What awaited John was not surrender, but a barrage of bullets. Unfortunately, these bullets had no effect on him.
In just a few moves, he took down the front line of several Red Ribbon Army soldiers, causing the remaining soldiers to obediently drop their guns.
Looking at the raging fire in the treasury, John asked, "How do we put out the fire?"
A soldier from the Red Ribbon Army immediately replied, "Just activate the fire suppression system."
"Then hurry up and turn it on!" John shouted.
John's heart ached; that was his money going up in flames. This idiot—if you want to steal my money, fine, but why burn the rest? What a waste!
In John's mind, the money in the treasury already belonged to him. After failing to find Androids 17 and 18 at the Red Ribbon Army headquarters, he had been asking around and charging towards their treasury.
Unexpectedly, they had decisively set fire to the money inside.
As the fire suppression system activated, water sprayed down from above, quickly extinguishing the flames in the treasury.
John walked in and found that it wasn't too bad; there were piles of cash stacked densely. Although parts of it were burned, many bills had survived in the middle. Half of the treasury was filled with gold bars. While it couldn't compare to the pirate treasure he had found years ago, there was still a considerable amount.
John announced to the soldiers standing outside, "I hereby declare that all the money in this treasury is mine now. You all keep an eye on it until my people move all the coins and gold bars out."
After saying this, John stepped outside and closed the door to the treasury.
He locked it directly; although he didn't know the password, it didn't matter—did he need a password to open this treasury?
"Hey, do you have a phone here?" John asked a soldier.
"Yes, yes! Sir, there are many phones in the command room that can connect outside," the soldier quickly replied.
"Good. Take me there," John said with satisfaction before telling the others, "Pick up your guns and guard this place until I return. If you run away or if my money goes missing before I get back, that wall will be your example."
After speaking, John fired an energy wave that blasted a large hole in that wall.
Immediately, all soldiers present were frightened; they initially thought it was C4 or something similar but didn't expect it was John's sheer strength that caused such destruction.
John followed the soldier who led him to the command center and then called Bulma.
Before long, the call was connected; it was Bulma's assistant who answered. After identifying himself, John asked for Bulma. Soon after, her gentle, mature voice came through.
"Hello, John! Where are you now? What do you need?" Bulma asked.
Before making the call, John had inquired about this base's location and reported it to Bulma while continuing, "Bulma, please prepare some of those storage capsules I asked you for earlier and come over by plane to help me move some things."
After discussing everything, Bulma hung up and flew over to John's location.
A few hours later, Bulma arrived at this new headquarters of the Red Ribbon Army. During her flight over, she saw destroyed and burning planes, tanks, and armored vehicles on the ground which shocked her greatly.
Fortunately for her, she didn't encounter any attacks and soon landed her plane at the airfield.
At this time, John was already waiting for her with a smile as he welcomed Bulma inside.
Bulma asked, "This seems like a base for the Red Ribbon Army; I saw their emblem."
John nodded and said, "Yes, it's their new headquarters. I ran into them while they were robbing villagers."
"And you single-handedly took down their headquarters?!" Bulma rolled her eyes.
John replied, "Well, they didn't surrender when facing me and even dared to attack; how could I let them off?"
"I just didn't expect them to be so weak that they fled before I even broke in."
While chatting casually like this, John led Bulma to the treasury entrance.
"Bulma, this is why I called you here." After saying that, he fired an energy blast that destroyed the lock on the treasury door before pushing it open.
Bulma was instantly captivated by what she saw inside—a pile of cash and gold bars filled about half of the treasury.
Unfortunately, everything was soaked with water; many bills were wet from being doused while there were also traces of burned cash on the floor.
"The Red Ribbon Army has really met their match with you and Goku; both your headquarters have been destroyed by you two—each taking one down—and you're even more ruthless than Goku! Not only did you destroy their headquarters but also robbed them of their wealth," Bulma remarked.
John shook his head and said, "You're mistaken; I didn't want to rob them. They left this behind themselves! When I arrived here earlier, all that cash was burning! If it weren't for me, not a single bill would have survived."
"Alright then! Let's hurry up and put these into storage capsules; we can look at them later. I still need to go back and work on my spaceship," Bulma said.
With help from several Red Ribbon Army soldiers, John and Bulma loaded all cash and gold bars into storage capsules.
Finally, as John and Bulma flew away in their plane, those soldiers waved goodbye with their hats off until they could no longer see them.
Upon returning to West City after handling this unexpected fortune with Bulma's help, she went back to her lab to continue working on her spaceship.
In a cave deep within a mountain somewhere else lay numerous research devices densely packed together. More frighteningly were several experimental beds where bodies lay unconscious with various instruments attached to them.
Dozens of researchers were working at different instruments in this lab when suddenly a soldier from the Red Ribbon Army approached a balding old man saluting him while reporting: "Dr. Gero! We just received news that our new headquarters was destroyed by a martial artist named John. The information says you should include him in our revenge plan."
Dr. Gero took the file handed over by the soldier and glanced at it briefly before saying indifferently: "I understand. Don't worry; none of those who oppose us will escape. Once my ultimate android is complete—it will be their doom."
After finishing his words, Dr. Gero picked up a red pen from his desk and drew a large X over John's photo.