At the same time, on the other side of Planet Namek…
After some effort, Bulma finally managed to contact Earth with her communicator.
Through Dr. Brief's signal relay, she successfully reached Goku, who was currently traveling toward Planet Namek.
After a brief discussion, Goku showed absolutely no fear.
Instead, he sounded excited—eager to fight the powerful enemies waiting on Namek.
This gave North Kai a headache, but he couldn't do anything.
In the end, he simply warned Goku to be careful and to retreat immediately if things went wrong after he reached Namek.
Once contact ended, Goku became even more fired up.
"This is awesome! Vegeta's already gotten way stronger than before, and now there's Frieza—the emperor of the universe—and all his men! I need to train harder!
I have to fully adapt to one hundred times gravity before I get to Namek! No—one hundred times gravity is just the starting point!"
And with that, Goku resumed his intense training.
He didn't know that by the time he arrived on Namek, the situation would be completely different from what he expected.
And his journey would no longer follow the path of the original story.
On Planet Namek
After ending communication, Bulma, Krillin, and Gohan finally relaxed a little.
Goku was on his way, training seriously, and they believed his power would greatly increase before he arrived.
Whether he could defeat Frieza's forces was uncertain, but beating Vegeta seemed possible.
Even though none of them knew Vegeta's strength had grown far beyond the level he had shown a few hours earlier.
"So… what do we do next? Should we try to find a Dragon Ball and hide it?" Gohan asked.
"That's a good idea. Goku needs six more days to get here. If we hold onto one Dragon Ball, we can prevent Frieza from collecting all seven and summoning Shenron." Bulma agreed.
Of course, she herself had no intention of going out to search—she was a normal human after all.
"What I'm worried about is whether Frieza's group has a Dragon Radar too… According to this radar, they've already found four Dragon Balls." Krillin said nervously.
To put it bluntly—he was terrified.
If the enemy also had a way to detect Dragon Balls, then finding and hiding one might just get them caught even faster.
"They probably don't. Otherwise Vegeta wouldn't have asked us for ours." Gohan said.
Before they could continue, several overwhelming, monstrous ki signatures suddenly appeared within their sensing range.
Both Krillin and Gohan went pale.
"Gohan! Suppress your ki now! It's them—they're coming!" Krillin shouted.
Luckily, they had already hidden their spaceship and found a cave to stay in, or they might've been spotted instantly.
"So… so scary. It's the same evil ki we sensed before…" Gohan trembled uncontrollably.
Even after Piccolo's training and the invasion of the Saiyans, he was still a child—it was impossible not to be terrified.
They hid their ki completely and inched toward the cave entrance, hiding in the shadows.
A few moments later, a large group of figures flew across the sky at terrifying speed.
Only after they left did Krillin and Gohan finally breathe again.
Without a doubt, that group was Frieza and his subordinates.
Feeling Frieza's ki at such close range crushed them with pure fear.
Now they completely understood why North Kai had begged them to leave Namek—and why even Vegeta had warned them.
This was an enemy they could never face.
Compared to this evil ki, Vegeta felt insignificant.
If they hadn't sensed it themselves, they never would've believed something so terrifying could exist.
"They're gone. Thank goodness! They weren't coming after us—I almost died from fear…" Bulma sighed beside them.
As a normal human, she couldn't grasp the full terror Krillin and Gohan were feeling.
"W-we should leave… We can't beat something like that…" Krillin stammered.
Gohan gasped for breath, frozen in place.
"But… Dad is on his way. If we run now…" he said, trembling but trying to stay calm.
Bulma blinked, then quickly opened the Dragon Radar.
Frieza's group was moving rapidly—with four Dragon Balls in hand.
"T-They're insanely fast! They moved hundreds of kilometers in just a blink!" Bulma gasped, covering her mouth.
Moments later, the four Dragon Balls on the radar stopped moving—and merged with another reading.
"Look! They found the fifth Dragon Ball!" Bulma exclaimed.
"How did they find it so fast!? Do they really have something like the Dragon Radar?" Gohan said.
"No! I think I get it now." Krillin said, face serious.
"The place they stopped… that should be a Namekian village! They must be using scouters to locate the Namekians. They don't need a Dragon Radar."
He focused again.
The ki signatures that had been in that direction were now gone.
Those must have been the Namekians—killed by Frieza's forces.
Something inside Krillin stirred—fear mixed with a strange courage.
He wanted to go look.
If he hid his ki perfectly, the scouters wouldn't be able to detect him.
On the other side, Vegeta had already found a quiet island.
He landed and sat down to begin meditation training.
His strength had increased fiftyfold after the Grand Elder unlocked his potential.
Even though he could control this power perfectly, he needed to stabilize it fully.
He also gained new insights into ki manipulation.
Now, he could feel himself getting closer and closer to the barrier separating him from the Super Saiyan realm.
Once he stabilized his base power…
He would attempt the breakthrough.
Super Saiyan was no longer a distant dream.
It was within reach.