Returning to Reality

Once again back in this mysterious spherical space, Sun Cheng finally felt the tension that had been lodged in his throat these past few days ease away.

"So, there really are conditions that need to be met before entering this place?"

Instinctively, he looked around the spherical space first. Just like the previous times he had entered, it was empty, containing nothing besides the two light screens at its center.

However, after looking a few more times, Sun Cheng noticed some subtle changes.

The last time he entered this place from the real world, the pale blue fluorescence within the spherical space had been noticeably dimmer. It was nowhere near as bright as it was now. Other than that, he discovered nothing else.

Oddly enough, the empty spherical space gave Sun Cheng a considerable sense of security.

Having become familiar with the place, he still disliked the awkward sensation of having no body. Yet after only a moment, he controlled his ghostlike self and floated to the center of the space, stopping before the light screen on the right.

The screen lit up instantly. The next moment, an image appeared on it, showing him quietly replenishing his energy in the [Supply Room] at Starscream's base.

Sun Cheng stared silently at the image for quite a while before shifting his gaze to the lower-right corner of the screen.

All of a sudden, his brow furrowed slightly, and he let out a soft sound of surprise. "Huh!"

If Sun Cheng remembered correctly, when he had entered this place from the real world a few days ago, two sets of numbers had been displayed in the lower-right corner of this screen: Blue Star: 65/1000, White Star: 1/1.

Yet when he looked again several days later, he was surprised to find that both sets had changed. They now read: Blue Star: 437/1000, White Star: 2/1.

"What exactly do these two sets of numbers represent?"

After frowning and pondering for quite some time, still unable to guess their meaning, Sun Cheng sighed. He could only set the matter aside for now and float toward the other light screen.

The light screen on the left side of the spherical space represented the real world. Like the screen beside it, it immediately lit up when he approached, revealing the figure of a young man bent over a desk.

"Whew, nothing's changed after all!"

Seeing that the scene displayed on it remained exactly as it had been when he left several days earlier, with no changes whatsoever, Sun Cheng let out a long breath.

But when he subconsciously glanced toward a corner of the screen, his eyes immediately lit up.

"Blue Star: 437/1000, Red Star: 44996:14:58... The Red Star has changed too?"

Sun Cheng had no clue for the moment what Blue Star and the set of numbers following it represented.

As for Red Star and the numbers behind it, he had already guessed that they might represent time.

Recalling how many days he had spent in the Decepticons' world this time, Sun Cheng silently calculated for a while and quickly came to a realization.

"I wasn't wrong. I spent more than four days in the Decepticons' world, and after conversion, the numbers after Red Star represent time."

After confirming his original guess, Sun Cheng found it even more unbelievable.

He remembered that he had somehow crossed into the Decepticons' world after getting drunk, stayed there for most of the night, and then returned to reality.

Then, when Sun Cheng returned to the Decepticons' world the next morning, time there had seemed to be frozen.

And now, he had spent four or five days in the Decepticons' world, yet aside from the timer on the light screen continuing to tick away, it seemed not to have affected the real world at all.

Of course, that last point had yet to be confirmed.

Without the slightest hesitation, Sun Cheng immediately chose to plunge into the light screen before him, intending to return to the real world.

Although only four or five days had passed in the Decepticons' world, he felt as though he had endured years of exhaustion.

Barricade's threats, Beam Splitter's hostility, Soundwave's methods—and most unfathomable of all was Starscream.

Dealing with those nonhuman lifeforms was simply too exhausting.

When his strength was insufficient, he could only rack his brains and struggle to cope. Fortunately, most of those he had encountered so far were powerful high-ranking Decepticons. They had not considered him worthy of notice at all, which had given him plenty of room to maneuver.

Even so, the experiences of those few short days in another world had left him utterly drained.

Now that he had finally returned to the spherical space and had the option of going back to his original world, Sun Cheng did not hesitate at all. He made his choice immediately.

Whoosh!

Pale blue light flashed. Along with the strange sensation of his soul being pulled away and a brief wave of dizziness, Sun Cheng came back to himself and instinctively looked around with slightly bewildered eyes, only to find that he had returned to the office.

"I'm back?"

The faint dizziness brought on by crossing worlds still lingered in his head, giving Sun Cheng the illusion that everything before him was unreal.

Unable to resist, he slapped himself. As the crisp smack rang out, the sting on his cheek was like a shot of cold medicine, finally dispelling those negative sensations.

He rubbed his temples and stood up from his seat. Then he instinctively touched his stomach, and the utterly empty sensation made him feel very uncomfortable.

"I'm back. That's good..."

He quietly reassured himself, then looked outside through the window. It was broad daylight.

However, traveling back and forth between two worlds had muddled Sun Cheng's sense of time. He subconsciously reached into his pocket, intending to take out his phone and check the time.

But the instant his hand slipped into his pocket, his expression changed abruptly.

His fingertips did touch something icy cold, but it was not the metal casing of the iPhone 5 he remembered. It was another cold object, smaller and entirely different in shape.

He hastily pulled the object from his pocket. Sun Cheng's eyes widened as he stared in utter disbelief at the black crystal he had just taken out.

"This... this is the [Scout Template]?"

There was no mistaking it!

This Level 2 [Core] that Starscream had bestowed upon him a day ago had been stored inside his body using his transformation ability together with the iPhone 5 he had brought from the real world. He had treasured it dearly all along.

Although, after having all of Frenzy's memories unsealed, he had begun to look down on such a low-grade item riddled with flaws, a Level 2 [Core] was still a Level 2 [Core]. It was one level higher than the [Core] equipped within the body of "Frenzy" that he had possessed in the other world. Setting everything else aside, its computational power alone far surpassed every supercomputer on Earth.

But what Sun Cheng could not understand was this: how had he brought something like this back with him?