Chapter 336: The Death of King Piccolo!
King Piccolo's whole face went rigid as his stomach suddenly began to swell. He could feel it with perfect clarity — his own life force pouring wildly into his gut, as if it were feeding something growing there.
His stomach kept swelling, bigger and bigger, until it looked roughly like a woman nine months pregnant — and only then did it finally slow to a stop.
Yukari gave a light wave of her hand, expression blank, and the black thread — the one even Kami himself hadn't been able to touch — simply snapped in two. The bond between the two of them severed, just like that!
Second by second, King Piccolo's life force grew weaker and weaker, more wrinkles spreading across his face, the shadow in his eyes hollowing out further and further.
Had Ryū not already beaten him into that state, King Piccolo would never have ended up this utterly helpless — but there was no "had he not" about it now.
Through Observation Haki, it was plain to sense that a brand-new life was taking shape inside King Piccolo's belly.
Under what looked like Yukari's careful fine-tuning, the life growing inside carried no trace of evil at all — its presence was much like any ordinary newborn's, just noticeably "sturdier."
Ryū and the others intended to let Piccolo Jr. be born safely, sure, but they had no plans to let him repeat canon — fighting the protagonists first and only getting redeemed afterward. What they were doing instead was making sure he came into the world already on the side of good.
So while forcibly "inducing labor" on King Piccolo, Yukari — with Ryū's tacit approval — had quietly slipped in a little adjustment of her own, without either Kami or Mr. Popo ever noticing.
All at once, King Piccolo's presence vanished entirely, his life force spent down to the last drop, like an oil lamp finally running dry — at a glance he looked like a mummified husk, thoroughly unsettling.
Naturally, not a single person there felt any pity for how he'd ended up. Released less than two days ago, and already he'd killed seven figures' worth of humans — dying a million times over wouldn't be enough to pay for that, let alone just the once.
"He's... dead? And I'm... I didn't... the bond between us really has been severed..."
Even now, Kami could hardly believe it. Only he himself could know just how deep the shock ran.
He felt, somehow, like these strangers before him were more deserving of the title "Earth's Kami" than he was.
Their miraculous methods were nothing short of eye-opening, borderline unbelievable.
Effortlessly defeating King Piccolo, psychokinetic power that outstripped even a Kami's own, severing his bond with King Piccolo as though it were nothing at all — the list went on.
Ryū and the others had zero interest in whatever was running through Kami's head at the moment, though — because a notification had already popped up in the chat group in their minds: quest complete.
Sub-quest one had been killing the two rule-breaking transmigrators — already dispatched, courtesy of an irritated Yukari.
Sub-quest two had been killing or sealing King Piccolo — and now he, too, was dead, also courtesy of Yukari.
MVP of this entire Dragon Ball world quest: the old hag, hands down.
"Time to go track down the rest of the Dragon Balls. My Observation Haki covers about seven hundred thousand square kilometers — roughly the size of a whole province back home, give or take. Every Dragon Ball puts off the same signature, so once I've memorized it, I can sweep the entire planet with Observation Haki, no problem."
Ryū recalled that this particular province, back in his previous life, had covered around 720,000 square kilometers — a genuinely huge province, bigger than plenty of entire countries.
If his Observation Haki could cover that kind of area, sweeping the whole planet for Dragon Balls wouldn't be much of a challenge at all — maybe half a day, tops?
Worst case, he'd get a little tired from all the running around, that was all.
Not that it was much of a worry anyway — there were plenty of hands available in the chat group for this.
Master Roshi hadn't learned Observation Haki — he'd only spent Points on Armament Haki so far — so he could be ruled out for now.
The Ancient One was even newer to the chat group than Roshi, so she was out of the running too.
Yukari and Tatsumaki, though, both knew Observation Haki, and neither one was a slouch at it.
With that, tracking down the remaining four Dragon Balls would go a great deal faster.
Ryū glanced at Yukari, and she picked up on it instantly, as though she'd read his mind. Still holding her parasol, she nodded with a light laugh. "Alright then — Admin-sama, Little Tornado, and I will go find the four Dragon Balls. Master Roshi, the Ancient One, you two can cut King Piccolo's stomach open. The little one inside should be ready to come out."
Thanks to Yukari's quiet touch-up, Piccolo Jr. wouldn't come into the world looking anything like his canon self.
He'd come out in a state much like a newborn human child, his mind a blank slate too — whether he grew up into the same Earth's-defender-caliber fighter as his canon counterpart would come down entirely to how Master Roshi and the other Dragon Ball world natives raised him.
Looked like Master Roshi was about to pick up a side gig as a stay-at-home dad, raising a Namekian infant.
Kami, still swimming in unanswered questions, forced them down and asked, curious, "Are you all looking for the Dragon Balls, then? You've defeated King Piccolo — let me help you find them."
"Even as the one who created them, I don't know their exact locations myself, but I can search for them from the Lookout. I trust none of you mean to use the Dragon Balls to bring any harm to Earth."
Kami had no idea what Ryū and the others wanted the Dragon Balls for, but he figured that anyone willing to risk themselves taking down King Piccolo couldn't possibly be evil.
Even if they gathered all seven, that shouldn't be a problem — surely they wouldn't make some wicked wish with them.
He figured this was a small way of repaying them — after all, the chat group hadn't just killed the demon lord King Piccolo, they'd saved Kami himself too.
Severing his bond with King Piccolo was, to Kami's mind, tantamount to saving his life.
Naturally, under the circumstances, Kami wanted to repay Ryū and the others somehow.
Ryū didn't turn down the offer of help either, nodding. "In that case, our thanks, Kami. We'll take the Dragon Balls, make our wish, and be on our way — we won't cause you any real trouble."
Of course, there was one thing he left unsaid — that the chat group intended to claim all seven Dragon Balls as their own, permanently.
As for whether wishing too many times might cause something like the Black Star Dragon Balls to show up?
This was mainline Dragon Ball. The Black Star Dragon Balls were a Dragon Ball GT plot point, and GT was fan-continuation material, not canon proper — the two needed to stay separate.
So Ryū wasn't the least bit worried about repeated wishing summoning up anything like a One-Star Dragon or Two-Star Dragon.
☆☆☆
-> 20 Advanced chapters Now Available on Patreon!!
-> https://www.pat-reon.co-m/c/Hollowborn
(Just remove the hyphen (-) to access patreon normally)
If you like this novel please consider leaving a review that's help the story a lot Thank you