Chapter 40: Exposure

Starscream is too terrifying; finally, having connected all the clues, Sun Cheng felt only an icy chill in his heart as he understood.

But he still had to force himself to pull it together to deal with the furious Soundwave.

"Lord Soundwave, Frenzy has always followed your orders and has never hidden anything!"

He tried to make his spirit appear calmer, even though Sun Cheng could hear the trembling in his own tone: "Otherwise, I wouldn't have followed immediately when Laserbeak told me to come see you!"

"Oh?"

Soundwave irritably extended a finger and flicked away a miniature Medical Decepticon that had just accidentally crawled onto his eyeball.

Seeing him turn his head to look at him, Laserbeak's eye rotated, but in the end, he did not lie and answered truthfully: "Yes, Master, he is not lying."

"Hmph!"

Soundwave let out a cold snort, threw him angrily to the ground, and looked down at Sun Cheng, the rage in his eyes undiminished. "Now, repeat everything you experienced from the time you arrived at Barricade's to the moment before you came to see me!"

"Yes!"

After landing, Sun Cheng couldn't stand up at all. He had been targeted too miserably by Soundwave just now. Although his New Body was sturdy enough, it had been bent and deformed under Soundwave's insane strength, and it would take some time to recover.

He immediately recounted everything he had experienced after being dispatched to Barricade's side. Of course, Sun Cheng did not tell the complete truth and concealed some things, such as his deal with Starscream.

Soundwave listened quietly until he finished speaking, the orange light in his eyes flickering incessantly. He stared fixedly at Sun Cheng, and a dangerous atmosphere constantly stimulated Sun Cheng's nerve lines.

"You are lying..." Soundwave bared his teeth, his grim expression reappearing.

He kicked Sun Cheng hard, sending him flying dozens of meters away.

"Laserbeak..."

Soundwave called out, and Laserbeak immediately flew up in tacit understanding, quickly grabbing the immobile Sun Cheng and throwing him back in front of Soundwave.

"Lord Soundwave, every word I said is true!"

Seeing the dangerous light in his eyes growing stronger, Sun Cheng hurriedly argued for himself.

"Still daring to lie to me! Creep..."

Soundwave angrily punched the ground beside him, the terrifying force immediately leaving a deep fist print on the ground. "Why did you not go to see him immediately after Laserbeak arrived on Earth!"

"I had already told him!" Sun Cheng had long considered and prepared his excuse, so he answered without any hesitation. "That day, while Barricade went to see Brawl, I risked sending an Interstellar Transmission to you, trying to warn you that Starscream had come to Earth. Afterward, because I had consumed too much energy, I briefly fell into a dormant state. When I woke up, I was already in Barricade's vehicle; he and Starscream seemed to have discovered my actions. After that, I was immediately taken by Barricade to Brawl, and I only found an opportunity to contact Laserbeak after the Task began!"

"Still trying to lie to me?"

Soundwave angrily picked him up, his sharp fingertips constantly rubbing sparks against Sun Cheng's brand-new body. "No betrayal? Where did your New Body come from? Where did your new Core come from?"

"The New Body was designed for me by Brawl. He is not one of Starscream's people; I have already confirmed this. Laserbeak should have already told you that Starscream orchestrated an operation and snatched four Nuclear Warheads from the Earthlings, two of which were taken away by Brawl!"

Sun Cheng said: "The reason Brawl helped me get a New Body was so that I could help him find several rare metals on Earth. He needs these metals to build a new turret to strengthen himself. Besides that, Brawl also asked me to help him search for information about the AllSpark. As for the Core, I am still using the original one; Brawl just performed some Enhancement on it!"

"Oh?"

Soundwave brought him up to his face, and two red beams suddenly shot from his eyes into Sun Cheng's eyes.

Before he could react, he immediately heard a series of dense notification sounds from his Core: "Warning, warning, unknown data intrusion detected... Active interception function activated... Defense function activated... Core data encryption... Misleading data function enabled... Ding, highest authority transferred... Core data being read..."

"This guy..."

Sun Cheng's heart sank. His Core could still resist for a moment when facing Starscream last time, but now, in front of Soundwave, it failed to form any defense at all before the other party seized the highest authority, completely holding his life in his palm.

Having been by Brawl's side recently and experiencing many things, how could he not understand that from the very beginning of his resurrection, his Core had already been tampered with by Soundwave.

Allowing others to openly browse through his core Memory Data.

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

Sun Cheng had already experienced this once before. The reason he was so wary of Starscream, and even dared not follow Barricade back to the Base to claim the Spark he had promised after the operation ended, was because he didn't know how much of his memory the other party had seen.

Now that he had encountered this move from Soundwave, Sun Cheng was extremely annoyed. He was afraid that Soundwave would see things he shouldn't, and even more worried that his greatest secret as a transmigrator would be exposed.

"Damn it... I swear... this kind of thing will never happen again..."

Under the anger and unwillingness, the will to survive was completely ignited in an instant. Sun Cheng frantically tried to seize control of his Core and forcibly expel the data Soundwave had intruded with.

Seemingly sensing his unwillingness, Sun Cheng soon felt a strange and powerful surge of data suddenly erupt from an unknown place in his body.

In an instant, those intrusive data from Soundwave were all driven out of his Core by this data.

When Sun Cheng reacted and subconsciously went to look for that data again, he found that it had hidden itself somewhere unknown again.

"Huh..."

The failure of the forced memory reading made Soundwave let out a soft sound of surprise.

However, quickly realizing something, he sneered and threw Sun Cheng back to the ground, looking down at him with sarcasm: "I was wondering why I always felt something was wrong with you; so you have already unlocked my seal..."

Glancing at Laserbeak nearby, he frowned and ordered: "Go keep watch nearby..."

"Yes, Master!"

Although Laserbeak was surprised by the change in Soundwave's attitude, he still responded loyally and soon disappeared from the two's field of vision.

As soon as Laserbeak left, Soundwave looked at Sun Cheng coldly and said in a flat tone: "A few days ago, when Laserbeak suddenly told me that you had betrayed me, I was surprised. In your current state, it is impossible for you to unlock my seal. Was it Starscream? Or Brawl?"

Sun Cheng also reacted at this moment; he knew that Soundwave had discovered his seal had been removed.

However, listening to his tone, it seemed he hadn't read much of his memory data. Sun Cheng breathed a sigh of relief and, maintaining his original tone, answered calmly: "Does it make a difference? Lord Soundwave, for you now, crushing me is just a matter of a single thought..."

"I underestimated you!"

Soundwave snorted coldly, but the next second, he fell into a strange silence.

Just as Sun Cheng was uneasily guessing whether he was thinking about how to deal with him, he heard Soundwave's cold electronic voice again: "Since you have recovered your memory, let's just talk openly. Thanks to your intelligence, I was lured into an ambush at his base, and now I have to prepare for dormancy to repair my injuries."

"But don't be happy too soon. Starscream is plotting some conspiracy again. He suddenly left Cybertron and came here decades ago; he must have grasped information about the AllSpark or the Leader."

Without concealing the killing intent in his heart, Soundwave stared coldly at Sun Cheng: "I have tampered with your Core; I will not kill you now. Blackout will arrive on Earth in half a month. Before then, do your best to find information about the Leader and the AllSpark. When I wake up again, I will consider whether to let you continue living based on your efforts!"

"Now, get as far away from me as you can!"