Chapter 152: Core

Optimus Prime attempted to intercept him; as the Leader of the Autobots, although he did not possess multiple combat forms like a Triple Changer, he was still capable of flight.

However, even though Sun Cheng's combat power was far inferior to his, Optimus Prime's flight capability was likewise not worth mentioning in front of his own body, which had undergone repeated modifications.

Almost as soon as he ascended into the air, Sun Cheng, with his power fully engaged, had already climbed to an altitude of over thirty thousand meters, flying in the opposite direction of the Base at a speed of Mach 2.7.

After completely shaking off the surveillance of United States military satellites in the Great Lakes region, Sun Cheng then diverted to Canada, returning to the Base once again from Montana.

"Master, you are injured. I will arrange for a Medical Decepticon to repair your wounds immediately..."

Just as he returned to the Base, Atlas, whom he had summoned, noticed the injuries on Sun Cheng's body.

"It is nothing!"

Sun Cheng looked down at the terrifying shattered marks on his chest armor; although he could not help but feel a lingering fear in his heart, the moment he thought about how Bumblebee had failed to gain any advantage from him, a smile could not help but appear at the corners of his mouth.

Unable to resist, he summoned his newly equipped Plasma Cannon and examined it again with satisfaction.

The power of this Plasma Hand Cannon, which his subordinate Worker Decepticons had redesigned based on the Hunter Civilization's plasma pistols, had truly shocked him today.

However, it also had obvious drawbacks.

It was likely because he had repeatedly emphasized power to the Workers before, to the point that when they designed this hand cannon for him, they regarded the weapon's power as the most important design metric.

As a result, the power had indeed increased; judging solely from his exchange with Bumblebee today, the power of Sun Cheng's new Plasma Cannon was a notch stronger than the opponent's Laser Cannon.

It was just that the consumption was a bit too high.

Soon frowning, Sun Cheng looked at the new weapon in his hand, feeling indecisive.

"A single shot consumes 80 points of energy; this is even more than the energy consumed by the Vulcan Cannon spinning for two or three rounds."

That's right, the new weapon's power was great, but the consumption made him, who had only tested it once, frown deeply.

Heaven knows that the total energy value contained in his Spark was only thirty thousand points; if the opponent was prepared during a round of combat, it was likely that firing dozens of shots and hitting a few would be an astonishing result.

The consumption of Energy Weapons was too high!

Although he had vaguely understood this before, only when he was truly equipped with such an Energy Weapon did he finally understand why the battles between the highly technologically advanced Decepticons and Autobots were primarily focused on close-quarters combat.

The Spark could not afford it!

"Master... Master..."

Atlas's soft call brought Sun Cheng, who had been lost in thought while looking at the Plasma Cannon in his hand, back to his senses.

Looking up at him waiting on the side, Sun Cheng opened his mouth, just about to tell him to take the Plasma Cannon back for a redesign, but upon second thought, he stopped the impulse.

"I am fine. How is the design of the Exoskeleton Device I asked you to work on coming along?"

Last time he returned from reality, he brought back quite a few good things.

The Hunter Civilization's spaceship and plasma pistols were undoubtedly the biggest gains, but there were also some other small pieces of Hunter equipment, all of which he had dumped onto Atlas, telling him to lead the other Workers to study them while researching the spaceship.

A set of Exoskeleton Device was a requirement Sun Cheng had proposed to them.

He had captured a crude set of Exoskeleton Device from a Ghost Hunter he had killed; although Sun Cheng only kept the three major components—the mask, the Optical Stealth Net, and the individual auxiliary device—they were the most core equipment of that Ghost's Exoskeleton Device.

With these as a reference, Sun Cheng hoped that the Decepticon Workers could design a usable Exoskeleton Device for him.

Of course, this device was naturally not for the Frenzy Body to use, but designed for his own physically weak self in reality.

After hearing the instruction, Atlas nodded, his eyes looking a bit dazed, "Yes, Master. According to your requirements, there is not much difficulty in the design. If you need it now, I can produce a finished set within a week!"

After completing the transaction with Barricade previously, Sun Cheng had received a batch of new Industrial Decepticons and Medical Decepticons.

To facilitate management, he had extracted a small amount of information from his body and injected it into Atlas's Core; this was one of the many experiments he had conducted over the past month or so.

Judging from the results, the experimental effect was good.

These things, which the Mechanical Life of Cybertron called 【Life Force】, had undoubtedly brought some peculiar changes to Atlas; he not only managed the group of newly joined Workers and Spiders in an orderly fashion, but the many projects Sun Cheng had assigned were also proceeding methodically one by one.

It was just that there were still too few hands!

The newly joined Workers almost all had work on their hands now, and there were more plans in the queue.

That was why Atlas had said he could produce a finished set within a week when reporting on the exoskeleton armor—because everyone was busy!

Frowning, Sun Cheng suddenly thought about his current lack of manpower and could not help but feel troubled.

"If only I could also manufacture Workers on a large scale..."

Unable to resist a sigh, Sun Cheng felt somewhat helpless.

He had been studying the Core for a long time; he had been researching it ever since Starscream gave him a Level 2 Core, and even after Atlas was acquired, he had often used him to study the Core within his body.

The more he studied, the more Sun Cheng had to admit that Starscream and Shockwave, who had improved and redesigned the Core, were truly worthy of being two of the greatest scientists in the history of the planet Cybertron.

The Cores born from their hands looked far inferior to a Spark, yet they provided the Decepticon Legion with a steady stream of high-quality logistics and Cannon Fodder.

Sun Cheng had studied for so long and still had not figured out how the Core was designed.

Sighing, Sun Cheng instructed him: "Take some time to make a set of Exoskeleton Device according to the data I gave you first. Use the best materials; tell me directly if you need anything."

"Yes, Master!"

Having received the order, Atlas was just about to go down to manufacture the Exoskeleton Device, but Sun Cheng suddenly thought of the power issue of the Exoskeleton Device, so he called him back and asked: "By the way, how did you solve the energy supply problem for that Exoskeleton Device?"

"Master, there is matching energy in the Exoskeleton Device you sent. After we conducted a comprehensive study on it, we should be able to redesign a new type of energy that can store more power."

"Right, I almost forgot, there is also that 'Hunter-type Individual Combat Auxiliary Equipment'!"

Sun Cheng suddenly realized!

Suddenly, his mind flashed, "Wait, new energy..."

Sun Cheng could not help but cry out; with a face full of ecstasy, he had finally found the method for how to manufacture a Core.