One Piece: Dungeon Shop. Scamming Garp, Reward: Eight-Tails Jinchuriki

Chapter 537: Chapter 537: Krillin’s Death! Goku Goes Completely Berserk

Namek’s surface had been transformed into a colossal, planetary furnace. Boiling magma flowed indiscriminately through the ruptured crust. The air was thick with the acrid, choking stench of sulfur and burning rock.

Krillin gasped desperately for air, every breath feeling like he was inhaling razor blades. He grabbed Gohan’s hand, stumbling and sprinting frantically across the collapsing terrain. With every step, the soles of their boots sizzled and smoked against the superheated stone.

But they didn’t dare stop.

In that massive meteorite crater ahead, Goku’s Ki was fading to nothing.

Faster. We have to go faster, Krillin prayed frantically in his mind. He knew perfectly well that even if he got there, he couldn’t do a damn thing to help. But he absolutely refused to leave Goku behind.

Gohan’s tears threatened to spill over. He was just a child. A planetary-level cataclysm of this magnitude had long surpassed his psychological breaking point. Clinging tightly to Krillin’s hand, he pumped his short legs as fast as he could.

The two finally scaled a relatively intact ridge. The sight before them made their blood run ice-cold.

The ground for hundreds of kilometers had completely vanished. In its place was a bottomless lake of churning magma. The dark red glow of the fire painted the sky like a scene straight out of hell. The massive bodies of Akainu and Kaido were nowhere to be seen—whether they were buried deep underground or melted down by the extreme heat, it was impossible to tell.

Only in a corner of the rubble did a faint, familiar Ki linger.

It was Goku.

Krillin froze, his entire body going stiff. He stopped breathing. The Goku who always stood in front of them, the Goku who was capable of doing the impossible... didn’t even have the strength to stand up.

A gentle breeze parted the thick smoke ahead.

A small, pristine white figure slowly levitated upward. Frieza hovered in mid-air, not a single speck of dust marring his sleek body. His aloof, patronizing posture made him look like a deity looking down on a swarm of insignificant ants.

Frieza tilted his head slightly. Those cold, purple eyes locked onto the two figures on the ridge.

"Oh?" A cruel, sadistic smile crept onto Frieza’s lips. "It seems two little bugs managed to slip through the net."

He didn’t speak loudly, yet his voice effortlessly pierced through the deafening roar of the churning magma, echoing with crystal clarity in Krillin and Gohan’s ears.

Back in Partys Bar in Foosha Village, the massive holographic screen hovered in the center of the room. The tavern was dead silent. Everyone held their breath.

Sengoku crushed the teacup in his hand, hot tea spilling across the table. He stared at the white alien on the screen, his palms slick with cold sweat. Even the combined might of Akainu and Kaido had been beaten to the brink of death. This was a battle on an entirely different dimension.

Blake leaned against the bar. He took a casual sip of his coffee.

"The real show is just getting started," Blake remarked softly.

Garp furrowed his brow tightly. He couldn’t understand how the Shop Manager could remain so relaxed. The situation on the screen was a completely one-sided massacre.

Shifting the perspective back to Namek.

Krillin’s heart seized violently. Instinctively, he stepped in front of Gohan to shield him. But he knew it was pointless. In front of this monster, they didn’t even have the right to run. If the alien so much as blew a breath in their direction, they would be ground into meat paste.

The sound of shifting rocks echoed from the rubble. A blood-stained hand reached out from the crevices.

Goku gripped a jagged rock tightly, his fingernails torn and bleeding. He pushed with all his remaining strength, shoving the heavy boulders off his body. The extreme overexertion of the Kaio-ken Times Twenty, compounded by taking the shockwave head-on, had left his body entirely broken. His muscle fibers were shredded. His bones were extensively pulverized.

Yet, he forced his head up, his bloodshot eyes struggling to focus.

He saw Krillin and Gohan.

"Run... get away..." Goku forced the words through a hoarse, torn throat. He wanted to scream, to roar, but the sound he produced couldn’t even overpower the wind.

He tried to move his legs. Agony crashed over his nerves like a tidal wave. His body completely refused to obey his commands. He could only watch in helpless horror as Frieza floated toward his best friend and his son.

Frieza stopped roughly ten meters away from Krillin. He sized up the bald Earthling with an amused glint in his eye.

"That Filthy Monkey earlier fought tooth and nail to save this pathetic mudball," Frieza chuckled disdainfully. "So it was for you two. What sickeningly foolish sentimentality."

Frieza turned his gaze toward Gohan.

"Such fragile lives. Let’s start with the little monkey, shall we?"

A bright crimson light sparked at the tip of Frieza’s index finger. A Death Beam was fully charged.

Gohan’s body locked up completely. He wanted to run, but his legs felt like they were filled with lead. Absolute terror swallowed his willpower whole. He was just a kid. Facing a death so overwhelmingly absolute, he couldn’t even muster the strength to close his eyes.

Frieza’s finger curled slightly. The crimson beam fired at speeds the naked eye couldn’t track, carving a straight line through the air, aimed dead center at Gohan’s chest.

Suddenly, a short figure violently slammed into Gohan from the side.

It was Krillin.

He didn’t know where he had found the last dregs of strength. Every bone in his body screamed. His muscles spasmed to the point of grotesque distortion. Yet, he kicked off the ground harder than he ever had in his entire life. Faster than any Tenkaichi Budokai match.

He shoved Gohan out of the Death Beam’s trajectory.

And then—

The crimson light pierced straight through Krillin’s chest. It punched through his front and exited his back, leaving a ghastly, fist-sized hole in its wake.

Time seemed to freeze.

Krillin looked down at the smoking void in his chest. Incredibly, a small smile graced his lips.

"Thank goodness... I made it in time..." His voice was as light as a falling leaf.

Gohan collapsed onto the ground, his face splattered with Krillin’s blood. He had watched that beam tear through Krillin’s body. He had watched the bald uncle who always smiled and made him laugh throw himself into the jaws of death to save him.

"K... Krillin..." Gohan’s voice trembled violently.

Krillin dropped to his knees. He couldn’t feel the pain anymore. His body was rapidly growing cold. His life force was spilling out of that hole at a terrifying rate.

With immense effort, he turned his head. He looked at Gohan. Then, he looked into the distance, at Goku lying in the rubble.

"Goku... Gohan is... in your hands..."

His lips continued to move, but no sound came out.

Frieza tilted his head with great interest. "Oh? You actually had the strength to block a fatal blow for someone else? How stupidly touching."

He raised his finger once more. The second Death Beam fired without a shred of hesitation.

This time, it struck Krillin’s head.

The kinetic impact launched Krillin’s small body into the air, sending him tumbling dozens of meters before he slammed into a boulder like a swatted fly. Blood painted the jagged rocks red.

His arm remained frozen in the posture he had used to shove Gohan away, reaching stiffly forward. His eyes were half-open. The faint trace of his final smile lingered on his lips.

The Dragon Balls of Namek could only revive someone who hadn’t died before. He had already died once on Earth.

This was farewell. A complete, irreversible, eternal farewell.

Gohan knelt exactly where he was. The blood soaking him wasn’t his own. It was Krillin’s. The warm blood trailed down his cheeks, mixing with his tears.

It’s my fault... Krillin died because of me... If I was just a little stronger... If I hadn’t just stood there...

Gohan’s pupils rapidly dilated. His mind was fracturing.

From the rubble, Goku saw everything.

He saw Krillin use his dying breath to throw himself at Gohan. He saw the beam tear through Krillin’s chest. He saw Krillin turn his head and smile one last time. He saw that stiff hand reaching out, never to be pulled back.

He died to protect my son. That single thought drove into Goku’s brain like a red-hot iron spike.

It wasn’t just anger. It was something infinitely deeper than anger. It was guilt. It was self-reproach. It was the absolute, crushing despair and humiliation of a father failing to protect his son, of a man watching his best friend die in his place.

Memories flashed before his eyes. Delivering milk together on Master Roshi’s island. Fighting side-by-side in the Tenkaichi Budokai.

Then, the images abruptly froze on the smoking hole in Krillin’s chest. On that stiff, outstretched hand. On that eternal, fading smile.

He can’t be brought back. He’s gone forever. All these emotions violently collided, compressed, and fused within his chest, finally crystallizing into a pure, uncontrollable—

Rage.

At that exact moment, the sky suddenly went dark.

It wasn’t the volcanic ash blocking out the sun. It was a genuine, suffocating darkness. Dense, black storm clouds surged from nowhere, entirely blanketing the battlefield.

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