Chapter 720: Optimus Prime's Invitation

"Autobot Drift is here?"

The sudden words from Alpha Trion caused Sun Cheng, who was mentally contemplating what preparations were needed for his first landing on Mars in over half a month, to immediately withdraw his thoughts.

Over a month ago, when he was in seclusion fully dedicated to designing his spacecraft, he had already handed over all management duties on Trindade Island to Alpha Trion.

Therefore, the island's security and defense system would issue a warning to Alpha Trion the moment it detected an intruder.

However, Thunder and Swindle, who were also on the island, were not idle either; these two were temporarily responsible for the island's security and defense.

The Workers responsible for maintaining the island's security and defense system issued a warning to them just a moment after alerting Alpha Trion.

So, not long after, they followed the electromagnetic spectrum of Alpha Trion and Sun Cheng to find their way here.

"Master, it has been detected that an Autobot is approaching the island!"

"Mm, I know!"

Sun Cheng looked up toward the northeast; the radar on Trindade Island had an effective detection radius of about 520 kilometers.

Because it had been specifically upgraded to target Decepticons and Autobots, the radar would issue an early warning once any Decepticon or Autobot entered its detection range.

Drift was one of the Autobots' Triple Changers. About a month ago, during the operation where Sun Cheng joined forces with Optimus Prime and a group of Autobots to hunt down Soundwave, Astrotrain, and the Cassette Corps, he was one of the dozen or so Autobot Warriors who arrived on Trindade Island with Optimus Prime.

Aside from a very small number, most Triple Changers possessed strength at or above the level of an Elite Warrior.

Among Triple Changers, Drift's combat power was of the sort that was better than some but worse than others.

His strength had indeed reached the Elite Warrior level, but let alone comparing him to the Triple Changer who stood at the pinnacle of Elite Warriors—Astrotrain—even compared to Sun Cheng, he was still lacking.

Because of this gap in strength, Sun Cheng was not worried that a mere Drift would dare to come to the island to provoke him.

"Ignore him, and there is no need to be deliberately hostile toward the Autobots. Once he lands on the island, we will know his intentions!"

Sun Cheng quickly recalled the excuse he had used over a month ago to lure Optimus Prime into helping him when he used the Autobots' hands to eliminate Soundwave.

"Could it be that he came for the matter regarding Sentinel Prime?"

He frowned, but Sun Cheng was not particularly worried.

Strictly speaking, he had not deceived Optimus Prime. A long time ago, Sun Cheng had pried into some of Megatron's Memory Data in the Mariana Trench; honestly, for a very long time, he had felt deep regret for that rash act.

That act of prying, which assumed Megatron was dead, not only failed to let Sun Cheng obtain some of the things he most wanted to know at the time, but instead accidentally led him to discover Megatron's faked death and his dangerous cooperation with Sentinel Prime, completely offending Megatron.

But now, that regret had faded significantly.

The news that Sentinel Prime's ship had crashed on the Moon was true; Sun Cheng had not deceived Optimus Prime.

Not only had he long known the crash coordinates on the Dark Side of the Moon, but he even knew that Sentinel Prime was not dead, but like Megatron, had faked his death and gone into hiding.

This was also part of the plan for the cooperation between Sentinel Prime and Megatron. For some unknown reason, Megatron hated his teacher—The Fallen—to the bone, and was willing to cooperate with the Autobots and even fake his own death just to borrow the Autobots' hands to eliminate The Fallen.

Because the Memory Data Sun Cheng had pried into at the time was incomplete, he only knew a portion of the cooperation between Megatron and Sentinel Prime; the specific details and why the leaders of two opposing factions would cooperate remained a mystery to him to this day.

But this was enough!

Sun Cheng believed that in the past month or so, Optimus Prime must have sent people to the Moon to scout the situation.

He was not sure what the Autobots had gained, but some of the intelligence he had previously provided to them must have been verified.

Otherwise, the Autobots could not have gone over a month without coming to find trouble with Sun Cheng.

It just so happened that he had also been thinking about the Matrix of Leadership in Optimus Prime's hands; he actually began to get curious about the purpose of Drift's sudden visit.

Just as Sun Cheng had guessed, Drift was not here to pick a fight.

Drift, possessing three transformation modes, flew in the form of an armed helicopter across thousands of kilometers of the Atlantic Ocean, all the way from Africa to Trindade Island.

When he was still some distance from the island, he stopped temporarily, just as Sun Cheng had done when he visited the Autobots' temporary base; he gave advance notice of his visit and only began flying toward the island after receiving permission.

"Greetings, Lord Frenzy..."

Perhaps it was because Sun Cheng had previously joined forces with Optimus Prime and the others to surround and kill Soundwave and Astrotrain, which made these Autobots accept his identity as a Decepticon defector.

In any case, when this Autobot, who had previously harbored some hostility toward him, met him again, although his voice and expression were somewhat stiff, he did indeed take the initiative to greet Sun Cheng.

Sun Cheng was somewhat concerned about his intentions, so he smiled and nodded in return with goodwill.

Befriending the Autobots was one of the strategies he had always been implementing.

The Autobots were different from the Decepticons; they were not that aggressive. At the very least, under the rule of Optimus Prime, the threat posed by the Autobots to both Earth and Decepticon defectors like Sun Cheng and his group was much smaller.

Having offended the commander of the Decepticon Legion—Megatron—and with the hatred between the two sides being irreconcilable, he naturally did not want to add another enemy.

Over a month ago, Sun Cheng taking the initiative to invite Optimus Prime and the others to help surround and kill Soundwave and Astrotrain was actually a "letter of intent" he had deliberately handed to the Autobots.

Drift had once been a Decepticon; he was both a victim and a beneficiary of Shockwave's Triple Changer project, but because he was not as insane as the other Decepticons, he eventually defected to the Autobot camp.

Over these years, having killed countless Decepticons on the battlefield, Drift had now completely cleared his name.

Because of this, when he realized that he now needed to deal with Decepticons again rather than fighting them to the death, the conflict in Drift's heart could be imagined.

But he still remembered his purpose. With Sun Cheng and the Decepticon forces under his command having taken the initiative to show goodwill toward him and the Autobots behind him, Drift could only force himself to suppress the complex emotions in his heart.

He looked directly at Sun Cheng and quickly informed them of his purpose.

"Our Leader—Optimus Prime has ordered the establishment of a base on Earth—New Iacon. The Leader has ordered me to invite you to visit New Iacon!"

As soon as these words were spoken, the expressions of the four Decepticons—Sun Cheng, Alpha Trion, Thunder, and Swindle—all changed simultaneously.

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