Incredible Intelligence Theft

After the Ford Mustang police car Barricade had transformed into left the abandoned factory, it circled around for a while before heading toward the destination in Sun Cheng's memories.

The entire journey passed in silence.

As one of the few high-ranking warriors in the Decepticon Corps, Barricade was probably too lazy to bother with a minor character like him.

And Sun Cheng, wary of Barricade himself, had no intention of making a fool of himself. Since they still had some time before reaching their destination, he cautiously began studying his current body.

He still had no idea how he had somehow transmigrated here.

But without a doubt, the "Frenzy" whose body he had taken over was one of the lowest-ranking beings among the Decepticons.

Distinguishing the ranks of mechanical lifeforms like them was very simple—at least far easier than distinguishing the rich from the poor among humans.

The difference in size between high-ranking and low-ranking Decepticons was like heaven and earth, just like Frenzy, whose humanoid form stood barely a meter tall, and Barricade, who stood over five meters after transforming.

The reason for such a vast difference was the [Core].

To mechanical lifeforms like the Decepticons, the [Core] was even more important than a human's brain and heart combined. It was both the source of a Decepticon's life and the processing center for all its information, as well as its functional control hub.

Decepticons of different ranks were equipped with different [Cores]. From lowest to highest, they were the [Template], the [Spark], and the legendary [Matrix].

The [Template] was undoubtedly the worst of all [Cores]. It was generally equipped only by Level One and Level Two Decepticons, and could roughly be divided into three types: the [Medical Template], [Spy Template], and [Production Template].

The [Spark] was clearly far superior to the [Template]. Not only could it provide Decepticons with more energy for prolonged combat, but its service life also far exceeded that of any [Template].

Unfortunately, Frenzy did not know much about the [Spark]. He only knew that from ordinary Level Three warriors to the Decepticon leader—Megatron—the [Cores] they carried were all [Sparks].

As for the [Matrix], it was a divine artifact that existed only in the legends of Cybertron. Rumor had it that it was a [Core] created by a super leader long ago, but whether that was true could no longer be verified.

The car drove steadily down the road at high speed. Twenty-one minutes and seventeen seconds later, when his body tilted slightly forward, Sun Cheng finally snapped out of his research.

Seeing the familiar building outside through the window, blue light flickered in his eyes.

"We're here!"

A cold electronic voice came from the driver's seat beside him.

Hearing it, Sun Cheng instinctively turned his head, only to discover that at some point, a middle-aged white man with an old-fashioned handlebar mustache had appeared out of nowhere in the previously empty driver's seat.

He looked to be in his forties and wore a standard American police uniform. His eyes were icy, his face expressionless, and his entire body radiated a murderous aura.

"Not a real person... Is this... a projection?"

Although the man in the driver's seat looked utterly lifelike, Sun Cheng's ultra-precision electronic eyes sharply caught a faint glow on the man's surface. Only then did he realize that it was merely a projection activated by Barricade.

Click!

The passenger-side door suddenly opened. Feeling two icy gazes fall upon him, Sun Cheng said nothing as he jumped out of the car. His body, barely three heads tall, rolled across the ground before he ran without looking back toward the wall surrounding a nearby building.

The Advanced Computer Technology Research Center under Virginia's prestigious George Mason University!

It was an inconspicuous building in Fairfax City, yet it was one of the few research institutions in the United States with internet access speeds that could barely meet the needs of Sun Cheng's mission. It was also their destination tonight.

"Warning. Electronic surveillance devices detected. Safe route has been calculated as follows..."

As a mechanical spy of the Decepticon Corps, Frenzy's two pairs of electronic eyes not only possessed terrifyingly high-resolution vision and night vision, but could even detect electromagnetic radiation and the operating frequencies of electronic devices within a certain range. Once the information was relayed to his [Core], it automatically designed the optimal route for him.

The [Spy Template] was undoubtedly an enormous help to Sun Cheng. Despite it being his first time engaging in espionage, he easily bypassed several surveillance cameras and the research center's security patrol routes, then nimbly slipped into the research center building.

Time: April 20, 2007, 2:34 a.m.

Perhaps someone was still working overtime at this hour, or perhaps security personnel happened to be patrolling the building.

In any case, after entering the research center, Sun Cheng discovered that the doors to the first-floor lobby were open, and the lights in the corridors were on as well.

Growing more vigilant, Sun Cheng carefully avoided several surveillance cameras before arriving outside an office on the second floor.

He remained on guard for a moment and confirmed that the area was safe.

Only then did he raise his head and look at the keypad lock on the tempered-glass door in front of him. A low electronic clicking sound came from him. "A six-digit numeric keypad lock?"

With an incredulous expression, Sun Cheng's two pairs of electronic eyes swept over it. Once his [Core] concluded that the password could be cracked easily, he half-believingly followed its instructions and extended his right arm.

The transformation function immediately activated, and the index finger of his right hand quickly turned into a long, thin cylindrical metal rod.

After Sun Cheng inserted his transformed index finger into the maintenance hole at the lower corner of the office door's keypad lock, the intrusion function of the [Spy Template] inside him immediately activated. In less than 0.001 seconds, it read all 7,842 input records stored on the keypad lock's memory card.

After a simple proximity filter selected the most frequently used recent set of numbers, less than a second had passed before a six-digit number appeared in Sun Cheng's mind—198264.

"Th-That's it?"

He had cracked a keypad lock so easily. Although the memory data he had absorbed from Frenzy had already made him aware of the power of Decepticon mechanical lifeforms, wasn't this a little too powerful?

Human electronic devices, even when encrypted, were practically completely defenseless before the Decepticons!

Impressed as he was, he still entered the door code with a hint of anticipation.

He was not disappointed. With a soft click, the office door opened, and Sun Cheng immediately slipped inside.

It was a small office. A sign for the Vertical Recording Technology Laboratory hung outside the door, but the room itself was probably only around forty square meters.

Several desks were scattered messily throughout the office. Three of them each held an IBM desktop computer rarely seen on the market, while the others did not, suggesting that their owners usually used laptops.

Judging from the highly personal arrangement of materials on most of the desks, the researchers who worked here were evidently not much different from ordinary office workers.

He casually chose one computer. After confirming that both its network and power connections were functioning properly, Sun Cheng decisively turned it on, preparing to use it as a port to infiltrate the entire United States internet and search for information that might exist regarding the Decepticon leader—Megatron—and the sacred artifact, the [AllSpark].

Come to think of it, both Frenzy, whom he had already devoured, and Sun Cheng himself had been full of doubts when they read this mission from the [Core], a mission designated as his current highest-priority objective.

How could the Decepticons' leader and their planet's sacred relic be on Earth?

As far as he knew, Cybertron lay near the center of the Milky Way. Although Earth's solar system was also within the galaxy, the distance between them was no less than fifteen thousand light-years. Even though Cybertron had mastered artificial wormhole technology and could greatly shorten such an interstellar journey, that only raised another question.

How had Starscream, whom Megatron had appointed deputy commander of the Decepticon Corps, learned that Megatron and the [AllSpark] had to be on Earth at this very moment?

Soundwave, commander of the [Cassette Corps] to which Frenzy belonged, was clearly skeptical as well.

Thus, after leading the [Cassette Corps] to follow Starscream's trail all the way to the solar system, and after Starscream had proactively approached him with this information, Soundwave agreed to send several of his spies to cooperate with Starscream's operation. At the same time, however, he assigned them several secret missions.

Shaking his head, Sun Cheng quickly tossed the doubts filling his mind aside.

His partner, Barricade, was still waiting for him outside. Though he was resentful, Sun Cheng knew full well that the guy had no patience for waiting around. He had to finish up quickly and report back!

So, the moment he saw that the computer on the desk had booted up, he used the stool as a springboard and leaped onto the desk, ready to get to work.

Although the office looked rather messy and unhygienic, it was still a researcher's computer. The user of the machine he had powered on had decent security awareness and had encrypted it.

But after his little test just now, Sun Cheng no longer considered such a minor inconvenience worth worrying about.

Ignoring the computer's boot password entirely, Sun Cheng directly activated his transformation ability. This time, he transformed both arms into USB interfaces and connected them to the computer's main unit.

Sure enough, once the [Spy Template]'s intrusion function activated, his [Core] cracked the boot password in less than a second, allowing him to use it as a foothold to invade the entire American internet.