Transformers: Survival of Defective Products

The hammer quickly veered out of its usual course, and the star map ahead became increasingly unfamiliar.

The sensing provided by the leadership module is like a constant pull across a long distance.

Following the direction provided by Optimus Prime, Jack corrected the course: "If we keep going like this, the high-energy nebula region is just ahead."

Optimus Prime sat in the second seat, trying to adjust to the relatively cramped space: "The AllSpark seems to be right there."

"Then we'll just have to move on."

-

Meanwhile, anomalies on Earth have escalated to the level of tsunamis and tornadoes.

The giant volcano, which was initially just increasing underground pressure, suddenly erupted in the early morning.

Fortunately, due to the series of anomalies in the previous days, the human government completed the evacuation of most of the population ahead of schedule, and the first eruption did not cause any casualties.

But the monitoring station discovered something ominous.

Fuller immediately activated emergency communications to contact the judicial liaison point: "The volcanic eruption is very strange; the energy reaction and color are wrong. You'd better come and see for yourself."

The footage showed the crater still spewing out large amounts of smoke and dust, lava flowing down the mountainside, and hot rocks constantly falling.

Unlike the usual orange-red magma, it was mostly abrupt dark purple liquid or hard blocks.

The vector instantly stood up: "Nine-Seven, call an ambulance."

As 97 replied "Received," Megatron also sent a private message: "I will be there."

-

As soon as the vector emerged, it was met with intense heat and volcanic ash in the air.

The ambulance followed closely behind, and the scanner went off like crazy as soon as it was turned on.

97 and Chongyunxiao ascended into the sky to search from high above for any remaining humans who might have been missed and needed rescue.

Megatron stepped out from another land bridge and stared intently at the dark purple liquid spewing from the volcano.

"A dark super-energy entity." He concluded after a few glances.

The ambulance suddenly looked up, and a gasp came from 97: "What?!"

The vector also stared at the flowing and erupting purple matter.

The volcano was still roaring, and a bunch of questions immediately popped into her brain:

Why are dark super-energy entities spewing out from inside the Earth?

Wasn't that something Megatron found in some remote corner of the universe?

They had always assumed it was like any other energy source, scattered across different star systems.

But now, a volcano on Earth is spewing out the blood of the Cosmic Emperor from its depths.

The antenna fins slowly tightened: "Ambulance, take samples."

-

With the aid of sound waves and shock waves, it was confirmed within minutes that it was a dark super-energy entity.

Activity level: On the rise.

Homogenetic reactions exist underground.

The worst possible guess crept into Yin Xiang's mind: "What does it mean for homologous reactions to exist underground?"

The sound waves increase the scanning depth, but after hundreds of kilometers, the signal is severely interfered with by the high-density rock layers.

However, the faint characteristics of the dark super-energy entity did not disappear; they remained, as if they came from a deeper depth.

The data is constantly being updated.

The optical mirror that was drawing the vector suddenly felt a sharp pain at that moment.

The moment she blinked and opened her eyes again, the world before her had changed.

Volcanic ash and mountains disappeared from view, and the earth's surface was peeled away like an onion.

Rocks, groundwater, the earth's crust, and even the mantle all became translucent before her eyes.

The vector-guided optical lens is widened, and a ring of gold patterns emerges from the edge of the blue-green optical lens.

Gold-plated lens.

It just so happens to start now.

"A vector?" The ambulance noticed her abnormality immediately.

"Wait... I think I saw something."

Her gaze continued downwards, the world growing darker and darker, until at some depth, a colossal object, too enormous for her to see in its entirety, lay silently within the Earth.

She could vaguely make out lines resembling bones and blood vessels.

A huge mechanical eyeball trembled slightly, then suddenly opened, gazing at her from afar.

She froze for a moment under his gaze.

Deepest within, a mass of dark purple energy slowly contracted and expanded.

She saw that the thing was actually moving, and it wasn't just a metaphor.

The ambulance driver suddenly exclaimed in surprise as he magnified a segment of the underground vibration waveform and compared it with another set of processed sound waves.

The two sets of data were stacked together.

A tremor from deep within the Earth, a periodic pulse from the spark and energy cycle of Cybertronian life forms.

The two lines gradually converged and eventually almost overlapped.

The ambulance driver's expression froze.

Jiuqi didn't quite understand: "What's wrong?"

The sound wave answered first: "The regularity and periodicity are highly similar to the energy cycle pulses of large Cybertronian life forms."

The ambulance driver, speaking in machine language, translated, "It's like a heartbeat."

The volcano erupted again, and the earth shook.

The dark purple core in the vector field of view completes a contraction at the same moment.

Fully synchronized!

She finally found her voice: "I see him."

Megatron turned his head instantly: "Who are you referring to?"

Golden patterns shimmered along her optical lens, and the alchemical lens allowed her to finally see the colossal object deep within through the surface.

She had always thought she understood what the Yuanzu was saying.

If the Cosmic Emperor is on Earth, then he is simply hiding underground, perhaps near the Earth's core, or perhaps surrounded by rock layers.

Only now has she finally understood the true nature of the Cosmic Emperor.

"Unicron is not on Earth."

97 was caught off guard: "What? Didn't we just say Unicron is on Earth?"

The voice of the vector vector rose, unable to contain the shock:

"The Earth's core is its core, and the Earth's core is its heart!"

All the machines froze. The joint communications were silent at first, then filled with a mix of panicked, frightened, helpless, and desperate voices trying to calm down.

The field of view provided by the gold-plated lens is still expanding.

She finally saw clearly that countless billions of years of rocks, ocean, atmosphere, and life covered his body.

The Cosmic Emperor himself is Earth, where humanity lives.

After a moment of stunned silence, a remarkably sharp voice pierced the noise of the joint communications system:

"no!!!"

"He told me before that he was 'on Earth,' and I always understood that he lived here!"

"Who knew it would be this kind of 'present'?!"

Nine-Seven looked up at the sky, briefly showing an "Aba aba" expression, clearly restarting its brain module.

Rumble and Chaos fell into a deathly silence. After a few seconds, Rumble said, "So, are we now... standing on Unicron?"

Fuller heard it too, and the group of government officials around him were also briefly speechless.

After a long pause, Fuller finally managed to speak with difficulty: "Our Earth... is that god?"

"Yes..." Yin Vector felt that he would have to settle accounts with Yuanzu sooner or later, even if they had just given him a literal reminder!

Fuller's soul has completely left his body this time, and he won't be able to return anytime soon.

-

Megatron never participated in those discussions.

His gaze lingered on the dark, super-energy particles constantly erupting from the depths of the volcano.

More than three years ago, he traveled through so many unknown star fields, following the fragmented records and traces all the way, and finally found that huge crystal at the edge of the universe.

But now the real source has been right under our feet all along.

Worse still, he had seriously considered using this substance to connect himself with Unicron and gain his power.

Megatron's face grew increasingly gloomy, but he could still be seen in the field of vision of the vector.

"Regret it?"

"Shut up."

It seems there is some truth to that.

-

The connection of the gold-plated lens began to weaken, and the golden streaks gradually faded.

In the final moments before she disappeared, she saw the spherical heart of the Cosmic Emperor, and the consciousness that would disappear and reappear elsewhere.

The view completely disappeared, and a new crack appeared in the distant mountain, from which more dark purple light burst forth from the depths of the magma.

The vector's expression was not much better.

The ambulance quickly scanned her from head to toe, and only breathed a sigh of relief after confirming that she was alright.

The vector immediately opened the joint wartime channel.

"It has been confirmed that the material core of the Cosmic Emperor is located inside the Earth, or more precisely, the Earth itself is his material body."

The channel was completely silent.

-

The ship was still vibrating as it carried Optimus Prime and Jack through the outer edge of the first high-energy nebula.

While Jack was busy controlling the flight path, Optimus Prime suddenly received a top-level strategic update.

After he finished reading it, he didn't do anything for a long time.

Jack turned his head, and after seeing the message, he also became serious: "Then we need to hurry."

The leadership module continues to guide them into the depths of the endless high-energy nebulae.

-

There was no time for the crowd to remain in shock; the most pressing question now was—how to get in?

The vector quickly returned to the temporary judicial liaison point.

"Should we just open a land bridge or a space bridge?" Smokescreen asked on the joint channel.

AZ shook his head: "No."

The shockwave directly showed him the video simulation results.

A blue-green tunnel takes shape inside the mantle, and the next second, the simulated Cybertronian blends into the surrounding high-density rock layer as if through a mold.

The smoke screen watched the scene: "..."

Shockwave: "The probability of death is close to 100%."

Land bridges are not created by drilling holes; spatial passages must have precise landing coordinates and enough space to accommodate the aircraft.

No one knows what the structure is like near the Earth's core.

Even if she had seen the core through the alchemical lens, what she saw was only the essence, not a 3D map that could be used for navigation.

Using space bridges or land bridges, if the coordinates are even slightly off, they could appear in rock layers, the mantle, or even high-temperature and high-pressure zones.

"Shall we go down?" Fuller suggested.

Everyone quickly calculated the result: with current technology, digging from the Earth's surface all the way to the Earth's core would be a monumental project that would take several generations to complete.

Vector crossed his arms and looked around for a long time: "Digging won't work, and normal spatial passages won't work either."

"Let's find another way." Just as Megatron was considering whether he could try to locate the coordinates by expanding the signal range, he saw the gravitational vector reveal an expression that said, "I'm hiding something, I'm hesitating whether to tell you or not."

"...vector".

Everyone turned to look at the vector, and could hear the unusual headache and helplessness in Megatron's tone.

She touched the location of the internal compartment through the body of the machine. Initially, the situation did not allow her to take it out so quickly, so she had to hide it for the time being.

But now that the Cosmic Emperor is about to rise from the dead, how can we not take it?

"I possess the Blade of Time."