Buying My Way Through the Multiverse

Gray used his remaining day of downtime to maintain his steady routine, systematically eliminating walkers from the skies while his subterranean shadow clones pushed the underground railway system to 90% completion. The moment his system interface chimed to signal that the Training Dimension was available once more, he stepped back into the quiet void. He immediately spawned his training clones, dividing them up to continue their intense study under King Kai, Garp, and Silvers Rayleigh.

Meanwhile, Gray focused entirely on his grueling conditioning, dropping into the arena to continue training under the heavy gravity. Exactly two days into the cycle, the squad of clones assigned to King Kai dispelled in a wave of smoke, transferring their mastery of energy manipulation straight into Gray’s mind. He could now fully access the Kaioken. Standing in the empty void, he flared his aura and tested the technique at its base level, feeling his power instantly jump by an explosive two times.

With this massive power boost unlocked, Gray decided it was time to spawn Captain Ginyu as his final benchmark test before he allowed himself to move on to Frieza. To ensure he was measuring his own growth, Gray kept the Kaioken completely sealed at the start of the match. He wanted to test his raw baseline capabilities first, knowing that if he got completely overpowered, he still had plenty of time to adjust his strategy. Before throwing his first punch, he also opened the system shop and bought a new specialized teacher, an inhabitant of Planet Yardrat. He spawned a fresh squad of shadow clones and ordered them to begin dissecting the mechanics of the iconic Instant Transmission technique.

With his setup ready, Gray summoned Captain Ginyu into the arena and launched himself forward. The two warriors went at it violently, matching each other blow for blow in a deafening flurry of martial arts. Eventually, Gray got the upper hand, and he managed to catch Ginyu with a heavy strike that sent the captain flying backward across the void. Gray didn’t stop, he took off into the air, flying right after him to press the advantage.

But as he closed the distance, Gray’s senses registered a sudden surge of energy. Ginyu was already charging a massive, point-blank Ki blast right in front of him. Moving at such extreme speeds, Gray wouldn’t be able to alter his flight trajectory fast enough to avoid the explosion. Reacting on pure instinct, Gray shifted his body weight and violently kicked the empty air to his side. The sudden kinetic force altered his momentum instantly, allowing him to barely dodge the searing Ki blast as it tore past his face.

He had successfully executed Geppo (Moonwalk). Thanks to the clones he had assigned to Garp, Gray had already fully absorbed the mechanics of the Marine Rokushiki style, and while his clones were still grinding to lock down the other five styles, Geppo had just saved his skin.

Gray stabilized his footing and continued the assault on Ginyu at the same relentless pace. He took a few bruises here and there from the exchange, but Ginyu was in a far worse state, bleeding heavily from his mouth, panting for air, and visibly running out of steam. Desperate to turn the tide, Ginyu began channeling his remaining energy into a massive Ki wave. Gray planted his feet into the ground and mirrored the movement, cupping his hands at his hip as the blue light of the Kamehameha erupted between his palms. Both massive energy waves collided in the center of the arena, lighting up the void. They struggled against each other for about a full minute, but Gray poured more Ki into the beam and completely overwhelmed the captain, coming out victorious as the smoke cleared.

Gray took a deep breath, popped a fresh Senzu Bean into his mouth to erase his bruises, and opened the gravity panel. Since he had successfully defeated Ginyu under normal conditions, he now planned to keep grinding until he could beat him while subjected to the crushing force of 150x gravity.

It turned out to be an absolute nightmare. Gray spent two full simulated days getting brutally beaten down into the dirt by Ginyu, his body breaking under the combined weight of the gravity and the captain’s heavy strikes. But each time he fell, he chewed another Senzu Bean, triggering massive, rapid-fire Zenkai boosts that rebuilt his Saiyan muscle fibers into an entirely different echelon of strength. On the third day, Gray finally managed to read Ginyu’s movements perfectly, dodging his strikes under the crushing weight and defeating him a second time.

He still hadn’t used the Kaioken once during those matches, and knowing he still wasn’t ready to fight even the lowest form of Frieza at his current baseline, Gray opened the controls back and ruthlessly dialed the environment up to 200x gravity.

Only this time, he didn’t keep the technique sealed. Gray threw himself back into the arena with the Kaioken actively burning around his body. At first, his stamina and physical frame couldn’t hold the violent kinetic transformation for very long under that level of atmospheric pressure, but he refused to slow down. With every passing hour, his Saiyan physiology naturally adapted to the strain. Thanks to his unlimited supply of automated Senzu Beans constantly repairing his cells, Gray’s training loop was bearing the fruits of literal years of grueling martial arts condition in a matter of mere weeks.

Gray continued getting used to the Kaioken. Days passed, and he kept pushing his body to the absolute limit.

Once exactly two weeks were remaining inside the dimension, Gray started thinking about the mechanics of Zenkai boosts. He had been getting some minor stat increases along the way, but he hadn’t experienced any of the massive, explosive power jumps like Goku and Vegeta had gotten in the original series. Deciding it was time to face a true threat, he opened the system shop to buy Frieza.

The system presented him with different options. He could buy Frieza’s different forms separately, or he could buy him as a complete bundle where the tyrant could actively transform into all his forms. Choosing the bundle meant that if Gray started beating him up in his base form, Frieza could seamlessly transform into his stronger states as the fight went on. Gray felt like that was the best option... if he managed to beat the normal Frieza, he could instantly jump in difficulty and fight the next forms right away.

Gray chose the bundle version and instantly spawned him into the arena.

Frieza’s first form was at least five times stronger than Captain Ginyu, but Gray threw himself forward and gave the fight everything he had. Surprisingly, the simulated Frieza possessed the exact same short temper as the real one. The very second Gray landed a hit hard enough to make him bleed, Frieza grew furious and moved to his second form, instantly doubling his power level and growing much larger.

The sudden spike in power forced Gray to activate his base Kaioken just to keep up. They locked into a brutal stalemate, but Gray knew it wouldn’t last for long. Frieza, realizing he was struggling against a mere Saiyan, became enraged and moved to his grotesque third transformation, doubling his power level once again. Gray immediately started getting heavily overpowered. He pushed his limits, activating Kaioken x2. When that still wasn’t enough to bridge the gap, he grit his teeth and forced his body into Kaioken x5.

With the massive x5 multiplier burning around him, Gray finally started getting the upper hand. He broke through Frieza’s defense, landed a heavy punch, and launched the tyrant crashing into the distance.

However, Frieza used that brief distance to unleash his final form.

To stand even a remote chance against this sleek, terrifying new state, Gray had to ruthlessly force his body past its safe thresholds, screaming as he kicked the technique all the way up to Kaioken x10. A blinding crimson aura exploded around him. Even with that massive multiplier active, he still wasn’t able to beat Frieza in his highly suppressed, relaxed state.

By this point, Gray was already panting heavily and running on his very last reserves of energy. It was completely useless. He was entirely outmatched. It didn’t matter that he had superior martial arts training from the world’s greatest masters...once his energy reserves dropped too low, his body physically couldn’t keep the Kaioken active anymore.

He fell to his knees, completely exhausted, and watched as Frieza calmly raised a finger, charging a lethal Death Beam straight at his chest. Gray didn’t even have the energy left to stand up. All he could do was watch the purple beam of light inch closer to his heart.

Gray closed his eyes and braced for impact, but the pain never came.

He opened his eyes only to find that the entire arena was completely empty. Taking advantage of the sudden silence, Gray quickly pulled a Senzu Bean from his spatial bag and ate it. He learned a hard lesson from his mistake. From that moment on, he kept at least 50 Senzu Beans directly in his inventory, since they stacked together, ensuring he would never be caught defenseless or have to rely on someone or something saving him again.

Once his energy was fully restored and his wounds were instantly healed, he started looking through his interface for answers on how Frieza had suddenly disappeared. He finally spotted a flashing notification from the Training Dimension system.

[Dear Host, you were about to be killed by your opponent. One of the built-in fail-safes has activated, successfully removing all sources of danger from the dimension.]

Seeing the message, Gray exhaled a massive sigh of relief. But at the same time, he felt deeply upset with himself. He had the ultimate training equipment, infinite healing, and legendary masters available to him, and he had still lost the fight.

Gray looked at his mistake and decided to avoid the rematch for now. He realized that throwing himself right back into the meat grinder was pointless if he couldn’t maintain his power. He planned on working heavily on his stamina instead, so he could last much longer in a high-tier fight and not run completely out of gas in the first hour of combat. He continued his grueling training under the heavy gravity while also using the Kaioken as much as possible, forcing his muscles to adapt to the pressure. He wanted to try to fully master the technique’s energy drain before attempting the fight again.

He did this for days, relentlessly pushing his body through physical conditioning drills, kata, and multi-hour sparring sessions against gravity while wrapped in his crimson aura. Finally, after a massive grind that forced his Saiyan cells to hold the Kaioken effortlessly, he felt completely ready for the rematch. He stood in the center of the arena, took a deep breath, and spawned Frieza once again.

Thanks to his massive, rapid-fire Zenkai boosts from his near-death experience and his newly optimized stamina, his baseline power completely skyrocketed. He kept grinding the brutal loop over the remaining final days, forcing himself higher and higher until his raw growth finally pushed Frieza to break a sweat and unleash 50% of his full, final power.

But just as Gray prepared to face the tyrant’s terrifying 50% output, the arena suddenly dissolved. The dimension’s timer had hit zero, and he was instantly ejected back out. He had completely run out of time.

Gray appeared high in the air above Virginia, the cool night wind slapping against his face. The moment his feet left the pocket dimension, his Minecrafter physiology snapped back online, immediately flooding his body with energy and healing any lingering stress or micro-tears in his muscles.

He turned off the Kaioken, letting the fiery crimson aura fade into nothingness. He hovered effortlessly in the night sky under his own power, replaying the sheer number of times he had just been brutally beaten down by Frieza. He could feel how absurdly strong he had become, but he knew deep down that he wouldn’t be able to completely crush the galactic tyrant unless he finally unlocked the Super Saiyan transformation. He shook his head and decided to leave that for his next training session.

For now, he needed to get right back to work in the real world.

Gray used his Jumper ability to teleport directly inside the dark, excavated railway tunnel deep underground. He immediately summoned a massive army of shadow clones, ordering them to pick up their tools and finish the remaining leg of the tracks. Given the relentless, enhanced pace they had been maintaining, the entire 650-mile subterranean transit line would be completely reinforced with stone blocks and railed within just a few hours.

While the clones filled the tunnel with the sounds of rapid construction, Gray opened his system interface to look for train options in the shop. He opted for a sleek, high-tech, fully electric train model. The units didn’t even feature a cabin for a human conductor; they were designed to be fully automated and remotely controlled by artificial intelligence.

Gray spent a fraction of his trillions to buy exactly 24 of these electric trains, instantly depositing them into his shared inventory.

Instead of having the trains rely on an external power grid, Gray decided to make a change. He bought and installed heavy-duty, high-capacity battery packs from Tech Reborn directly into each of the new trains. This meant the vehicles would be completely self-powered, carrying their own independent energy source on board. The batteries could easily be swapped out and recharged at the main settlements on either end of the line. By doing this, they wouldn’t need to waste time running thousands of miles of heavy electrical cables through the entire tunnel, and it completely eliminated the risk of a hostile group sabotaging the power line midway.

Next, to solve the lighting issue without needing electrical wiring, Gray opened the system shop and bought thousands of Shroomlights. The shadow clones already knew exactly what they had to do. They immediately began placing the Shroomlights at regular intervals along the tunnel ceiling, finally bringing a warm, permanent light to the entire subterranean path.

Gray teleported to his house in Georgia to speak with his AI. ”JARVIS, I just bought twenty-four electric trains with independent battery packs. Once the tracks are fully linked up, take a few of these units out for some test runs and let me know the second your diagnostics flag anything wrong with the line.”

”Understood, sir,” JARVIS’s smooth voice replied over the speakers.

Gray made it so each train was set up to be two passenger wagons long, providing comfortable seating for survivors moving between outposts. Behind the passenger cars, Gray attached two more completely empty, heavy-duty cargo wagons. With this layout, the automated transport line would double as a massive logistics loop, allowing the Council in Atlanta and the new leadership in Virginia to safely swap tons of fresh meat, dairy, manufactured goods, and weapons back and forth completely beneath the walker-infested surface.