However, once he stood up and took his fingers off the headlights, the automatically started engine gradually quieted down and finally returned to silence.
Merlin did not pay much attention to it. He opened up the relay compartment for inspection, then moved on to the wiring after confirming that the relay was fine.
Yet after searching all around, he still found nothing wrong. Everything was normal.
Merlin refused to believe it and searched again, only to find that there was still nothing wrong.
"Hiss... what the hell is going on?" After failing to find anything, Merlin stood to one side, biting his thumb as he stared at the motorcycle in utter confusion.
This had happened often when he was still learning, but as he became more proficient, he had grown familiar with nearly every component of a motorcycle. Whenever something went wrong, he could quickly pinpoint the issue.
But the motorcycle before him was too strange. It had started itself without any warning, yet there was nothing wrong with the ignition circuit.
After thinking it over, he removed the electronic control unit and replaced it with a new one to test it. Only after confirming there was no issue did he return to the headlights and continue cleaning off the paint.
"Seems like there's a little less." Looking at the red glow on the headlights, Merlin scratched his head, feeling that something was off.
He crouched down and rubbed it with his fingers, trying to clean it off.
But the instant his fingers touched it, the red glow on the headlights rapidly spread, like the bashful flush on a young girl's cheeks.
"Vroom, vroom!!" The motorcycle, now fitted with a new electronic control unit, roared again. Its engine suddenly started, and the entire body began to tremble.
Merlin looked at the hand touching the headlights, then at the vibrating engine, as though he had noticed something.
Uncertain, he rubbed them again.
"Vroom, vroom!!!" The throttle revved, and the motorcycle shook even more violently. The entire workshop was filled with its thunderous roar.
Merlin frowned, but for some reason, a thrill suddenly rose in his heart. He placed his other hand on it as well, rubbing both headlights with both hands.
"Vroom, vroom, vroom!!!" The deep roar sounded as though it were about to blast through the roof, while the motorcycle shook more and more violently.
"Pssh!"
A stream of thick engine oil suddenly sprayed from the trembling exhaust pipe. As if it had abruptly found release, the motorcycle stopped roaring and shaking, and its engine gradually died down.
"Holy shit!" Merlin staggered back in horror. He looked at the engine oil dripping from the exhaust pipe, then at his own hands, his face filled with shock.
"Something's wrong. Something's seriously wrong... what the fuck! Could Gwen really have been right?"
[Motorcycles, motorcycles—why don't you just spend your life with your motorcycles?]
[Your head is full of engine oil and gears. Something's bound to go wrong.]
He had always been obsessed with motorcycles, but he had never felt anything like this before.
At that moment, the motorcycle before him felt like a Life Entity.
Or perhaps his increased intelligence had also improved his mechanical affinity? Was that why he was having such a bizarre feeling?
"Something's wrong. Something's seriously wrong..." Merlin kept circling the motorcycle, trying to find some sort of problem.
After thinking about it, he went to test some other vehicles.
"Autobots, assemble!" A unique frequency signal spread through Apple City. Under the pitch-black night sky, many vehicles parked in garages automatically started their engines, switched on their headlights, and headed toward the designated location.
Chevrolet Camaro, GMC, Ratchet's Hummer H2, Peterbilt heavy truck...
Shrouded by the night, they raced down the roads like streaks of Mirage, eventually converging in a concealed abandoned factory complex in the Brooklyn District.
As engines roared and exhausts thundered, bright headlights illuminated the dark abandoned factory. One vehicle after another drove inside.
"Clack! Clack..." Crisp, dense metallic sounds rang out as the vehicles rose from the ground and rapidly transformed into towering humanoid machines.
Optimus Prime, the towering leader at the front, bore flame patterns across his body and radiated an imposing aura. He swept his gaze around, then suddenly realized someone was missing.
"Why isn't Arcee here?"
"She only has two wheels, so she definitely won't be fast. Besides, a lot of her parts are malfunctioning. Who knows if she can even make it here?" Ironhide said nonchalantly as he leaned against a pillar.
No matter what, as long as they stayed hidden, there generally would not be any problems.
Besides, humanity's technological level on Earth was backward, so they did not need to worry too much about their own safety.
However, Optimus Prime's next words immediately made him serious.
"We recently received word that members of the Decepticons have also arrived on Earth. Megatron, who crashed into the glacier, has been awakened as well. We need to speed things up and find the AllSpark's location as soon as possible."
"Like us, they are hiding within human society. You all need to be more careful from now on."
Decepticons. Megatron.
The moment they heard those names, the Autobots present all turned grim.
"Have any of you gathered useful information?" After warning his companions, Optimus Prime began consolidating their intelligence.
Bumblebee scratched his head and looked at the moon outside through a concrete pillar. As the scout who had arrived on Earth earliest, he was still stuck as a beat-up Chevrolet in a used-car lot.
Ironhide and Ratchet could only spread their hands helplessly as well.
Optimus Prime could only shake his head helplessly. The arrival of the Decepticons made him feel increasingly pressed for time, but he also knew there was no use rushing this sort of thing.
In the end, even after the gathering ended, Arcee still had not come. They had not gained any useful information either, so they could only return to their respective places for the time being.
"On your way back, look for Arcee. Tell her the news and make sure she stays alert."
After leaving those words behind, Optimus Prime announced that the meeting was over.
"Vroom, vroom!!" The many Autobots rapidly transformed into vehicles, scattered in different directions, and vanished from the abandoned factory.
Meanwhile, Arcee was undergoing modifications.
Merlin arrived in the backyard and stopped before the door of a workshop.
As the rolling shutter slowly opened, a vast intelligent assembly-line workshop appeared before him.
Silvery-white robotic arms constantly moved about, welding, transporting, tightening screws, and painting...
Around them were sealed glass pipes containing all kinds of rare elemental materials.
At the far end, vehicles such as Armored Skeleton Horses, Santolaus, and Xin Binus were being manufactured one after another.
Since the workshop was not very large, Merlin had not programmed too many models into it. He had only added several vehicle models with relatively good sales.
As for models like Superburn and Vigilante, the materials required for their engines were relatively precious and scarce, so they generally had dedicated production lines for manufacturing engine motors.
Merlin loaded an atomic engine that had only recently been produced onto a trailer and pulled it out of the workshop, returning once more to his workstation.
Before you continue