Chapter 399: Two Tasks

"Here we go again!"

Sam picked up the brand-new mobile phone, which looked almost identical to the newly released Nokia N78, toyed with it for a moment, then looked up at Mikaela.

Mikaela's face had already returned to calm; she nodded helplessly, saying nothing.

Ever since that Decepticon who called himself 'Frenzy' first gifted the two of them a mobile phone each for unknown reasons last year, Sam and Mikaela had unfailingly received a new phone on the seventeenth of every month.

Sometimes they were delivered directly to their homes by courier, and other times they were stuffed into their school lockers.

At first, Sam, Mikaela, and even Bumblebee, who was responsible for protecting this American boy, were quite wary of this.

They had even investigated the source of the phones together, but the results were not ideal.

It was as if an invisible hand was manipulating everything behind the scenes; even when Bumblebee brought in an electronic expert from the Autobots to hack into the federal courier service and local traffic surveillance systems, they were unable to continue the investigation.

In the end, it was the Autobot electronic expert who, after carefully inspecting every phone they received and confirming there were no security risks, allowed Sam and the others to breathe a sigh of relief.

However, even so, they still followed Bumblebee's suggestion and handed over all the suspicious phones they received to Bumblebee for destruction.

But as if unaware of this, or perhaps having other motives, on the seventeenth of every month, two phones stamped with the Decepticon logo would unfailingly be delivered to them.

One had to admit that, based on appearance alone, the phones manufactured by the Decepticons were very appealing.

The phone body was made entirely of an unknown alloy, giving it a solid texture and an explosion of style; combined with the classic Nokia aesthetics of the N78, it immediately made Mikaela, who had little resistance to fashion and trends, unable to put it down.

Seemingly noticing the affection displayed on Mikaela's face, Sam opened his mouth slightly and warned, "I don't know what kind of conspiracy those Decepticons are plotting, but in any case, we can't keep these things. Let's hand them over to Bumblebee and the others to deal with."

Mikaela, who was toying with the phone, stiffened, then nonchalantly tossed it to him, though her good mood was completely gone.

She stepped forward to her locker, intending to put away the books she didn't need, then retrieve her own phone and personal items before heading home.

Unexpectedly, just as she arrived at her locker and was about to stuff her books inside, Mikaela saw something that didn't belong to her appearing inside.

She was slightly stunned, then immediately took it out.

"This is..."

It was a flat, metallic hard drive only the size of an adult's palm; weighing it, it wasn't very heavy. Mikaela looked at it closely for a moment and soon saw a familiar logo on the back of the hard drive.

She wasn't interested in this thing, so she tossed it irritably to Sam, who was already watching from the side, "Take it!"

"What is it?"

"I don't know!"

Mikaela wasn't interested in it, so naturally, she couldn't be bothered to waste any more time on it.

She quickly took out her old phone and the personal items she needed to take home, stuffed the books she didn't need back into the locker, and casually locked it.

The locker's lock had been changed several times before, but no matter how they changed it, the Decepticons always had countless ways to stuff things inside without damaging the lock, so they had given up resisting; besides, the Autobots had already checked them and confirmed there were no issues.

Just because Mikaela had lost interest didn't mean the curious boy Sam felt the same.

Seemingly completely unaware of his girlfriend's complex shift in mood, he took the flat metal hard drive from Mikaela's hand, and after fiddling with it for just a moment, he confirmed: "This is a portable hard drive..."

His finger gestured over the only port on the hard drive, "It's a USB port, there's something inside this!"

"Yeah, yeah!"

Mikaela had already finished packing her things, slung her backpack over her shoulder, and with one hand gripping the strap, she turned to look at him: "I'm going home now to help out at the shop. So, are you planning to stay here and keep studying those things the Decepticons sent? Or are you going to take me home?"

"Uh!"

At this point, even with Sam's low emotional intelligence, he noticed his girlfriend's impatience.

He gave a sheepish smile, nodded, and turned to his own locker, soon discovering that an identical Decepticon phone had appeared in his locker as well.

However, Sam unexpectedly did not see another portable hard drive, which should have also been a double set.

Just as he was wondering, Mikaela's impatient voice came over again, "Sam, I think I'll just go back by myself..."

Having said that, she turned and walked toward the outside of the teaching building.

"Wait a second..."

As soon as he heard Mikaela was going back by herself, Sam hurriedly stuffed everything into his backpack, not even having time to lock his locker, and rushed out after her.

Of course, although he was flustered, he still found time to take out his phone and dial a number.

The call was answered the moment he dialed it, and Sam didn't feel the least bit surprised by this. While dodging classmates heading home after school, he lowered his voice and said into the phone: "Listen, buddy. You need to get here fast. Mikaela and I received Decepticon stuff again today. Besides the phones, there's something that looks like a portable hard drive. I think you need to come and take a look!"

"..."

A harsh, strange sound like electronic static came from the other end of the line, quickly followed by the roar of an engine starting and the low growl of a middle-aged man.

Only then did Sam breathe a sigh of relief and hang up the phone. He knew that electronic static was none other than Bumblebee, the Autobot Warrior who had been transforming into a yellow Chevrolet Camaro to protect him for over half a year. His vocal system had been damaged during the Cybertronian Civil War over a hundred years ago, and since Ratchet seemed quite busy lately, he hadn't had time to help him repair it.

Since his friend Bumblebee would be arriving soon, Sam finally felt completely at ease.

He immediately broke into a sprint to catch up with his girlfriend, who was walking out of the school with a gloomy expression, and couldn't stop apologizing to her.

"Hey, Mikaela... don't be mad anymore, I've already called Bumblebee, he'll be here to pick us up in a minute!"

Mikaela continued walking on her own as if she hadn't heard him.

Sam was helpless; although his low emotional intelligence allowed him to understand that he must have annoyed her again, he ultimately lacked the social awareness to figure out where the problem lay.

He could only continue to beg for forgiveness with soft, gentle words. After walking several hundred meters like this, accompanied by a sharp screech of brakes, a slightly worn yellow Chevrolet Camaro drove over from the distance and came to a steady stop beside them.

Bumblebee was here!

Seeing the car door had already opened, blocking her path.

Mikaela, who had been silent for a long time, had vented all the frustration she had just been feeling, and she smiled and greeted the untransformed Bumblebee, "Hey, Bumblebee."

Then she walked straight to the passenger seat and sat inside.

Sam hurriedly sat in the driver's seat, pulled the door shut, and after glancing at the slightly dirty and messy interior, he complained unhappily again.

"Bumblebee, I don't think you need to let the inside of the car get this worn out, really!"

The car's speakers immediately blared, and the rap of black singer J-Sonn appeared very fittingly: "... I think she's a troublesome girl... she likes my big bird and money... but always complains that I don't know those designer brands..."

"Pfft!"

Mikaela couldn't help but laugh.

"Alright, alright, buddy... just pretend I didn't say anything..." Sam's face looked a bit sheepish; he knew what Bumblebee meant.

When they first met, because he disliked how dilapidated the car Bumblebee transformed into was, he was even unwilling to buy the sports car he had transformed into for a time.

Later, when Bumblebee transformed into a brand-new version of a Chevrolet sports car, he was even very happy for a while.

Unfortunately, not long after, because of his very eye-catching performance in the Battle of Las Vegas, in order to avoid attracting the attention of other countries and forces, Bumblebee changed back into that original, old, and inconspicuous Chevrolet sports car.

Sam had always had some opinions about this; after all, he was only eighteen years old now, exactly the age where one wants to show off and craves the attention of the opposite sex.

Having more or less realized that Bumblebee was a chatterbox, Sam could somewhat understand why Ratchet was not in a hurry to come and repair his vocal system.

He couldn't help but scratch his head, but upon seeing that Mikaela, who was sitting in the passenger seat, was no longer sulking at him and was looking at him gently from the side.

The bit of unhappiness in his heart was immediately cast aside.

So it is said, many times, whether men or boys, they are all very easily handled fools, stupidly cute.

The car started moving again, and soon it was far away from the school and the city center, driving toward a remote area in the suburbs.

Regarding this, neither Sam nor Mikaela felt there was anything wrong.

A few minutes later, the car arrived at a scrap yard in the suburbs, and after confirming no one was around, the two quickly got out of the car, and at the same time, Bumblebee also quickly transformed back into his Autobot form, looking down at Sam.

Sam understood and took out the thing that looked like a portable hard drive that Mikaela had received and handed it to him, "This is it, we just received it from the Decepticons, I feel like it's a portable hard drive used to store data!"

Bumblebee reached out and took it, then with a serious expression, pointed at the two of them and made a gesture for them to stay away.

Sam and Mikaela did as told, carefully walking behind a pile of scrap metal to the side, revealing only their heads, and watched him curiously.

Seeing that they had moved away from him, Bumblebee then used two fingertips to pinch the alloy disk that was suspected to be a portable hard drive and slowly raised it in front of himself.

Two azure beams of light shot out from his eyes, carefully inspecting the inside and outside of the alloy disk several times, and after confirming there was no danger, he then nodded at Sam and the others.

The two knew it was safe, so they walked out from their hiding spot and returned to Bumblebee's side.

"Yes... indeed... used to store... data... I will... try to... see..."

After stringing together an affirmative reply using lines from radio broadcasts, old movies, popular TV shows, and songs, Bumblebee fiddled with the portable hard drive for a moment, and shadows of data soon appeared in his eyes.

Immediately, his expression changed drastically.