"Beep beep beep!!!"
"Hoo hoo hoo!!!"
Betkas only felt a sense of profound clarity throughout his body, as if he were soaking in cold water. His body was filled with a fresh sensation, and even the wounds on his body no longer hurt. He slowly opened his eyes, but the objects he saw were blurry. However, one thing was certain: Betkas knew he was safe.
Looking at the lush green algae in front of him, he knew he was undergoing medical treatment. He had an oxygen mask over his mouth and was completely naked, but he didn't care. As long as his wounds healed, nothing else mattered. Furthermore, he was still in a child's body, so there was nothing to be embarrassed about in terms of development.
Just then, an alien wearing a researcher's uniform with antennae on its head held a white sheet resembling a record and spoke to Betkas: "This Saiyan brat's consciousness has recovered. That was quite fast."
Next to him, a similar alien, pointing to Vegeta and Nappa, who were under his care, also spoke: "Although the injuries of these two brats aren't as severe as that Saiyan brat's, their consciousness hasn't recovered yet."
The previous antennae-headed alien spoke again to the slightly conscious Betkas: "Alright, Saiyan brat. You are fully healed. I'm going to drain the healing fluid." The next moment, the antennae-headed alien pulled a switch, draining the fluid from Betkas's algae tank. Betkas held the glass and shook his head lightly.
He still felt mentally weak; after all, struggling on the line between life and death was not a joke. The antennae-headed alien handed Betkas a new battle suit and said, "Saiyan brat, put on this uniform... And this is your spoils of war this time. From now on, you only need to await the orders of Lord Frieza or Lord Zarbon. You must not wander around at any other time." He then threw a piece of machinery with a gold lens toward Betkas.
Betkas quickly caught the uniform, then snatched the flying machine with his right hand. He immediately snapped back to full awareness because he realized the machine in his right hand was a Battle Scouter, the essential equipment of aliens in Dragon Ball.
This made him extremely happy. With this item, he had some security for the time being. Unlike this time, where he didn't know the strength of his opponent and ended up severely injured. If he had known how strong the opponent was from the start, Betkas would have transformed into a Great Ape immediately and started the fight.
After all, he didn't want to court death right now. Since he had come to the Dragon Ball world, rather than being an extra or a cannon fodder character who dies, he would rather cultivate diligently and fight the protagonist, Goku. If he gets killed... he could only blame his bad luck. Of course, the prerequisite was that he could survive until the moment Goku arrived in space.
He wasn't entirely confident about this. The universe had many strong fighters. At least for now, they were powerful, challenging, and dangerous to him. If he left Frieza and ran to Earth to live secretly, he might be safe, but then his strength would stagnate. The early-stage Earth was simply unsuitable for someone of his "high Battle Power" level.
Working under Frieza, although dangerous, allowed him to increase his power without limits. Frieza was not like an ancient Chinese emperor who would fear his subjects. Even if he was feared, it would only be by Zarbon, Dodoria, or the Ginyu Force. Frieza himself wouldn't harbor such thoughts, as he possessed absolute power and absolute confidence.
And Betkas had a million ways to deal with Dodoria and the others. They had yet to experience the most terrifying characteristic of the Saiyans: their power increases every time they return from the brink of death. As for the magnitude of the increase, it likely depended on their current power level.
He put on the battle suit again, then placed the Scouter on his left eye. He pressed a button and scanned Vegeta and Nappa, who had yet to recover consciousness.
"Beep beep beep!!!"
Betkas listened to the machine's analysis sound, then saw Nappa's number. A slight curve appeared at the corner of his mouth. He muttered in a low voice, "As expected, very weak... This time, he only has a Battle Power of 972." He then glanced at Vegeta and began scanning.
"Beep beep beep!!!"
Betkas ignored the aliens observing him. He then looked at Vegeta with slight surprise, muttering inwardly, "Vegeta's Battle Power value is actually 4521! That's a 50% increase from before! Then, proportionally, I shouldn't be far off."
Just as Betkas was secretly wondering how strong he currently was, the antennae-headed alien who gave him the uniform seemed to read his mind and said, "Brat... I didn't expect you to have such skill. After that life-and-death battle, it seems your power has increased. You now have a Battle Power of 4752! Much higher than that brat over there. I really don't know how you people do it. Saiyans are truly an incomprehensible bunch of wild monkeys..."
"Battle Power value 4752?"
Betkas was stunned to hear this. He hadn't expected his Battle Power value to actually surpass Vegeta's. Before, Vegeta was stronger than him by 9 Battle Power. After this invasion mission, he was now stronger than Vegeta by nearly 129 Battle Power. This increased gap left him somewhat confused.
Betkas stroked his chin, looking at Vegeta thoughtfully, and muttered inwardly, "Is it the difference in the severity of the injury, or... a talent issue?" At the same time, he wrapped his tail around his waist, feeling puzzled.
Puzzled or not, he needed to go to his designated place and summarize some things. Although the fight this time involved the Great Ape transformation, which prevented him from fully enjoying the fun of an evenly matched battle, it at least allowed him to experience a moment of life and death.
Therefore, Betkas planned to conduct a post-battle review and, at the same time, invent some new techniques.
Afterward, he would explore whether he could control or sense Ki. After all, this was the most crucial and fundamental element of the Dragon Ball world. He didn't want to rely on the Scouter forever, as that thing was useless against certain beings and could even harm him at critical moments.