The two brothers stood high above Dr. Gero's laboratory.
Gohan pondered for a moment, then raised his hand and hurled an energy blast down.
"Boom!"
The energy blast exploded.
Light radiated everywhere, the ground shook violently, and flames shot into the sky.
The entire laboratory was pulverized, a massive mushroom cloud rose into the air, and the colossal explosion sound traveled hundreds of kilometers.
Amidst the powerful blast, the weathered stone forest was instantly leveled, leaving a deep crater several kilometers in diameter on the ground, shrouded in thick smoke.
Gohan looked down at the deep crater, nodded in satisfaction, and then flew away with Trunks.
The two soon returned to Capsule Corp.
Bulma was still tinkering with the time machine.
Gohan and Trunks dumped out all of Dr. Gero's 'estate.'
The room full of overflowing items stunned Bulma speechless.
Had these two brothers gone on a robbery spree?
Computers, books, notebooks, manuscripts, tables, hibernation pods, and even a few chunks of black, gooey material?
"What is all this? Did you find Dr. Gero's lab?" Bulma stopped what she was doing and asked in surprise.
Gohan nodded: "Yes, we found it. All this stuff came from Dr. Gero's laboratory. Aunt Bulma, take a look first; do you think any of it is useful?"
"Uh, you got all this from Dr. Gero?" Bulma quickly got up and rushed over to examine the haul.
Gohan said: "That's right. We figured it might be useful to you, so we brought it all back."
Bulma picked up a notebook and flipped through it rapidly.
A moment later, she switched to a manuscript, and the more she read, the more astonished she became.
The astonishment turned into delight.
Bulma was filled with awe.
"Dr. Gero truly was a super genius. It's just a shame he went down the wrong path."
"Androids, perpetual energy reactors, genetic engineering... Incredible, truly incredible. These are all the concepts of a genius."
Seeing her excited state, Gohan knew he had done the right thing this time.
It was a good thing he hadn't destroyed everything with a single blast.
He asked: "So, Aunt Bulma, is this stuff useful?"
Bulma happily replied: "Useful? It's extremely useful! Gohan, you two did a wonderful job this time by not destroying any of it. That's fantastic."
"Although Dr. Gero was a terrible villain, his scientific research achievements are innocent. With this material, I feel like a new brain has sprouted in my head."
"Putting everything else aside, my time machine should be finished a year ahead of schedule."
"Also, I can take inspiration from this perpetual energy reactor and use it to build other devices."
Bulma spoke fluently, her face beaming with joy.
This was the first time Trunks had seen Bulma so full of energy.
In that moment, Bulma seemed to have returned to her ambitious youth.
Gohan laughed: "In that case, we had a huge haul today! We definitely need an extra-special meal tonight, haha."
"Mhm, extra meal," Bulma replied without lifting her head.
It wasn't until half an hour later
that Bulma emerged from her swim in the sea of knowledge.
Her first order of business was to assign tasks to Gohan and Trunks.
"You two lend a hand and put all this stuff into the empty room next door. Remember to categorize it properly and arrange it neatly so I can easily look through it later."
The two handsome young men got busy again, moving the items back and forth one by one.
After finishing the work, Gohan and Trunks went into the gravity chamber to train for several hours.
Training is endless... The next day.
The three of them neatly arranged the seven Dragon Balls on an open space near Capsule Corp. to summon Shenron and make their wishes.
It was the familiar procedure, the familiar recipe.
The sky instantly turned pitch black.
After a flash of lightning and a rumble of thunder,
the familiar Eastern Dragon coiled in the clouds, its two massive, blood-red eyes flashing, its whiskers swaying—majestic and imposing.
Truly worthy of being the noble symbol and totem of the East.
"Wow, wow, wow!" Trunks saw Shenron for the first time, his eyes shining as he cried out excitedly.
He's so cool.
How great would it be to have a mount like that, Trunks mused wildly, practically drooling.
Meanwhile, Dende and Popo stood at the edge of the Lookout, gazing down at the world below, naturally seeing Gohan and the others summoning Shenron to make their wishes.
Shenron, with its built-in loudspeaker, boomed across the sky: "Humans who have summoned me, state your wishes. I can grant you three wishes, any wish at all..."
Trunks excitedly asked: "Seriously, any wish?"
"Of course, any wish at all..." Shenron replied.
Gohan rolled his eyes, unable to listen anymore.
Doesn't it know its own limits? Is it appropriate to boast like this?
Gohan looked up at Shenron and smirked.
Sensing Gohan's gaze, Shenron's massive body twitched slightly.
That look—is he despising me?
A sweat drop the size of a fist rolled down the green dragon's forehead.
Silence!
Gohan looked at Shenron and chuckled: "Since you put it that way, I'll make a small wish."
Shenron had a bad feeling, but it still responded: "State your wish!"
Gohan said: "Please boost my power level to that of a God of Destruction or an Angel."
Three black question marks appeared above Shenron's head: ???
Then it fell silent again.
Holy cow! That's outrageous!
Is that something I can even do?
If it weren't a noble Shenron, it would definitely use some colorful language right now.
Gohan looked at it, and it looked back at Gohan.
After a few seconds of silence... it lowered its head: "I—I apologize. That wish is beyond the scope of my power. Please choose another wish."
Gohan said: "But you just said any wish was possible."
"I—I apologize. Any wish within my capability is possible. What you just requested exceeds my limits," Shenron explained further.
Watching Shenron look so crestfallen, something shattered inside Trunks.
Where was the Dragon's majesty?
Although he didn't know exactly what a God of Destruction or an Angel was,
the reality was that Shenron couldn't grant just any wish.
Shenron had been bluffing.
Its image instantly crumbled!
So, what wishes should they make?
As for the wishes, Gohan and the other two had actually discussed them the previous night.
The first wish: Revive the humans killed by the Androids.
The number of humans killed by the Androids was countless, easily reaching several billion.
However, this was the accumulated data over more than a decade.
Shenron could only revive those who had been killed within the most recent year.
This wish was easily granted.
Countless humans were resurrected, looking utterly bewildered.
Total number resurrected: 250 million.
This showed just how brutal and bloodthirsty Android 17 and 18 were.
To slaughter hundreds of millions of people in just one year was truly terrifying.
Even demons would get tattoos of 17 and 18.
The second wish: Restore the cities and various facilities on Earth that had been destroyed by the Androids.
This wish was also easily granted.
However, because the current global population was small, many cities became ghost towns after being restored.
A few years later, overgrown with weeds and vines wrapping around the buildings, they looked like cities of the dead.
The world was now free of "mortgage slaves," those life warriors who struggled against the odds, which wasn't entirely a bad thing.
The third wish: Strengthen the Earth, making it more resilient.
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