"You really took your time. With an opponent like that, why not just finish it in an instant?" As the second to go on stage, Raditz asked Talot.
"I just thought he was kind of interesting, and among ordinary people, his strength isn't bad. There's no need to completely crush someone like that, right?" Talot replied with a smile.
How could he tell the real reason?
"Is that so?" Raditz was skeptical, but then he heard the shouts from outside and slowly walked out of the waiting area.
Talot glanced at the others one by one, then looked at the dazed Satan and smiled faintly.
Actually, Talot suddenly had a thought. If he taught Satan how to train, could he become a bit stronger?
After all, Satan was pretty talented; otherwise, how could he have become the absolute strongest among ordinary people?
But this idea only lasted a moment before Talot dismissed it.
He didn't have the time or energy to train Satan.
On the other side, Satan returned and Spopovich took the stage.
The others all crowded around, asking Satan what had happened.
Satan couldn't really explain his experience, so he could only say that he got careless and accidentally fell out of the arena.
But who would believe that?
Some people even suspected Satan of throwing the match, deliberately eliminating himself.
After all, with a distance of a dozen or twenty meters, how could someone "accidentally" fall out of the arena?
While people were voicing their doubts, Spopovich was flicked out of the arena by Raditz with a single finger, stunning everyone.
It didn't even take a minute; he'd only been in the arena for a few seconds. For ordinary people, that was absolutely unbelievable.
Raditz returned and exchanged with Salari, the third to go on stage. Yamu saw Spopovich returning in the same dazed state as Satan, frowned, and wanted to ask what happened, but there was no time.
And so, the third match ended just as quickly, in the blink of an eye.
This situation sparked a wave of complaints from the audience.
Everyone had come to see intense, blood-pumping battles. Who wanted to watch matches like this?
Obviously, after three matches like that in a row, anyone watching would think it was rigged.
Many even believed the officials had arranged it on purpose, just to make money.
Fortunately, the fourth match was Goku vs. Chichi.
That at least turned things around a little, since Goku was the champion of the previous World Martial Arts Tournament.
The champion title carried a lot of weight. Even though the 22nd World Martial Arts Tournament wasn't as memorable as in the original work, since the Great Demon King Piccolo incident had been forcibly resolved by Master Roshi, many people still remembered that tournament and there were even some video recordings.
It had only been three years since then, so it wasn't like in the original work's future where the older generation declined and the new generation had forgotten how incredible martial artists once were.
Standing in the arena, Goku faced Chichi, still a little puzzled about who this girl was.
He wanted to ask more, but since he hadn't recognized her yet, it only made Chichi even angrier.
A flurry of fierce attacks dazzled the audience; just her basic martial arts far surpassed those of ordinary people.
To be fair, Chichi in the original work was quite strong, with a power level of 130.
But now, thanks to the butterfly effect, Chichi's power level was as high as 200.
Sure, to the current Z Fighters, a power level of 200 was nothing, but it was more than enough to dominate among Earth's ordinary people.
As Goku responded to her attacks, he was also racking his brain trying to remember.
But the gap in strength was just too big, so no matter what attack Chichi launched, Goku could effortlessly neutralize it.
In the end, when Chichi couldn't win, she collapsed onto the ground and started crying.
Goku had never seen anything like that before, and was completely dumbfounded.
But he wasn't the type to take advantage of others. He went over to check on her, and after some questioning, finally learned Chichi's name and background.
Only then did he realize; she was the Ox-King's daughter.
When Master Roshi and Son Gohan heard it, they were stunned at first.
But now that things had come to this, they were actually overjoyed.
It turned out that Goku and Chichi had such a past, and just like in the original work, Goku had promised to marry Chichi when they grew up.
Even though Goku still didn't really understand what "wife" meant.
With the end of the fourth match, Goku won the beauty's heart, and the whole arena erupted in cheers.
In fact, those who knew the inside story understood that Chichi had schemed for this outcome, since Goku really wasn't the scheming type.
This development was in line with the original work's plot, with no unexpected twists.
When Goku brought Chichi back to the backstage waiting area, everyone gathered around; first to congratulate them, then to offer words of envy.
Especially Krillin and Yamcha.
Yamcha recalled his early experiences. How he'd once joined that adventure to find the Dragon Balls, and how it was that journey that transformed him into who he was now. It was only natural that he'd feel nostalgic.
No one was happier than Raditz.
As the big brother, seeing his little brother find a partner meant there would be one more member in their family from now on.
Talot, watching this scene of warmth and joy, couldn't help but feel a strong wave of emotion.
Beside him, Salari sensed the change in Talot's mood and slipped her arm around his.
Feeling the soft touch, Talot looked down at Salari and smiled.
The next matches were as ordinary as could be.
Man-Wolf faced Contestant Mighty Mask; for ordinary people, this match was decent, but to the strong, it was just child's play.
Man-Wolf won. After losing in the last tournament, he must have worked hard and doubled his strength at least.
Next was King Chappa versus the Flying Man; King Chappa, with his Eight-Arm Fist, emerged victorious. The Flying Man was quite lucky; if not, he likely wouldn't have even made it into the preliminary round. Of course, qualifying for the preliminaries itself already demonstrates considerable strength, otherwise he couldn't have scored over 100. [TN: Flying Man may be an original character in this novel.]
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.