Frieza and King Cold were completely stunned.
Besides Loren, how could there suddenly be two more Super Saiyans?!
"One for me."
Vegeta's cold voice rang out.
In the next instant, his figure vanished—reappearing directly in front of the towering King Cold.
"You… you scoundrel!"
"You hateful Saiyan monkey!"
King Cold roared, but the fear in his voice betrayed him.
He unleashed all the power in his body, attempting to use his so-called "kingly might" to intimidate this insolent Saiyan.
However—
Before Vegeta's blazing golden aura, King Cold's power didn't even cause a ripple.
"Too noisy."
King Cold's voice cut off abruptly.
Because Vegeta's fist had already slammed into his abdomen.
Boom!
The massive body of King Cold was sent flying by the terrifying punch.
In mid-air, his eyes bulged, his body curling into a shrimp-like shape.
"Wait—wait!"
King Cold completely broke down.
The dignity of a cosmic overlord was crushed into nothingness before absolute death.
"Don't kill me! I can give you everything! Planets! Wealth! I'll make you the second most powerful being in the universe—"
"Galick Gun!"
Vegeta didn't let him finish.
A purple energy beam roared out, instantly engulfing King Cold.
The former Emperor of the Universe was vaporized on the spot—no body, no ashes, nothing left behind.
On the other side.
Son Goku's gaze was firmly locked onto Frieza.
"You're asking for death!"
Frieza roared, erupting with unprecedented power as he lunged at Goku.
The battle began instantly.
But there was no earth-shattering back-and-forth.
No desperate struggle.
Only a one-sided, merciless crushing.
Goku's figure flashed rapidly around Frieza.
The once-feared Universe Emperor was beaten like a sandbag, battered senseless by Goku's fists.
"Damn it! Saiyan monkey!"
"How can you be this strong?!"
"It's over."
Goku's calm voice echoed in Frieza's ear.
The next second—
A point-blank Kamehameha completely engulfed Frieza's body.
He didn't even have time to scream.
Like King Cold, Frieza was erased from existence.
From start to finish—
The battle lasted barely dozens of seconds.
Krillin and the others stared, mouths wide enough to swallow dinosaur eggs.
Loren yawned, completely unsurprised.
"Mm. Not bad. Very efficient."
Even Future Trunks, who had come from the future, stood frozen in shock.
This was nothing like the future he knew.
What had he just witnessed?
Son Goku returned to Earth early.
And together with Vegeta, he killed Frieza and King Cold with overwhelming force.
What confused Trunks even more was Loren.
Who was this man?
Why had he never heard of him?
Why did he not exist in the history he knew?
What… had happened to this timeline?
As Trunks' thoughts spiraled into chaos, Loren finally looked at him.
"You're a Saiyan from the future, aren't you?"
Trunks trembled from head to toe.
How… how did he know?!
Not just Trunks.
Goku, Vegeta, and all the Z Fighters were stunned by Loren's words.
"Mr. Loren, what are you talking about?"
Krillin couldn't help but ask.
"From… the future?"
Piccolo frowned deeply, trying to process the implications.
Trunks steadied himself, took a deep breath, and explained everything—
From the tragic future twenty years later…
To Dr. Gero's Androids, who would appear, destroy the world, and slaughter the Z Fighters.
He also revealed the truth that Son Goku would die from a viral heart disease three years later.
Except for Loren, everyone's faces turned grim.
"Are… are you kidding me?!"
Vegeta's face turned ashen, veins bulging on his forehead as his golden aura surged uncontrollably.
"I, Prince Vegeta, killed by mere Androids?!"
"I will never acknowledge such a ridiculous future!"
Vegeta's voice burned with rage and humiliation.
"I… will die?"
Goku touched his chest, utterly bewildered.
"From… heart disease?"
Trunks carefully took out a small white medicine bottle from inside his jacket.
"Mr. Goku, this is the antidote."
"My mother— Ms. Bulma—spent years developing it in the future, specifically to cure your heart disease."
He handed the medicine to Goku.
Then Trunks looked at Loren.
"And you, Mr. Loren…"
"My mother never mentioned you."
"In my era, there was no such person as you."
All eyes turned to Loren again.
Loren scratched his head.
"Me?"
"Sigh… explaining this is a pain."
"Simply put—time isn't a straight line."
He raised two fingers, pointing one at Trunks and one at himself.
"The future you came from, and the present where I exist, are two independent parallel lines."
"Parallel lines?"
The term stunned Trunks—and everyone else.
"That's right," Loren nodded calmly.
"You didn't go back to your past."
"You entered an entirely different world."
"From the moment you arrived here, history already diverged."
Loren's gaze rested on Trunks, calm and penetrating.
"Everything you do here cannot save your original world."
"The future you came from still exists."
"The Z Fighters there are still dead."
"And the Androids are still rampaging."
"The only thing you can change…"
"Is the future of this world."
Boom!
Those words struck Trunks like a bolt of lightning.
His body swayed, his face turning deathly pale.
Can't… save my world?
That hellish future.
The world he risked everything to escape from.
Still existed?
The despair was even worse than the terror of the Androids themselves.
"How… how can this be…"
Trunks' voice trembled, hollow and lost.
"Then… what was the point of everything I did?"
"Point?"
Loren answered casually.
"It's simple."
"Get stronger."
"Then use your own power to return to the future and defeat the Androids there."
The air fell silent.
A new path—
A cruel one—
But the only path left to him.
...
Author's Note:
The fanfic Dragon Ball: I Became Invincible by Being a Lazy Salted Fish! Part 1 & 2 (Dragon Ball Z & Super) is now fully completed.
The entire story has been uploaded on Patreon as a dedicated collection:
📚 Dragon Ball (Chapters 1–343)
Organized into 42 posts, with multiple chapters per post for easy binge reading.
🔗 patreon.com/Shadow_demon_007
Thank you all for your continuous support and love for this story 💙