In Dragon Ball: A brutal beating of Frieza at the start

Page 160

“An’an, look,” her mother said, holding up a semi-transparent chip with the gravitational wave conversion formula on the screen flashing green. “If this parameter is optimized by another three percent, it will be completely synchronized with the resonant frequency of the bronze bell.”

"Mom, you should go and rest." Lin An remembered frowning at the time. "Your medical report shows an irregular heartbeat."

“It’s an old problem.” Wen Wan waved her hand with a smile, the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes squeezing into crescents. “Back then, your dad stayed in the Land of the End for half a year, and when he came back, his heart rate was even more erratic than mine. By the way, remember, when the bronze bell resonates with your heartbeat, don’t trust the instruments, trust your intuition.” She suddenly leaned closer to the camera, her voice very low, “Just like back then, I trusted that your dad wouldn’t really make me sign the divorce papers.”

The door to the medical pod slowly slid open, and Lin An stumbled towards the control panel. Xiao Li quickly caught her, the warmth of his palm seeping through the protective suit, carrying the burning heat unique to young people.

"Academician Wen's data packet encryption level is the highest level." Xiao Li brought up the file list, his fingertips pausing on the virtual keyboard. "The last file... has a strange name."

Lin An's gaze fell on the screen, "A bedtime story for An An." This nickname was like a needle, unexpectedly piercing her tear ducts. The last time she heard her mother call her that was when she was ten years old, running a high fever, and Wen Wan sat by her bedside reading her father's adventure log.

“Unlock it,” she said through gritted teeth, pressing her fingertips onto the decryptor to leave her fingerprint.

The holographic screen suddenly lit up, and Wen Wan's image slowly took shape in mid-air. The old lady was wearing that faded white coat, and behind her on the bookshelf was a framed photo of Lin Yanzhou. The young man in the photo was looking down at a document, and the lines of his profile almost overlapped with the image of himself that Lin An saw in the reflection of the screen.

“By the time you see this video, Mom should have already gone to see your father.” Wen Wan’s voice was very soft, as if she was afraid of disturbing something. She reached out and stroked her husband’s face in the photo frame, her fingertips creating ripples as they passed through the image. “Don’t be sad, An’an. Your father and I made a promise that whoever goes first will wait by the crystal in the Land of the End.”

Lin An's fingernails dug into his palm, and the taste of blood filled his mouth.

“The crystals in the End of the World started acting strangely ten years ago.” Wen Wan’s image suddenly turned to the camera, and the solemnity in her eyes reminded Lin An of himself every time the base encountered a crisis. “It started to seep out something black, which is the same energy field you found in the Martian ruins. The Watchers’ energy field is declining, which means that the contract that maintains the balance of the universe is about to collapse.”

"Why did Father never mention these things in his diaries?" Lin An murmured to the image, as if her mother could hear her. She had read through the thirty diaries her father left behind countless times; they were full of methods for activating energy fields, and every word hinted that they were the key to saving the world.

“Your dad always said I was too soft-hearted.” Wen Wan’s image suddenly smiled, tears welling in the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes. “Back when we signed the marriage agreement at the Blue Bay Club, he transferred all his assets to my name, saying that if something happened to him, my child and I would be safe. Some contracts seem cold and impersonal, but they actually contain something warm.” She took out a bronze bell from the drawer, and Lin An immediately recognized it as her father’s keepsake. “Like this bell, the Watcher left it not to bind anyone, but to remind us that technology will become obsolete, hatred will fade, but love can turn into stardust, forever guarding each other.”

A window suddenly popped up on the holographic screen, displaying a real-time monitoring feed of the End of the World. Spiderweb-like cracks crawled all over the emerald crystal, and black energy was seeping out from the cracks, flowing down the surface of the crystal like tree sap.

“These black things are cosmic pollutants.” Wen Wan’s voice deepened, and the beeping of instruments came from the background. “Once the Watchers’ contract expires, they will spread like a virus, swallowing up all planets with life. The only way to purify them is to activate the bronze bells of all the ruins with the frequency of the ‘Eternal Heartbeat,’ weaving a purification net across the stars.”

Lin An picked up the bronze bell fragments on the table. Sure enough, the green patterns were slowly fading, like leaves being dried in the sun. She suddenly remembered that when the chip overheated last night, Wen Wan's last message was only three words: "Trust them." At the time, she thought she was referring to Professor Zhang's team, but now she realized that her mother was referring to the Watchers.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" She choked up as she looked at the image, and her father's eyes suddenly became clear. It wasn't reluctance to let go, but worry, the torment of knowing the truth but not being able to tell him.

Wen Wan's image flickered, as if the signal was unstable. "Because there will be a price to pay." Her voice was intermittent, and the alarm in the laboratory could be faintly heard. "Those who activate the purification network will become energy conductors, and their bio-electric waves will be completely exhausted... just like when your grandmother signed the agreement, exchanging two years of freedom for your aunt's life."

Lin An's breath caught in her throat. She whirled around and rushed toward the incubator, her boots clattering loudly on the metal floor. Xiao Li, following behind, nearly tripped over the equipment she had knocked over.

Inside the nursery, Lin Wang slept soundly, clutching a plush meteorite toy he had brought from Earth. But the bell mark on his forehead was glowing green, resonating at the same frequency as the life monitor in the medical pod.

"Uncle Li," Lin An heard his own voice trembling, "Wang'er is alright, isn't she?"

“After you fainted, Xiao Wang cried for a long time.” Xiao Li handed over a piece of silver crystal fragment, with red sand still stuck to the transparent plastic bag. “He kept muttering ‘the stars are crying,’ but none of us could understand him. This was found in the lining of your protective suit. Academician Wen’s backup data said that this is the ‘seed’ of the Watcher, which can survive in the radiation zone and also purify pollutants.”

The moment Lin An's fingertips touched the crystal, a sudden warmth emanated from its cool surface. On the holographic screen, Wen Wan's image was becoming transparent, leaving behind only an audio clip, and the play button lit up automatically.

"Wanwan, by the time you hear this, I'll probably be a star by now." It was her father's voice, carrying the magnetic storm noise unique to the End Land. The recording time was 2145. "Remember, eternity is not about never being apart, but about my heartbeat still watching over you when I'm not here."

Lin An's tears suddenly fell onto the crystal. The bronze fragments in his palm began to vibrate, automatically piecing together into a complete ring. The patterns on its surface perfectly matched the "Eternal Heartbeat" chip, like a key finding its lock.

“Grandma said that Daddy’s heartbeat is on the stars.” In the nursery, Lin Wang suddenly murmured as he turned over, making the mark on his forehead even brighter.

Lin An suddenly understood. The price her mother spoke of wasn't sacrifice, but inheritance. Wen Wan used her wisdom to protect the Lin family's secret, her father protected her mother with his life, and now it was her turn to use the bloodline's covenant to protect this sea of ​​stars.

"Xiao Li, notify all personnel at the base to enter the underground bunker." She turned and walked to the control panel, the bronze bell slightly warm in her palm. "Direct all energy into the main control panel; I need to start the purification process."

"Captain, what are you doing?" Xiao Li suddenly grabbed her arm, his eyes filled with terror. "Academician Wen said in his video..."

“She didn’t say it was a one-way ticket.” Lin An pried his hand open, his fingertips brushing against the veins on the back of his hand—the result of holding the control stick for a long time. “The silver crystal on Professor Zhang’s chest, the mark on Wang’er’s forehead, and this ‘seed’ are all clues left by the Watchers. They are teaching us how to coexist, not sending us to our deaths.”

The shuttle's dome slowly opened, and the Martian sunrise just rose above the horizon, casting a golden beam of light onto the control panel. Lin An placed the bronze bell onto the silver crystal; the instant they touched, the green patterns on the bell's surface climbed up the beam of light, aligning with the beam of light from the ruins outside the window, like a bridge spanning heaven and earth.

On the console screen, countless data began to flow. The end of Earth, the unknown ruins of Saturn's rings, beneath Pluto's icy surface... all the known bronze bell ruins were sending signals, like stars lighting up.

"Purification program activated." Lin An's fingertip landed on the red button, and he suddenly remembered his mother's last smile.

Just then, Lin Wang in the incubator suddenly cried. The little guy pointed at the screen, his tiny finger tracing strange arcs in the air—the trajectory of the bronze bell's energy field. Lin An looked down at his wrist; the bell mark that had appeared out of nowhere was now burning hot, perfectly aligning with the frequency of the "Eternal Heartbeat" chip.

"What's going on?" Xiao Li suddenly pointed at the screen, his voice trembling. "The energy reading is plummeting!"

Lin An looked up abruptly and saw the green patterns on the bronze bell fading, replaced by a silver sheen, the same color as the mark on Lin Wang's forehead. The beams of light in the ruins area suddenly trembled violently, and the alarm on the control panel blared as if it were about to explode.

"The frequency is wrong!" She suddenly realized that the map of the end in her father's log did not indicate the activation frequency at all, but rather the calibration parameters. "Quickly, reduce the frequency of the 'Eternal Heartbeat' chip by thirty-seven percent!"

Xiao Li's fingers flew across the keyboard, sweat dripping onto the keys and splashing into tiny droplets. The moment the value was locked, the bronze bell suddenly emitted a clear, resonant sound, like the tolling of a bronze bell in an old house.

Lin An heard countless soft sounds, like millions of people whispering. She looked down at the nursery, where Lin Wang was giggling, patting the walls with his little hands, the mark on his forehead like a living medal.

"Captain, look!" Xiao Li's voice was trembling with tears.

On the screen, the black energy of the End Land was fading, and the purple orb of light in the Martian ruins area had transformed into a transparent dome. Above that energy-formed dome, Lin An seemed to see countless blue-skinned figures, their chests glowing with crystals, like stars fallen to earth.

But just then, the sound of the bronze bell suddenly changed, becoming sharp like shattering glass. Lin An's vision blurred, and the mark on her wrist felt like a branding iron. She finally understood what her mother hadn't said: the so-called inheritance was always accompanied by pain.

“Wang’er…” She staggered toward the nursery, but just before she touched the wall, she saw the mark on her son’s forehead suddenly fly out and turn into a silver thread that went into the bronze bell.

The sound of the bell stopped abruptly.

An eerie silence fell over the entire Mars base.

Lin An froze, staring at the energy waveform on the control panel screen that had suddenly straightened out. His heart felt like it was being gripped by an invisible hand. Little Li's scream rang out from afar, but she couldn't hear anything. Her eyes were fixed on the small, closed-eyed figure in the incubator. The bell mark on Lin Wang's forehead had vanished, along with his steady breathing.

Chapter 360: The Coordinates of a Heartbeat

As the dome of the Mars base hummed under the energy surge, Lin An was embedding the last fragment of the bronze bell into the groove of the stone pillar. The silver "Watcher Seed" felt as hot as a branding iron in his palm. The moment it burrowed into the gap of the bell along the lines, the originally gentle green energy flow suddenly became turbulent, rushing towards the sky like an awakened river.

"Captain! The gravitational wave frequencies coming from Earth are completely synchronized!" Xiao Li's voice boomed from the communicator, trembling uncontrollably, with the buzzing of the base's control console in the background. "All the 'Eternal Heartbeat' chips worldwide are getting hot. Academician Wen's backup system is amazing! Even the old relic at the Antarctic research station has been activated!"

Lin An didn't turn around. The soles of her boots were already deeply embedded in the red gravel, and the radiation dosimeter inside her protective suit was emitting a continuous screeching sound, the readings already exceeding the maximum value on the dashboard. A needle-like burning pain came from the places where her skin touched the energy field, yet strangely, it was wrapped in a layer of warmth, like the temperature of her mother's palm pressed against her forehead when she had a fever of thirty-nine degrees Celsius as a child—so hot that she wanted to cry, yet felt at ease.

"Xiao Li, check if the energy channels in the Kuiper Belt are open." She tapped the stone pillar with her knuckles, and the resonant frequency of the bronze bell suddenly soared. Her earpiece was instantly filled with overlapping sounds: the whispers of blue-skinned humanoids like the wind blowing through a bamboo forest, the rapid keyboard sounds in her father's laboratory like drumbeats, Wen Wan's sighs in the End of the World mixed with the hum of crystals, and Lin Wang's first cry in the incubator, loud enough to shatter glass.

These voices converged into a torrent in my mind, bursting open the floodgates of memory.

The image from when she was seven suddenly became clear: her father squatted under the locust tree at the old house, placing half a bronze fragment in her palm. His rough fingertips traced the lines of her hand, and sunlight danced like scattered gold through the leaves and his hair. "An'an, this isn't an ordinary antique; it's a compass for the universe." His voice carried the scent of tobacco and pine. "When it resonates with your heartbeat, it will find its way home."

At the time, she only felt the cold metal making her palm itch, and secretly buried the fragment under the locust tree. It wasn't until three days ago in the ruins area, when the fragment rolled out of the gravel on its own, that she understood that some promises are never diluted by time.

"The radiation dose from the energy field has reached five times the critical value!" Xiao Li's roar pierced through his memories. The sound of him knocking over a water glass came through the communicator. "Captain, come back quickly! The radiation-resistant layer of the protective suit has started to dissolve! If this continues, you will become..."

The rest of her words were swallowed by the sound of electricity, but Lin An understood. She looked down at her wrist; the fabric of her protective suit was becoming transparent, and green energy patterns crawled across her skin like vines, intertwining with the heart chip imprint left by her father.

"Li, take Wang'er to the observation platform." Her voice was somewhat distorted in the energy field, and the gravel crunched under her feet, each step feeling like walking on a red-hot iron plate. "Let him watch."

"Captain, are you crazy!" Xiao Li's voice suddenly rose. "That child is only three years old! He can't see these things!"

“He has to see it.” Lin An raised his hand to press his temples, where the stinging pain was becoming more and more pronounced. “Tell him that Mommy is playing games with the stars.”

As the shuttle's engines drew closer, Lin An finally witnessed a sight he would never forget: beams of light from the Martian ruins intertwined with the "eternal heartbeat" signal from Earth, weaving a vibrant green band of light, like a necklace left behind by the gods. Those once menacing black energy fields, now like startled snakes, darted along the band of light, only to crackle and transform into a shower of golden stardust upon contact with the beams.

"Mom!" Lin Wang's voice suddenly came through the communicator, clear and bright like a child's. The sound of wind could be heard in the background; Li must have opened the observation deck's hatch. "Uncle Li said this is the 'Zipper of the Stars'! Grandma wrote about it in her 'Interstellar Fairy Tales'! If you zip it up, bad things can't get out!"

Lin An's tears finally fell onto her mask, creating a small mist. She remembered Wen Wan's favorite hardcover book, with a beam of light connecting Earth and Mars drawn on the title page, and the words written in gold lettering: "When love can cross the stars, distance is just a number." Back then, she always laughed at her mother for reading fairy tales at her age, but now she was witnessing this absurd romance with her own eyes in the universe.

The green patterns on the bronze bell suddenly climbed up her arm, merging with the red light of the heart chip at her collarbone. Lin An's body began to become transparent, and the light of the energy field shone through her fingertips, drawing spiral patterns on the sand. It was the "Watcher's" native language; Professor Zhang had deciphered several basic symbols before his death, and now, when put together, it meant: "Contract complete, balance restored."

"Xiao Li, remember to tell Wang'er the story of the locust tree." She chuckled into the communicator, feeling her consciousness transform into countless points of light, merging into that warm energy field. "Tell him that Mom has become a star. Just like Grandma and Grandpa, she will watch over him as he sleeps at night."

"team leader!"

As the shuttle stopped at the edge of the energy field, Xiao Li stumbled out. He saw Lin An's body transforming into green specks of light, merging with the glow of the bronze bell. These specks of light climbed along the beam of light, coalescing into a gigantic heart in the universe. Each beat caused the star map to tremble, and even the red sands of Mars resonated with it.

The star map in the center of the stone pillar group suddenly began to rotate, and the patterns on the thirty basalt pillars lit up one by one, eventually forming a series of coordinates on the ground. Xiao Li rushed over and scanned it with his recorder, his fingertips trembling so much that he couldn't connect to the device. The string of numbers was clearly the crystal coordinates of the Land of the End, and the latitude and longitude following it were the location of the century-old locust tree in his old house on Earth.

“It’s bioelectric frequency…” he murmured to himself, suddenly remembering that there was a gene map in the last data packet Wen Wan sent, “It’s the bioelectric frequency of Lin An, Academician Wen and Professor Lin, which forms an eternal heartbeat coordinate!”

Suddenly, Lin Wang's laughter came through the communicator, clear and crisp like a wind chime: "Uncle Li, look! That star is beating like Mommy's heartbeat! Just like my bracelet!"

Li looked up at the universe, where the heart made of points of light was emitting regular pulses, the frequency of which perfectly matched the vibrations of the "Eternal Heartbeat" backup chip on his wrist. He wiped his face and realized he was crying like a child.

Years later, when Lin Wang became the youngest chief explorer in the Interstellar Alliance, he would always bring his son, Lin Nian'an, to the Martian ruins. The white-haired Li, leaning on his alloy cane, pointed to the flowing green patterns on the stone pillars and told the child the story about contracts and love.

"Your great-grandmother signed a marriage agreement at the Blue Bay Club back then, and no one could have imagined that it would be the beginning of the whole legend." The old man's voice was hoarse with age, and sunlight filtered through the modified moss-covered dome, casting dappled light and shadow on his face. "Your grandfather buried the heart chip in the Land of the End, and your grandmother turned herself into the last piece of bronze."

Lin Nian'an's little hand traced the warm lines, and she suddenly giggled, "Grandpa, listen! The stars are beating Grandma's heartbeat! Just like the sound inside Daddy's pocket watch!"

Li looked towards the Kuiper Belt, where the heart of light still beat, transmitting the frequency of its "eternal heartbeat" throughout the universe. In the distance, on the plains, improved moss had covered the entire red land, and when the wind blew, it stirred up green waves, much like the swaying leaves of a locust tree in an old house on Earth.

“Yes,” he said softly to the starry sky, as if talking to an old friend, “they have always been there.”

The communicator suddenly beeped with a holographic news report from Earth—a plant unlike any seen before had grown beside the crystals of the End Land, its emerald green leaves bearing bronze-colored fruits shaped like miniature bells.

Lin Wang stood in the center of the stone pillars, touching the "Eternal Heartbeat" chip on his chest, where a familiar warmth emanated. He knew this wasn't the end, but a new beginning. Just as his father had said, some contracts would turn into stardust and be passed down forever.

In the distant Kuiper Belt, the heart composed of points of light suddenly lit up, as if responding to this legacy.

Chapter 361: The Weight of Inheritance

In the ventilation ducts of the Mars base, the morning mist, carrying the smell of metallic corrosion, seeped in and condensed into tiny water droplets on the ground. As Lin Wang's fingertips traced the patterns on the bronze bell, his fingertips could feel the raised spiral engravings, like the spiral arms of a galaxy drawn in his mother Wen Wan's diary, polished to a shine by his caresses over the past ten years.

The seventeen-year-old boy stood in the center of the control room, a head taller than his father Lin An at thirty in the holographic image on the screen, yet his shoulders still bore the marks of youthful immaturity. His tightly pursed lips suddenly moved, not from nervousness, but from hearing a cough coming from the ventilation duct. Little Li was smoking in the equipment room again. Ten years had passed, and this young man who used to get a tap on the head from his father was now more addicted to cigarettes than the base's old coffee machine.

"Xiao Wang, what are you spacing out for?" The static on the communicator was mixed with a cough. "The gravitational wave data from Earth matches up, not even seven decimal places off."

Lin Wang looked down at his palm; the green patterns on the bronze bell were gently rising and falling with his breath. "Uncle Li, what exactly does the fluctuation of the 'Eternal Heartbeat' look like?"

“It’s like… tripping over something.” Xiao Li’s voice paused, and the sound of keyboard typing came from the background. “The core frequency of the backup system is jumping. The waveform that should have been perfectly aligned with the main ruins suddenly has a small jagged edge. You know, this system was personally tuned by your mother back then. She was even more meticulous than when she took care of you. It has never had this kind of mishap before.”

Lin Wang's Adam's apple bobbed. In his pocket was a third of a yellowed journal, which he had found last night in his father's old locker. The ink on the last page had blotted out in black, and the sentence, "Inheritance is not a burden, but a right to choose," had been circled three times in red pen by his father.

“I understand.” He turned and walked toward the tarmac, his boots making a crisp sound on the metal floor. “Have Xiao Zhang double-check the jump coordinates of the ‘Stardust’. The energy field of the main ruins will interfere with the positioning, so the error cannot exceed ten kilometers.”

"Don't worry, that kid stayed up three nights in a row last night." Xiao Li chuckled, but there was a hint of bitterness in his laughter. "Speaking of which, this kid is just like you back then, always pestering me about things from ten years ago."

Lin Wang didn't reply. When he boarded the shuttle, the intern, Xiao Zhang, was munching on an energy bar at the control panel. Seeing him enter, he nearly spat crumbs onto the screen. "Brother Wang! Uncle Li said you should check this again..." the boy said, pointing to the flickering green line on the screen, "'Eternal Heartbeat's' backup energy bay; the pressure is three percent lower than the standard."

“Normal.” Lin Wang glanced at the data, his fingertip tracing an arc on the touchscreen, bringing up records from ten years ago. “My mom left a margin in the design; manual energy replenishment is only needed when the pressure drops below five percent. She always says, ‘You have to leave room for unexpected events.’”

Xiao Zhang's eyes lit up: "Brother Wang, can you really understand Auntie's design drawings? I took a look at them last time, and those formulas looked like alien script."

"After watching for ten years, I've finally figured it out." Lin Wang pulled open the cockpit, and the bronze bell in his pocket poked him. Ten years ago, on the day his mother sacrificed herself, it was a foggy day like this. He was crying in the incubator, and Uncle Li was holding him while watching the monitor. On the screen, his mother's shuttle ship seemed to pierce the energy field like a leaf, and then... nothing happened.

As the shuttle departed Mars orbit, the night sky outside the portholes began to change color. The ice crystals of the Kuiper Belt, like scattered diamonds, refracted a rainbow of colors in the engine beams, but further on, the purple spread out like ink.

“Brother Wang, Uncle Li said this place is the universe’s ‘festering sore’,” Xiao Zhang suddenly spoke, his voice trembling slightly. “Back then, those ‘Watchmen’ people sacrificed their lives here to seal it off?”

“It’s not just fate.” Lin Wang brought up the holographic star map and pointed his finger at the location of the white dwarf. “There’s also their consciousness. My great-grandfather wrote in his diary that the ‘Watchers’ contract isn’t signed on paper; it’s engraved in their genes.”

Xiao Zhang swallowed hard: "So...so we're going to dig out this 'festering sore' now?"

“It’s purification,” Lin Wang corrected him, his fingertips tracing the black energy flow on the screen. “The frequency of ‘Eternal Heartbeat’ can resonate with the main ruins, like applying ointment to a wound.” He paused, then added, “My mom said so.”

Just then, the control panel suddenly emitted a piercing alarm. Xiao Zhang frantically pressed a button, and next to the red dot on the radar screen, a green dot rushed over like a shooting star, its trajectory perfectly overlapping their flight path.

"This...this speed..." Xiao Zhang's voice cracked, "Is it a warp drive? No, the energy reaction is too weak, it's like..."