The little demon's power source was the "grievance of living beings"—a mix of negative emotions such as anger, despair, fear, hatred, and resentment. Among them, the most potent was the grudge released at the moment of death.
It had been fifteen years since Robert first acquired the little demon at age thirteen. While he lived in Japan, restrictions prevented him from initiating large-scale killings, so he was forced to live a double life—a professional troll and troublemaker, draining classmates, relatives, and coworkers of every ounce of resentment he could.
But over time, those around him had become immune—utterly unbothered. They could no longer generate even a trickle of negative energy.
Compared to the United States, violent crime in Japan was rare, and not all cases fell under the jurisdiction of the Divine Spear Bureau. Robert could only feed his little demon during field assignments.
That's the real reason he repeatedly applied for transfers to the United States.
Because America is a paradise for harvesting resentment.
Once the little demon is fully charged, it can travel to other worlds and bring back artifacts—but it only remains there briefly, and can only grab whatever is nearby. Worse still, it can't tell valuable from worthless. So it often returned with random junk.
In the beginning, it brought back rocks and plants. Later, after Robert taught it to seek out unique and eye-catching items, it started returning with shiny trinkets, gold, jewels, jade, and other flashy things.
These helped Robert solve his financial crises as a teen, but did little to enhance his real power.
That changed two years later—when the little demon came back carrying a massive head.
That moment changed Robert's life forever.
The object now stored in one of the glass cases was long, club-like, and split at the top.
When Robert touched it, he instantly learned the object's origin, identity, and function, and could choose to absorb its energy, knowledge, or special materials.
If the object had unique properties or structure, he could even replicate it and gain its powers.
This giant brain came from the world of One Piece. It was the severed brain of Vegapunk, the scientist said to be 500 years ahead of human intelligence.
When Robert touched the brain, he absorbed all the knowledge stored inside. To fully digest that knowledge, he replicated its structure—thankfully, his head didn't deform.
Instead, he gained the power of the "Nomi Nomi no Mi" (Brain-Brain Fruit).
From that moment, Robert—a previously ordinary transmigrator—became a master of black technology, and was recruited by the Divine Spear Bureau, eventually becoming the youngest head of the tech development division.
Over the next 13 years, the little demon traveled across worlds countless times, yet only managed to retrieve three other truly useful items.
Rico Bradley's severed left armBulma's pantiesAnd the capsule box that came with the panties.
Rico Bradley's severed arm allowed Robert to absorb residual internal energy and copy the opened meridians into his own left arm.
Though Rico Bradley's had learned from the Quanzhen School, Ancient Tomb Sect, and even the Nine Yin Manual, a single arm's worth of meridians couldn't grant Robert a complete martial arts system.
So, with help from Taoist scriptures and his Brain-Brain Fruit ability, Robert deduced his own internal cultivation method.
He still fondly remembered the day the little demon ran back with panties in one hand, capsule box in the other, seeking praise.
Of course—it wasn't because of Bulma's panties!
Rather, he absorbed from them the concept of "ki", and unlocked the structure of the Capsule Corporation's tech. Using his brain power, he successfully reverse-engineered the universal capsule.
Inside the box were flying cars, portable houses, and other Dragon Ball-exclusive tech—all now part of Robert's knowledge base.
But the greatest gain was the introduction of ki, a powerful form of energy.
From the panties, he even extracted Bulma's genetic material and bloodline factors.
At first, he wondered why touching the panties filled his mind with weirdly brilliant ideas—he even felt smarter. Upon inspection, he discovered a trace of secretions…
According to the little demon's retelling, Bulma had just met Goku and was journeying to find the Dragon Balls.
It was probably their first night traveling together, when she set up the capsule house, and Goku curiously explored the differences between boys and girls.
The little demon must've swiped the panties and capsule box while Bulma was showering.
To this, Robert had only one thing to say:
"Well done!"
Without these two items, how else would he have learned about ki, right?
Isn't that kind of memento worth preserving with care?
Forgotten Capsule Box: "Yeah, yeah… You're totally right!"
Behind the three display cases were three cultivation pods, each containing a growing clone:
An 11-year-old Bulma cloneA 10-year-old Vegapunk cloneAnd a 9-year-old Rico Bradley's clone
Unlike the earlier batch of disposable androids, these were organically grown, free of additives, and intended to become Robert's future assistants and secretaries.
So why raise Bulma first, even though he had Vegapunk's genes earlier?
"Because I, Director Robert, will never share a roof with gambling or drugs!"
Now you understand why he treasures the pure cotton panties, don't you?
Because they've contributed more to science than any single laboratory!
After checking the growth progress, Robert scooped up the little demon and checked its stored energy. Though it had recently devoured a few farm machines' "souls," it still lacked enough to fund 100 world-hopping trips.
Each teleport required a fixed amount of energy, but the real problem lay in the randomness: Robert couldn't control where the demon went or what it would bring back.
So once he gained the Brain-Brain Fruit, Robert compiled every memory of anime, novels, and films he could remember, rendered them into 3D videos, and played them in loops for the demon to study.
He even highlighted iconic scenes and high-value items—especially from worlds it had already visited.
Even so, a "ten-pull" draw yielded no surprises. So Robert upped it to "a hundred pulls", hoping brute force would finally bring miracles.
He exited the dark lab and returned to his study. It was already past 5 a.m., so instead of sleeping, he headed to a training room facing east and began his meditative practice.
Since gaining these extraordinary powers—and knowing doomsday loomed—Robert had led a highly disciplined life.
On normal days, he'd wake at 6 a.m., meditate for two hours, then eat breakfast. Afterward, he'd do two hours of external martial arts training using Navy Six Styles techniques he learned from Vegapunk's memories.
Then came work. After work? Another four hours of training, balancing internal and external development.
Internal techniques didn't just enhance strength and heal training damage—they made him brimming with energy, sharp in mind and spirit.
A man so vigorous, he could go seven rounds in one night and not even feel tired.
Wouldn't you train if you could do that?!
Thanks to this balance, Robert's body grew ever stronger, and the ki within him steadily increased. Unfortunately, he lacked proper methods to use it, and could only fumble his way forward.
The sun rose slowly, golden rays painting the sky.
In the distance, the sound of gunfire rang out across San Francisco—like an alarm clock calling the people of America to a new day.
Bang bang bang bang—
The land of the free had begun again.
Robert opened his eyes with a satisfied smile.
"What a uniquely American wake-up call."
He looked at the little demon.
"Cutie pie, it's time for your next mission."
The little demon popped out, its round black body displaying three white stripes shaped into a grinning face.
(End of Chapter 3)