The next day.
After an hour-long morning routine,
Yamiru went out for a bit of morning exercise, stretching his arms and legs.
Even now, he could catch bullets with his bare hands—bullets from a machine gun, leap over a hundred meters in place, move a small hill, and fight an equally skilled opponent at speeds so fast that the human eye could barely track them... he was practically superhuman.
For a master like Yamiru, when he wasn't in combat mode and completely relaxed, his physical condition didn't reach supernatural extremes.
The greatest strength of a martial artist lies in their ability to rapidly increase their power when they truly focus. Moreover, the higher the level of the martial artist, the more terrifying their reaction speed, and the shorter the transition from "relaxed" to "focused"! No one can, or rather, no one would want to, remain tense—physically or mentally—24 hours a day... That's why Goku, a martial artist from Earth, pioneered the full-power Super Saiyan training method. He activated the Super Saiyan transformation, but through training and habit, he eliminated the frenzied emotions that came with the transformation and then contained all the power of the Super Saiyan state just like in his usual state. This approach was exactly the blind spot in the thinking of Vegeta.
Years of hard training had indeed tempered the martial artist's body into steel and iron, but it hadn't completely changed their fundamental attributes. If that were the case, then the body of Super Saiyan Goku, just by standing there, resemble a high-quality, high-density micro black hole.
After finishing his training, Yamiru returned to the capsule apartment and found Tights curled up on the sofa, scribbling the draft of a novel in a notebook.
"What's the plan for today?" Yamiru asked with a smile.
Tights raised a finger, signaling him to wait a minute. "Done~" she said as she finished writing that part, set down her pen, thought for a moment, then clapped her hands. "Let's go watch a movie? I remember there's a lesser-known ghost film that might be perfect for two oddballs like us."
Yamiru didn't mind. "Let's watch that."
In the afternoon, they went to the theater together. As expected, it was a ghost film with very low popularity; the theater was almost empty, with enough space for Yamiru and Tights to engage in some rather private actions in the back row... Of course, nothing like that happened. Because the ghost film was actually pretty good! In the front row, Tights grabbed some popcorn between them, then proudly flashed a peace sign at him.
"Sharp eye," Yamiru complimented her.
"Hehe~" Tights smiled, suddenly startled by a ghost on the big screen, almost poking her popcorn into her nose. Yamiru laughed loudly, and Tights, embarrassed, grabbed a handful of popcorn and shoved it into his mouth. After he finished, he started sucking on her fingers, mumbling, "I don't get you, you're so scared of ghosts and creepy things, yet you wanted to come watch. You were the one who said you liked adventure when we were in the Satan lair, but you were also the one scared of the dark after we got there..."
Tights smiled and said, "Mind your own business."
Yamiru's eyes shimmered with golden light as he lightly tapped the seat, deep in thought. "Ghosts... with my Golden Veil, I should be able to see through Elizabeth's transformation ability, uncover the truth about the carrot, so I should also be able to see invisible ghosts, right..."
"Stop making it sound so scary," Tights shrunk back. "Do ghosts really exist, is there's any walking by us?"
"Didn't you see a real ghost with the fortune teller grandma? The little ghost who led us?" Yamiru said, "There are no ghosts walking here. In fact, there aren't any outside either. All the souls of the dead on Earth immediately fly to Mount Five Element, where they enter the Other World. No souls or wild ghosts are that unlucky to deviate its course, unless they were killed by demons."
"But that one really showed up... the ones that don't appear are the scariest," Tights said. "Mount Five Element, isn't that the place you were guided to by the fortune teller?"
Yamiru nodded.
---
When Yamiru and Tights returned to her house, they were surprised to find a new visitor.
It was an ordinary-looking, older young man, dressed quite unfashionably, resembling the version of Yamiru before Tights gave him a makeover.
"You have such a big house! I didn't realize you were so rich, Brief,"
They overheard the man saying to Dr. Brief and Bulma as they walked closer.
Bulma looked at him strangely. "You only just realized?"
The young man scratched his head and smiled awkwardly.
"Ah, Yamiru, Tights, you're back?" Dr. Brief greeted them with a cigarette in his mouth. "This is Dr. Norimaki Senbei. He attended this summit—an incredible genius."
"Hmm." Bulma, for once, agreed with that statement.
The older young man, Dr. Norimaki, visibly lit up when he saw the youthful and beautiful Tights, his entire demeanor exuding a greasy and pervy aura... which scared Tights into inching closer to Yamiru. Dr. Norimaki didn't notice and simply laughed smugly, "Haha! I'm not that amazing! Hahaha!"
Yamiru watched as the man's eyes practically turned into cartoon spirals from laughing, feeling like he'd seen this guy somewhere before. He rubbed his chin, lost in thought...
"By the way, where did you graduate from?" Dr. Brief exhaled smoke and asked curiously, "There's no personal data about you in any magazine. Your age, background, education, research history… everything is marked as unknown. That's strange."
Dr. Norimaki scratched his head awkwardly. "Haha, that's just because I'm too lazy to fill out that kind of stuff~ As for me, I come from Penguin Village, a small and remote place, also known as Tenjin Village. We have a tradition of giving places two names. I graduated from our Science and Technology College of our village university"
"Science and Technology college..." Bulma muttered.
"I heard this summit was organized by Gero's group, so I decided to check it out. Turns out, the whole place was filled with idiots—so boring." Dr. Norimaki complained after laughing. "If I hadn't run into Brief and Bulma, it really would've been a total waste of time."
Dr. Brief chuckled. "Dr. Omori was also quite impressive at the summit."
Dr. Norimaki casually waved his hand, held up his pinky finger, and said in a reluctant tone, "Eh, he's only this much smarter than the average idiot~~" While speaking, his cartoonish eyes couldn't help but sneak glances at Tights again, making her even more speechless. She directly stated, "Doctor, you're being really rude. This handsome guy here is my boyfriend, by the way—the champion of last year's World Martial Arts Tournament~"
"...."
Being openly rejected by a beauty, Dr. Norimaki was clearly dejected but quickly became envious of Yamiru.
"Dr. Gero also presented some valuable insights on android modifications..." Dr. Brief casually mentioned. He had invited Dr. Norimaki over for a chat since they hadn't had enough time to talk at the summit.
Dr. Norimaki nodded. "That's right. Aside from Gero, myself, and you two, everyone else at the summit was an idiot~"
Yamiru finally snapped out of his thoughts. He no longer cared whether this Norimaki guy was some side character or not. He immediately asked, "Wait—who did you just say? Gero?!"