As Raditz despairs over the information he just received, a tall, green man slowly breathes in and out, focusing on the Ki in his body. Under the hopeful gaze of his Yardratian teacher, Piccolo's body slowly begins to inflate, growing larger and larger as time goes on...

...until the blue alien sighs, breaking Piccolo's focus.

"No no no! That's not right, Piccolo! You keep increasing your size the Namekian way, you need to do this our way!" the Yardratian says.

"I know what I'm doing!" the Namekian snaps. "If you'd shut up and let me concentrate, I'd have gotten this down by now!"

The blue alien shakes his head. "No, you wouldn't have. You keep trying to use gigantification like a Namekian would. You need to do this like a Yardratian."

"Both techniques have the same result! Why does it matter if I do this differently than your people?"

"They don't have the same result, Piccolo. That's why King Kai sent you here to train with us." the Yardratian explains. "When a Namekian uses gigantification, they use their body's extreme durability and regeneration to rapidly grow. From what I've seen, it increases your strength by a decent amount, but not enough to be worth the trade-off of being a bigger target."

"You're not wrong... but what makes your technique so much better, and why didn't you mention all of this earlier?"

"When a Yardratian uses our gigantification technique, we use our spirit energy to temporarily increase our body's size by pouring as much energy as possible into the muscles. If done correctly, this will cause the body to grow immensely, increasing our power far more than the Namekian version. Think of it like the Saiyans' Great Ape form. It won't increase your speed, but your durability, power, and strength will multiply."

"Tch, you still haven't answered my other question." Piccolo points out with a scowl. "We've been at this for 6 months, why is this the first time I'm hearing about it?"

"I wanted to observe how a Namekian's technique differed from ours, and whether or not it'd be possible to combine it with our technique. The only reason I'm telling you now is because I've seen enough to be confident that my people can't benefit from it."

Piccolo shoots to his feet, grabbing the blue alien by the throat. He lifts the Yardratian into the air, speaking in a cold, angry tone.

"You had me waste 6 months of training on a flawed technique?!"

"N-no! No it wasn't a waste!" the small alien chokes out. "Even if I taught you the technique from the beginning, you wouldn't have been able to use it! You needed to improve your spirit control! Even though you haven't been training the proper technique, you've been learning spirit control!"

"So I can learn the actual technique now?"

"Yes! Yes you can!"

"Hmph. For your sake, you'd better be right..." Piccolo says, dropping the Yardratian.

On the other side of the planet, a short, spiky-haired man stands in the middle of a desolate wasteland on Planet Yardrat, silently waiting...

Suddenly, a small, pinkish alien appears behind him, launching a blast of energy at the Saiyan. As if on instinct, Vegeta whirls around, instantly batting the attack away. Before he can counterattack, however, the alien has disappeared. The Saiyan Prince looks around warily, trying to sense his teacher's presence...

...before a tiny blast of yellow energy slams into his side, causing him to scowl. Not in pain, mind you, as the blast dealt absolutely zero damage, but in anger at failing to react to the attack.

"Focus, Vegeta. You can sense my presence, but according to what King Kai has told you, this 'Raditz' outmatches you in Ki control, you won't be able to sense his Ki." a voice calls out from behind the Prince. "He has to slow down before he attacks you, that will be your only chance to counterattack. You must be able to predict where he'll move if you want to defeat him, but you'll never be able to do that if you don't focus."

Vegeta closes his eyes, fighting back the fury he feels at being forced to train with such a weakling.

'Still... if this allows me to humiliate Raditz, then it'll all be worth it...' he thinks, calming himself down.

The short Prince sharply turns to the left, pointing his hand at thin air. A fraction of a second later, a Yardratian suddenly appears, eyes wide as he spots the ball of energy building in Vegeta's palm...

...but luckily for him, the Saiyan doesn't fire the blast, instead angrily yelling at the purple alien.

"What are you stopping for, fool?! Surely one success doesn't mean that my training is over."

The pink alien sighs in relief, before putting the index and middle fingers of their left hand to their forehead, instantly disappearing.

'Just you wait, scum... once I'm back on Earth, I'll make you regret daring to go against the Prince of all Saiyans!'

Raditz scratches the back of his head, staring at the blue screen in front of his eyes with a depressed look on his face.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

'I can't believe it... this isn't fair, System! I got reincarnated into this place! I got fucking Isekai'd! I shouldn't have to train! Why couldn't you be like all the other Systems in web novels, and make me stupidly strong from the start?!' he internally grumbles.

...

As expected, his whining gets no answer from the System. Sighing softly, Raditz puts the negatives out of mind, instead focusing on the positives.

'Still... it isn't like I have to start seriously training immediately. I have about a year and a month until Future Trunks is supposed to arrive and tell Goku and the others about the Androids. I'm sure I can get Kakarot to leave me alone for that long. We could take a small break from training about a year before the Androids arrive to hunt down Cooler and King Cold. Surely Kakarot will have become a Super Saiyan by then, right...?'

The tall Saiyan's head suddenly snaps up as he remembers a much-hated detail about the Super Saiyan transformation.

'Actually... maybe I don't need Kakarot! Dragon Ball Super had something stupid about back tingles causing someone to go Super Saiyan! If I focus on my back, I can be the first Super Saiyan in a thousand years! If I become a Super Saiyan, then I'll be strong enough to survive the Hyperbolic Time Chamber! I could ignore my training until a few days before the Androids arrive, then hop into the HTC and come out stronger than everyone else!'

With this new hope to cheer him up, Raditz begins to charge his Ki, studying the way his Ki veins flow with as much focus as he can muster. Then, using his expert control over his Ki, he forces all of his energy to flow into the small of his back...

...

...

"Son of a bitch!" he says loudly, unable to keep the swear from leaving his mouth.

'Of course it won't be that easy... dammit! What the fuck, System?! Cut me some slack! You threw me into a strange, unfamiliar Universe! At least make me overpowered!' Raditz thinks, slowly growing angrier and angrier the more he complains.

'Failing that, at least let me have the freedom to choose what I'll do with what I already have! If I wasn't worried about fucking over the timeline and getting killed by you, I'd have taught the training techniques in the System Guides to Kakarot and the others! With how much better the System training techniques are than what they're already doing, I'm sure Earth's warriors would be able to handle whatever threat goes their way without me. But nooooo, I have to sit back and watch them waste their time with flawed training methods. It's bullshit!'

...

'I know you can hear me! You've responded to me before, and that proves that you aren't just an automatic type of System. Why am I even here if you're just forcing me to follow the story?!'

...

The tall man's anger increases further and further as he receives no answer. Before he can continue his furious complaining, however, a strange sense of calm overtakes him, drowning out any rage he feels.

'I... huh... that's weird. I'm not sure why I was so angry. Was the original Raditz bipolar or something...?'

As the Saiyan stares blankly into the air, a familiar, feminine voice reaches his ears.

"Raditz? You're here early. Is something wrong or... did you just want to visit me that much?~" Bulma says flirtatiously.

Raditz sighs deeply, looking into the sky with a tired expression.

'Think of Future Trunks... think of Future Trunks... I gotta be strong... I gotta resist the temptation.'

He turns around, staring at the blue-haired woman with a neutral expression on his face.

"I come here to train, Earthling. There are no other reasons."

"Oh? Are you sure? If there was another reason, I don't think I'd mind.~"

"..."

"Hehe... I heard Chi Chi kicked you out. You'd be welcome to stay here if you want.~"

"...I appreciate the offer, but I'll easily be able to find a place to stay on my own." he says, turning away from her.

Bulma scoffs. "I doubt that. You have no job, no money, and no identification."

"I don't need any of those. Why would I ever work when I can use my Ki techniques to get basically anything I want?"

"I know that taking things by force is considered normal where you're from, but now you're on Earth." she says, growing annoyed. "You'll have to actually buy a house, and considering that you're completely broke, you'll be homeless for a long time. You really should stay here with--"

Raditz raises his right hand, cutting her off as a solid gold bar suddenly appears in his outstretched palm.

"I can literally create materials out of thin air, and I can work faster than anyone on Earth. Frankly, I could build myself a home in seconds if I really wanted to." he says, tossing the bar of gold to her. "So thanks, but no thanks. I'll just pick out a nice piece of land in the middle of nowhere and stay there."

Bulma's expression falls when she hears the Saiyan's answer. The disappointment on her face causes Raditz to grimace slightly.

'Christ... she really likes me that much? Yeah, we talk every time I'm here, but I didn't think we were that close.' he thinks to himself with a frown. 'What on Earth does she like so much about me? It's not like I can just ask her... but maybe I don't have to...'

On a whim, Raditz activates his new technique, Analyzing the blue Earthling in front of him.

Name: Bulma

Age: 29

Gender: Female

Race: Earthling

Date of Birth: August 18, Age 733

Power level: 4

Health: 100/100

Stamina: 100/100

Ki:

Ki density:

Ki purity:

Ki control:

Level of Trust: 3

Strength compared to User: Overwhelmingly weak

Current emotions: Hope, curiosity, lust

Due to the gap in power between the two of you, you have gained access to Bulma's current thoughts. Do you want to view Bulma's current thoughts?

'...Before I do, what does her "level of trust" mean? How do you even put a numerical value on that?'

Level of Trust is judged on a scale of 1-10. 1 being no trust at all, and 10 being blind faith. The Level of Trust is based on a number of factors, including but not limited to: trust in User, amount of time they've known User, and opinion of User.

'I guess that makes sense... seems weird that one of the things that determines the "Level of Trust" is "trust."'

...

'Fine, fine... show me her thoughts!'

'He's just standing there... what is he thinking? Is it working? For a genocidal alien who's supposedly conquered countless planets, he's such a big softie... I'm sure pretending to be sad will get him to stay! And then once he lives here... hehehehe.'

What follows is a description of events that would make even Master Roshi blush. Raditz's mouth falls open into an "O" shape as the descriptive words fill the light-blue screen in front of his eyes. Without any hesitation, he cancels the Analyze technique, and flies into the air, dashing away from Capsule Corp at max speed.

'...Despite everything that's happened since I reincarnated into Raditz's body, this is by far the cruelest, most soul-crushing thing I've been forced to go through.'