However, this caliber of firepower still seemed to be insignificant in front of King Piccolo and his subordinates. King Piccolo waved his hand, and then a light flashed; suddenly, like a rising windstorm, a deep-blue energy wave swept out like the roar of tigers and the screeching of monkeys. In an instant, an enormous fireball rose in its place, and the armored forces were wiped out.
"Let's go… it's time for humans to experience the terror of King Piccolo again." After saying that, King Piccolo brought along his two demon subordinates and swaggered into the palace.
At this time, inside the palace, the king was reviewing documents with a solemn look.
"What was that earthquake just now?" The king raised his head and asked the royal guard next to him.
The royal guard replied, "I will have someone investigate immediately."
At this time, an official ran in and said while panting, "Not good… Your Majesty, a group of people have broken into the palace, and most of the soldiers who were guarding the palace have died in action. This is an image of the invaders that was taken just now… have a look!"
"This is…" The king suddenly stood up and stared at the image with an astonished look; the image depicted the scene of King Piccolo breaking through the armored forces.
From the image, the king could vaguely see King Piccolo casually destroying the armored forces. The large expanse of blue Energy waves swept out without restraint. The raging fireball soaring in the sky was like a nuclear explosion, very shocking to behold. In particular, the word "demon" emblazoned on King Piccolo's chest made everything sinister.
'These people are not coming with good intentions.' The king understood this very well, his forehead breaking out in cold sweat.
"Who is that person!? Has a demon king appeared?"
The king realized that humans might be facing a huge crisis.
...
A day later, the highest authority of Central City had changed hands. King Piccolo was sitting on a big chair made of bones, facing countless cameras, and then he proclaimed to the world, "The era of King Piccolo is coming!"
In order to directly embody his reign of terror, King Piccolo personally destroyed a large island in the audience of numerous cameras despite his declining body.
Amidst deafening rumbles, the island sank.
Flames spread out in all directions, and dark smoke billowed, as a huge fireball rose to a height of several hundred meters. Along the plane where the fireball had risen, a substantial circular shock wave rippled out to form a highly impactful visual effect, similar to the detonation of a large yield hydrogen bomb.
"Is that fake?"
"What the hell… Which movie was this taken from? The special effects are quite real."
"I have been to that island before; it's just like the real one."
While some people in front of their TV screens were surprised, others were doubtful; nonetheless, everybody was talking about this piece of news. In the current environment, if you want people who were living peaceful lives to suddenly believe that the world had fallen into the hands of a demon named King Piccolo, it would be quite a difficult task. Everyone assumed that they were right and others were wrong; thus, only a few people realized that the explosion in the TV screen appeared too real. As a result, they felt that something was wrong, and their hearts grew anxious and fearful.
"How is this special effects? It clearly is something happening in reality!"
Soon, the large characters at the bottom of the screen and the continuous scenes of people fleeing confirmed their guess that the world had fallen into the hands of a demon called King Piccolo. It wasn't scripted!
"That is…"
"King Piccolo? Is that the legendary demon king? We are done for!"
"The enemy seems to be very powerful. He wiped an island off the face of the earth with a casual wave of his hand. Too frightening! Can anyone defeat such a powerful demon king?"
This time, everyone believed it. The entire world was stirred.
The incident involving King Piccolo from three hundred years ago had already become a legend, but not everyone had forgotten it. Some of the ancient martial arts schools and families still remembered the terror of King Piccolo's reign. All kinds of rumors spread, causing a great uproar.
After a while, people grew restless, and all areas of the world were in an uproar. Many vagrants and gangs began to attack shops, banks, and even government offices.
"From now on, the whole world is mine, King Piccolo's…"
"Fear, tremble! Just like three hundred years ago, groveling under demons!"
King Piccolo had a smile on his face as he proudly proclaimed to the world.
Thus, under his dictatorship, Earth was shrouded in an ambiance of fear.
At this time, King Piccolo was sitting upright on a stone chair and his chin was cupped in his aged arm. "Cymbal, go and eradicate all the martial arts schools on Earth. Remember, you have to uproot them from their roots! I don't want martial artists to exist on Earth."
"Yes, Your Majesty!" Cymbal responded, and then he flapped his wings and flew away.
As he stared at Cymbal's receding back, King Piccolo's fingers rhythmically tapped on the stone chair. After a while, he abruptly stood up, and in front of the cameras, he announced to the world in a lofty tone that he would draw lots to destroy cities all over the world. In order for the various cities to escape the fate of destruction, they would need to contribute a dark-orange crystal ball with stars etched on it - a Dragonball.
"Only if you contribute this thing called a dragon ball, then this demon king will let you go!" King Piccolo threw a life-saving straw to the despairing people!
If he could, King Piccolo didn't want to let too many people know that his objective was the seven dragon balls! However, King Piccolo knew fully well that his body was getting old. He urgently needed to collect all the seven dragon balls to summon Shenron and restore his youth. In order to not waste time, he had no choice but to make this bad decision.
The announcement of King Piccolo was like pouring oil on the fire, leaving the whole world in a more chaotic situation. After two or three cities were destroyed consecutively, humanity fell into extreme fear.
In the Kame House, Master Roshi stared with a pale face at the scenes on the TV; the beard on his face swayed, showing how uneasy he was at the moment.
'I can't allow King Piccolo to bring about a disaster upon Earth again. Even if I have to fight against him with my old life at stake, I must re-seal him,' Master Roshi thought.
"The next city to be destroyed is… West City."
On the TV screen, when the crystal ball with West City written was taken out, King Piccolo solemnly announced with a smile.
Master Roshi's eyes suddenly widened. 'Isn't West City Bulma's home? Goku must be there with Bulma.' Thinking this, Master Roshi quickly grabbed a phone and dialed Bulma's number, but no one from Bulma's side answered.
He consecutively called more than a dozen times, before the phone call finally went through.
"Old pervert, why are you calling?" From the other side, Bulma asked in a nasty tone.
"Bulma, is Goku with you?"
"Of course, we just came back after exploring the virgin forest," Bulma sounded calm, as if she didn't know what was going on outside.
Master Roshi anxiously shouted, "Hurry up, and give Goku the phone."
"What's wrong, Grandpa Master Roshi?" Another voice came from the phone; it was Goku's voice.
"Goku, something bad has happened. King Piccolo is now ruling over the entire world, and several cities have already been destroyed in the hands of the big demon king. His next target is West City, so you have to be careful," Master Roshi simply explained what happened in these two days.
After listening to him, Goku was stunned. He didn't think that so many things would've happened in the short amount of time he had gone out with Bulma.
"Old pervert, is it really true? Has King Piccolo really destroyed several cities?" Bulma's fearful voice came.
"Of course it is true!" Master Roshi replied with certainty. "Officially, the number of people in the world who have died by King Piccolo's hands has reached 10 million! In order to celebrate the magnificent feat of killing 10 million people, King Piccolo has decided to destroy one more city. Ah, he is drawing lots again!"
"Ah! That guy is so evil… I will go over and kill him now!" Goku said with indignation, especially since West City was Bulma's home!
"Goku, you must not be reckless. King Piccolo is too terrifying, so you better look for Launch, Krillin and others. They will take action together with you," Master Roshi repeatedly warned him, "Krillin and Yamcha should be on Korin Tower, and Chi-Chi might be on her way to Korin Tower too…"
Master Roshi didn't know if Goku would be King Piccolo's opponent or not, so he strongly advised him to join with Launch and others.
"…"
Then, the call was suddenly cut short as the busy tone came from the phone, causing Master Roshi to be dumbfounded.
"Goku won't set off straight away, would he?" Master Roshi's lips trembled as he muttered.
He hurriedly looked for Hasky and asked, "Hasky, can you fly an airplane and send me to West City?"
"Of course!"
Hasky said in a matter-of-fact tone. As the world's number one Master thief, how would she not know how to fly an airplane? This was a useful skill for escaping.
...