At the exact moment the dark purple Death Ball was about to leave Frieza's hand, an orange-clad figure stepped in front of Goku's battered body.
There was no earth-shaking entrance.
No dramatic roar.
Krillin simply walked forward.
His footsteps crunched softly against the charred rocks of Namek.
He stood with his back to Goku, his trademark bald head reflecting the sinister purple glow of the energy sphere like a polished mirror.
"Krillin...?"
The light returning to Goku's fading eyes instantly tightened in panic. He tried to grab Krillin's ankle, but his trembling fingers only clawed at empty air.
"What are you doing...? Get out of here! That guy... that guy's a monster!"
Goku's voice sounded like broken gravel scraping together.
No one understood Frieza's terror better than him.
Even risking his life with a twenty-times Kaioken hadn't been enough to completely defeat that monster. What could Krillin possibly do?
Throw his life away?
"Don't be stupid, Goku."
Krillin did not turn around. He merely tilted his head slightly, and for once, the usual goofy grin was gone from his face. In its place was a calmness so sincere it almost hurt to look at.
"You've always been the one standing at the front. This time... let me shield you for once."
At that very moment, however, Krillin was mentally cursing the system's entire family tree.
[So this is your S-rank mission? This is your "mandatory story event"? You're making me walk to my death and still act noble while doing it? If this performance doesn't win me an Oscar, this trash system deserves to self-destruct!]
He clenched the ugly Substitute Scarecrow tightly in his hand, his palms soaked with sweat.
Sure, he knew it would revive him... but he had never actually died before. Who knew what that would feel like?
"N... no!"
Goku's bloodshot eyes widened as he struggled to crawl upright, only to collapse again.
"You'll die... you'll really die! Even at half power, we can't fight him anymore! Please... run!"
The desperation in his voice was heartbreaking.
Goku did not fear death for himself.
But he could not bear to watch his best friend die in front of him.
Frieza paused in midair.
Looking at the bald little human who had stepped forward to die, a twisted sneer slowly spread across his mangled face.
"Heh... hehehehe..."
Holding the massive energy sphere in one hand, Frieza's shoulders shook with laughter.
"What a touching display of friendship. I'm almost moved to tears."
He lowered his head slightly, his lone remaining eye gleaming with cruel amusement.
"But tell me, bald one. While your friend was risking his life earlier, weren't you hiding behind a rock trembling in fear?"
"So why pretend to be a hero now?"
"What exactly do you think you can change? Or did you simply volunteer your shiny head to polish my energy ball?"
Krillin ignored the mockery completely.
He was busy calculating.
[System. Open status panel.]
[Host: Krillin]
[Race: Earthling (Super Divine Regeneration Body)]
[Base Power Level: 120,000]
[Special Forms:]
[1. Super Bald Form, Stage One: 50x amplification to all attributes, no side effects. If activated, high probability of one-shotting Frieza, causing Goku to fail awakening. Mission failure likely.]
[2. Saitama Template (45% synchronization): Passive effect active.]
[3. Sacred Buddha Form (Self-created): A fusion of highly compressed spirit energy and mental force.]
[4. Crimson Lotus Sacred Buddha (Theoretical Form): Sacred Buddha Form + Kaioken.]
Krillin narrowed his eyes.
If he activated Super Bald Form, this fight would instantly become a massacre.
But for the mission, for Goku's Super Saiyan awakening, he had to carefully hold back. He needed the battle to look dramatic, avoid actually winning, and then die heroically at the end.
This was advanced-level acting.
"Haaa..."
Krillin slowly exhaled and brought his palms together before his chest.
"Frieza. You sure talk a lot."
"If you want a show so badly, then I'll give you one."
"Sacred Buddha Form... activate!"
Bzzzz...
A majestic wave of pure white spirit energy erupted from Krillin's body.
This was not ordinary ki.
It was spirit energy fused with higher-dimensional mental force.
Krillin's skin instantly became translucent like white jade, while behind him appeared the faint image of a massive benevolent Buddha.
His power level exploded upward.
3,000,000.
Frieza raised a brow.
"Oh? Interesting. But power on this level would barely qualify as a back scratch for me..."
"Relax. I'm not done yet."
Krillin smiled faintly, his eyes suddenly turning razor sharp.
"Twenty-times... Kaioken!!!"
BOOM!
The pure white sacred aura instantly erupted into violent crimson flames.
The blood-red energy burned through the white spirit power like infernal fire.
Yet instead of clashing, the two completely opposite forces merged flawlessly under Krillin's perfect control.
His jade-like skin transformed into flowing gold-red light, like molten liquid gold fresh from a furnace.
Behind his head, a golden halo made of condensed spirit energy slowly rotated, radiating divine pressure.
Wrapped around that halo was a dense crimson aura, the overwhelming violence of twenty-times Kaioken.
Red fury.
Golden divinity.
At that moment, floating in the sky, Krillin resembled a Scarlet Lotus Buddha emerging from a sea of blood.
Holy.
Terrifying.
[Current Form: Crimson Lotus Sacred Buddha]
[Power Level: 60,000,000]
[Evaluation: Perfect energy control. Extremely stylish. Extremely durable.]
"T... this is...?"
In the distance, Piccolo's jaw literally dropped open, though he did not even notice.
Krillin's aura lacked the savage explosiveness Goku had displayed earlier, yet it felt far heavier... far deeper... like an endless abyss.
Krillin carefully sensed the power flowing through his body.
Normally, twenty-times Kaioken would destroy the user under its own strain. Even Saiyans could only maintain it for about a minute.
But now, he could clearly feel every torn muscle fiber instantly regenerating the moment it ruptured.
That was the Hyper Regeneration granted by Aki's blessing.
Destruction and regeneration had reached a bizarre equilibrium inside his body.
"Holy crap. This skill is insane."
"Doesn't this mean as long as I don't get one-shot, I can basically keep twenty-times Kaioken active permanently?"
"Hell... maybe I could even push fifty-times if I went crazy enough?"
Krillin nearly grinned to himself.
Still, sixty million was perfect. Equal to Frieza at fifty percent power. Perfect for acting.
Frieza stared at the absurdly flashy bald human before him, the corner of his eye twitching violently.
What was wrong with these Earthlings?
Did transformations cost nothing now?
One monkey turned red.
Now this bald guy could turn red and glow gold too?
"Worthless tricks!"
A flicker of irritation finally surfaced inside Frieza.
"No matter what form you take, trash will always be trash!"
"Die!"
With a snap of his wrist, Frieza hurled the massive purple-black sphere toward Krillin.
The attack carried enough force to annihilate entire continents.
Krillin did not dodge.
He slowly raised his right fist and pulled it back to his waist.
The motion looked almost lazy, like slow-motion Tai Chi.
But in Frieza's eyes, the surrounding space itself seemed to collapse under the pressure gathering within that fist.
"Serious Series... Serious Punch."
A casual punch shot forward.
No flashy beam.
No energy blast.
Just raw punch pressure.
BOOOOOOM!!!
A visible white shockwave exploded from Krillin's fist like a roaring dragon, colliding head-on with the purple-black Death Ball.
The two forces struggled for less than one-tenth of a second.
Then the planet-destroying energy sphere was punched backward by sheer brute force.
"What?!"
Terror flooded Frieza's remaining eye.
He desperately twisted aside, but he was still too slow.
The energy sphere grazed past his shoulder and shot into space, exploding outside the atmosphere like a gigantic firework.
Meanwhile, Krillin remained frozen in his punching stance.
Behind him, the golden-red halo slowly rotated, making him appear both divine and demonic.
"Frieza."
Krillin's voice echoed across heaven and earth through vibrating spirit energy.
"Now tell me again."
"Who exactly was the trash?"
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