I hate running

Zayn who just had his first rollercoaster of a morning in Dragon ball is seen walking with a cup of ice cream in hands. Nothing beats turning stress around for Zayn like eating an ice cream does.

'Alright, about time I start doing something productive.' As he had previously decided. Zayn's first destination was the Capsule Corporation.

"Taxi!" Spotting a taxi car that was dropping some passengers at the side of the road, Zayn quickly shouted while waving to get the driver's attention.

"Hi, could you please take me to the Capsule Corporation headquarters?" Zayn asked as the driver rolled down his windows.

"Sure, hop in"

The journey to the Capsule Corporation's building was quite pleasant for Zayn. Yesterday he didn't get to take in much of the scenery of the city due to him being on high alert all day and night.

While looking out of the window, Zayn is currently thinking of a sales pitch that could get him to sell the technology in his iPhone which came with him from his previous world but quickly brushed the thought aside. What more needs to be said other than 'I would like to sell this technology that doesn't exist anywhere in this planet?'

Glancing further outside, Zayn spotted a fast-approaching semi spherical building with a large logo for which his destination lay on. Getting off the car, he walked steadily towards what seems like the main door for the building until he noticed a doorbell like device or what is more specifically known as an intercom, mounted on a tall light pole.

Pressing a large red coloured button on the intercom, a beeping sound rang out of the device, but no one seems to be on the other side of the intercom to talk to until Zayn suddenly heard

[Dear guest. Please state the purpose of your visit.]

A robotic sounding voice came out of the intercom. Zayn halted for a second and chuckled lightly after realising that he's about to talk to an artificially intelligent doorbell. One that would surely blow 'Siri' that's in his iPhone out of the water.

"I'm here to meet Dr. Brief to talk to him about a new technology that I'm currently in possession of."

[The earliest date for which a meeting with Dr. Brief can be set up is due in 3 weeks. Are you still interested in setting up a meeting?]

'Three weeks ha? That does make sense I suppose considering how influential Dr. Brief's company is in this world'

"Then may I please have a meeting with his daughter Bulma?" Asked Zayn in hopes of skipping the waiting time if perhaps Bulma could talk to her father into meeting him.

[Bulma is not currently within the premises; she has not yet returned from her school day.]

"Then if it is possible, may I meet Mrs. Brief please?" Zayn was determined to meet any of the Briefs because through them he could establish a direct connection to Dr. Brief and secure living funds as soon as possible. Waiting 3 weeks for a meeting with the genius scientist is an option Zayn would rather not pursue as the current amount of cash he currently has will not last him more than one more night.

[Please wait.]

After Zayn got somewhat of an optimistic answer from the intercom AI, he leaned against wall and waited patiently for a couple of minutes for Mrs. Brief.

[Mrs. Brief is currently undergoing a skin care session. Please comeback after three hours.]

'Bruh…'

Zayn's smooth sailing plan seems to have taken a small pushback. It was still 9:30AM in the morning so Zayn decided to leave for now to do other things before coming back to the Capsule Corp's premises later on the day.

Walking away, Zayn started revising his priorities and the objectives he wants to complete. He resolved himself to acquire whatever knowledge he could get his hands into as soon as possible, whether it is regarding the history of the people living here, the geography, the lands, features, their inhabitants, their degree of civilization and more.

Perhaps the delay in his meeting with the Briefs was a blissing in disguise for he, an oddity with no renown, suddenly coming up with a new technology to sell and not having any knowledge for what makes it different than what is already in use in this Dragon Ball world will be quite suspicious. Especially if Zayn couldn't formulate a background story for the development of the iPhone, he may very likely be labelled as a thief that wants to make a quick buck over selling them stolen foreign tech. That suspicion will particularly be raised if he is asked about the specifics regarding the iPhone. Such as the designs and circuit diagrams of the inner components and more.

'For now, it may prove wiser to seek information before rushing into procuring funds. I should perhaps start this with getting a map to mark the main sites in the city as well as other lands. It would seem that visiting a library is but a must do as with enough information I will have a leverage when creating a background story, not only for me but also one for developing my technology. Though I should be careful and avoid creating inconsistencies in my background now that the officials in the police station from yesterday have likely written and recorded my ambiguous claims regarding my origin in their report, but I should still be able to work around it.'

*************************

(West City, Central Library)

*Thud

Putting down the book in his hands, Zayn stopped reading to reflect on what he just learned. He rested his chin on his left while rhythmically taping on the desk with his right.

'This world's continental geography is a single Pangaea-like supercontinent and after studying it more there's no doubt about it. This gigantic land is identical to my original world's Pangaea that formed 300 million years ago on my original planet. That was a time when all the continents were combined as a single supercontinent where dinosaurs ruled the Earth. Yes, supposedly only the dinosaurs ruled my original world but bizarrely enough here, humans seem to be thriving as a species and a civilization.'

(Image here)

Zayn eyes trailed on the strange book he found in the urban legends section of the library. It was titled {Tale of Piccolo, the Great Demon King}

Sighing, Zayn took off his glasses as he leaned back against his chair and started messaging his temple. The content of the book wasn't anything that gave him shock for he already knows more about piccolo than what has actually been written about him in this book. Zayn instead was left with more questions the more he thought about this.

(AN – In case someone misunderstands, this isn't the baby-sitting Piccolo that we know and love. This is his villain father (kind of) from the original Dragon Ball. Sorry for the interruption, Enjoy.)

(Image of King Piccolo)

Some 300 years before the beginning of Dragon Ball, Demon King Piccolo expedited the Earth into utter mayhem and pandemonium, spawning an army of demonic offspring and converting the peaceful planet into a living hell. The Blue, azurite sky turned a putrid shade. The air smelt of burnt corpses with a strong ting of iron leaking off rivers of blood.

In the library that Zayn visited, several of such descriptions regarding the missing era 300 years ago were categorized in the sections of fantasy, myths, and urban legends in the library. While in history books on the other hand, historians take a more logically comprehensive approach to assume the events of the past; most of which mention a world war between humans and another extinct race taking place and forcing the use weapons of mass destruction.

'This is very interesting indeed. The people of this world have forgotten humanities nemesis 'Piccolo' in a mere 300 years. Today's technology that they use couldn't have developed in just 300 years, could it?! The planet of today doesn't seem to be one that was on the verge of destruction just 300 years ago; newly created ecosystems take thousands upon thousands of years for even the smallest of microorganisms to evolve, adapt and live symbiotically to form something of an ecological system.'

'But no no no, foolish me. I am in Dragon Ball where using logic seems illogical. The most probable assumption that I can make for now is that Kami above used the dragon balls to fix up the mess that happened after king Piccolo slaughtered most of humanity and left earth in ruin. It would also make sense that he used the dragon balls to help humanity preserve their accumulated knowledge that helped them develop the tools they have today.'

'But why did this idiot Kami not just use the Dragon Balls to wish his problems away? Actually never mind, every disaster could have been avoided if the Z fighters in Earth made one wish: "Shenron please keep Earth safe" or something along those lines but hey, common sense isn't so common here apparently.'

The time that Zayn had spent in the library still hasn't satiated his thirst to learn about this world. He had only spent his reading time learning about some landmarks in the world map as well as looking for tales regarding things he knew in dragon ball and even then he couldn't find much as there's a ton of books to look through. Although he found some mentions of the Tale of Piccolo, he still hasn't found anything regarding the wish granting dragon and his big balls (lol).

At the start of the Dragon Ball series, Bulma started her search for the dragon balls when she found a strange two-star orange ball in her basement. That ball sparked her interest as she studied it until she found ancient records that documented and explained the abilities of the dragon balls.

Zayn also did the logical thing anyone would do when remembering Bulma's story and tried searching for anything related to the dragon balls and it seems like this was an impossible endeavour to achieve.

'Could documents and information related to the dragon balls have been withheld and kept off the public by certain individuals? Why was Bulma able to find ancient documents as well as one of the 7 dragon balls themselves in her basement just like that?' Zayn bitterly thought as he was remined by the time he wasted while searching.

'Now that I think about it more, at the beginning of Dragon ball, several of the original holders of the Dragon Balls were all important people to the world.'

Zayn suddenly had a realisation.

'Master Roshi who was also disciple of Master Mutaito that was known 300 years ago as the jailer of King Piccolo and the first saviour of Earth also had a Dragon Ball.'

'The Ox-King whose castle is surrounded by a barrage of eternally blazing flames, had a dragon ball somewhere near his castle.' (AN: Ox-king was a student of Master Roshi as well)

'Goku's Grampa Son Gohan who once again was one of the strongest martial artists in the world AND a disciple of Master Roshi was a keeper of one of the 7 dragon balls.'

'And here it comes. The Brief family. If I were to claim that the Brief father and daughter duo are arguably the most intellectually gifted beings across all verses in Dragon Ball I honestly think I would be correct in my assumption. Considering the weird thing about them having a dragon ball collecting dust in her basement as well then I can produce a hypothesis based on everything I gathered'

Zayn grabbed a notebook with a pen and began organising his thoughts into orderly written words. On a blank page his pen calligraphed:

{Centuries ago, the existence of the dragon balls was discovered however it was not publicised. The original discovers must have experimented and asked for wishes as evidenced by the existence of ancient documents in Bulma's basement. Furthermore; One of the original finders of the dragon balls in the past may very likely have been an ancestor of the Brief Family. And so, their intellectual abilities that pass along their descendants may have very well been the result of a wish that their ancestor asked of shenron in the past. It is reasonable to assume that he was the one suggesting safeguarding the dragon balls under the hands of the strongest people in the plant to keep others from abusing them. He may have also...….}

*Tap Tap

*Tap Tap

Zayn kept on writing.

*************************

(Librarian POV)

The sound of the Zayn pen tapping vigorously as it fills the blank pages seemed to echo loudly across the quietly towering hallways of shelfed books. The sole librarian working at this hour was eyeing Zayn curiously. She was marvelled by the tenacity shown by the gentlemen she was watching for fare reasons. Ever since starting her shift in the morning, the only difference she kept on noticing on his never changing seating pose across the hours was that next to him, an extra book would pile on top of the previous one he was reading before it.

The librarian moved towards Zayn and tapped his shoulder to bid for his attention. Zayn who was abruptly interrupted in his studies looked to his left and saw the old lady that helped recommend him several books to read, so he knew there's a reason she came by to talk to him.

The old librarian took a glance at Zayn desk and then turned her gaze back to him.

"Darling, I need to close the library now so could I please have you sort everything back to its shelf. The library closes at 6PM, which should've been an hour ago, but you looked so concentrated, so I decided to wait until you seem done."

The librarian watched as the young man in front of her turned around and looked outside towards the library's exit doorway. She watched his calm and collected expression turn into a horrified one as he seems to have realised that the sun had already set.

'What a cute child.' The old lady smiled at Zayn's reaction.

*************************

(Back to Normal POV)

"Shiiiiitttt!"

Sprinting out of the library at his top speed, Zayn moved as fast as he could to reach the Capsule Corporation's Headquarters. He had planned to go back there in the afternoon to meet the Brief family or at least one of their members but that thought went out of the window when he started focusing on reading books. What makes the situation worse is that he couldn't find one taxi driver that would stop to take him so running nonstop there was his only option.

After experiencing what he would consider as the hardest time of his life since coming to this world, running as fast as he could for over 40 minutes while barely taking any stops to check directions, Zayn was finally able to see his destination at the end of the road. He continues running, or more like at this point he looked like he was howling and panting at the air while weakly judging to the Capsule Corporation's Headquarters.

After finally reaching the door's steps, Zayn absentmindedly pressed on the intercom (doorbell) repetitively multiple times. He was feeling ragged and out of breath. His heart beats sounded like loud drums slamming and beating against the walls of his ribs. Zayn's legs could no longer support his weight, leaving him falling on the nearby grass and the lack of oxygen that reached to his brain left him feeling stranded.

Zayn closed his eyes shut as he felt the grass touching his cheeks. His consciousness drifted away instantly after.

*************************

Opening the door after hearing intercom loudly ringing eleven times in a row. A young blue haired girl complained furiously in her head at whoever was annoying her at this hour and was going to shout at them until their eardrums burst like they did to hers.

She had personally created an AI inside the intercom that guest could talk to when coming her home, but this rude person was ringing the doorbell button instead of pressing on the AI one. The only reason the old traditional doorbell button was left in in the intercom was because her mother liked to be greeted by her when she come back to the house instead of hearing a robotic voice but that doesn't mean strangers should also make her have to leave her room, go downstairs and personally greet them does it?!

"ENOUGH YOU UGLY STU- St-tt. Oh.?"

"...…."

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"

The girl screamed as she saw what she assumed was a dead corpse of a man lying in front of her doorsteps.

.

..

…

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