At this very moment.
'Whoosh~~!!' The sound of air being torn sounded.
Talot used Instant Transmission, arriving here with Ragar, Nail, and Piccolo whose appearance had dramatically changed.
"Perfect timing. Looks like everyone's here," Talot said with a smile as he saw all the people present.
Ragar and Nail exchanged glances, then turned their attention to the group standing in front of them.
Raditz and Salari stepped forward and greeted Ragar and Nail amicably.
Ragar and Nail also expressed their friendliness. After catching up for a bit, their eyes, with introductions, one by one landed on Goku, Nappa, and Vegeta.
Their instincts told them these three were extremely powerful.
They observed Goku, Nappa, and Vegeta.
Naturally, Goku, Nappa, and Vegeta scrutinized them in return.
Finally, after becoming familiar with each other, the Earth warriors' attention focused on Piccolo.
In just two short years, not only had his physique become much taller and more muscular, but his entire aura had become extremely formidable.
Just as Talot had originally thought, Piccolo's disposition underwent a huge change after going to Planet Namek. He was no longer as cruel and murderous as the old Piccolo, and certainly wasn't some utterly irredeemable villain.
On the contrary, the past two years had transformed him into a guardian who pursued great strength.
Piccolo had no particular feelings towards others, but Master Roshi was a different story.
Of course, it wasn't any kind of hostility or murderous intent.
Their gazes met, and in that instant, both sides got a rough sense of each other's strength.
"It's really unbelievable… In just such a short time, you've already become this strong? I really can't deny getting old," Master Roshi sighed.
Naturally, Piccolo could also see through Master Roshi's general strength, and a look of disappointment flashed in his eyes.
Thinking back to the past, Master Roshi's strength back then was so overwhelming it left Piccolo in utter despair, not even daring to think of resisting. But now, the tables had turned.
In his eyes, the current Master Roshi was as insignificant as an ant. He could kill him with a single finger if he wished.
Only, there was no need, and it would be utterly meaningless.
Because of Piccolo's indifferent expression, Krillin, Tien Shinhan, Yamcha, and Chiaotzu stood in front of Master Roshi.
They were deeply afraid something unexpected might happen, given that Piccolo's previous incarnation had been killed by Master Roshi.
The awkward atmosphere lasted until Bulma took the initiative to break it: "Since everyone's already here, let's head to the Preliminaries Grounds. There are a lot of contestants this time, so the selection process will be different from before to make it easier to pick out the qualified elites…"
With Bulma's explanation, everyone understood the basic format.
No one wasted any more time and moved forward.
Because of changes to the registration process and the large number of participants, the selection process for advancing contestants would be done by hitting a punching machine—the higher the score, the more likely you'd qualify.
Come to think of it, this was actually a method Talot had intentionally or unintentionally suggested.
With so many contestants, if they used the old method—even with four arenas—it would still take two or three days to finish a tournament with ten thousand people.
Honestly, it was exploiting a loophole from the original work's future martial arts tournament: in the Majin Buu Saga's World Martial Arts Tournament, they used this method for the preliminaries because there were too many people.
Unlike the Junior Division, which had fewer participants and plenty of time for matches.
...
Upon entering the Preliminaries Grounds, it was already packed to the brim.
Luckily, there was more than one punching machine. Otherwise, with ten thousand people, it would have taken at least half a day.
While waiting in line for the test, Talot even saw some familiar faces.
Some contestants from the last World Martial Arts Tournament, like Man-Wolf and a few others who had performed well, and even Spopovich and Yamu, who were controlled by Babidi during the Majin Buu Saga.
What astonished Talot the most was that he saw someone extremely special.
A young Mr. Satan!
Of course, Talot only glanced at him a couple of times before looking away. He knew him, but they didn't actually know each other.
Because of him, this world had already changed drastically.
Who knows what the future Mr. Satan will be like?
As the preliminaries officially began—
The contestants for this martial arts tournament stepped forward one by one in order to strike the machine.
A very high value in the fighters' world was set as the standard.
Anyone scoring below 100 was immediately eliminated; those scoring above 100 could move on to the second round of preliminaries for further screening.
For the Z Fighters, this format was quite novel and very simple. They just had to wait here.
"Even though this method is a bit simpler and lets us conserve some stamina, when it's your turn to punch, everyone should be careful. If you break the machine, that won't be good," Yamcha suddenly reminded everyone.
At his words, everyone nodded in agreement.
After all, their strength had long since surpassed that of ordinary Earthlings.
With just a finger, they could kill a bunch of people; this little punching machine, if their control over their strength slipped even a bit, it would explode with just a light tap.
"It's almost your turn, Krillin," Tien Shinhan reminded from the side.
At this, Krillin nodded.
As the first in the group to test his punching power, Krillin carefully got into his stance.
He was extremely cautious with his strength, lightly raising his hand and tapping the machine, afraid of using too much force and drawing too much attention.
But even so, the number displayed on the machine was a staggering 555.
This number instantly shocked all the onlookers and the staff recording the results. They never imagined anyone in the world could punch out such a number.
After all, even for someone well-trained, if they were particularly burly and strong, 200 would be considered outrageously high.
Of course, that was for fighters, not martial artists.
Actually, there were still people who scored above 200.
In this era, unlike more than a decade in the future, it was martial artists that held the highest status.
Amidst everyone's shock, it was the blonde-haired referee who noticed Krillin and his group, proactively stepping in to smooth things over and introducing Krillin and the others' performances and results in the previous two World Martial Arts Tournaments, finally settling things down.
Even so, the following scores were each more outrageous than the last, leaving everyone dumbfounded, repeatedly rubbing their eyes in disbelief.
Only the blonde referee knew. These were true martial artists, not the other riffraff who had nothing but empty titles.
Everything was proceeding smoothly here.
At another testing point, because Raditz and Nappa kept producing scores that were too high, and after Talot stepped up and tapped out an 888 with a single finger, the staff immediately concluded that the machine must be malfunctioning.
At this crucial moment, the indifferent Vegeta stepped forward, raised his fist, and threw a casual punch.
With a tremendous boom!!
The punching machine shattered into pieces, the fierce shockwave blasting in all directions, affecting many people. Over a dozen individuals nearby were thrown off their feet and fell right on their butts.
"You're still as reckless as ever," Talot said with a slight smile, not particularly bothered.
"If I didn't go, you'd all have to do it again. This kind of preliminary is just too low-level and boring," Vegeta replied, arms crossed, face full of arrogance.
Raditz and Nappa both tacitly agreed, while the other Z Fighters just covered their faces.
Who knew Vegeta would pull something like this?
...
Not far away.
Mr. Satan, who had been so proud just a moment before, turned pale and trembled all over after witnessing Vegeta shatter the punching machine with a single blow.
Others might hold on to a sliver of hope, but he actually understood the true value of martial artists and fighters.
If he were to take a punch like that, he'd probably die on the spot.
Clearly, the Mr. Satan of today was not yet the future version who only relied on trickery. He still had brains and a sense of proportion.
...
The first round of preliminaries ended.
Everyone gathered together, and just then, Ox-King's daughter Chichi, seeing some familiar faces, happily ran over to greet Goku.
Girls change a lot as they grow up. Chichi now was completely different from when she was a child.
No one really understood what was going on, not even Goku.
This left Yamcha and Krillin, who had studied under the same master as Goku, full of envy, and even Master Roshi, that old pervert, secretly sighed that Goku really was lucky with women now that he has grown up.
Goku looked completely innocent.
Having been ignored, and not recognized, Chichi grew furious and stormed off after scolding Goku a few times.
When a woman gets mad, it's not easy to calm her down.
Only Talot knew the inside story, but he didn't say anything.
...….
Please support on pat*eon for extra chapters; there is date to date subscription enabled on patreon. [There is a 7-day trial version availabe on patreon.]
https://www.pat*eon.com/dmtranslations
You can read ahead upto 20 chapters on my pa*reon.