voice strong and clear.
Tights also looked up, her gaze fixed on Shenrong's reaction. After hearing Yamiru's words, Shenrong remained silent for a moment. Suddenly, a golden glow appeared deep in its red eyes...
"Shenrong..."
Yamiru noticed that Shenrong hadn't moved, and he thought the dragon was hard of hearing and didn't catch it. Just as he was about to repeat himself louder, his attention was drawn again to Shenrong's deep red eyes...
Red... Red... Deep within the red, there was a surge of gold...
Yamiru's mind was uncontrollably drawn to the golden depths, as if an endless force of attraction resided within. It seemed that within that gold, he saw an odd world of rings within rings, intertwining and spinning. It was like the intricate structures that Dr. Manhattan built on Mars, but no, it was far more complex and sophisticated than even that...
At the very center of this delicate cosmic ring system was a tiny planet.
The further one was from the center, the stronger the light emitted by the tiny planet. It was like a strange sun, and the farther away you were, the brighter its light became.
Yamiru's perspective quickly closed in on the miniature sun-like planet at the center, and as he approached, the light of the "sun" steadily grew weaker and dimmer. By the time he realized it had turned into a small, non-glowing asteroid, he was shocked to find that he was standing firmly on the ground of this strange planet.
"......."
Yamiru looked at his hands, jumped in place, and was left with a bewildered expression. What's going on?
He looked up and saw the nearest star ring around this tiny planet. Squinting his eyes, he observed that on the inner surface of the star ring, it appeared... like the surface of a normal planet, with skies and clouds, land, islands, and oceans. The overall scenery seemed somewhat similar to that of Namek... But from this distance, Yamiru couldn't make out if there was any life living there.
Suddenly, something caught his eye. He quickly turned his head and saw a short old man building what looked like an intricate and beautiful mechanical dragon...