Chapter 88 Worth It
"What's wrong with you? Why that expression?" Seeing Turles's conflicted face, Bulma felt somewhat puzzled.
"Nothing, nothing!" Turles recovered and replied, "Right, I remember you were researching Instant Transmission? Wanting to invent a ship that could instantly traverse the entire universe? How did you start researching time machines?"
"Oh! You mean that. This time when on Earth, I met a doctor. I exchanged ideas with him. From this doctor, I heard about spacetime traversal experiments. Found it very interesting. Since we have Instant Transmission knowledge to use, I thought I'd try!"
Bulma hadn't noticed Turles's abnormality. She immediately explained the circumstances.
Turns out when returning to Earth this time, Bulma and her father Dr. Brief attended an exchange conference. At this conference, a doctor named Omori presented his spacetime traversal theory.
Though many scientists present scoffed at this, after hearing Dr. Omori's theory and comparing it with Instant Transmission knowledge Turles gave her, Bulma discovered this Dr. Omori's theory wasn't empty. With scientific research interest, Bulma sought out Dr. Omori after the conference.
After further exchanges, Bulma grew even clearer about this Dr. Omori's genius. She immediately invited Dr. Omori to research together.
However, afterward Turles brought her from Earth to Red Stone. Bulma could only continue researching alone.
Hearing Bulma's explanation, Turles immediately felt somewhat speechless.
Speaking of these genius scientists—sometimes truly the ignorant were fearless. As long as they felt something was interesting, regardless of danger involved, they'd directly start. Not caring about risks behind it.
Turles stared at Bulma for a long time. Until he made her somewhat uncomfortable, then he spoke faintly, "Do you know spacetime traversal has always been the entire universe's taboo? Once those great gods discover it, I'm afraid all of Red Stone Planet will cease to exist!"
"What? That can't be?" Bulma was startled. She thought Turles was joking with her. But seeing Turles's serious expression, she immediately recognized the matter's severity. Somewhat uneasily looking at Turles, she confirmed again, "Is it really this serious?"
Turles nodded. Then he introduced the entire universe's composition to Bulma and some gods' taboos.
In the original story, Black Goku Zamasu was precisely because Universe 10's Supreme Kai violated regulations using Time Rings, letting the then-trainee Supreme Kai shuttle to the future, witnessing humanity's evil nature. This let Zamasu launch the "Zero Mortals Plan." Though Zamasu's own issues were involved, the consequences of spacetime traversal abuse were also obvious.
Turles didn't know whether Whis, after learning Bulma was researching time machines, would easily forgive like the original story. But he didn't want to bet on this.
So after explaining these things, seeing Bulma somewhat frightened, Turles comforted, "Let's not research time machines for now. Let's continue researching the previous space ships. Regardless, being able to instantly move to various places across the universe is also a very impressive invention. Maybe afterward we can even go touring other universes."
With Turles's comfort, Bulma slowly recovered from her fear. She threw herself into Turles's arms, somewhat aggrieved, acting spoiled toward Turles. "Will you blame me for nearly causing big trouble?"
Turles also realized he might have frightened Bulma. So he hurriedly changed topics. "Alright, alright, don't I have you? Right, earlier on Namek I made a wish, summoning surviving Saiyans across the universe. But you know Saiyan temperament."
"So this time, not many Saiyans responded to the wish. I plan to search the universe for these Saiyans. Want to go together? We can also relax a bit."
After dealing with Slug and Frieza, Red Stone should have a peaceful period ahead. Moreover, Turles's battle with Slug raised his battle power to 3 million. So his next step was attempting Super Saiyan transformation.
However, Super Saiyan transformation was more difficult than Turles imagined. Perhaps because his emotions remained very stable without any teammate sacrifices happening, Turles tried several times without successfully transforming. So this trip was also taking advantage of searching for remaining Saiyans to travel around.
Hearing Turles wanted to take her out, Bulma immediately grew excited. Just leaving one sentence of "wait for me," she vanished from Turles's view.
Before long, Bulma appeared fully equipped before Turles.
Currently, Bulma wore a bulky spacesuit, hand holding a fishbowl-like transparent helmet. Seeing Turles still in his original outfit, she asked puzzled, "Didn't you say we're leaving? Why aren't you changing clothes?"
Turles rolled his eyes speechlessly. "You forgot the wish I made to Porunga? My physiology can survive in space. Why would I need these?"
"Oh right! I forgot!" Bulma slapped her forehead, suddenly realizing.
Seeing Bulma had such an adorably silly side, Turles inwardly smiled, looking at her with a smile in his eyes.
As if sensing something, Bulma looked up. She directly met Turles's gentle gaze. Her face slightly reddened. Pouting, she said, "What are you looking at? Hurry up and depart!"
After speaking, she put the helmet on her head, walked before Turles, and grabbed his hand.
Turles smiled and shook his head. Two fingers pressed to his forehead. Next second, both figures instantly vanished from their location.
When they reappeared, they were already on another planet.
Turles looked around, discovering they'd appeared in a desolate desert. The atmospheric environment was very similar to Earth. Gravity was only half of Earth's. His body felt light and floaty.
Bulma pulled out a capsule case, took out a universal capsule and tossed it out.
After a "bang" sound, a small handheld device appeared. Bulma opened the device and began testing the air.
After busying herself for a while, Turles saw Bulma stop and immediately asked, "How is it?"
Bulma didn't speak. Just put away the device and removed her spacesuit helmet.
Turning off her gravity auto-adjustment bracelet, Bulma tried jumping. Only then did she say to Turles, "Not bad, nothing abnormal."
Hearing Bulma say this, Turles's heart relaxed.
After all, Turles didn't know what these Saiyans' scattered planets looked like. Though Earthlings' and Saiyans' survival environments were similar, Turles still worried somewhat. So seeing Bulma so thoroughly prepared, Turles felt relieved.
Bulma's strength was still too weak. Though the Grand Elder awakened her body's potential, giving her 150 battle power, facing the universe's various planetary environments, it still wasn't enough. At minimum, gravity changes were the primary problem.
Currently, Turles somewhat regretted bringing Bulma out. However, temporarily it could only be this way. Turles believed if he now dared suggest sending her back, Bulma definitely wouldn't agree.
Setting aside inner worries, Turles began sensing this planet's life ki. Soon, a ki around 800 appeared in Turles's perception.
However, what surprised Turles somewhat—aside from this ki, almost no other ki existed on this planet. This gave Turles a bad guess.
Turles pulled out his tablet, comparing the star map. Confirming this planet was indeed one of those planets where Shenron Porunga provided Saiyan locations. Thinking of Saiyan conduct, his heart no longer held hope for this mission's target.
Just then, Bulma, who'd collected some soil samples, walked over. Seeing Turles's somewhat ugly face, she asked with concern, "What's wrong?"
Turles shook his head. Just grabbed her hand and began flying toward the ki position he'd just sensed.
Flying in the air, the two finally saw their earlier position wasn't actually desert but a city's edge. However, the city had now been completely abandoned. No life signs existed within.
Bulma seemed to already understand something. She glanced at Turles, silently letting him hold her hand as they continued flying forward.
Soon, Turles appeared near a broken campsite. You could tell the camp's owner hadn't cared for it. Cleanly gnawed bones lay everywhere, covered in various maggots.
This camp's most conspicuous feature was a somewhat old gray-white spherical spacecraft.
Turles and Bulma's sudden visit immediately alarmed the camp's owner. The moment Turles landed, an energy blast whistled from nearby toward Turles's head.
Turles naturally didn't care about such an ambush. He just slightly raised his hand and swatted the energy blast away. Then he looked toward the ambusher.
Click click!
As footsteps sounded, a Saiyan wearing old-style battle armor appeared before Turles.
This Saiyan looked much older than Turles. Even should be around Nappa's age. Due to Saiyans' extra-long combat period, Turles wasn't very certain.
However, none of this mattered anymore. Watching the wary-faced Saiyan, Turles didn't speak. Just flashed, appearing behind him. Then one hand chop struck this Saiyan's neck.
This Saiyan hadn't expected Turles would suddenly strike. His pupils immediately contracted. But before reacting, he'd already fainted on the ground.
Currently, Turles's mood was somewhat complex. Without much waste talk, he grabbed this Saiyan's arm and directly activated Instant Transmission, vanishing before Bulma.
Seeing Turles vanish, Bulma showed no panic. She just quietly waited. Sure enough, less than a minute later, Turles's figure reappeared.
After reappearing, Turles didn't immediately take Bulma to the next destination. Just looked at this barren planet somewhat lost.
Seeing this, Bulma didn't say anything. Just slowly walked before Turles, gently grasping Turles's hand, interlocking fingers with him, quietly accompanying Turles.
Suddenly, Turles spoke, "Bulma, do you think saving these Saiyans is actually worth it?"
"This should have been a beautiful planet. Maybe occasional conflicts would occur, but planetary life could still survive well."
"Until one day, a fireball fell from the sky. From then, these lives' doomsday came. One race, just to satisfy their own desires, sent one of their clansmen here."
"Terrifying Great Apes trampled everything. Destructive light waves shot from its mouth, destroying cities. Until everything was devastated."
"Then his clansman found him. For the race's reproduction, he received no punishment from his clansman. Tell me, does doing all this still have meaning?"
Bulma leaned on Turles's shoulder, quietly listening to her boyfriend's confused words.
Moments later, Turles stopped talking. The two just quietly watched the distant ruins together.
Suddenly, Bulma spoke, "Turles, do you remember telling me about Nappa and Raditz's past?"
Turles nodded, not understanding.
"Then tell me, was Nappa back then a good person or bad person?" Bulma pursued.
"Of course bad. Based on their actions, going to Hell later is inevitable." Turles's words came out reflexively.
"What about... now?"
"Hmm? Now?" Turles fell into thought. He somewhat understood Bulma's meaning.
That's right. If going by Nappa and the others' previous experiences, what difference was there from this Saiyan's current actions?
Even himself—before transmigrating, he'd done plenty of these things. What difference existed?
Now he was here lamenting these various things. The biggest reason was just that this happened before his eyes, making his moral sense somewhat hard to accept.
If he truly had that kind of saintly heart, from the start he shouldn't have saved any Saiyans but rather killed all Saiyans.
So if truly using one word to describe him, it would be pretentious.
Thinking this, Turles's heart relaxed considerably. After all, like Bulma said, he'd already reformed several utterly evil bastards. Continuing on, maybe Nappa and the others would become justice warriors.
Like the original story—didn't Vegeta initially burn, kill, rob, doing all evil? But ultimately, didn't he also protect Earth? When in Hell, even Yemma said his merit was enough for Heaven?
After thoroughly thinking it through, Turles completely threw this matter behind him. Turning to look at the quietly accompanying Bulma, his heart warmed.
"Bulma, thank you!" Turles suddenly spoke.
Hearing Turles suddenly thank her, Bulma felt somewhat puzzled. "Hmm? What's wrong? Why say that?"
"Nothing. Just figured something out." Speaking, Turles suddenly felt somewhat embarrassed. After hesitating, he still asked, "Tell me, was I just being somewhat... pretentious?"
Seeing Turles rarely show such a cute side, Bulma's heart grew mischievous. She immediately straightened her face seriously, nodded gravely. "Very pretentious!"
Hearing Bulma say this, Turles's face immediately reddened, feeling even more embarrassed.
He didn't know what was wrong with him. Suddenly becoming so low-IQ before Bulma. He even somewhat regretted asking that question.
Suddenly, Turles felt his face turned by Bulma. Before reacting, he felt his lips pecked.
Just then, Bulma's words rang in Turles's ears: "Precisely because of this, you're worth me liking!"
Seeing Bulma's love-filled eyes, Turles directly kissed Bulma's red lips. Inwardly thinking: "You're the one worth me liking!"
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