Chapter 37: Body Enhancement (Begging for recommendations, follows, and tips)

The base that attacked him was just like Starscream's base, also located within Arizona, only one was in Pima County in the south, while the other was situated within a certain section of the Daxia in the northwest.

"We're here..."

Seeing that dawn was about to break, the group, having rushed through the night, finally arrived at their destination.

After Brawl gave a reminder, he quickly transformed back into his human form.

Clearly, he was much more cautious than Starscream; not only did he choose a base far from human tracks, he also arranged some contingencies, such as the surveillance that both Sun Cheng and Laserbeak had already sensed, appearing and disappearing in the surroundings.

"Let's go down!"

Standing above a certain canyon, Brawl pointed downward, then jumped straight down.

Sun Cheng walked over to look and realized this was a concave mountain face; although it looked very high, a platform cleverly extended outward several dozen meters below, and clearly, Brawl's base was hidden inside the mountain behind the platform.

This height didn't stump him, and without calling for Laserbeak to carry him down, Sun Cheng followed suit, mimicking Brawl by taking a deep leap; after a brief moment of weightlessness, he soon landed on the platform.

After steadying himself, he looked forward, and sure enough, a huge cave had been excavated into the mountain behind the platform. Brawl had clearly camouflaged the entrance; if one didn't observe it from up close, it would be easy to mistake it for a natural cave torn open by geological forces in ancient times.

Brawl walked very fast, entering the cave and turning a corner before disappearing.

Seeing that Laserbeak had also flown inside, Sun Cheng didn't dare delay and followed, rushing into the cave.

Brawl had set up quite a bit of surveillance equipment inside the cavern. As Sun Cheng walked, he looked around and was surprised to find that this place didn't look like it had been completed recently. Although it looked much cruder than Starscream's base, if one inspected it carefully, it wasn't hard to see that the excavation marks on the cave walls all revealed that it had likely existed for some years.

After walking into the cavern for only a few minutes, the view before everyone suddenly opened up.

Brawl's base was not as complex as Starscream's. A huge cavern space was almost filled with all sorts of strangely shaped machines. Besides that, there were some low-level Decepticon Workers busy with maintenance and inspections; looking at them, they seemed to be quite a bit more advanced than the cannon fodder in Starscream's base.

It was unclear if he was truly that easy to talk to, or if he was giving face to the real big boss behind the two—Soundwave. After bringing Sun Cheng and Laserbeak back to his base, Brawl's voice seemed to have softened quite a bit: "Don't break my machines; other than that, you can look around as you please!"

After landing, Laserbeak unexpectedly transformed into a pink robot. His human form looked only half a head taller than Sun Cheng, but from that precise body construction, it wasn't hard to see that although Soundwave had also laid hands on him, he hadn't treated Laserbeak too poorly after his resurrection, especially when compared to the unlucky fellow Sun Cheng, which made some things even more apparent.

Ignoring the undisguised envy in Sun Cheng's eyes as he looked at him, Laserbeak circled the area, his orange eyes flickering incessantly: "Lord Brawl, how long have you been on Earth?"

"Ten years and seven months? No, no, maybe nine months... I don't remember clearly either..." Brawl waved his hand to shoo away two Workers who were trying to continue maintaining a machine in front of him, answering without turning his head.

"I know what you want to ask. Since Soundwave has also come, it must be for Starscream!"

He fiddled with the machine for a while before stopping, turning around to answer: "Unless the 【AllSpark】 is truly on Earth, I won't take action no matter how you make a scene!"

This veteran Decepticon clearly didn't think much of Megatron either. He had never cared about this Decepticon Leader from start to finish; perhaps this was one of the reasons he would cooperate with Starscream.

Laserbeak's eyes flickered, but he didn't press further; clearly, he had deep reservations about Brawl.

But this couldn't be blamed on him. Although Brawl was not a powerful existence like a Triple Changer, the strength he had displayed in the operation not long ago all showed the power of this veteran Decepticon Warrior. Perhaps he had the strength to fight against existences like Soundwave, or even Starscream or Shockwave, and even if there was a gap, it wouldn't be too large.

Such a powerful existence—if he were to harbor murderous intent toward him and Sun Cheng, they would likely really end up here.

Facing Brawl, Sun Cheng actually had a bit less apprehension than Laserbeak.

Seeing his fingers tap lightly on the machine in front of him, a light screen was projected, revealing the blueprints for two things that looked like some kind of long-barreled weapon. Sun Cheng asked curiously: "Lord Brawl, what is this?"

"A Railgun, a weapon design I accidentally discovered on Earth!"

Perhaps because it wasn't his own life's work, Brawl didn't hide it and answered him directly: "There is a reason why those fragile and tiny human creatures are able to occupy this planet. I admire many of their creative ideas, and the Railgun is one of them. I am preparing to further perfect this design to use for the Enhancement of my body!"

Following the movement of his fingers, the single-barreled weapon design on the light screen was quickly modified into a double-barreled one. At the same time, from the firing unit to the internal bore structure, Brawl redesigned everything. Not long after, a brand-new, double-barreled, elongated cannon design appeared.

"Enhancement of the body..."

Hearing this, Sun Cheng couldn't help but feel moved.

Come to think of it, because he had been wary of Starscream previously, fearing that a mistake in his actions would lead Starscream to take it out on him, he had been on edge for the past period. Even after obtaining that Level 2 【Core】 that was enough to allow him to advance, Sun Cheng hadn't had the time to consider the matter of advancement.

Now, seeing that one fierce battle after another was imminent, his lack of combat power had been completely exposed during the invasion of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base last night.

Except for Starscream and Barricade, others should not yet know that he had obtained a Level 2 【Core】, and that thing had been inadvertently brought back to reality by him last time.

However, Brawl's words today did wake Sun Cheng up.

After hesitating for a moment, he ultimately couldn't hold back and took the initiative to ask Brawl: "Lord Brawl, the last operation exposed the drawback that my combat capability is too low. In order to better search for information on Leader Megatron and the 【AllSpark】, may I ask you to help me with an Enhancement of my body?"

As soon as the words were out, Sun Cheng immediately sensed several gazes fall upon him.

Within the orange light of Laserbeak's eyes, danger flickered; if not for Brawl being right there, Sun Cheng didn't even doubt that he would immediately pounce and tear him into pieces.

Looking at Brawl again, when he suddenly turned his head to look at him, there was surprise on his face as he looked down from above, but even more so, other unclear and indefinable emotions.

Sun Cheng's heart sank; it wasn't that he didn't understand what his words just now meant.

But Soundwave didn't know when he would arrive on Earth, which had already created too much of a sense of crisis in his heart, so he had asked it while biting the bullet.

For a Mechanical Lifeform like a Decepticon, letting others help with an Enhancement, while not the same as an advancement, was an act nearly equivalent to an explicit declaration of loyalty.

After all, having one's body modified by someone else's hands—given the nasty nature of Decepticons, it was hard to say they wouldn't take the opportunity to plant restrictions or hidden tricks during the modification process, and in the future, one's life might even be in someone else's hands.

But Sun Cheng had to seize this opportunity; he knew very well that if he missed it, counting on himself—let alone completing an advancement on his own, even further enhancing the body he was currently using—was not something that could be done in a day or two.

Unfortunately, it seemed he had placed the wrong bet!

Seeing that Laserbeak's expression had become increasingly unfriendly, Sun Cheng felt cold in his heart, somewhat regretting his rashness just now.

Just as he was considering how to appease this master, he didn't expect his body to suddenly feel light, and when he reacted, he noticed that he had actually been grabbed by Brawl and lifted in front of him.

Sun Cheng looked up and happened to meet his gaze. In an instant, he clearly captured the emotion in the other party's eyes known as 'finding a new toy.'

"Interesting. It just so happens I have some things that need someone to help with. I agree to this!"

PS

First update, there will be another chapter in a bit. Sorry for the late update; I wrote half of it just now, read it, and felt unsatisfied, so I deleted it all and re-typed it, resulting in a late update.