With a start, I woke up sitting and gasping for air. I grasped my chest in panic with my eyes shut, trying to find the bleeding wound in vain. My heart was pumping with such a force that I thought it might burst out of my chest. The cold sweat running down my back felt like death stroking me, reluctant to see me return to the living.

My fingers and legs were ice cold. As I was touching my chest, I realized that I was missing a feeling of wetness that was just there a second ago.

Even in panic, I didn’t want to open my eyes. I don’t want to see it again. I fear that I will go insane if I do.

And maybe. Maybe if I didn’t open my eyes, I could convince myself that it was all just a dream, that the horrible last two years were just a figment of my imagination. That I would once again wake up in my bed ready to go to work like I used to.

The few seconds that passed felt like minutes to me and every second that I kept denying reality would only extend my suffering. It already felt like I was sitting in this chair for hours. In the end, a bright blue light shone through my eyelids for just a moment. Momentarily distracted by the sudden change and driven by my curiosity I forced my eyes open.

I looked ahead to see a window giving me a view of a greenish-blue planet. The beautiful sight was only able to distract me for a few seconds before my eyes slowly wandered down looking at my chest only to see nothing that might suggest a fatal wound.

Before I could calm down, my mind became blank as the feeling of imminent death started to creep up my back again. I was in the empty space heading towards a planet with breakneck speed I realized.

I could hardly be described as claustrophobic. As a former prisoner, I would have gone insane otherwise, but the situation was slowly getting to me. My mind just couldn’t keep up with everything.

I took a deep breath and then held it for a few seconds. Breathed out and held it again. Afterward a couple of deep breaths in and out before holding it again and then repeating the cycle. A simple technique I used when I became too nervous.

As I was doing that, I looked around trying to gather as much information as I could. A little task that distracted me from the still present dread I felt enough to notice things that I should have noticed instantly like half of my vision being green.

A green vision caused by a device that only covered one eye. I took it off my head and turned it around in my hands making it face me. I just looked at it in confusion for a few seconds.

“A scouter?” I uttered intelligently only to be answered by a quiet steady peeping that was barely louder than a whisper coming from some corner of this strange spaceship I found myself in. I was still slightly baffled by the situation and couldn’t come to conclusions that I would have made easily under any other circumstances.

I put the scouter back on after finding it blinking with text. Strange writings that I could somehow understand. I quickly read through the text while pushing the dread down that crept up again after seeing the window of my spaceship lighting up in a hue of orange.

My attack ball, my brain finally supplied, was now ablaze after entering the mesosphere. A second later it reached the ground and crashed into it barely slowing down at all in the process.

Unexpectedly, I had barely felt the impact. I wasn’t sure if I should have died with the impact, after all, every rocket that earth had sent out would have exploded with this kind of impact.

Maybe that was how the Saiyans could travel in the first place by ignoring all the meteors in their path by having spaceships enduring their impacts. I had heard that with the speed of spaceships, which made interstellar travel possible, dust particles in space were equally or even more dangerous than bullets fired from a gun.

It would make sense that they would either build stupidly resilient spaceships, forcefields protecting their ship, or would just warp space, creating wormholes to travel through.

I waited for a few seconds for something to happen but other than the warning on my scouter saying that I arrived nothing else happened. I looked at the terminal attached to the door and knew which button to press to open it up. Before I pressed it though, I pressed another button.

A voice message started to play, giving me information on my mission to conquer the planet I was on, but the voice message was cut short and overwritten with another message spoken by a feminine voice.

“Hey, dear. I know it is hard to understand. Just know if we could, we would be there with you. Your father and I love you, never forget that. Ignore the mission and just live a fulfilling life in peace away from this. Find a wife, make friends, just enjoy your life, and don’t forget, whatever happens, we are proud of you. You will find everything you need under your-”

As the message cut off unfamiliar memories started washing over me. 15 years’ worth of memories of a different life, a life on planet Vegeta.

After King Cold had decided that he liked to have the Saiyans act as his space thugs, my- this body’s parents decided that it would be better for me to leave and live a life away from his tyranny.

“Saiyans as loving and foresightful parents? Weird weren’t they all distant to each other with Gine, Goku’s mother, being the exception, or was that retconned?”

My vision blurred as I realized that I started crying. I sucked in a sharp breath and closed my eyes as I tried to gather myself once again and probably not the last time today. My body was emotional, and I wanted to lash out. It was like it was wrestling me to release all pent-up emotions.

I held my breath before exhaling again. I returned my attention to the situation at hand. No doubt my survival instinct was kicking in to help me enter a state of intense focus.

I read the logs of the journey through space and realized that an anomaly occurred during the flight but emergency procedures that I didn’t understand took care of it and returned me on my course to wherever my- this body’s parents decided to send me.

Under my seat, I found a foldable transparent screen. It wasn’t really foldable. It was more of a pencil with a button that I could press after which the pencil was vertically divided in the middle and a holoscreen popped up in between.

After turning it on I saw files of anything that I might need.

Training material, instructions on surviving in jungles, deserts, on water planets, how to find the local civilization, and where to find the nearest station of an organization to get help for whatever reason.

I also figured out that my attack ball seemed to be off the grid. Normally, I would be able to pinpoint branches of the Planet Trade Organization, but my display told me that I was offline and to turn to a near branch to get it to reconnect.

Obviously, I wouldn’t reconnect to it as that would only put me on Frieza’s radar.

I skimmed through all the detailed information about how to survive, conquer and return. A standard procedure to follow, which only made sense to provide their soldiers with. At least, it was designated as such.

However, I highly suspected that my parents gave this information to me and not the Planet Trade Organization. It was probably the standard procedure for normal underlings and not the Saiyan slaves, who wouldn’t be missed if they got themselves killed.

It could also be that this information was only meant for the elites or the mid-class Saiyans. I shook my head and dismissed that train of thought and opened the door of my attack ball.

I climbed outside and saw a deep jungle spread in front of me. Not that this was surprising as I had a window to look out from.

I looked around before turning my scouter on and letting it scan the planet for power levels. My memories supplied that I, myself had a power level of 92, which wasn’t high considering that I had lived on planet Vegeta for the entirety of my life. Even among the working-class Saiyans, it was on the lower end.

From what I could gather from this body’s memories was that my power level wouldn’t even have grown to a thousand, it probably would have stagnated in the mid-hundreds after my growth spurt.

Considering that Goku had trained his ass off and almost died multiple times to reach a power level of 400, living on a planet with a high gravity was a boon for sure. With that kind of power level Goku and Piccolo were the most powerful beings on the planet at that time, well besides Mr. Popo.

After a few seconds, my scouter was finished and displayed the highest power levels on this planet. A lot of low hundreds, dozens of mid-hundreds, and a few with a power level in the high hundreds. The highest PL was barely over a thousand with 1034.

The gravity seemed to be about the same as planet Vegeta’s, which was better than I could hope for, I guess.

 First things first, I need to get a source of water and some shelter. The rations that I have won’t hold on for long and I would rather have an excess of food than not. I hope that my mother had set a civilized planet as my destination. Considering that she wanted me to find a wife and friends, she probably did.

I would rather have been sent somewhere with inhabitants with lower power levels, but I guess I can get stronger this way.

I let my thoughts wander as I put my spaceship on standby, which made it generate power for my return. How it did do that? I have no idea, but I won’t go out of my way to complain.

Afterward, I took out the Arm Cannon from its case and pocketed everything I need. I tried my best to hide the attack ball since I wouldn’t need it in the near future, and I couldn’t really carry it since I was a wimp.

I would need to hide it somewhere better after I got strong enough to lift it. It would be a disaster if it got destroyed and I didn’t get to leave the planet because the civilization wasn’t advanced enough for interstellar travel.

If I want to get strong enough to assure my survival in this deadly universe, I found myself in, I will need to visit some planets to learn some techniques. Earth is a must, obviously, the dragon ball and befriending the cast would be immensely helpful for the future.

Of course, if I can come across planet Namek first I will just visit it for the three wishes and maybe get my potential unlocked. Yardrat is a must as well with all the techniques that they had, especially after the newest manga chapters. So many possibilities and so much to do and plan.

I also could just relax on some backwater planet and spend the rest of my life there without worrying about the universe ending threats that will come in the future.

*Sigh* Really, I just had to be reborn into the dragon ball universe. Fortunately, I am a Saiyan, the warrior race. As one of them now, I will at least be able to survive, right? I stroked my tail to get a feel for it as I traversed the dense jungle.

It was weird while simultaneously being completely normal to suddenly have an additional appendage. Since I am the sum of my experience, I guess I would say I am more human stuck in a Saiyan body than a Saiyan with additional memories.

That perspective will probably change with time. Like the mind can influence the body, so can the body influence the mind. In fact, it has already changed me, I thought to myself as I traversed the jungle.

Just moments ago, I was dreading the possible threat of death and now I am already anticipating the moment the inhabitants try to jump me.

Was it even the Saiyan’s body influencing me or is it just my own new mentality? Well, since I have the memories of a Saiyan, it should now be part of my mentality, right?

Either way, I knew that my parents didn’t seem to be the indifferent warriors that I thought Saiyans would be. They did play-fight with me and taught me how to brawl, but it never went beyond that.

The fact that the Saiyan race was in a period of peace before King Cold decided to raise claim to my race as his slaves was probably another reason for my parents not being the typical Saiyan…

I shook my head at that thought. Just because I have seen a select few Saiyans from a multiverse across in a series meant to be entertainment doesn’t mean I know the ins and outs of an entire race’s culture.

On the other hand, my memories supplied a different and more detailed picture of Saiyan culture. Just because most of us- most of them liked to fight doesn’t mean they couldn’t be loving, insightful, and scheming.

I will just take my knowledge as a human as a loose guide, but I should probably ponder over everything somewhen else.

I must get my head out of the gutter. I finally concluded. I looked up and saw a bunch of raven-like birds looking at me from atop the branches, which gave me the idea of climbing one and seeing if I could see something from up there. Wouldn’t do me any good if I just aimlessly walk through the woods.

I picked out the highest-looking tree nearest to me and started climbing it. I climbed the tree as if I were taking a stroll. My movements were smooth and without strain as if I could do it all day. I noticed that I subconsciously used my tail to aid me.

It came all natural to me and according to my memories, it wasn’t the first time climbing a tree. Well, I used to climb trees as a human boy as well, but obviously never with such ease.

It only took a couple of minutes to conquer this mammoth of a tree. After I reached the top, I looked around and I didn’t know what I expected to see but there was only more jungle.

“Rocks? Better than trees I guess.” I muttered as I saw fewer trees and a rockier environment in one direction. I made my way down the tree again and noticed that the birds were still watching me.

They hadn’t moved from the branch and had just turned towards me to watch me. Probably wondering what kind of creature, I was.

“Haven’t seen my kind around, have you?” I said with what I hoped to be a friendly demeanor. I knew that the ravens on earth could hold a grudge and I wasn’t eager to start a war the moment I arrived.

I didn’t expect a response but the way that they synchronously followed me creeped me out. I heard other birds chirping in the background, so maybe staring at you while being completely silent was just their defensive mechanism?

Hmm, I said I didn’t want to piss them off, but I could go for a snack… I thought as I looked at the easy prey and just as I ended that train of thought, they flew away.

“That’s too bad, should have just gone for it.” I wiped off the saliva that leaked out of my mouth, smearing it onto my blue armor. It wasn’t the normal armor of the Frieza Force or rather the Cold Force?

Frieza wasn’t in charge yet, I am not even sure if he was already born. Anyway, it looked like the one that ancient Saiyan in the games wore. What was his name again, Shroud? Shallot, no that is my name.

Doesn’t matter, I should keep moving. I navigated through the dense jungle while simultaneously checking with my scouter if there was a creature nearby that could instantly kill me. I would rather avoid that.

It took me 20 to 30 minutes to reach a small clearing with a river flowing down between some rocks. At least, I got my drinking water. I hope I don’t get sick by drinking this, but a Saiyan stomach should be resilient enough.

I made my way into the river that barely went above my waist and cupped myself a drink with my hands. It tasted like… well like water.

I refilled my bottle that had an included filter, which should help in preventing me from getting sick. I will drink without the filter as well, just to get my stomach get used to the different bacteria on this planet. If I were human, I would probably shit liquid for the next days, but as a Saiyan, I probably won’t, at least I fucking hope so.

Hey, since I got a filter might as well use it. Can’t go wrong with following instructions to conquer a foreign planet that an interstellar empire adheres to, right? Which made me think that I should have scanned the atmosphere before stepping out of my attack ball.

Might as well do it now, I thought as I pressed some buttons on my scouter. “Man, this is really an omni tool.” I muttered as I looked at the results it gave me.

Wow, yes, okay… I have no idea what those numbers mean. Was an oxygen level of 24% much, was 0.03% carbon dioxide too few? Oh, there it says, the composition seems to be suitable for breathing. See, no biggie I knew that.

After crossing the stream and pretending that I wasn’t smacked by a fish that almost sent my scouter into the river, I made waypoints with my scouter as I advanced through the now not-so-dense jungle. After 20 minutes of walking, I decided to climb another tree and see if I could see something new and something new, I found.

After another 10-minute walk, I reached it. It looked like a cave that dipped downwards. The entrance looked big enough and as far as I could see it was more than deep enough. I decided that would be my first base.

Obviously, I had to clear the cave first as it seemed that something was already living inside it, according to the dried splatter of blood on the ground a few meters away from the entrance. My scouter didn’t detect any high-power level, but I wasn’t willing to search for shelter any longer.

It was already getting dark, and I had no intention of sleeping outside, no matter how many stars this roof-free hotel got.

So, with my Arm Cannon in hand or rather on arm, I headed inside. The scouter seemed to have a high-quality camera with inbuild night-vision, which was pretty convenient, but I wouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth.

I pushed the nervousness down like I did with all my mental problems and started to search every corner of the cave. Sometimes I looked back, not wanting to be caught in a pincer attack by some goblins because I overlooked a side corridor.

After a while, I heard the splatter of waterdrops. I first thought that there might be an underground stream but, in the end, it was just water accumulated at the ceiling of the cave. I found some animal bones, but this didn’t seem to be a problem, right?

I walked back outside and started to gather some branches and tried to cover up the entrance with minimal success.

By then the outside world already turned dark and I lay down on the leaves and bushes I gathered for my improv bed.

As I was laying down and waiting for dreams to replace my consciousness, I couldn’t help but think about the absurdity that was today. After two years in prison, I was finally shanked to death before darkness replaced my world, and that instant when I looked upon that, that sight… Then the cold body I inhabited, and the warmth of life slowly came back to me.

I would have never thought that reincarnation was a real thing and especially not in a Saiyan body. An alien warrior race that I know of from an anime and manga. A world, no, a multiverse that I now live in. This is completely ludicrous.

A multiverse with ridiculous powerful beings that could literally erase me out of existence. At least, I know what’s to come. I just have to stay close to the Z-Fighters and the plot and I can anticipate the future. My survival would be guaranteed while I train myself to the top.

I couldn’t help but chuckle at that thought. I used to get annoyed if the authors of fanfiction stuck to the plot. Obviously, it made writing a story easier if you only need to insert a few characters into it, but it also made sense for the main character to stick to the known.

After all, knowing the plot and becoming the hero by overcoming the in the natives’ viewpoint’s new threats verses getting caught off guard and dying miserably with your pants down wasn’t a fair match.

I would rather stay lowkey for a while and hope this wasn’t Trunks’ timeline… I will have to eliminate every possible threat for the future like Dr. Gero beforehand, though that wouldn’t really change the other timelines now, would it?

Either way, if I want to live my life however I want to, it will be inevitable to change the plot, but I will make sure that the plot stays on track as much as I can while I get stronger.

I ignored the existential dread coming up again for the nth time today. It doesn’t matter if this multiverse was just the imagination of Akira Toriyama or if he just perceived this reality because of some psychic memory of Kakarot’s real exploits.

Fact of the matter is that even if I am in a coma dreaming this all up or I am sitting in a psychiatric ward as long as I perceive it as real, I might as well treat it as real. Whining about everything and everyone I meet being potentially fake won’t solve any problems I have.

If I treat it as just a figment of imagination even if it obviously wasn’t, I will have everything to lose and nothing to gain. After finishing that thought I slowly drifted off to sleep.

I woke up groggily by the sun shining perfectly into my face through a crack in the cover I had expertly built the day before.

After shaking away the confusion of sleeping on some leaves on the ground and the disorientation that came with it. I slowly stood up and stretched my back. I picked up my scouter and scanned the near surroundings for any threat that approached me in my sleep.

After finding nothing I went through the motions of stretching my entire body from head to toe until my body felt energized. The loud growl of my stomach that spooked nearby birds quickly put a stop to feeling refreshed and replaced it with being hungry.

I refrained from using up my limited stock that would be good even ten years from now and instead walked out of the cave to find myself some food. I should probably see if I can get some fish with my bare hands.

What? Kakarot could do it and so will I. Considering my power level, I am already stronger than he was when he started his journey and he survived being run over by a motorcycle and being shot at.

Well, that was in the series, maybe it would be different now in real life. Remember, loose guide Nathan, loose guide Shallot. Besides I was already 15, while Kakarot was 12 at the beginning of Dragon Ball.

That brings me to the things I need to survive. I already have a water and food source. The cave should be good enough of a shelter for now, which was pretty much all I needed for the bare minimum survival requirements.

Survival, huh? Since when was survival enough for me? I want more, I have already realized it in prison, haven’t I? When I killed those men; when I didn’t want to bend to their made-up rules and cliques. When I carved out my place as the top dog among the criminals outside of their cliques; when the bastards called guards thought they could beat me into submission! I wanted more, more… power!

I let the tail swirl in front of me as I looked at my tail, doing exactly what I want it to. That was when I still was a human. Now, now I could be so much more than I could have ever dreamed of.

With raging passion rising in my chest, I made my way through the dense jungle, determined that I would carve out my place in this universe.

In a universe in which strength is the only thing that matters, and the rest is just delusions.

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