Chapter 41 Follow the clues (Patreon)

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After half a month, Sun Cheng returned to Tucson again, but he was more cautious than before.

"University of Arizona? Don't disappoint me..."

Quietly sneaking into the vicinity of the University of Arizona campus under the cover of darkness, Sun Cheng checked the distribution of surveillance cameras around the school while calmly looking for a convenient location to infiltrate the campus.

Before returning to Tucson, he spent two days in Carson City, Nevada.

During those two days, Sun Cheng was busy searching for clues about the All Spark and had invaded the internet multiple times.

Not only did he search for all records of meteorological disasters in American history, but he also painstakingly searched for news related to "ghosts" and "robots" online.

However, Sun Cheng was disappointed to find that he couldn't find any disturbances caused by the All Spark on the internet.

But he didn't completely fail to find anything suspicious. In investigating the meteorite incident, Sun Cheng found a suspicious clue.

As one of the countries on Earth that had experienced the most meteorite onslaughts from Onslaught, the United States has rich records of meteorite landings in each state, but the investigation of a crater called "Barringer Crater" in Arizona had no detailed information, which immediately aroused Sun Cheng's suspicion.

Patiently following this suspicious point, he increasingly felt that there was something strange going on.

According to Sun Cheng's investigation, "Barringer Crater," also known as the "Arizona Meteor Crater," is located in a desert in Arizona and was formed by a massive meteorite impact on Earth ten thousand years ago, with a diameter of 1.2 kilometers and a depth of 180 meters.

There are many online descriptions of it, such as geological experts estimating the mass of the meteorite that hit the Arizona desert to be several million tons, with an impact speed of 10-20 kilometers per second when it entered Earth's atmosphere, releasing about 10 million tons of TNT equivalent at the time of impact, comparable in power to a high-yield hydrogen bomb.

In theory, a meteorite impact of this scale on Earth is rare in a thousand years.

Even if "Barringer Crater" was caused ten thousand years ago, it is unreasonable for the US government to send a large number of experts to study the small meteorites that have fallen within its borders in recent decades but not to study it.

However, the result of Sun Cheng's careful investigation was that he only found that "University of Arizona" had sent an expedition team to investigate "Barringer Crater" at their own expense in 1912.

What did the expedition team find? Who were the members? Did they find any meteorite fragments, etc.?

Nothing about these could be found online!

This is interesting!

The largest meteorite crater in the United States cannot produce a detailed investigation report, and there has been no news of the US government sending more experts to investigate it in recent decades!

Moreover, this "Barringer Crater" is located in Arizona, and based on Sun Cheng's understanding of Starscream's cunning, he would not have placed his base in Tucson, Arizona, without any reason after landing on Earth.

Unable to find more information online, Sun Cheng could only take the risk of sneaking back into Tucson again, in order to infiltrate the University of Arizona campus and see if he could find more analysis reports on "Barringer Crater."

This is undoubtedly a very risky move!

Yes, after the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson was attacked and four nuclear warheads were stolen, the US government has been investigating the entire incident without revealing anything.

Sun Cheng couldn't be sure about anything else, but he already felt extremely anxious before even approaching Tucson, with an inexplicable feeling of unease constantly warning him.

Then, when he sneaked into the city and saw the armed infantry vehicles and helicopters of the National Guard frequently appearing on the streets and alleys, and police patrols becoming commonplace, Sun Cheng became even more cautious.

After capturing all the nearby surveillance device information with the "Spy Template," Sun Cheng looked around and his eyes lit up when he saw a big tree not far outside the school wall.

Quietly approaching the big tree, Sun Cheng jumped onto a branch on the tree with a leap, then jumped again with the help of the branch, and landed inside the University of Arizona campus.

The University of Arizona is the first comprehensive research university in Arizona. This public university receives nearly 700 million dollars in research funding from the National Science Foundation each year. The school's astronomy, geology, geography, civil engineering, and other disciplines have been strong since its inception, which is one of the reasons why Sun Cheng suspected that the expedition team sent by the University of Arizona over ninety years ago must have discovered something when they reached "Barringer Crater."

The nightlife of American college students is clearly very rich. Even though it is already late at night, students can still be seen coming and going in groups on campus from time to time, forcing Sun Cheng, who did not want to expose himself and attract the National Guard on the nearby streets, to be careful and avoid them.

After searching around the campus for a while, he finally found the campus library.

Unexpectedly, Sun Cheng found that the door of the library was only locked with a normal lock, but this thing could not stop his intrusion at all. He transformed his fingers and inserted them into the keyhole, and the lock was opened in the next moment. After entering, he closed the door again and walked directly to the librarian's counter.

After all, the library of a world-renowned university, the University of Arizona, is quite large. It is said that there are a total of 2.9472 million books stored, exceeding 30 million e-books. It is quite difficult to find what he needs from such a vast sea of books.

There were two computers on the librarian's counter. Sun Cheng could instantly invade the campus network by opening them, but he did not do so. Instead, he directly connected to the library's e-book database and began to search for the information he needed.

It took him more than half an hour to search, and to his disappointment, Sun Cheng only found two names, "Neville Octavian Brewster" and "Wallace Wilson Claremont", in the school history stored in the e-book database.

According to the University of Arizona's school history, both of them were professors at the school, one in geology and the other in earth physics and seismology.

The school history mentioned that the two of them initiated a scientific research in 1912, and then resigned together the following year. After that, their whereabouts became unknown.

No matter how Sun Cheng searched, he could not find more information about them.

Undaunted, Sun Cheng thought for a moment, and then locked the location where the school history and geology-related field investigation materials of the University of Arizona were stored through the computer. He then closed the computer and searched through the manually stored school history books in the room on the fourth floor of the library for more than two hours, but only traced the name "Benjamin Rodrick Claremont", the son of "Wallace Wilson Claremont".

He then went to the bookshelf where the geology-related materials were stored, and carefully searched through one book after another.

Finally, his efforts paid off. In an autobiography novel called "Interesting Earth" donated by an alumnus to the school, Sun Cheng found something that interested him very much.

"...A classmate from Cochise County told me that there is a sacred place of the Indians in Flagstaff, which is said to be a large hole several kilometers wide and deep, and the superstitious Indians believe that it is the place where the devil descends, and they have not dared to approach it for thousands of years. When I chatted with Professor Brewster about this, he expressed great interest and told me that it may be an unprecedented discovery. Yes, in academia, we call it a meteorite crater. If it is true, as the Indians say, it is very likely to be a huge meteorite crater that has not been discovered in American history..."

"In July 1912, Professor Brewster's application was approved, and he received a budget of $1,200, which was enough for him to go to Flagstaff before the summer vacation. He invited me, but I wanted to buy a car, so I planned to work during the summer vacation. Professor Brewster was a bit disappointed, but he understood..."

"I didn't see Professor Brewster after school started. I inquired about him and learned that he was still in Flagstaff, and he applied to the school again for $2,000, and also invited Professor Claremont to join the investigation team. The rigid professor was no longer there, which may be good news..."

"Christmas is coming, and Professor Brewster wrote to me that he was very happy. The report he and Professor Claremont submitted to the North American Geological Society caused a sensation. Many people came from Philadelphia, New York, and Washington to visit our discovery in Flagstaff, especially the fascinating meteorite he repeatedly mentioned. He said that a Mr. Vince Mihos Lawson from the Philadelphia Brotherhood proposed to apply to the US government to transport it away and hide it for research..."

"Professor Brewster decided to resign. He asked me if I wanted to go with him to study the meteorite, but my father hoped that I could return home to inherit his fertilizer factory, so I refused him, which made him very sad. We had been corresponding for several years, but we only maintained it for five or six years. When I asked him where he was working for the last time, he told me Black Gorge, and I never received a letter from him again..."

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