"I actually have no ill will toward Earth. Please lower your guard—or think of it this way: Earth is of no use to me." Meruem looked at the on-guard Kami and couldn't help finding it amusing.
With his current power, even if he wanted to destroy Earth there was nothing the other side could do; Goku hadn't grown up yet.
"State your purpose." Pressure—though Meruem wasn't exerting any on him, Kami, deeply wary of Meruem's terrifying ki, still had sweat streaming down his brow. Getting even those words out took everything he had.
"Purpose? How to put it… Simply put, teach me how to use ki," Meruem said earnestly.
"What? Just that?" Kami was clearly surprised. In his view, for someone as powerful as Meruem, the method of using ki should be dispensable.
Or rather—could someone that strong actually not know how to use ki?
"What? Is that not allowed?" A hint of displeasure crossed Meruem's face.
"I can teach you how to use ki, but you are not to lay a hand on anyone on Earth. Anyone, remember!"
"You're in no position to bargain. Even if you don't teach me, I have ways to learn it. You're hardly the only person in this world who can use ki." His words tightened the air again. Kami knew Meruem was right: he had no standing to set terms.
"That said, I truly won't strike people at random—so long as they don't provoke me first." Meruem pivoted.
"All right," Kami said helplessly. Since Meruem had offered an out, he took it. Might made right.
The biggest fist is the only truth that matters.
"Lord Kami!" At that moment, Goku finally arrived, late, from training on Mount Paozu. This wasn't the late-series Dragon Ball where circling the globe took no time; Goku's power level was only a few hundred, and a full-power Kamehameha barely started around nine hundred.
Piccolo's Special Beam Cannon was only a bit over a thousand; whether techniques at that level could even hurt Meruem was another question.
As for Tien Shinhan, Yamcha, and Krillin, it would take them a while to reach the Lookout; Yamcha and Krillin couldn't even fly yet.
"You look really strong. Fight me!" After a few words with Kami, Goku eyed Meruem, itching to try.
For Goku, currently Earth's strongest, challenging the powerful was a dream come true.
"Goku!" Kami broke into a cold sweat at his words. He'd just placated this terrifying stranger—what if…
"Relax, Lord Kami. I don't think he's a bad guy!" Goku scratched the back of his head and grinned.
Classic Son Goku, the child of destiny; he had a knack for reading people, not judging by bias or ki alone. Didn't he turn even Piccolo and Vegeta—supervillains to others—into Z-Fighters?
"Very confident I won't kill you, are you? While I don't intend to, I can still teach you a lesson." This was the best time to bully Goku. Once Z started—especially the Frieza arc—his power would skyrocket: from a mere four hundred to eight thousand against Vegeta; with Kaio-ken to twenty-four thousand; after one-hundred-times gravity on Namek to 180,000; and at last, with twenty-times Kaio-ken, over ten million, trading evenly with 50% final-form Frieza.
As self-assured as Meruem was, he estimated his current power at mere hundreds of thousands, at most a few million.
And that was after looting multiple worlds and seizing a string of bosses' powers. Compared to Goku—the super "monster" who could explode to spar half a day with a Frieza over a hundred million—it didn't match up.
As for devouring Goku? What would that even yield—his potential? He'd been born with a power level of two. Reaching such heights was downright unscientific—only "protagonist" explains it.
"Couldn't ask for more. Bring it on." Seeing both Goku and Meruem set, Kami could only shake his head helplessly.
He'd been spooked by Meruem's vast ki, but looking closely now, it wasn't irredeemably evil.
Though by nature it was pretty wicked.
Tap-tap-tap—Goku was fast, partly thanks to Earth's low gravity here.
He hadn't computed this world's friction, but it was surely lower than elsewhere. "Ow, ow, ow!" Goku crouched, cradling a reddened, swollen right fist.
He'd pounded Meruem's body over and over; Meruem let him. Only when a punch came for his face did Meruem harden it with Enhancement.
The feeling? Try throwing your hardest punch into a rock—one with a rough, jagged surface. Exquisite.
"S—so strong! You're amazing! Hahaha." Once he recovered, Goku laughed heartily at Meruem.
Classic thick-headed Goku. His joy at meeting a strong foe never changed. Challenging the powerful was always his favorite thing.
"Let me see the gap between us. I'm going all out. Next move's my best." After laughing, Goku kindly warned him.
But with his current cultivation, hurting Meruem would be hard.
The gap between hundreds and tens or hundreds of thousands is vast.
Don't think a few hundred is weak—compared to the Hunter, Naruto, or Nura worlds, he'd count as a capable fighter.
It's just that Meruem had become too strong.
Infinite perfecting in the Hunter world, the extreme of Enhancement-style martial arts; in the Naruto world, seizing the Rinnegan and Tenseigan secrets and obtaining legendary eye techniques, plus the powers of Kaguya Ōtsutsuki and the Sage's younger brother, with their vast energy; the chakra-ancestor God Tree's chakra fruit; and finally, everything from Abe no Seimei—Nue, lord of yokai in the Nura world. His body had once more stepped into a higher evolution.
Two worlds' final bosses (Nue, Kaguya), three top masters not far beneath a final boss (Netero, Jed, Hamura), and countless regional elites (innumerable elite jōnin and Kage-levels in Naruto)—and a world's root fruit besides.
Only after absorbing all of that did Meruem gain his present strength. It was only natural he now stood where he did—tens of times, even more, beyond his canon Hunter self.
The gap between Meruem and ordinary Chimera Ants was ever widening, though the Ants had also grown through so many worlds.
Nen from the Hunter world; ninja genetics, chakra, and jutsu from the Naruto world; the longevity secret and genetics of yokai from Nura. Don't think the Chimera Ant research corps sat idle—they mined nearly every secret each world had before leaving.
The current Chimera Ant army is nothing like before. With yokai genes, barring accidents they can basically live several hundred, even a thousand years with ease.
And they inherited yokai advantages—biological predation in terrifying form.
Before Nura, squadron-leader/Kage-level Ants were few; now there are more than ten times as many. Their power has skyrocketed like a geyser.
Granted, "Kage-class" means little in Dragon Ball—the power scale here is the highest Meruem has ever faced.
He'd always crushed previous worlds by sheer might. But now there's Frieza with over a hundred million, his father, and his brother Cooler; the not-yet-arrived Android line; the Legendary Super Saiyan Broly; Babidi's Majin; the Kaioshin; the Evil Thought Wave and evil gods; even Beerus the God of Destruction's line.
Who knows whether the game's Demon God line appears too. "Experts everywhere" would not be an exaggeration. And aside from Meruem, his side is basically fodder. Never mind those super monsters—even Frieza's faction alone would be a handful.
Frieza commands hundreds of thousands, even millions, of combat units; sure, many are one-thousand-power grunts.
But even against those grunts, the Chimera Ant soldiers as they are now couldn't win.
Let alone Dodoria, Zarbon, and the Ginyu Force.
Meruem didn't think his three Royal Guards could beat them yet—though compared to canon, they'd grown by orders of magnitude.
(End of Chapter)
[Unlock +20 Advanced Chapters on Patreon.com/Mutter]
[For every 100 Power Stones, 1 Bonus Chapter will be released]
[Thank you for reading!]