Spraying Engine Oil, Merlin Questions His Life

But as he stood up and his fingers left the headlight, the self-starting engine gradually sputtered to a halt, eventually returning to silence.

Merlin wasn't too bothered, though. He opened up the relay's position to check it, and after confirming the relay was fine, he moved on to the wiring.

But after searching all around, there was still no issue—everything was normal.

Merlin, refusing to believe it, searched again, only to find nothing wrong.

"Tch... What's going on?" After coming up empty, Merlin stood to the side, biting his thumb, staring at the motorcycle before him with a puzzled expression.

Back in his early learning days, this kind of thing happened often, but as he grew more skilled, he'd come to know every part of the bike inside and out—any problem, he could pinpoint it quickly.

But this bike was just too weird. It had ignited on its own without any warning, yet the ignition circuit and everything else were fine.

After thinking it over, he still pulled out the electronic control unit, swapped in a new one to test it, and only when he was sure nothing was wrong did he go back to cleaning the paint off the headlight.

"Looks like there's still a bit left." Seeing the reddish haze on the headlight, Merlin scratched his head, feeling something was off.

He crouched down, rubbed his fingers over it, and tried to wipe it clean.

But the moment his fingers touched it, the red haze on the headlight spread rapidly, like a maiden's shy blush.

"Vroom!!" The bike, now with a swapped ECU, roared to life again. The engine suddenly started, and the whole frame began to tremble.

Merlin looked at his hand touching the headlight, then at the vibrating engine, as if sensing something.

Uncertain, he rubbed it again.

"Vroom!!!" The throttle surged, the bike shook even harder, and the whole workshop was filled with the loud roar of the engine.

Merlin frowned, but for some reason, a thrill rose in his chest. He put his other hand on too, rubbing both headlights with both palms.

"Vroom vroom!!!" The deep rumble seemed ready to tear through the roof, the bike shuddering more violently than ever.

"Pfft!"

From the trembling exhaust pipe, a spray of thick engine oil shot out. The whole bike seemed to suddenly release, its roar and shaking ceasing as the engine gradually died.

"Holy crap!" Merlin stumbled back in panic, staring at the oil dripping from the exhaust, then at his own hands, utterly shocked.

"No way, no way... What the fuck! Could Gwen actually have been right?"

[The bike, the bike—go live with your bike!]

[Your head's full of oil and gears—something's bound to go wrong.]

He'd been obsessed with bikes before, but he'd never felt anything like today.

Right now, this bike felt like a living being.

Or maybe it was because his intelligence had increased, and his mechanical affinity had gone up too? That would explain this bizarre feeling.

"No way, no way..." Merlin kept circling the bike, trying to find some clue.

After a moment's thought, he went to test other vehicles.

"Autobots, roll out!" A unique frequency signal spread through Apple City. Under the pitch-black night, many vehicles parked in garages ignited on their own, headlights flaring, and began driving toward a designated location.

Chevrolet Camaro, GMC TopKick, Ratchet's Hummer H2, Peterbilt heavy truck...

Shrouded in darkness, they turned into streaks of light racing down the roads, eventually gathering at a hidden abandoned factory in the Brooklyn District.

With a series of engine roars and exhaust notes, bright lights illuminated the dim, derelict factory as one vehicle after another drove in.

"Clank! Clank..." A crisp, dense metallic sound rang out as the vehicles rose up, rapidly transforming into towering humanoid machine forms.

At the head, the tall Optimus Prime, with flame decals and an aura of authority, scanned the group and suddenly noticed someone was missing.

"Why isn't Arcee here?"

"She's only got two wheels, so she won't be fast. Plus, a lot of her parts are busted—who knows if she can even make it." Ironhide leaned against a pillar, unconcerned.

Either way, as long as they stayed hidden, there usually wasn't a problem.

Besides, Earth's human technology was backward, so they didn't have to worry too much about their safety.

But the leader Optimus Prime's next words made him snap to attention.

"I've recently received word that Decepticons have also arrived on Earth, and Megatron, who crashed into the glacier, has been awakened. We need to speed up and find the AllSpark's location as soon as possible."

"They're hiding in human society just like us. You all need to be more careful from now on."

Decepticons, Megatron.

Hearing that, the Autobots present immediately grew serious.

"Have any of you gathered useful information?" After warning his comrades, Optimus Prime began pooling intel.

Bumblebee scratched his head, staring at the moon through the concrete pillar. As the first scout to reach Earth, he was still a beat-up Chevrolet sitting in a used car lot.

Ironhide and Ratchet just shrugged helplessly.

Optimus Prime could only shake his head in resignation. The arrival of the Decepticons made the urgency in his spark burn hotter, but he knew rushing wouldn't help.

In the end, even after the assembly concluded, Arcee still hadn't shown up. And there was no useful information to speak of, so everyone could only temporarily return to their own posts.

"Go back and find Arcee, pass the message to her, and tell her to stay vigilant."

After leaving these words, Optimus Prime announced the dismissal.

"Vroom vroom!" The many Autobots quickly transformed into vehicles, splitting off in different directions and vanishing into the abandoned factory.

Meanwhile, Arcee was undergoing modifications.

Merlin arrived at the backyard and stopped before the door of a workshop.

As the rolling door slowly opened, a vast intelligent assembly line workshop appeared before him.

Silver-white mechanical arms danced continuously, welding, transporting, screwing, spraying...

Around the perimeter, there were also sealed glass pipelines, each storing various rare elemental materials.

At the final station, vehicles like the Armored Skeleton Horse, Santolau, and Xin Binu were being constructed.

Because the workshop wasn't very large, Merlin hadn't programmed too many models—only a few vehicle modules with good sales figures.

As for models like Superburn and Vigilante, whose engines required rarer and scarcer materials, they generally had a dedicated production line for engine manufacturing.

Merlin used a tow truck to haul a recently produced atomic engine out of the workshop and returned to his workstation.