The doorknob turned with a "click," and then bright white light poured out from the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. The door opened, and Piccolo in a white cape and Gohan in Namekian training clothes stepped out.
There were only some small tears in their clothes, and they didn't look like they'd been through an intense battle. But Raditz could sense extremely powerful auras from both of them—completely different from before they went in.
He could tell that Piccolo must have used everything he had to train Gohan. While Gohan grew stronger, Piccolo got trained too.
The moment the door opened, Raditz and Piccolo locked eyes, and intense sparks flew between their gazes.
Raditz praised honestly, "Not bad. Your strength improved really fast."
"Raditz!" Piccolo snorted coldly and suddenly rushed straight at him, stretching out his arms to wrap around Raditz before snapping them shut!
It was like thick, long binding ropes tightening rapidly, with crushing force that could pulverize gold and stone. The moment they suddenly tightened, Gohan was stunned.
But Raditz smiled calmly and instantly disappeared, appearing beside Piccolo. The long arms came together and grabbed nothing.
Alert as always, Piccolo shifted his gaze and only noticed Raditz's new location a split second after the teleportation. With a wicked smile on his face, he turned his neck and opened his mouth.
While turning his head, energy gathered in his mouth, and as he twisted his neck, a long beam of light burst out!
Raditz couldn't dodge. Behind him was one of the Lookout's pillars—if it got hit, the whole place would collapse. So he stretched out one hand, golden aura erupting from his entire body. Instead of retreating, he advanced, reaching the front of the energy wave!
Stopping the energy blast with one hand, he bent his five fingers and thrust them into the beam of light!
Piccolo felt a shock force coming from in front of him, traveling all the way to his brain and making his whole head buzz. The energy wave he'd fired was being pushed back little by little, like flowing water hitting an iron wall with no effect.
"Hah!" Raditz yelled, clenched his fingers into a fist, and crushed the energy wave into sparkling fragments that looked like gorgeous fireworks—though they seemed a bit dull against the blue sky.
As the light scattered, Raditz stepped forward, brushing his iron fist past Piccolo's cheek. The wind from his punch roared in Piccolo's ear.
Piccolo couldn't even see that punch.
Even though he was still wearing those heavy training clothes, it didn't affect his perception. He deeply understood that this was a gap in pure strength! Even after training in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber for a whole year, he was still way behind Raditz!
A slight cut appeared on Piccolo's cheek...
"Your strength has reached Super Saiyan level, but unfortunately you're still no match for me." Raditz delivered this simple, clear statement and calmly pulled back his fist.
Super Saiyan level? Gohan was confused. "What about me? I can became a Super Saiyan too now."
"Hard to say. Your potential is limitless."
What Raditz was most uncertain about was Gohan's strength. Maybe Gohan had just broken through to Super Saiyan now, but maybe tomorrow he'd get pissed off and jump straight to another level.
"My dad and I are both Super Saiyans. Will there be much difference?"
"Same Super Saiyan form, but strength can be very different," Raditz said.
There were many small stages between Super Saiyan 1 and Super Saiyan 2—part of power's natural evolution.
The earliest transformation triggered by rage could be considered the initial stage of Super Saiyan 1. Later, through practice and repeated mastery, you could control your aura so it could be freely released and contained, adapting to the Super Saiyan burden—that could be considered reaching the second stage. Beyond that was the Ascended Super Saiyan form, with strength raised to another level. Vegeta, who originally lost to Android 18, could defeat the incomplete Cell after reaching this stage!
Of course, that wasn't the end. There was also the Ultra Super Saiyan transformation—massive strength but extremely slow speed. Finally came Full Power Super Saiyan, which truly achieved comprehensive improvement in strength, speed, energy consumption, and aura control, reaching a perfect state!
Right now, Raditz had touched the edge of Full Power but hadn't mastered that stage's transformation yet. After all, he'd only been a Super Saiyan for a short time, and breaking through to new levels wasn't that easy.
Vegeta and Goku had only reached the third stage—Ascended Super Saiyan. Even though Goku's talent was high, he'd been the last to transform, so he'd suffered a bit. But after training in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, he'd already surpassed Vegeta.
These explanations were too complicated. Raditz didn't want to say more. He walked up to Gohan and looked at Piccolo.
"Let's go, Piccolo."
"What do you mean?"
"I said as long as you did one thing for me. Now that it's done, I won't keep you here."
Piccolo's eyes widened suddenly. "What's your angle?"
He couldn't believe Raditz would be so generous, but when he glanced at Kami nearby, Piccolo instantly understood that Raditz knew he could run from the monk but not the temple.
Gritting his teeth with a grunt, Piccolo walked toward the edge of the Lookout. Finally, he turned back to look at Gohan and flew away.
"Uncle Piccolo..."
"Don't worry. He'll change just like the previous Piccolo did. Let him go alone for now." Raditz patted Gohan's head and smiled slightly.
The scene reminded him of Goku letting Piccolo go, and Piccolo had changed since then.
Gohan gave a soft "Mm," his eyes full of hope.
Right after that, Raditz brought Gohan back home and discussed the martial arts tournament with Goku. Goku, being the biggest fighting fanatic, of course agreed and immediately said he'd step up his training.
Then Raditz found Vegeta and explained the situation. Vegeta agreed too. His goal was to defeat Goku and Raditz—he couldn't care less about some Kai.
Besides them, Nappa also accepted the invitation. He planned to show off in front of the audience. He was tired of dealing with insignificant opponents all the time, so he was going to go all out this time.
Raditz finally found Tien, Chiaotzu, Krillin, and Yamcha, and they willingly participated too. Master Roshi shamelessly signed up to "see the world."
On top of that, Jeice, Burter, and Angila also got word from Raditz and joined the team. When they came, they brought the repaired Tumat with them.
Reuniting with Tumat after so long, Raditz was happy for a whole day.
When King Kai checked in again, all the North Galaxy candidates were in place, gathered on Earth. Every single one of them was on Raditz's side.
They called themselves the "North Galaxy Delegation."
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