Chapter 9: Requesting Instructions

Because he had seen blood during the Task, Sun Cheng, fearing discovery, hurried along and soon escaped the Yanjiu Zhongxin.

Outside the Yanjiu Zhongxin, the police car that Barricade had transformed into remained parked in its original spot.

Clearly, the other party had already tracked his movements in advance; the moment Sun Cheng approached the police car, the passenger-side door swung open with a swish.

Two cold, stern gazes immediately fell upon Sun Cheng, causing him—who had made little progress that night—to tremble, finally recalling the terror of this partner of his.

Yet, although Sun Cheng had the heart to flee, he dared not gamble.

He clearly remembered that Frenzy's Memory Data had mentioned that they had hundreds, if not thousands, of Decepticons stationed at their forward Base on the Dark Side of the Moon.

Although only high-level Decepticons of Level 3 or above possessed the ability to fly in outer space, if Sun Cheng dared to flee and could not leave Earth, it was only a matter of time before he was found and torn to pieces by the other party.

For now, suppressing the inexplicable warning from deep within his Core, Sun Cheng cautiously climbed into the passenger seat.

The car door slammed shut with a bang; it was not that Barricade feared he would escape, but rather that he had started the car and was driving in the opposite direction of the Yanjiu Zhongxin.

"How is the investigation?" a cold, mechanical voice sounded.

"I have found many clues. Although I cannot yet confirm if Lord Megatron and the AllSpark are on Earth, one thing is beyond doubt: before us, or rather, a very long time ago, Decepticons had already visited Earth!"

Sun Cheng carefully organized his words, and only after repeatedly checking them word for word in his mind did he cautiously answer him.

"So, you mean there is no intelligence regarding Leader Megatron?"

Barricade's cold voice immediately took on a hint of murderous intent, scaring Sun Cheng's Core into a frantic jump.

He hurriedly replied, "Lord Barricade, by hacking into this world's internet, I have accessed almost all connected countries, enterprises, institutions, and research centers, but I cannot find any intelligence regarding Lord Megatron at all. Even some of the clues I searched for had already been cleaned up!"

At the end, still worried that Barricade might not accept these excuses, Sun Cheng thought for a moment, gritted his teeth, and took out his iPhone 5. After transforming his right arm, he extended a connection into the phone to show Barricade the many clues he had found and downloaded into the storage area, especially the Cybertronian Script engraved on many of Earth's historical monuments, as well as the black-and-white photo of Karl Benz and the first car he had manufactured.

"Huh, Elder Script? Pathfinder really has been here..."

The middle-aged white man projected by Barricade soon had his gaze drawn to the images flashing frequently on the screen of the iPhone 5 in his hand. Especially upon seeing the few sets of Cybertronian Script and the photo of Karl Benz's car, the taciturn Barricade unexpectedly revealed an expression of surprise on his face, even inadvertently exposing some things!

"Elder Script? So, among those high-level encrypted texts I couldn't decipher, there is one called Elder Script? But what is a Pathfinder? Is it a type of Decepticon?"

He immediately recorded the few secrets Barricade had accidentally revealed in his mind. Unfortunately, although Sun Cheng very much wanted to figure out what the "Elder Script" and "Pathfinder" mentioned by Barricade were, he dared not ask Barricade.

After a slight hesitation, he asked again, "Lord Barricade, what should we do next?"

Barricade was silent for a while before answering, "Continue to track intelligence regarding Leader Megatron!"

He did not mention the AllSpark at all, causing blue light to flicker in Sun Cheng's eyes. After carefully recalling for a moment, he realized that since he had been dispatched by Soundwave to Barricade's side to assist him in tracking intelligence on Earth, the AllSpark had seemed like a taboo; these three words had not appeared from Barricade's mouth even once.

"There is likely some inside story here that I don't know about..."

The more he thought about it, the more he felt there must be something suspicious behind it, but the other party's attitude also caused Sun Cheng to suddenly heave a sigh of relief.

At that moment, he immediately chimed in, "I have already hacked into the global internet, and I can basically confirm that there are forces on Earth that have specifically cleaned up this type of intelligence, so it is very difficult to continue the investigation using conventional means!"

Having said this, suppressing the unease in his heart, Sun Cheng played a small trick.

He wanted to test Barricade's current attitude toward him.

Two cold gazes were soon cast upon him, scaring Sun Cheng's Core into a frantic jump.

Fortunately, he had clearly won the gamble; although Barricade snorted coldly and growled unhappily, "Finish what you're saying..."

But it seemed the other party was not prepared to continue targeting him.

Having reached this conclusion, Sun Cheng could not hide the excitement in his heart and hurriedly blurted out the excuse he had already organized: "Yes, Lord Barricade. What I mean is, if we are to continue the investigation, I need to hack into the government, defense, and military internal networks of various countries on Earth. But by doing so, I cannot guarantee whether or not we will expose the existence of us Decepticons!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Sun Cheng could not hide his inner agitation and looked at him full of anticipation.

It was not that he hoped Barricade would grant him authorization to hack; on the contrary, Sun Cheng hoped the other party would decisively reject his request.

Compared to the physically fragile humans of Earth, the advantages of Decepticons as Mechanical Life were too obvious. Even a low-level Decepticon spy like him could easily beat a squad of professional soldiers. If a high-level Decepticon tasked with combat, such as an Elite Warrior like Barricade, were to take the field, it would be easy for him to even go head-to-head with the military of a small Earth nation.

However, innate strength did not mean that Decepticons had no fear of Earthlings.

In fact, because they focused more on individual combat power improvement, the alloys equipped by high-level Decepticon Warriors could completely withstand most light and heavy weapons on Earth, as well as small surface-to-ground and air-to-air Missiles, but they still had to obediently concede in the face of tactical nuclear weapons and strategic nuclear weapons produced by the human war-mongering race.

According to what he knew, Decepticons were not only wary of human nuclear weapons; some High-Explosive Bombs and Depleted Uranium Armor-Piercing Shells equipped by some human nations could also severely damage Decepticons, not to mention the possibility of some unknown black technology.

It was precisely because the risks and uncertain factors of an all-out war with humans were simply too many that, unless they could cross over ten thousand light-years to mobilize the main force of the Decepticon Legion stationed on the planet Cybertron, or replace them with a madman to lead the Decepticons, the Decepticons would not easily want to test the trump cards of various Earth nations.

At the very least, the Decepticon leaders in the base on the Dark Side of the Moon did not have that desire for the time being!

Sure enough, as soon as Sun Cheng's proposal was made, it was met with a silence from Barricade.

It was a good while before he heard him coldly reply, "I will request instructions from Lord Starscream..."

The rest of the journey was silent!