{Transitioning to Zuke}
Upon entering the Dragon Ball world, the moment Zuke opened his eyes, he was greeted by a blinding light shining from ahead.
No matter how strong one is, the eyes remain a sensitive area. This is evident from the fact that even countless world-destroying powerhouses can still be blinded by the Solar Flare technique.
Zuke squinted slightly, feeling a bit better—looking through the glass hull of the cube spaceship, he could see the radiance of the Super Dragon Ball.
The Super Dragon Ball emitted a brilliance akin to the sun, and getting too close could easily blind someone.
However, after squinting and adjusting for a moment, Zuke opened the cube spaceship and jumped out, floating beside the massive Super Dragon Ball.
He carefully examined the Super Dragon Ball—inside it were six stars, indicating it was the Six-Star Dragon Ball.
From this, it seemed that the Super Dragon Balls Zuke had collected so far were all even-numbered—the Two-Star, Four-Star, and now the Six-Star Dragon Balls.
This suggested that the four Super Dragon Balls in Universe 6 were likely odd-numbered. Whether this was a coincidence or intentional when the Super Dragon Balls were scattered remains unclear.
Zuke raised his hand, and golden ripples instantly enveloped the Super Dragon Ball, swallowing it whole—the Gate of Babylon now contained another object the size of a planet.
It seemed the storage capacity of the Gate of Babylon was more impressive than expected. Zuke had initially worried that swallowing three Super Dragon Balls might strain its limits.
But now it appeared there was still room, and perhaps storing all seven Super Dragon Balls wouldn't be an issue.
It's unclear whether the Gate of Babylon inherently had such capacity or if it expanded spatially after being acquired by Zuke, adapting to his power.
"Still, it's surprising that nothing unexpected happened this time."
After securing the third Super Dragon Ball, Zuke took a quick look around but didn't find anything particularly noteworthy.
Unlike when he collected the first Super Dragon Ball and encountered Babidi, or the second one where he ran into the Ginyu Force, this retrieval was uneventful.
"Seems there's really nothing worth noting here."
Zuke casually absorbed the energy of a nearby planet, devouring it into his body—much like Moro did in the original series.
The planet had no life, just an ordinary celestial body unsuitable for life, so the energy quality was inferior to that of life-bearing planets—but it still significantly boosted Zuke's power.
In fact, judging by Moro's power increase after absorbing planets in the original series, Zuke's combat power must have risen considerably by now.
Unfortunately, without a more precise combat power detector, Zuke couldn't determine his exact power level. He even felt he might be able to take on Frieza. After all, he possessed abilities like "Berserk" and "Numeral of Saint," which could multiply his strength. Theoretically, if his combat power reached tens of millions, he might have a chance to defeat Frieza.
Moreover, he had the many unique abilities stored within "Black Bird Requiem" to assist him. Just the ability to alter causality alone would give him a significant advantage in battle.
"So the top priority is to determine my combat power... I wonder if Bardock has made any progress."
With this thought, Zuke returned to the cube spaceship, picked up the combat power detector, and prepared to contact Bardock to inquire about the progress of gathering the Saiyans.
As long as he could take control of Planet Vegeta, he could use the large-scale detector left by the Frieza Force to measure his combat power.
What portable detectors couldn't measure, large-scale detectors could—many newer models of portable detectors were essentially miniaturized versions of the large-scale ones.
Otherwise, how would Frieza know his combat power was 530,000, and over a million after transformation, if portable detectors exploded when measuring over 20,000?
Of course, it was because he could use large-scale detectors.
Soon, Zuke's communication attempt through the combat power detector was answered, and Bardock's voice came through:
"Hello? Zuke? What's up?"
Bardock's voice sounded noticeably more tired, whether from missions or other reasons.
"Nothing much, just wanted to ask how the gathering of the Saiyans is going."
Zuke asked—he was growing impatient. If more than half of the Saiyans were already on Planet Vegeta, he was ready to take control of the planet immediately.
Even if the remaining Saiyans arrived later, with the majority already under his command, they would likely join him as well.
There's a reason many in the universe look down on Saiyans—most lack deep critical thinking and tend to follow the crowd, as long as they get to fight to their heart's content.
As long as Zuke's rule was better than Frieza's, the Saiyans wouldn't put up much resistance—as for King Vegeta? What did they care? Saiyans aren't a race obsessed with royal authority.
"Progress... it's going okay. Most of the Saiyans have already gathered on Planet Vegeta, with a small number still on their way back due to distance."
Bardock replied.
"However, some Saiyans aren't listening to me and have no intention of returning."
Although Bardock was highly respected among the Saiyans, he wasn't their king. While most Saiyans would heed his call, some simply didn't care for him.
"Also, my recent actions seem to have caught King Vegeta's attention. He's summoned me several times for questioning."
Zuke understood—Bardock's tired voice was likely due to dealing with King Vegeta's interrogations.
It made sense. Many Saiyans were out on missions, and Bardock suddenly calling them back would disrupt those missions.
Those were tasks assigned by the Frieza Force. If left uncompleted, King Vegeta would be the one to face the blame or even punishment.
Thus, King Vegeta had repeatedly summoned Bardock to reprimand him, but Bardock managed to deflect the questions for now.
To be continued…
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