Betrayal (16.2)

Game

Thoughts

"Talking"

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Asuna sighed, her hands covering her face, "Fuck! Why did I do that!"

"Well, don't be too sad over it. I'd be dead if you didn't." Gray deadpanned at the girl. The group slowly floated back down to the beach, heading over to the group of rocks that they'd left Ranfan and Nam behind.

"G…Good job!" Ranfan said, giving Gray a thumbs up as she looked unnerved.

"You saw the fight?" He raised his eyebrow.

"Yeah… it was, um… intense…" She said uncomfortably.

She's probably not used to seeing a person's brain get blown out.

"That's how we do things," Gray said simply, "We're Saiyans. Our race has conquered and massacred planets for a long time. If I didn't kill them, they would've told Raditz where we were, and they would've done the same thing to us."

"I know…" The purple-haired woman puffed out her cheeks, "I've seen a lot of people die over the last few years but… I still don't like it."

"We have bigger things to worry about," Celia spoke up, "We can't head to the Frieza Force base anymore."

"Fuck, fuck, fuck…" Asuna slumped against one of the rocks, staring down at her hands, "Why did I do that? Why did I do that? I'm a traitor… what is my family going to think… I can never go back home… fuck…"

"Relax," Gray leaned down, patting her head, "We're not traitors. Well, we are, but not for long. We just need to kill Raditz… and probably the rest of his squad."

"He's right," Celia said, looking down at Asuna, "Whatever part of the Frieza Force that's left here will take whatever help they can get. Gray just needs to kill Raditz - then he'll be the new captain."

"Is that… allowed?" Ranfan asked, looking up curiously at Celia with her big eyes, "I mean, your boss, or king, or whoever won't be mad about that?"

"We're a warrior race," Celia said plainly, "The strongest leads. If Gray kills Raditz, then he's the strongest Saiyan here, so he's the leader. That's how we are with everything."

"Yeah, that's true," Asuna sighed, still looking unhappy but not as distraught as before, "Even the royal family is that way. King Vegeta can't be mad when his own ancestors did something similar, right?"

"Wait," Ranfan looked at Gray with a smile, "You just got way stronger, right? Like, double stronger! So, we're good? You can just go beat Raddys ass!"

"Raditz," Celia corrected as she looked at Ranfan, "You can sense energy?"

Ranfan looked at her curiously, "Yeah. All martial artists can."

"It's not that simple," Gray said, bringing the conversation back to their current dire situation, "We're not squad members anymore. We're traitors. I could take on Raditz alone after I heal up, especially since he can't go into his Ozaru form, but the rest of the squad won't just sit by idly. I don't like my odds against Raditz and 27 giant apes."

"And we won't be any help, I take it?" Nam finally spoke.

"Against almost 30 Ozaru's?" Gray scoffed, "No offense, but you and Ranfan wouldn't even be helpful against a couple of Saibamen-"

That might be a bad analogy. Saibamen are probably kicking ass here.

"-Saeko wouldn't be much help either. Celia and Asuna can also transform, so they'd be able to help a bit, but the majority of the squad is stronger than them. They could maybe take one each, so I'd be left with Raditz and another 25 apes."

Maybe 23. Celia, Saeko, and Asuna should've all gotten stronger from the XP I got for killing those two. If the quest XP applied to them too, then they'd probably be able to take a few each, but I doubt that's the case. It didn't for the Vargon quest.

"How long would it take for you to get strong enough?" Celia asked, locking eyes with Gray.

I… don't know. How strong would I need to be to take on Raditz and 25 Ozaru's? With Celia, Asuna, and Saeko getting XP in my party, they could probably take another 5ish by the time I'm strong enough to try, so I'll say Raditz + 20 squad members. Double my current strength? No, that's not enough. At least half the squad is above 50 million PL, and I'm not sure how long it'd take Raditz's tail to grow back. Even triple wouldn't be enough. I'd need to be five times stronger to guarantee a win. Hell, maybe more.

I'd need around 1000 points to get that strong. I could probably get by with only 750 if level up some of the more useful skills. If I'm training on my own, I could get every easy skill I could think of and level them up a few times pretty quickly, but I'd need a lot of skills. I don't know if I'd be able to find that many. Also, if I do that, the rest of my party won't gain XP, so I'll need to fight the extra 8 or so apes. The best way would be to find quests so I can level up quickly, and then defeat some grunts here and there so the rest of them get stronger.

"I'm not sure," Gray responded, "For the three of us to be able to take them down, it could take half a year at most. If I'm lucky, maybe a month?"

Maybe more, maybe less, depending on how many skills I can find. I haven't gotten 'swimming' yet, or 'squatting,' and there are probably some other easy ones that could net me a couple hundred points. After that, I'd need to focus on leveling them up, which will take progressively longer. Even some skills I use constantly, like 'running' and 'observe' are only level 6 after weeks. I'd have to find 20 new skills that give combat stats and level them all up 5 times. 

"That's too long," Celia rebutted, "They won't survive that long. Especially after they just transformed. That massive energy spike was like a beacon to anyone with a scouter on this planet. If the Frieza Force base is wiped out, then we'll have no contact with Father, and will never be recalled. We need to defeat Raditz's squad before that happens, and then help stabilize the remaining Frieza Force."

"We don't have a safe place to train either…" Asuna said, blushing when everyone turned to look at her, "Because of Cooler's army, I mean. The ones we met in those buildings weren't very strong, so they couldn't have been the ones who pushed the Frieza Force all the way back to the coast. There are probably more all over the island."

"Correct," Celia continued, a calculating look on her face, "We landed near the South side of the island. The Frieza Force's remaining base is on the North side. On top of that, across the ocean is Cooler's main base. While we're on this beach, we're sandwiched between the forces on the island and the forces on the mainland. Even if I mask our power as much as I can, we'll be found eventually."

"We can go to West City!" Ranfan spoke up, her big eyes sparkling, "They still have some good clothing stores, and I can help you try on lots of outfits Gra- I mean, um, there's some good martial artists there! They can train with you!"

"King Cold's base is to the left of Cooler'sl," Gray said, "So trying to get to a human city would be risky. We'd be flying directly past both bases if we went over the ocean, and through King Cold's, or would be going directly through both bases if we flew over the land. Either way, we'd just be hoping that neither base spots us."

"That might be our best bet," Celia said with a small frown, "I'm nearly out of Ki - I can't hide our energy all day, so staying here means we'd probably be found before we could fully recover. Either we try to make it to West City, or we wait here and fight Cooler's forces while only partially recovered."

"Or," Gray spoke up, "We go to the right."

"...The Land of Kami?" Celia asked, blinking in surprise at his suggestion.

Gray stared across the giant expanse of water separating the island they stood on from the mainland, which was so vast that Gray couldn't see the other side even with his superhuman eyesight. Cooler's base was sitting directly across from them, and he had no idea when more of his forces would come flying over the water. To the left, King Cold's territory bordered Cooler's and blocked their route to West City. To the right, was the mysterious Land of Kami.

…Which I know isn't actually that mysterious. It's where Kami's lookout is. Him, Mr. Popo, Korin, and somebody else are sitting up there. I doubt they'll make the trip down if we stay in the forest below for a bit since they usually all just sat on their ass's whenever a problem popped up in the show.

"We have no intel on it," Celia started, "But it's a better alternative than Cooler and King Cold's forces."

"Wait! Did you say the Land of Kami?" Nam asked, the man donning a serious look on his face, "That's where many of my fellow martial artists went to train. Kami knows of me and Ranfan - he will be welcoming to those who saved us."

I like the positive attitude, Nam, but I'm not sure Kami would welcome a bunch of battle-hungry Saiyans. Our hearts are far from pure. Especially when he finds out that we're trying to help out the Frieza Force.

"Let's just try," Gray said, stretching his legs, "We should leave as soon as possible. Let's rest for 15 minutes to regain some energy, then we'll head out."

The others nodded in agreement at Gray's decision, and they took a short 15-minute break before they floated up into the air. They flew slowly out over the ocean, and Gray found himself in a precarious situation.

"...Are you sure we're going too fast?" Gray asked, looking down at Ranfan, who was being carried bridal style by Gray as they flew. 

The woman blushed, nodding quickly, "Yup! I can't fly as fast as you guys!"

"But," Gray started, "We're going really slow so Celia can mask our energy…"

"I-It's still too fast!"

"But Nam is doing fine!" Gray glanced over at Nam, who was now weaker than Ranfan after she received the party bonus from him defeating Peacha and Berri, as he flew rather casually next to him.

"I…um… never went to flight school?" Ranfan said, her head tilted as she made a lame excuse.

"Sure," Gray sighed as Ranfan giggled in his arms. The group slowly flew down the coastline of the island, which eventually disappeared into a vast ocean. 'Slowly' also might not have been the right word, as they were still moving at inhuman speeds. 

"Let's start heading in more," Celia said from the front of the group, a small bead of sweat dripping down her face as she struggled to mask the entire group's power levels with her depleted Ki stores, "We should be past Cooler's territory soon."

Gray glanced over at the barely visible mountains to their left, which designated the end of Cooler's territory and the start of Kami's. Just past the mountains was a massive stretch of rolling hills, which contained many villages and towns, that served as an unowned territory. That stretch of hills eventually gave way to massive trees, all of which towered dozens of feet into the air. 

"This went… surprisingly well," Gray hummed as they shot along the coastline, flying past the towering trees. 

Maybe that boosted luck stat is actually paying off. I figured we'd run into a bunch of Cooler's cronies on the way. 

"Stop here," Gray said, halting the group as he saw the image of Korin's Tower start to fade into his view. 

I want to rest. We all need to rest. It wouldn't be fun to run into Kami right now or to deal with the tribe that guards the bottom of the tower.

"We'll make camp here," Gray said, setting down Ranfan as he glanced around the dark forest, which was shadowed by all the massive trees, "You wouldn't have remembered to grab the rations from your pods, right?"

"Nope," Celia, Saeko, and Asuna said in unison, causing Gray to let out a sigh.

Even Celia?

"I'll go find some animals to eat. Find a nice spot to rest." Gray said, walking away from the group as he stared up at the silhouette of Korin's Tower.

Kami, Korin, Mr. Popo… and one more. Who else is up there right now?

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Gray Tanaki:

[Saiyan D-Class Recruit]

Age: 15

Wallet: 164,650 Coins

Lvl: 14 (193,000/250,000 XP)

PL: 152,775,200

Available Points: 0

HP: 50,200/218,350

TKI: 140,260/330,875

STR: 485

AGI: 700

END: 450

INT: 505

CHA: 195

LUK: 505

KI: 655

HREG: 456

EREG: 456

Skills: [Observe LVL 5], [Running LVL 6], [Determination LVL 4], [Ki Control LVL 9], [Ki Gun LVL 5]. [Ki Enhancement LVL 4], [KI Suppression LVL 5], [Ki Sense LVL 2], [Pushup LVL 4], [Punch LVL 4], [Kick LVL 4], [Jump LVL 4], [Flight LVL 4], [Prediction LVL 2], [Zenkai Boost LVL 1], [Cognitive Acceleration LVL 1], [Ah! Lord Freiza! LVL 1], [Mouth-Beam LVL 1], [Ki-Blade LVL 1]

Perks: [Gamer's Mind], [Gamer's Body], [Double-edged Sword], [Legendary Super Saiyan], [Perfect Ozaru], [A Cute Pawn], [A Humble Master], [Ladies Man]

Fighting Styles: [Boxing Style: Kolra LVL 2]

Party: [Saeko, Celia, Asuna, Ranfan]

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Thanks for reading! Next chapter will be out on Saturday, or the next three chapters are up at Patreon.com/Koyon !