He felt it was hard to breathe; every inhale was like pulling in thin smoke, nowhere near enough for his body.
The temperature around him also shifted violently.
One moment it was like standing inside a blazing furnace, sweat pouring down his body. The next, it felt as if he had plunged into an icy cavern, his skin prickling with cold.
"Damn… in this hellish place, just staying alive is already a challenge."
Yamcha cursed under his breath, yet his heart pounded with excitement.
The harsher the environment, the greater the training effect.
He glanced around and spotted a small building in the distance, resembling an igloo.
That must be the resting and supply room.
He didn't rush over. Instead, he focused on adapting to his current surroundings first.
He tried taking a few steps; every movement felt like dragging a small mountain, each step requiring immense effort.
He threw a punch; the motion was so sluggish it looked like slow-motion Tai Chi.
"Good… this is the feeling."
Pressure. Extreme pressure.
He didn't waste a single second.
After adapting slightly to the gravity and thin air, he immediately began the most basic training.
Push-ups.
"One!"
He used all his strength just to complete a single push-up.
Sweat instantly gathered on his forehead and dripped onto the pure white ground.
"Two!"
His arms shook violently.
"Three!"
It felt as if his arms were about to snap.
Movements he could easily do hundreds of times outside had become pure torture here—each one was agony.
But he didn't stop.
He clenched his teeth, letting out a low, animalistic growl as he forced himself to count them one by one.
Ten… twenty… fifty… When he reached the hundredth, he finally collapsed onto the ground, completely spent, like a puddle of mud.
He didn't even have the strength to move a finger.
"Huff.. huff.. huff.. No… this is just the beginning…"
He lay flat on the ground, gasping for breath, and slowly used the Ki he had grasped to repair his utterly exhausted muscles.
After resting for an unknown amount of time, once a bit of strength returned, he rolled over and began a new round of torment.
Sit-ups.
…
Time had no meaning here.
Yamcha was completely submerged in this self-inflicted training.
When he was hungry, he went to the small igloo and ate the wax-like food that quickly restored energy.
When he was thirsty, he drank the endless supply of clear water there.
When he was exhausted to the core, he collapsed and slept—then resumed the moment he woke up.
He treated every day as if it were his last.
In his mind, he constantly replayed the cold faces of the two Androids, the ruins of West City, and Trunks's furious, helpless expression.
These images became his only driving force.
He could feel his body undergoing Earth-shattering changes.
At first, he struggled with even the most basic physical training.
After a month, he could barely complete a full routine.
After three months, ten times gravity no longer posed any difficulty.
He began practicing more advanced techniques—high-speed movement and precise Ki control.
After six months, he started pushing himself even further.
He condensed Ki into his feet, then exploded it outward, using the recoil to launch himself into the air. He practiced adjusting his posture mid-flight, fighting against the crushing gravity.
He failed countless times, crashing hard and ending up covered in bruises.
But every time, he immediately got back up and continued the challenge.
His combat power shot up like a rocket during this process.
From several thousand when he first entered, it rapidly surpassed ten thousand.
Fifteen thousand… twenty thousand… thirty thousand… He could clearly feel the bottlenecks that once seemed unreachable shattering one after another.
By the time he felt he had been here for nearly a year, his combat power had reached a number he had never dared to imagine.
"Fifty thousand… maybe sixty thousand?" he murmured.
Even he could no longer estimate it accurately.
He only knew one thing—if his current self were placed back in the Planet Namek era..
Even if he couldn't defeat Frieza's first form, he could definitely fight evenly with any member of the Ginyu Force.
…Ginyu himself excluded.
This was power on a completely different level.
"It's about time… I should leave."
Yamcha stood in the center of the endless white void, feeling the power within him surging like a great river.
He knew staying any longer wouldn't bring significant improvement.
His body had already fully adapted to the environment here.
He needed a new challenge.
He repeated the exit word silently in his mind.
The next moment, the space in front of him rippled, and the familiar clock-patterned door appeared.
Yamcha took a deep breath, pushed it open, and stepped out.
The dazzling sunlight forced Yamcha to squint.
Fresh air surged into his lungs, and for the first time in what felt like ages, he felt truly alive.
The solidity beneath his feet—and the near-weightlessness of normal gravity—made his entire body feel strangely foreign.
He was back.
"He's out!"
Master Roshi's voice rang across the platform.
Yamcha looked up. Master Roshi and Popo stood exactly where they had been one year—no, one day—ago.
"Yamcha…"
Master Roshi stared at him, eyes behind the sunglasses wide, jaw hanging open, even his beard trembling.
Popo was still expressionless, but the shock in his ink-black eyes was unmistakable.
Yamcha knew the reason.
He hadn't bothered to suppress his ki.
That vast, dense, explosive power radiated from him like a blazing torch piercing the darkness—impossible to ignore.
"How do you… feel?" Master Roshi finally managed to speak, his voice dry and strained.
Yamcha grinned, showing a row of white teeth.
He didn't answer with words.
Instead, he slowly lifted his right hand and, facing the endless sea of clouds beyond the Lookout, gave a light wave.
Boom—!!!
A thick, barrel-sized Kamehameha erupted from his palm!
The blazing beam tore through the sea of clouds, shooting straight toward the distant horizon and carving a long, brilliant white scar across the blue sky.
The entire Lookout trembled faintly from the aftershock.
Master Roshi stared at the vanishing Kamehameha, then at the completely relaxed Yamcha, utterly speechless.
The power of this blast… it had already surpassed Goku's Kamehameha from the battle against Vegeta on Earth.
"I feel…" Yamcha lowered his hand, sensing the still-surging strength inside his body, a radiant smile spreading across his face.
"I feel amazing!"