Bulma, unable to sleep any longer under the intense sunlight, reluctantly opened her eyes. Her groggy mind and throbbing headache made her irritable. She rubbed her temples as she sat up, preparing to draw the curtains and go back to sleep.
However, when she sat up and saw her surroundings clearly, she finally realized this was not her room.
"Huh?"
After a moment of stunned silence, some hazy fragments of memory surfaced. Bulma looked down at the unfamiliar oversized vest she was wearing and finally realized what was going on.
"Could it be..."
Drunkenness, waking up in a strange room, and wearing clothes that were not hers. Her mind could not help but conjure up scenes from action movies.
Just then, Ethan, dressed in loose casual clothes, walked in.
"I thought you should be awake by now!"
"Ah!"
Bulma's mind was still filled with those imagined scenes. Her reaction upon seeing a real person was exaggerated, and her shriek caused Ethan to involuntarily lean back. If he had not been holding something in his hands, he would have covered his ears.
Fortunately, Bulma's scream did not last long. Ethan placed the items he was holding on the nearby table and greeted Bulma, who was sitting on the bed.
"Get up and eat something. You must be hungry, right?"
"Uh..."
Bulma looked at Ethan, then at herself.
"Last night..."
"Last night?" Ethan glanced at Bulma and realized what she was thinking. "You were throwing up everywhere and talking nonsense nonstop, then you slept like a log."
"And then?" According to the descriptions in various movies and novels, certain things were likely to happen next, right?
"And then?" Ethan waved his hand with a look of disgust, as if trying to drive away some smell. "What else could there be?"
"Uh..."
Bulma realized that nothing seemed to have happened last night, which was completely different from what she had imagined.
"What did you think I would do?" Ethan said with a look of disgust. "Throwing up like that, smelling awful all over, and sleeping like a corpse..."
Ethan's words made Bulma very embarrassed. She had not expected herself to be so pathetic when drunk.
She awkwardly got up. The oversized vest she was wearing was like a dress, so she did not have to worry about anything being seen.
She sat down at the table and found a bowl of steaming hot porridge. It carried a faint fragrance.
Her stomach was rumbling nonstop, and her stomach did not feel good the day after drinking. Bulma ate the hot porridge in small sips, then looked at Ethan sheepishly.
"What did I say last night?"
"Well..."
Ethan scratched his cheek. Bulma must have gotten herself drunk alone yesterday because she had been stimulated by Trunks, her "son."
Compared to the Bulma in the original story, this world's Bulma's love life was a blank slate. She was almost thirty and had never been in a serious relationship.
If no one mentioned it, Bulma would not have cared too much and would have continued living however she pleased, maybe just occasionally muttering about how hard it was to find a good man.
But Trunks' appearance had touched that nerve in Bulma. What annoyed her most was that she did not even have a suitable target now.
"Am I not good-looking?"
"Is my family not well-off?"
"Why can't I find a man?"
If Bulma had not been drunkenly throwing beer cans around and had not just thrown up all over herself, leaving her smelling awful, then considering her top-tier rich beauty status, she would have been quite sympathetic.
Her current state was a bit... hard to sympathize with.
In that state, even if she threw herself at Ethan, he would not have been able to do anything. After she had enough of her drunken antics and finally fell asleep like a dead person, Ethan was even less able to do anything.
When Bulma asked what she had done last night, Ethan simply described everything she had done, making Bulma's face turn red. She felt that the most embarrassing moment of her life had been last night.
After Ethan finished speaking, Bulma sat there for a while to calm down. Then she suddenly thought of something and quietly sniffed herself.
There was no strange smell, only the scent of shower gel.
"Hmm?"
Adding in the clothes she was wearing, Bulma suddenly thought of something.
"Who helped me change my clothes yesterday?"
Ethan looked at Bulma with a very calm expression.
"..." Bulma asked again with an uncertain look, "So, you also helped me wash up..."
Ethan's expression remained unchanged, and he only said softly.
"It was just a small effort. No need to thank me."
"..."
Unfortunately, she did not have a weapon at hand. Otherwise, Bulma really wanted to fire a burst at Ethan.
As for the reason? She could not tell whether it was because she had suffered a loss, or because she had not suffered a bigger loss.
She had felt a little embarrassed before, but now Bulma felt especially embarrassed. She quickly finished the hot porridge in front of her, then left in a huff.
Ethan watched Bulma leave, spread his hands helplessly, and then sighed at the black cat that had been crouching in the corner, pretending to be a decoration.
"Having fun watching the show, aren't you?"
"It's very interesting!"
Yoruichi's voice when she turned into a black cat was very masculine, which Ethan found very awkward. Now, when chatting with Ethan in her cat form, Yoruichi would use her original voice.
"Speaking of which, you didn't do anything last night. That's... are you perhaps ill?"
Of course, Ethan was fine. Yoruichi was just teasing him.
"..."
Ethan stood up. As soon as he moved, Yoruichi nimbly darted to the window and jumped out directly, not giving Ethan any chance.
"Tsk, you run fast!"
The following days were very peaceful. Everyone was busy improving their strength, and Ethan did not pay too much attention to such trivial matters, focusing instead on improving his own strength.
As for Bulma... Bulma was a top talent. In the past, she would definitely have been a target he would try to recruit onto his ship. Even now, he had some thoughts in that regard, but the specifics would have to be considered later.
He first had to determine how much of his "abilities" he could recover in this world. If it was only an increase in combat power, then many things he wanted to do would be difficult to achieve.
As for Bulma's growing concern about her age, that was not a big problem at all.
Even if Ethan could not produce any enhancement potions now, with treasures like the Dragon Balls, would Bulma still have to worry about growing old and becoming an old woman?
So, he would recover his power first and consider those things later.
During the days of hard training, time always passed especially quickly. Life was regular and fulfilling every day, and it felt as if nothing had been done, yet time had already passed.
Three years was enough time for Ethan to adapt to the body that had been strengthened after his first digestion of the Black Dragon's power, and he had already begun the second cycle.
As he had speculated, after thoroughly digesting the Black Dragon's power once, his body's absorption and adaptation speed toward this power had increased. Therefore, Ethan quickly drew out all the Black Dragon energy in his body and was currently undergoing the final absorption.
After this was finished, Ethan would begin trying to draw out the divine power from his body. If this step succeeded, he would gradually recover his true strength.
There was still some distance to go before reaching the small goal of starting to recover his true strength, but the combat power Ethan could now exert was already astonishing.
Even without using transformations, since his transformations no longer provided much of a boost, and the palm-sized little wings seriously damaged his powerful image, Ethan could already face Goku directly after he had completed his Super Saiyan Full Power training.
Both of their strengths had increased astonishingly. This was the positive effect created when two strong individuals of similar strength acted as each other's opponents. A tangible and visible goal was more intuitive than the elusive Androids whose strength was unknown, and it was clearer how to pursue and surpass it.
In addition, Ethan had excellent control over his own power. He could release his true power only at the moment of battle or when making a move, and apply most of that power to the target so that large amounts of energy would not be wasted.
In other words, when Ethan made a move now, there was no earth-shattering momentum. Coupled with his usual restrained aura, it would give people the illusion that he was not strong. Only by truly fighting Ethan would one know how terrifying his strength was.
"With this strength, it should be enough to deal with the Androids."
Because Ethan and Goku's strength had been rapidly increasing, Krillin and the others were also becoming more and more confident about the battle ahead.
The strength of these two had already reached an even more terrifying level. Now, even the scouter improved by Bulma could not accurately measure their combat power.
Ethan restrained his power and only unleashed it at the moment of battle, causing the scouter to fail to react and making it unable to detect data.
Goku's power was too strong, and the new scouter would also explode. But seeing that Ethan could fight Goku without falling behind, perhaps when Ethan unleashed all his energy, the scouter would explode as well.
"Hmph, it won't explode after I improve it again!"
Whether it was improved or not, no one really cared. Few people here were used to wearing scouters in battle, and even if communication was needed, a wrist-type device was more acceptable to them than one worn on the face.
"Today is the day Trunks mentioned. Let's get ready and set off!"
They had trained hard for three years for this day, but Bulma was also insisting on going, which made everyone speechless.
"I want to see what those Androids who can defeat Super Saiyans and almost destroy the entire world look like!"
According to Trunks' description, the Androids were powerful weapons created by Dr. Gero, and they were products of technology. How could a scientist like Bulma not be curious?
"I'll just take a look and then leave!"
(To be continued.)