Chapter 644: The Tunnel is Complete (Patreon)

Transformers Begin : Table of Content/Chapter List

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The humanoid Decepticon was the pinnacle of advanced technology that Sun Cheng most desired to master, surpassing even Starscream's newly acquired Decepticon breeding techniques.

Born with a soul from another world, Sun Cheng, fundamentally a part of the human race, was well aware of the nature of humans and the depth of their caution and hostility toward foreign species and civilizations.

Base Two was currently devouring South America, the most successfully fused region on Earth. However, racial discrimination was just as severe here, slightly better than the United States, which claimed to be heaven but was, in reality, hell.

After exerting various means to control more than half of South America, even Base Two was beginning to feel the strain.

Sun Cheng and his team had to remain hidden because humans were not entirely helpless against them. If they were determined, the nuclear arsenal from the five major rogue states would render all of Base Two's efforts over the past year futile.

Therefore, he needed many humanoid Decepticons that appeared to be human to help him gain complete control over South America. Despite their apparent loyalty, Sun Cheng couldn't place complete trust in humans, given their inherent greed.

Even if he had enough power and influence in the future, Sun Cheng had no intention of challenging humans' dominance over Earth. At least, he felt it was unnecessary and not worth the effort.

Earth was finite, with billions of people trapped on the planet. Its resources would inevitably run out one day. On the other hand, the Cybertronians were a spacefaring civilization, having possessed space colonization technology within the Milky Way for millions of years.

In this "Transformers Universe," Earth was not Sun Cheng's home planet. He meticulously managed Base Two solely to bring more resources and technology back to the Real World, allowing him to enjoy success there as well.

Since he had long known that there were more resources in the universe that could benefit the Real World, why would he remain trapped on Earth? Sooner or later, Sun Cheng would leave this little planet and explore the Solar System beyond, appreciating the allure of other planets.

With his right hand holding an Energon Cube, slender metallic Bone Spikes emerged from Sun Cheng's mechanical body like liquid, quickly enveloping the Energon Cube and beginning the analysis.

Despite Earth's civilization entering the 21st century, their use of energy remained rudimentary. Humans still required vast amounts of fuel to meet their energy needs. The division of fuels among humans consisted of gas, liquid, and solid fuels.

The Cybertronian civilization was at least five generations ahead of Earth in terms of energy utilization. While Cybertronians could still directly absorb electricity or other fuels for energy, they preferred purified, high-purity energy forms, such as energy fluid.

The Energon Cube could be considered one of the peak technological achievements of Cybertronian civilization. In simpler terms, it was a solidified energy block. Converting liquid energy into a solid form was not a straightforward cooling and condensation process. The technology and requirements involved were exceptionally high. Consequently, the production of Energon Cubes by Cybertronians had decreased year by year since the revolution during the Council of Primes era. By the end of the Second Civil War, the Autobots, a once formidable force, had only a few hundred Energon Cubes left.

Sun Cheng had been digesting some of Skyfire's memories recently, and as a result, his theoretical knowledge was rapidly expanding. However, analyzing the manufacturing technology of Energon Cubes quickly with his current knowledge was slightly less challenging than humanity's successful entry into space civilization.

Sun Cheng did not dwell on this too much; it was simply a way to pass the time. On the other hand, Swindle had yet to provide a definite answer, and Sun Cheng had developed some speculations regarding his intentions. Swindle seemed reluctant to introduce Lockdown to him, likely realizing that he had few cards to play in his dealings with Sun Cheng.

Swindle was concerned that if Sun Cheng were to make contact with Lockdown, he might just kick him aside and stage a deception.

There was no way to convince a Decepticon as paranoid as Sun Cheng, who had been manipulated by Starscream and tortured by Megatron for millions of years, to simply create a new mechanical body for Swindle without some benefit in return. So, for now, the matter was put on hold, and the frustration lingered.

At this moment, they were engaged in a standoff, each waiting for the other to give in first.

A day later, an alarm suddenly echoed from within the mountain.

Sun Cheng's eyes quickly lost their data shimmer as he retracted the Energon Cube, which had made minimal progress in terms of technical decryption, back into the Spherical Space. He emerged from a newly carved cave that he had set aside for himself.

"What's happening?" he asked, furrowing his brow as he faced Forerunner. "An enemy attack?"

"It's not an attack, Master," Forerunner replied. "The robots have dug close to the underground magma layer, and the engineers are arranging for the troops to withdraw."

"They've finally broken through?" Sun Cheng's spirits lifted. In the past month, he had been shuttling between Europe, Asia, and Africa in pursuit of the Leadership Module, keeping him extremely busy. This sudden downtime had left him feeling somewhat uneasy.

Now, upon hearing that the engineers had finally excavated a tunnel that led directly to the underground magma, Sun Cheng became instantly energized.

He didn't need to search for the engineers; they soon arrived, wearing expressions of delight.

"Master, the tunnel that leads directly beneath the island, to the underground magma, is complete. Would you like to take a look?"

"Yes!" Thunder and Swindle had been drawn by the sudden alarm within the mountain, but Sun Cheng decided not to stop Swindle from following him. He intended to inspect the tunnel, and Decepticons, led by the engineer, quickly reached the depths of the mountain, into a relatively small chamber.

The chamber was newly constructed and located deep within the tunnel. When Sun Cheng and the others arrived, it was quite crowded.

The soil and rocks dug out from the tunnel leading to the underground magma were temporarily piled up here. The troops would transport them to the other side of the island during the nights when the island's garrison rested.

In the center of the chamber was a straight tunnel leading underground.

The tunnel had a rectangular shape, with sides measuring around 5-7 meters, not perfectly uniform.

Sun Cheng approached the entrance of the tunnel, leaned forward, and peered into the dark depths below. Two beams of light immediately emanated from his eyes.

Shortly after, he nodded in satisfaction and said, "Well done!"

The tunnel had almost reached just above the sea floor magma. There were still some rocks and stones left to be excavated, but it didn't affect the high temperatures seeping through.

Through the deep tunnel that extended more than 300 meters, Sun Cheng could see that the rocks at the end of the tunnel were reddening, and the high temperature was causing the moisture in the air at the tunnel's end to evaporate into white mist.

...

These days, there's been a renovation project near my residence in the old city area. They've been replacing all the short, old-fashioned wooden utility poles and cement utility poles with metal ones.

So, we've had power outages during the daytime for the past couple of days, but it should be back to regular updates tomorrow.

The internet cafe today was incredibly noisy. The guy next to me was playing Overwatch, shouting and yelling. He kept peeking at my screen while I was typing, which put a lot of pressure on me.

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