Chapter 745: Hades

The return journey was a stretch shorter than the departure!

The distance between Earth and Mars is not constant, as the orbital speeds and distances of the two planets around the Sun meant that the last time Sun Cheng and his group headed to Mars, Mars happened to be at a position almost furthest from Earth.

However, as he stayed on Mars for a month, the two planets continued their orbits, and the distance between Earth and Mars was pulled significantly closer, allowing his return trip to be tens of millions of kilometers shorter.

Even so, by the time he returned to Earth, nearly two months had passed since Sun Cheng set off for Mars.

"Squeak!"

Accompanied by a hiss of exhaust, the hatch of the Hope experimental spacecraft, docked at a newly built launch pad within the control area of Base No. 2, slowly opened.

As soon as Sun Cheng stepped off the spacecraft, he immediately saw almost all the Decepticon Engineers at Base No. 2 gathered near the launch pad to welcome his return.

"Master, welcome back!"

He nodded, and just as he stepped off the launch pad, two Decepticon Engineers walked toward the spacecraft.

One of them reached out to touch the hull, using the special abilities of a Decepticon Engineer to inspect the current data of this experimental spacecraft more intuitively.

The other entered the spacecraft to extract the flight logs of the round trip from the spacecraft's Central Main Control Intelligence.

Seeing the robot avatars controlled by Huan and Explorer 203, Sun Cheng tapped his chest, and a metal storage disk recording various Mars data popped out.

"This contains all the data captured on Mars, as well as the coordinates of the Mars Base and the construction progress over the past month... Take it and analyze it; I need a more detailed analysis of Mars and the Mars Base in the shortest possible time..."

Huan possessed a very strong thirst for knowledge; once Sun Cheng discovered this, he even went through a phase of wanting to destroy it.

Sun Cheng admitted that he was indeed influenced by some human science fiction he had read in the past.

In the fantasies of some human writers and technology workers, highly intelligent artificial intelligence possessing self-thought and logic would pose a threat to human safety and survival once born.

The self-contradictory Three Laws of Robotics clearly exposed the fear and complex state of mind humans face when dealing with artificial intelligence.

Sun Cheng was the same before, but after repeated periodic full-data checks on Huan, he had now basically let go of his vigilance toward it.

It seemed that because the Cybertronians who created Huan were themselves Silicon-based Life with powerful data-processing capabilities, they had fundamentally set a series of restrictions and logical frameworks for these Super Intelligences.

Hearing his instructions, the robot avatar controlled by Huan stepped forward and took the metal hard drive from the stooping Sun Cheng.

"Give me some time!" it replied, "Please allow me to go to work now; I am full of curiosity about Mars!"

"Go!"

After receiving Sun Cheng's permission, Huan's robot avatar left immediately.

Explorer 203 was clearly also interested in the relevant data on Mars, and after requesting his permission, the robot avatar it controlled also left, following Huan's robot avatar.

As his gaze swept across all the Decepticon Engineers present, Sun Cheng quickly noticed two unfamiliar Decepticon Engineers.

After carefully distinguishing the electromagnetic spectrum they emitted, he finally recognized them.

"Tuote, Saihaer, you two have already been promoted to Decepticon Engineers..."

Tuote and Saihaer were members of the first batch of Workers cultivated by Base No. 2, born slightly later than Adam.

At that time, Sun Cheng had also participated in the cultivation of many Newborn Decepticons, so he still had some impression of them.

Atlas bowed slightly and explained to him, "Master, Tuote and Saihaer are another batch of Decepticon Engineers who were promoted not long ago!"

Sun Cheng nodded, looking at the two newly promoted engineers who were somewhat uneasy but perhaps waiting for his orders with excitement.

"Have any projects been arranged for them?"

Atlas shook his head, "They were previously helping out in Hades's team, and because they only completed their promotion two days ago, we haven't decided on the projects they should be responsible for yet!"

Just hearing the name, one knew that this Decepticon Engineer named Hades was naturally no pushover.

Sun Cheng subconsciously looked toward the front row of the Decepticon Engineer ranks at a guy who didn't seem to have much presence.

"Hades, huh..."

His gaze lingered on this Decepticon Engineer for a while longer before he said, "Tuote, Saihaer, you two remain in Hades's research group and serve as project deputies. The rest of you may disperse; Hades, Tuote, Saihaer, you three stay behind!"

Which of the Decepticon Engineers in the line was not extremely shrewd? They immediately knew that Sun Cheng keeping these three engineers behind definitely meant there were major projects to be arranged.

Instantly, the gazes everyone cast toward the three Decepticons were filled with envy and jealousy.

Ignoring the two newly promoted engineers behind who were overwhelmed by excitement, Hades bowed slightly, then stepped forward with a fawning smile on his face.

"Master, I wonder if those human politicians are satisfied with that Medical Pod from before?"

This Hades was the very Decepticon Engineer who had previously fawned over Sun Cheng and manufactured the Medical Pod for him.

The scale of the Decepticon Engineer team under Sun Cheng had already begun to expand.

However, those first twenty-some Decepticon Engineers had truly played a huge role in the growth of his power.

Almost every Decepticon Engineer was simultaneously shouldering the research of several major projects and topics, but Hades was an exception.

Every Decepticon is unique, and therefore, although they can quickly master certain knowledge and adapt to a new project by relying on powerful computing power and learning ability,

they are influenced by their respective personalities and hobbies. Even if all Decepticon Engineers started from the same starting line, they would gradually distinguish themselves in various different categories.

This Hades was a Decepticon Engineer who was very interested in carbon-based life and was obsessed with researching this path.

Most of the time, the engineers stayed inside Base No. 2 engaged in various research and rarely dealt with humans.

However, Hades was an exception; he had a very good relationship with Yuri.

Initially, it was because Yuri needed some white powder to stir up the chaotic situation in South America, so Sun Cheng had Atlas arrange for a Decepticon Engineer to manufacture it for him.

Hades met Yuri during those few collaborations at that time and seemed to have become good friends.

In the year or so that followed, Yuri obtained quite a few new gadgets from Hades.

Likewise, with Sun Cheng turning a blind eye, Hades also had Yuri obtain quite a few heinous prisoners from the chaotic prisons of various South American countries for his research work.

The Medical Pod he originally presented to Sun Cheng was a product of Hades's research.

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