Chapter 18: Unsealing Memories

"Awake?"

Opening his eyes once more, Sun Cheng hadn't even had time to clearly see the situation around him before he heard a cold, mechanical voice coming from beside him.

His body was filled with an unbearable sense of weakness.

He didn't know if it was an illusion, but ever since Sun Cheng had transmigrated and possessed the body of a mechanical lifeform, this was the first time he had felt the sensation of a life entering its twilight years.

Heaven knows, when he woke up again, he actually had the illusion that his time was running out and his life had already entered its final years.

"Is this the aging of a mechanical lifeform like a Decepticon?"

Although he had previously received some warnings from the Memory Data of 'Frenzy' and roughly understood the importance of energy to Decepticons, he had never personally experienced it until now.

Now, after consuming the vast majority of the energy stored within his 【Core】 and ending up in this weak, half-dead state, he finally learned his lesson and secretly told himself in his heart that he must never make such a mistake again.

Sun Cheng was currently in a moving police car; without even looking, he could tell from the familiar interior decorations that the one speaking to him was Barricade.

"The Task assigned by Lord Starscream has been completed!" he replied, fighting through the weakness: "I have followed the instructions and relayed everything I saw in the Base to Soundwave!"

Perhaps sensing that he hadn't added an honorific after Soundwave's name, Barricade was silent for a moment before speaking coldly again, "I understand. After we return, I will notify the 【Supply Room】 to replenish the energy you consumed!"

"Then thank you, Lord Barricade!"

Sun Cheng breathed a small sigh of relief; this feeling of weakness from excessive energy consumption was terrible, simply like an old man in his twilight years suffering from a major illness—it was agonizing to endure for even one more second.

As they spoke, Barricade soon drove into the 【Mine】 from another entrance, and the two of them wound around for a while before returning to the underground Base.

Barricade drove him directly until they stopped inside the 【Incubation Room】.

Clearly, in Starscream's eyes, the only place in this Base worth his concern was here, so most of the time, he basically stayed in the 【Incubation Room】.

"My lord, we have returned!"

Barricade transformed back into his human form, though this time he didn't carelessly toss the weak Sun Cheng away; instead, as his body flew up due to the inertia of the transformation, he reached out and caught Sun Cheng in his hand, and only after completing the transformation did he place the weak Frenzy, who was still maintaining his recorder form, to the side.

Starscream was currently standing in front of a thick vine tree, continuously inputting data into a projected screen on the main trunk, seemingly in the middle of debugging.

"Task completed?"

Seeing that Barricade and the others had returned, Starscream paused his work and asked Sun Cheng in an unhurried manner.

However, looking at the glance he cast toward Barricade, Sun Cheng secretly felt lucky, realizing his guess was correct: Starscream must have previously ordered Barricade to keep a close watch on him.

"The Interstellar Transmission has been sent, Lord Starscream. I am very certain that Soundwave has received the transmission and should be coming to Earth soon to verify the truth of the content!"

The recorder form made him very uncomfortable, so Sun Cheng had to endure the weakness in his body, force himself to transform back into his human form, and answer honestly.

"No, you don't understand him." Starscream looked at him, a smile appearing and disappearing on his face, "You intelligence gatherers are always very suspicious. I know him too well. If I'm not mistaken, he will likely send Laserbeak first to verify the accuracy of the transmission content!"

Sun Cheng was stunned, then stood honestly to the side and said nothing.

He couldn't respond to this, because as Starscream said, he truly did not understand Soundwave, the leader of the 【Cassette Corps】 to which he belonged.

Perhaps because he had used him to complete certain layouts, Starscream seemed to be in a good mood and became unusually talkative, "How pitiful. As expected, after being resurrected, you have already forgotten too many things!"

These inexplicable words made Sun Cheng's heart sink, his eyes drifting uncertainly.

If he remembered correctly, when Reflector was targeting him before, he had used this to mock him more than once. It seemed that 'Frenzy', whose body he had possessed, must have had an unusual experience before his resurrection; otherwise, it would be impossible for a big shot like Starscream to remember him.

Seeming to see that Barricade wanted to say something, Starscream gave him a look, and after the latter shut his mouth, he continued to say to Sun Cheng: "You should still remember what resurrection means, right?"

Starscream paused for a moment, as if to leave him some time to think.

Sun Cheng hesitated for a while before nodding; he knew what Starscream meant by resurrection.

For mechanical lifeforms like Decepticons, the most important body part is the 【Core】. The 【Core】 is the heart and 【Brain】 of a Decepticon, and it is also the center for a Decepticon's life and energy reserves, so once the 【Core】 is destroyed, it means the end of life.

But even for humans, with the development of technology, one can obtain a second life in a certain sense through head transplant surgery.

Decepticons, whose bodies are more convenient than humans and whose technology is even more advanced, had naturally long ago realized the legendary 'resurrection' technology.

For Decepticons, even if the 【Core】 is destroyed, as long as the 【Memory Chip】 stored within the 【Core】 remains intact, and then the 【Core】 and body are reconstructed based on it, one can achieve an almost perfect resurrection of a Decepticon who has died before.

Seeing that he couldn't help but start thinking, Starscream continued: "After working for Soundwave for so many years, what is the reward you received? Just inheriting the codename 'Frenzy'?"

Just as he came back to his senses, Sun Cheng heard such a highly provocative remark from Starscream's mouth, and he couldn't help but feel a sense of bewilderment.

Doubts began to rise in his heart, and after thinking for a moment, he asked: "Lord Starscream, does my name have any special meaning?"

As soon as the words left his mouth, Sun Cheng felt his body lighten, and when he came to his senses, he saw that he had been grabbed by Starscream.

Then he lifted him up until he was in front of his own face.

Seeing him looking at himself with a face full of unease, Starscream grinned, making a ferocious smile at him, and then said: "Soundwave must have tampered with your 【Memory Chip】. Now, stop resisting and let me help you unlock the seal..."

As soon as he finished speaking, two red beams of light shot out from his eyes, and before Sun Cheng could react, they plunged directly into his eyeballs.

In an instant, the 【Core】 within his body began to ring frantically.

"Warning, warning, unknown data intrusion detected... Active interception function 【Awakening】... Defense system 【Awakening】... 【Core】 data encryption... Misleading data function enabled..."

"Warning, intrusion data exceeds interception limit, has broken through the active interception system... Warning, unknown error occurred, defense system shut down... Misleading data system being read... Warning, warning, 【Core】 data being read..."

Boom!

It was as if a thunderclap had sounded in his mind!

Accompanied by the frantic warning sounds, although Sun Cheng, after reacting, immediately issued a defense command to the 【Core】, it was a pity that with Starscream's sudden attack, a massive amount of terrifying data flooded into his 【Core】, not only destroying his defense system in the first instant, but subsequently, the 【Second Memory Storage Area】 also fell.

Amidst the frantic attacks of that invading data, not long after, Sun Cheng felt that he had completely lost control of his body; the 【Core】 had completely fallen, and he had been stripped of control over his mechanical body.

After the 【Core】 fell, the 【Memory Chip】 was completely undefended against Starscream.

"So there really is encryption? Soundwave is still as narrow-minded as ever..."

The next moment, Sun Cheng could clearly feel a lot of information suddenly surging out of his head.

But the terrible thing was, not only could he himself browse through it at will, but Starscream, who had just unlocked the 【Memory Chip】 encryption for him, could too. At this moment, he not only had no intention of leaving Sun Cheng's 【Core】, but was even blatantly browsing through all of his 【Memory Data】 sentence by sentence and item by item.

This was truly a very terrible experience, just like having an extra consciousness suddenly appear in your head, browsing through all your memories right in front of your face.

Watching helplessly as all his secrets were being arbitrarily browsed by this Decepticon big shot, who he still couldn't tell was friend or foe, Sun Cheng only felt despair and unwillingness in his heart.

He was terrified, afraid that his greatest secret as a transmigrator would be exposed, and even more worried that once Starscream learned of this secret, he would immediately take action against him, leaving him with no possibility of returning.

"No... I don't want to die... I don't want to die here..."

The will to survive was completely ignited in an instant, and Sun Cheng frantically tried to re-【Awakening】 the 【Core】 and regain control of his body.

Perhaps it was his efforts that received a response; just as Starscream was about to finish reading all of his Memory Data, Sun Cheng suddenly felt a strange, icy sensation erupt from within his Core for no apparent reason.

In an instant, the consciousness of Starscream, who was still attempting to read his Memory Data, was completely driven out of his Core, and Sun Cheng regained control of his body.