Every day since the moment he left the Chitinari planet, Knox spent at least an hour or two in deep meditation.
Seeing as it was his first ever skill, he was quite attached to it.
Plus, the idea of being as badass as Jiren when he first started meditating in the middle of a heated battle royale appealed to him.
Sadly, no matter how long he meditated, nothing seemed to change.
Which was he'd decided to combine his training time with his meditation time. If it wasn't going to yield any results with such little time invested, he figured he could just... train and meditate at the same time.
And what better skill to train than one that didn't require any movement at all?
Knox hovered in the center of the training room, his legs crossed in lotus position, suspended mid-air by his own [Psychokinesis].
Floating several feet off the ground were dozens of weights orbiting him in an intricate, almost hypnotic motion. The motions they made were soundless, but they occasionally clanged into each other as there were minor lapses in his concentration.
Sweat glistened on his forehead as he focused, his mental ki pulsing like a coiled muscle.
'The ship I pulled out of the sky that day was about 90 tons. I wonder what my highest weight is now?'
Knox exhaled slowly, then pushed his concentration over the edge.
"Nngh!"
For just a fleeting moment, every single weight in the room rose in unison. Some mere millimeters off the floor. Others almost touched the ceiling.
But that didn't matter. Because even if it was only for a moment, they all lifted at once.
And then, abruptly, he let go.
The floating hunks of metal slammed into the ground with a thunderous crash, shaking the ship. The vibrations rattled the walls, sending echoing booms throughout the corridors.
Knox dropped down to the reinforced flooring like a rock, landing on his ass, breathing heavily.
A faint ding sounded quietly in the back of his mind, so he finally opened his eyes.
Skill [Psychokinesis] Rank increased!
+1 MIND multiplier for increasing from E to D.
Knox let out a sigh of relief, the feeling of 'maxing out' a skill was beyond satisfying. Since he still didn't know how to get past the wall between Rank D and Rank C, this was what he treated as his skill cap for now.
Maybe he'd get more hints on that after he raised [Lifting] to C. It was currently only at E, increasing relatively slowly.
"A man can dream..." He sighed.
He let his head tilt back for a moment, eyes staring lazily at the ceiling as he debated whether he was going to spend his cooldown lying on the floor or actually dragging himself to the kitchen for water.
That debate ended when Marzette's voice echoed throughout the ship.
"Knox!"
He looked over to the wall, even though he couldn't see through it. "Don't worry, I'm good!" Then he let out a tired, "Just hitting a new PB!"
"I wasn't worried about that!" She called once more. "Just get in here, we're about to arrive at our destination!"
"Oh," Knox slowly pushed himself up to his feet, his joints popping as he moved. "Be right there!"
Rolling his shoulders, he grabbed the towel he came in with and wiped himself down. Strolling out of the training room, he yawned leisurely, arms reaching above his head as he stretched.
Eventually, he reached the front of the ship, the door sliding open with a soft hiss.
Marzette was leaning on the wall to the side, arms crossed, as she patiently waited for the ship to dock itself.
He gave her a quick grin before his attention was stolen by the rather somber sight outside. Despite having seen thousands of other planets before, this one gave off an air of melancholy about it.
Planet Cereal.
Maybe he was starting to get a sense of Ki, because it felt like he could almost feel the atrocities that had been done here.
'Or maybe I'm just projecting...'
"Oh, wait, I almost forgot something." He abruptly recalled.
Stepping back from the window and heading toward his bedroom, he tapped a panel built into the wall. A hidden compartment opened up where what looked like a blindfold rested within.
Picking it up, he wrapped it around his eyes. The moment it was finished being tied, faint glowing lines pulsed through it, and then he could see through the blindfold as if it wasn't there. A translucent HUD filled his vision, various little things appearing in front of him like heat signatures and maps.
"Heh," He chuckled. "Now it really feels like I'm playing a game."
The GP had called it a Combat Visor, designed to serve multiple purposes. Tracking targets, recording proof of confirmed kills, analyzing enemy classes, and more. In his opinion, it was far superior to some lame ol' scouter.
But there were two distinct reasons why most people preferred to simply use a scouter.
One of the only two downsides they pointed out were that it was too much. Warriors weren't used to seeing a bunch of different little indicators in their face, causing them to make mistakes in battle. Or people who liked simpler interfaces would get overwhelmed and take it off.
The other downside was that HUD part could really only be activated for like... an hour of Earth time.
Then it would go into low-battery mode, where the only functionality remaining was that he could still see through it.
But...! It was cool, so he put it on. That was all the justification he really needed.
Shrugging, he turned and stepped back into the corridor, making his way up front just in time to feel the ship rumble as it began its descent.
Knox stood near the window as the planet came into clearer view. A stretch of brown plains sprawling toward jagged mountains in the distance. Rather advanced cities were far off to their left, visible as faint translucent domes on the horizon.
The second they landed, Marzette's antennae twitched wildly as she scanned the area around them.
To his dismay, she'd shared that the semi-evolution granted her the ability to sense Ki. When Marzette told him she gave him this sort of... look. Like he was supposed to infer something from that information.
Knox had no idea what she was hinting at, but he was rather enthused to learn how to sense Ki from her.
But the only advice she could give was variations of 'just feel it, maaaan'.
'Typical prodigy martial artist bullshit, man...'
Shaking that thought off, he tilted his head at her. "Well? What's the place looking like?"
"Mostly smaller settlements scattered everywhere," she said after a moment of focus. "The major population's concentrated over there, though they're all pretty weak." She gestured toward the cluster of cities he'd already seen.
Knox watched her, squinting slightly with a tinge of envy before masking it behind a smirk.
"That's good to know," He remarked, trying to sound indifferent. "But what we're looking for should be the absolute strongest person on the planet. And I doubt he'll be in those cities."
"I see. Then..." Her antennae bobbed as she focused in a different way. After a moment, she slowly pointed to the west, toward the shadow of a mountain. "There. Someone's Ki is unusually intense. It's rather isolated, with only one other notable lifeform in the vicinity."
"Did you just say 'lifeform'? What are you, an alien...?" He realized how moronic that sounded after he'd already said it.
Marzette just blankly glanced at him, silently letting him stew in his own stupidity.
With an awkward cough, he continued. "Anyway, uh, let's... let's just go."
Without waiting for an answer, he stepped outside the ship. Together, they both powered up, their respective auras flaring as they flew into the air.
Roughly five minutes later, the two of them slowed to a halt in the air, floating near a twisted, broken mountain ridge overlooking what was clearly one of many long-abandoned settlements.
Ruined buildings lay scorched and crumbled, their skeletal remains quiet under the stillness of the breeze. Dust swirled faintly through the air, giving everything an eerie, apocalyptic feel.
Gloomily sitting on a boulder, a lone man stared silently at the ruins.
His teal hair, bound loosely behind his head, stirred as the wind passed, a few strands brushing across the cybernetic eyepiece strapped over his right eye.
It was Granolah, the Survivor.
Knox's Combat Visor beeped, tagging the man as a B-Class threat. Beyond that, he was unknown to the GP and thus didn't have a bounty or any information logged about him.
The class system was rather straightforward compared to Scouters. Each rank just another digit added to one's power level. B-Class were those with a power level of 10k to 99k. A-Class were those with 100k to 999k. So on and so forth.
Without his wish, it seemed Granolah only at the level of the Saiyan Saga.
Still, it was best not to underestimate him. If Piccolo's Special Beam Cannon could pierce through those thrice his power level, there was no reason Granolah's piercing attacks couldn't do the same.
Knox whistled, breaking the silence as he touched down lightly on a nearby outcrop. "Well, Marz, ya found him. That was rather quick, wasn't it?"
Marzette landed beside him, her gaze fixed on Granolah. "We came all this way for this person specifically...? Have the two of you met?"
"Nope!"
Then, without hesitation, he called out to Granolah.
"Hey buddy! Your situational awareness is pretty shit for a guy with a Doujutsu! Gotta learn to keep your guard up, even when brooding!"
The moment he heard him, Granolah sprang to life. He pushed off the ground, flipping backwards onto his feet and aiming his fingers at them like a gun.
Then, when he finally looked at them, his eyes widened like he'd seen a ghost.
"A Saiyan...?" Knox heard him mutter.
He tilted his head in response, confused how he came to that conclusion. Saiyans had black hair, black eyes, and a tail. Even if he somehow lost his tail in battle, shouldn't Granolah be able to see his eye color with his enhanced-
'Oh. The visor.'
Granolah's eyes sharpened to a pinprick, his expression becoming hard to discern. His mouth opened up into a smile, but the rest of his body language and eyes trembled with rage.
It was the look of a madman finally getting to fulfill his obsession.
His trembling form suddenly steadied, Ki flaring wildly around him. His white scarf flapped in the wind as he aimed his fingers toward specifically Knox, aiming his finger gun straight at him.
"You filthy Saiyan…" Granolah hissed, his voice brimming with venom. "I won't let your kind destroy anything else. Not again!"