Dragon Ball Roshi

Since there was now a practical method, Taro naturally set out on the journey to find the Dragon Balls.

 In the previous ten years, he had been traveling with these birds by his side, but since he hadn't realized that the birds could sense the Dragon Balls' locations, he never paid much attention to where they went, even when they flew off to explore.

 Looking back now, over thirty years ago, when the first colorful bird came to him, it was gently pecking at the four-star ball in his hand.

 If it hadn't been for the Dragon Ball being stuck between the dinosaur's gums and teeth, causing it pain, and if his bird hadn't kindly helped the dinosaur knock it free... Taro might not have discovered this secret for a long time.

 Perhaps he would have never discovered it.

 These colorful birds had very low fertility rates, and they reproduced asexually, with no distinction between males and females. Each bird could only lay a few eggs in its lifetime, and whether or not they hatched successfully depended on fate.

 In the past thirty years, it was almost miraculous that Taro had managed to continue the flame of the first bird without forcing it.

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 Thus, Taro, with the three birds that had been with him all along, started wandering aimlessly across the vast human world.

 This was probably the dumbest, most tedious, and most exhausting way to search for the seven Dragon Balls... but Taro had no other choice. At least in this current era, he had no other option. Discovering this unique method was already a surprise beyond his expectations; he couldn't ask for more.

 He had originally thought it would take at least another hundred years before technology capable of detecting Dragon Ball signals would emerge.

 He had prepared himself for a long wait.

 But who would have thought... that the opportunity to gather all seven Dragon Balls had already flown to him over thirty years ago? He had just been unaware of it.

 Taro was fortunate that by the end of the second year, he found the first Dragon Ball.

 It was the first Dragon Ball he had found, with the help of the birds.

 It was the third Dragon Ball he currently owned.

 He discovered it in a lake. The three colorful birds were hovering over a certain part of the shimmering lake surface, reluctant to leave. Taro, making a swift decision, stripped off his clothes and jumped into the water.

 With his martial arts prowess, holding his breath underwater for ten minutes was nothing.

 Soon… at the bottom of the lake, behind some swaying aquatic plants, he found the yellow-orange ball. Inside, a dark red pentagram floated at the center— a one-star ball.

Splash.

 Taro's head broke the surface of the water, sending up a splash of white waves.

 He brought the one-star ball he had found at the lake's bottom close to his eyes and observed it quietly. The Dragon Ball gleamed from the water, and in the corner of his eye, he could see the sunlight reflecting off the lake, making the surface shimmer like gold. Against this backdrop, the Dragon Ball seemed like a treasure suspended in the heavens.

 The sunlight was intense overhead, and water droplets slowly slid down Taro's chin, splashing onto the lake's surface.

 Flap, flap...

 The three colorful birds joyfully fluttered around Taro, not knowing what they were so happy about. Perhaps they were feeling joy and excitement for completing the task Taro had entrusted to them.

 "Hehe..." Taro slowly rose from the water, gradually emerging from the surface, inch by inch.

 The water flowed over his bare chest, tracing the sharply defined muscle lines—his bulging pectorals, the eight tightly packed abdominal muscles, his rippling intercostal muscles, and the inverted triangle of his latissimus dorsi… until the water gathered at the tips of his feet, flowing back into the lake.

 Taro flew toward the shore, with the three colorful birds cheerfully following him.

 Landing on the shore, Taro used his Ki to create a shockwave—

 In an instant, water droplets were blasted off his skin by a fine but powerful force. As for his shorts... they were still wet. His Ki wasn't yet powerful enough to create the same heat as a furnace.

 "Chirp, chirp..." The three birds hopped onto the scattered clothes on the ground, pecking at them, picking them up, and hopping toward Taro.

 "Hehe… little ones, now it's my turn to take care of you." Taro shook his head and smiled. He grabbed his clothes from the ground and casually tossed them over his shoulder. He then walked away from the lake wearing nothing but his large shorts.

 The three birds naturally flew after him, still chirping nonstop.

 This time, when Taro found the Dragon Ball at the bottom of the lake, he suddenly realized something… most of Earth's surface was covered by oceans. What would he do if one of the Dragon Balls sank to the bottom of the sea?

 Not to mention that the bird couldn't sense the Dragon Ball's energy signals if it were underwater, but even if it could, with Taro's current abilities, diving into the deep sea was a death sentence.

 The terrifying water pressure could easily crush him into a pulp.

 This concern lingered for ten years.

 In those ten years, Taro found the other three Dragon Balls— the two-star ball, seven-star ball, and five-star ball. Along with the three Dragon Balls he had already found— the one-star ball, six-star ball, and four-star ball...

 Only the three-star ball was left.

 It was at this point that Taro remembered something from the beginning of the original Dragon Ball manga. Bulma, when she first set out to find the seven Dragon Balls, told Goku that she had accidentally found one Dragon Ball in her home's storage and, through reading legends, learned about the secret of the Dragon Balls and the Dragon Shenron. She also knew… that in history, someone had used the Dragon Balls to wish to become king.

 Taro speculated that the person in that story who wished to become king was probably someone like him—who used these special birds to successfully collect all seven Dragon Balls.

 A person who could only become king with the help of the Dragon Balls, Taro didn't believe they would have had the power to dive into the deep sea.

 Even if that person's era had deep-sea submarines, relying on those birds to find a Dragon Ball in an ocean vast enough to be many times the size of any continent would be nothing more than a fool's dream.

 Taro also didn't think anyone before Bulma had managed to create a Dragon Ball radar.

 ... Anyway, whether these guesses were right or wrong, it no longer mattered. Taro had already gathered six of the seven Dragon Balls. Once he found the last one— the three-star ball— his wish, which he had been preparing for decades, would finally have a chance to come true.

 But as if good things must be hard-earned, the last Dragon Ball eluded Taro, even though he had searched every corner of the Earth.

 And so, after another five years of searching...

 Taro, with a bundle made of coarse cloth tied to his body, sat on a branch of an ancient tree in the forest, leaning against the trunk.

 To think about it carefully, it had already been sixteen years since Taro discovered the secret of the bird and set off to find the Dragon Balls. Now, his appearance looked like that of a man in his fifties. The deep, wrinkled lines on his face were not only more numerous but also much deeper than before.

 A strand of white hair had finally sprouted at his temples.

 Taro tilted his head, looking through the thick foliage at the vast, blue sky, with faint, white clouds slowly drifting by. This old man, now ninety years old, had a calm expression, and no one knew what he was thinking.

 Flap, flap...

 Seven birds blocked the sunlight in front of Taro, causing the light to flicker and shift. Taro smiled slightly and raised his arm. The seven colorful birds immediately flew toward his arm and hand, jostling each other in a flurry of activity.

 "Alright, alright, stop it."

 Taro raised his other hand, which seemed to possess some kind of magic. In an instant, the seven birds ceased their ruckus, quietly and orderly settling onto his arm. Those with no room to perch simply hopped onto his shoulder or head. Taro didn't mind at all.

 He gently stroked the smooth feathers of the colorful birds on his arm and softly asked.

 "Little ones, have you found it?"

 In the past, whenever the birds had found a Dragon Ball, they would immediately bring it to him as he instructed. Seeing that the birds claws were empty this time, Taro assumed they hadn't found one.

 But as soon as the words left his mouth, all seven birds flapped their wings in unison, soaring into the air in front of him. They hovered, flapping their wings, making noisy chirping sounds.

 After a while, they began flying toward a specific direction, and the last bird left behind on Taro's arm chirped at him before flying off to join the others.

 Taro leaned back against the tree trunk, narrowing his eyes slightly.

 Finally… was it time to gather all seven Dragon Balls?

 His back slowly left the dry bark of the tree, and in the next second, he was already standing on the ground. With a single blink, he had walked nearly a hundred meters forward.

 The scattered golden sunlight in the forest filtered through the gaps in the leaves, casting shadows on the dirt path. A light breeze blew by, leaving behind only a shallow footprint in the earth.

 As for where the footprint before it had gone, who knew? Perhaps… it had already stepped onto the shores of dreams and ambitions.

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