Chapter 1: The Mountain Beneath the Clouds
I died on a Tuesday.
One moment, I was microwaving leftover mapo tofu. The next, there was a blaring horn, a blinding light—and then darkness.
When I woke up again, everything had changed.
The voice greeted me like a system prompt.
You are being reincarnated.
World Chosen: Dragon Ball Universe
Starting Identity: The Ox King
Template System Initialized
[Garp Template: 5%]
[Yukihira Soma Template: 20%]
And just like that, I was him. The massive, gentle giant known for his strength, his beard, and his daughter—Chi-Chi. Except this time, I wasn't playing the background role. Not with Monkey D. Garp's will bubbling under my skin and Soma's culinary genius thrumming in my hands.
And I wasn't alone.
She sat beside my bed when I awoke. Sharp-eyed, blonde, legs crossed, a quiet cigarette between her fingers.
"About time, darling," she purred. "I was getting bored waiting for your soul to settle."
Her name was Stussy, and somehow, impossibly, she was my wife. The former CP0 agent from One Piece, dressed in a modified qipao and lab coat, now sipping green tea like she belonged in the mountains of Fire Mountain.
"How are you here?" I croaked.
She winked. "Same way you are. Call it a matched transfer. Your soul needed something to balance it. I volunteered."
Life in the mountain palace of the Ox King was different now.
I trained every morning under the rising sun, my new body massive but responsive. The Garp template, though only at 5%, gave me startling durability. I could take a boulder to the gut and barely feel it. My punches shattered stone walls. I started running up and down Fire Mountain daily, weighted gear strapped to my limbs.
By evening, I cooked.
The Soma template gave me creativity, technique, and flare. I constructed a full open-air kitchen near the cliffside, turning ingredients from the surrounding forest into gourmet meals. Dishes that restored ki, calmed nerves, and somehow brought tears to even hardened warriors.
Stussy became my number-one taste tester. She was critical. Merciless. But her eyes always softened after the first bite.
"You're getting better," she said one night after I made yakitori using phoenix peppers and aged pork belly. "Soma's instincts are merging nicely with your touch."
Within weeks, I hit:
Garp Template: 10%
Soma Template: 35%
My fighting grew heavier. More precise. My cooking, meanwhile, began incorporating ki manipulation. I could infuse broth with soothing waves or sear meat using friction-generated ki alone.
But I wasn't just getting stronger for its own sake.
Because I knew what was coming.
Goku. Roshi. The tournaments. Piccolo. Raditz.
This world was about to spiral into god-tier madness, and if I stayed a lovable background brute, I'd lose everything—Chi-Chi, Gohan, even this peaceful life with Stussy.
No. I had no intention of fading into the sidelines.
One night, as the stars spilled like diamonds above us, Stussy curled into my side and whispered, "You've changed more than I expected."
"How so?"
"You were gentle," she said. "But now you're getting focused. You want to fight. You want to win."
I didn't deny it.
Instead, I answered with a question. "What happens if I hit 70% with Garp?"
She smiled, lips curling like a dagger.
"Then you stop being the Ox King. And become the Hero of the Marines."
Next Chapter Preview:
The world stirs. Rumors of a revived Ox King who can split the earth with a stomp begin to spread. Goku, still a child, arrives on the mountaintop, guided by curiosity and hunger. The meeting of "uncle" and "nephew" shakes the mountain. Meanwhile, Stussy prepares a scroll marked with a name from another world: Yujiro Hanma.