Kryptonians: Man of Steel

Chapter 1681 Great Trunks

Vegeta crossed his arms and let out a sneer.

"Protect others? How can such a weak idea make a person stronger!"

His voice was filled with undisguised sarcasm, and his brows were brimming with the arrogance inherent in Saiyan princes.

Sun Wukong did not immediately refute, but simply scratched the back of his head and revealed his signature, slightly silly smile.

His orange martial arts uniform swayed gently in the breeze, contrasting sharply with Vegeta's tense posture.

"Believe it or not. But if you really want to get stronger, you can stay and train with us."

He spoke casually and naturally, as if inviting a neighbor to dinner rather than suggesting a fellow spiritual practice to a former enemy.

Vegeta was clearly stunned.

He had anticipated that Kakarot might show off his power, provoke him, or even start a fight directly—but he never expected things to develop this way.

His taut jawline relaxed slightly, and a flicker of disbelief flashed in his pupils.

Protecting the weak? Training together? These concepts never had a place in his fighting philosophy.

After a full ten seconds of silence, Vegeta finally just snorted coldly and turned around abruptly.

"boring!"

He uttered those words, and with a burst of energy, he transformed into a white light that shot into the sky and disappeared into the horizon.

But only he knew that in the instant he turned around, what welled up in his heart was not the contempt of the past, but an unprecedented chaos.

Back at the desolate valley base, Vegeta's heavy boots crushed the rocks beneath his feet.

Nappa and Raditz immediately surrounded them, the two tall and burly Saiyans appearing cautious at this moment.

"Vegeta, how is it?"

Naba asked in a gruff voice, his bald head still bearing unhealed scars.

Vegeta didn't even glance at them, heading straight for the rock seat.

"Hmph, go ask him yourself."

His voice was colder than usual, but the two men who knew him well noticed the difference—he didn't immediately get angry, nor did he casually throw out energy blasts to punish the talkative subordinate, which was abnormal in itself.

Naba and Raditz exchanged a glance and immediately stepped aside.

The first rule for survival under Vegeta is to read between the lines.

They could clearly sense that the prince had lost some of his usual absolute confidence upon his return, and instead possessed an indescribable restlessness.

Vegeta sat on the rock, his fingertips unconsciously tapping his knees.

The image of Sun Wukong echoed in his mind—protecting others?
How can such a weak mindset possibly bring about strength?

Saiyans are born to fight and live to conquer; the law of the jungle is the fundamental law of the universe.

However, Kakarot... that former lower-ranking warrior, surpassed him in a way he couldn't comprehend.

He not only transformed into the legendary Super Saiyan, but also exuded a kind of "ki" that Vegeta had never encountered before—powerful yet not violent, resolute yet not arrogant.

What he found even more unacceptable was that even after becoming the strongest in the universe, the other party maintained an almost naive peace and even took the initiative to invite him, his enemy, to train together.

Vegeta stood amidst the jagged rock peaks, his clenched fist trembling slightly.

He grew up in a Saiyan society where the strong prey on the weak, where family and friendship were luxuries, and love was out of the question. His world consisted only of strength and weakness, victory and defeat, and life and death.

The other possibility that Sun Wukong showed made him hesitate about his path for the first time.

"Perhaps... I really need to change my approach?"

He muttered to himself, then became annoyed by this weak thought.

Vegeta is an extremely self-centered person, but on the other hand, he admires power—and if you are stronger than him, he is not incapable of listening to your opinions.

Moreover, Sun Wukong achieved his dream and became a Super Saiyan.

This alone was enough to crack the wall of his stubborn beliefs.

"hateful!"

Vegeta cursed under his breath and slammed his fist into the rock wall beside him, causing the entire mountain to tremble.

He had to admit that he had genuinely considered that suggestion for a moment.

Becoming a Super Saiyan is his lifelong dream, but now the only person who can guide him is the opponent he least wants to admit—a traitor who was originally a low-ranking warrior.

Deep down, Vegeta even felt a pang of regret.

Training with Kakarot would undoubtedly be the best way to break through the current situation, but his pride wouldn't allow him to bow his head, at least not now.

He could only leave the scene in the most Vegeta-like way—with arrogance—to maintain his crumbling dignity.

At the same time, Goku didn't pay much attention to Vegeta's fate.

He knew that the most urgent task at hand was to improve his and Gohan's strength.

Mr. Luther's arrival and the crisis he described were like a sword hanging over his head, urging him not to relax in the slightest.

Gohan's current power level is as high as 5000 million, far exceeding anyone from the Z Fighters era.

But if he could become a Super Saiyan, his power would increase fiftyfold, reaching an astonishing 25 billion!
With that kind of strength, they would be able to fight even against future androids.

Son Gohan was more aware of the seriousness of the situation than his father.

Mr. Luther was unfathomable in his eyes, yet even such a person had to cross time and space to seek help. Just how terrifying would the enemy of the future be?
He vaguely sensed from Piccolo Daimaō, the Saiyan invasion, and Frieza's threat that the historical process of this timeline seemed to be compressed—enemies came one after another, and crises piled up one after another, as if an invisible force had gathered the originally scattered calamities together.

Unbeknownst to Sun Wukong and his son, Luther was currently in Dr. Gro's laboratory overseeing the creation of cloned androids.

"Numbers 16, 17, and 18 are enough,"

Luther said to Dr. Groh.

"There is no need to put other artificial humans into production."

After all, Number 18 is now his woman, and Number 17 is also a member of the Marvel Universe Galactic Empire.

At the same time, Luther also "rescued" a Cell that was not yet fully mature from a certain timeline.

But these preparations were still insufficient in his view; he needed someone who could explain the situation, a messenger from the future.

Thus, through a sudden spacetime rift, Trunks—the warrior from the dark future—was cleverly transported to this spacetime.

In Luther's view, parallel universes are as numerous as hairs on a cow, so it doesn't matter if a Trunks "goes astray".

When Trunks recovered from the dizziness of the time jump, he found himself standing on a grassy field outside West City, with a living Goku and an adult Gohan in front of him—and Gohan's arms were completely intact!

(End of this chapter)