Transformers: Survival of Defective Products

Chapter 47 Vector Introduction, Zhang Family

The next morning, the unease did not dissipate; in fact, it worsened.

She really didn't want to go at this time. She glanced at the frequency on her terminal; the message from Red Spider from last night was still displayed there.

Come to Qingqiu City tomorrow.

You must come.

Yin Vector stared at those two lines of text for two seconds, then closed the interface.

She could choose not to go, but she couldn't afford the consequences.

-

The repair pod in the basement is no longer operational. Zhen Tianzun has recovered quickly these past few days and no longer wants to lie in it.

As can be seen from the vector, he is still far from a full recovery. The connection between his left arm and right shoulder has not yet been straightened, and the new structural layer in his chest and abdomen is still adapting.

He has simply recovered from a severely damaged weapon to a weapon that is not so easily disintegrated.

She also felt that she was increasingly taking care of this big machine in the house.

The high-concentration energy liquid was pre-portioned according to the ratio, and the arrangement of each shelf in the supply cabinet was reorganized. The auxiliary tools in the basement training room were also arranged in the order that Zhen Tianzun could use and was comfortable with.

As she walked down, Zhen Tianzun was leaning against the training platform, holding the high-concentration energy liquid she had just prepared. Hearing her footsteps, he glanced at her.

"Are you going?"

"Okay." Yin Xiang nodded, then checked on his condition. "I'll be back as soon as possible."

Zhen Tianzun looked at her and said, "Don't force yourself. The prerequisite for your return is that you must return intact first."

"You speak like my memo."

"Then don't give me the opportunity to add more items."

Yin Xiang's lips twitched, wanting to retort, but when he looked up, he saw that Yin Xiang still had a slightly sluggish posture, so he changed his words instead.

"Don't move around too much today."

Zhen Tianzun raised an eyebrow: "You need to give me orders before you leave?"

"It's not an order," Vector looked at him. "It's a reminder. In your current state, if you really have the chance to come to my place while I'm not around, at least don't ruin yourself first."

Zhen Tianzun didn't answer immediately. He glanced at her for a few seconds before letting out a soft hum: "You're getting better and better at saying decent things these days."

"I've always been good at it, you just couldn't tell before."

"Is that so?" Zhen Tianzun lowered his head, picked up the cup of energy liquid again, and spoke slowly, "Then you can continue to demonstrate when you come back."

Vector: ... She felt that what he said sounded a bit strange, but she didn't have time to think about it right now.

She simply said, "Location sharing is on. I'll answer any calls on the frequency band."

Zhen Tianzun grunted in response.

"If anything's wrong, call the communications department first, don't wait."

"I understand," he said, looking at her. He paused for a moment before continuing, "Also, don't get carried away just because you think I'm in recovery period and take all the blame on yourself."

Yin Xiang was about to turn around and pack his things, but upon hearing this, he paused for a moment: "I didn't do that."

"The fact that you're saying this now means that you yourself are aware of this tendency."

The better this bastard machine recovers lately, the more arrogant he becomes.

This time, she didn't argue with him anymore. She clicked her tongue softly and turned to go upstairs.

-

She traveled all the way to Qingqiu City, avoiding any routes that she felt were unsafe recently.

When the vehicle skims along the ground in its low-altitude configuration, the air cut by the deflector blades carries an inexplicable sense of oppression.

The magnetic levitation component glided across the ground, leaving a very light and straight trail of cold light, like the only relatively clear line in her entire brain module.

When they arrived in Qingqiu City, Red Spider was already waiting.

Unlike usual, this time they were positioned further inside the main area entrance, clearly having timed their arrival perfectly.

He saw her and, without a word, said, "Follow me."

Vector quickened his pace to catch up: "You're even sparing me the trouble of insulting you today?"

Red Spider didn't even turn his head, his tone icy: "Because I don't have time to waste today on hurting your self-esteem."

OK, it's still Starscream.

However, the fact that he still retains this annoying attitude only proves how urgent things are today. Even when Red Spider is annoyed, he usually doesn't bother to make the timeline so obvious.

He led her deeper into the technical area. The further they went, the quieter it became, and the fewer machines passed by. Access gates came one after another, and the scanning light paused for longer periods than outside when it swept over them.

After walking for a while, the vector finally couldn't hold back any longer: "Who exactly are you taking me to see today?"

This time, Red Spider didn't pretend not to hear, and coldly replied, "You'll know when we get there."

"I knew you'd say that."

"Since you know that, shut up and save some heat from your processor."

The vector rolled its eyes and didn't ask any more questions.

A few minutes later, the last door opened.

It wasn't the kind of experimental area she had imagined, with rows of equipment and densely packed scanning tables. The space was sparse, with cool lighting. Apart from a set of floating scanning platforms in the center, the rest of the area was almost devoid of any extraneous furnishings, except for a few obviously high-end analysis terminals operating silently.

And standing in that cold light was a machine.

The vector had barely taken a step when it paused for half a second.

The other person was tall, but not as imposing as a small mountain.

Instead, it is more linear, resembling a heavy weapon standing upright. The structure and lines of the entire machine are very clean. A single red optical lens shines brightly in the cold light, like a warning light fixed in the very center. The left arm is a large cannon with extremely obvious modifications, and a long chain like a mechanical tail rope hangs down from the back, swaying slightly with his turning movements.

That's definitely not the kind of appearance that a normal Cybertronian would immediately associate with a machine.

Looking at him, the first thought was: Okay, another machine that doesn't seem like it can communicate normally.

Red Spider spoke first.

"Shockwave".

The monocular optical lens of the tall machine slowly turned towards her.

Then stop.

The gaze was extremely calm and emotionless, giving the impression that the other person was analyzing the structure of their own body.

The next second, a deep, almost mechanical voice rang out: "Sample status: stable."

Pointer vector: "..."

She glanced at the red spider.

The Red Spider seemed quite used to it. Although it appeared to like this method, it was more like it was simply used to the way the machine spoke.

"I told you, you'll see when we get there."

Great, you should have something in common with sound waves.

The shockwave continued, the tone as steady as a mechanical voice.

"The spark output curve does not match the wear and tear of the machine for a long time. Abnormal reconstruction records exist. The forearm-delivered melee weapon is suspected to be inconsistent with the original structural design. The vehicle's extreme response is too high."

The red light from one eye stopped slightly below her chest.

"Verification required."

The vector generator stood still for two seconds before finally managing to utter, "Are all your research-grade machines this direct?"

Red Spider scoffed softly from the side, "You should be glad he didn't bother with any build-up."

Shockwave, however, seemed completely unfazed by the offense and continued to stare at her.

"Question: Are you willing to cooperate with the scanning and questioning?"

A very standard confirmation sentence, just like in textbooks.

The vector stared at his red monocle for two seconds before finally nodding.

"Okay. Go ahead and scan."

-

After the scan began, she quickly realized what the purpose of the previous controls and supplementary references for the red spider was.

Shockwaves make things look different than red spiders.

Red Spider breaks down complex things, picking out the unreasonable parts, interesting parts, and parts worth digging deeper into.

Shockwaves are the attribution factor.

He would look at dozens of sets of variables at the same time, then put them into a certain model, filter and eliminate them, and then draw conclusions.

As the cold white scanning light swept across her body inch by inch, the questions he asked were all incredibly direct.

"The first obvious abnormality, and when it occurred."

"The difference in subjective feelings before and after the spark's transformation."

"Uncontrolled energy response exists under high load conditions."

"Was the maximum speed tested in vehicle mode?"

As Yin Vector stood on the scanning table, for a moment he felt as if he wasn't being examined, but rather facing some kind of extremely meticulous logical monster.

She could only answer as many questions as possible, saying what she could, and simply saying "I'm not sure" for things she wasn't sure about.

At one point, Shockwave's gaze fell on the output record of the energy blade on her left arm, and the brightness of her red monocular flickered slightly.

"The hand blade output is very stable, with a total of four emergency deflections."

The vector paused.

She looked up and met the red optical device.

"...You managed to scan this?"

"The data exists," Shockwave replied calmly. "The comparison confirms its validity."

Pointer vector: "..."

Red Spider chimed in detachedly, "That's why I said your earlier self-judgments of 'I don't feel any different' have very limited reference value."

She doesn't want to deal with those two machines right now.

One is a logical freak as straight as a knife, the other is as poisonous as iodine mixed with salt and sprinkled on a wound; it's really hard to keep a calm mind when they're together.

She still cooperated and stood for the entire scan.

The accident didn't actually happen until the shockwave pulled out the last layer of the spectrum and began to perform a layered analysis of the abnormal reconstruction and fire output on her chest.

The highest priority private communication access, which had been forcibly pushed to the top, flashed before her eyes.

Yin Vector's heart sank suddenly, and he almost instinctively raised his hand to connect to the frequency band communication.

Before I could even see the interface clearly, Zhen Tianzun's voice came through.

The background is very noisy.

There were sounds of metal clashing, heavy objects smashing through walls, and a low, yet uncontrollable, roar of energy.

The communication quality is also poor, as if it's being interfered with by something.

The vector immediately sensed that something was wrong with him: a voice forced out by someone already in the middle of a battle, and in a bad situation.

"Attraction vector".

Her spark instantly plummeted downwards.

"I am here."

There was a pause on the other end, as if someone was approaching, and a terrifyingly close impact even exploded in the background of the communication.

Immediately afterwards, Zhen Tianzun only had time to utter one sentence.

"go home."

Then the communication was lost.

It was interrupted.