Transformers: Survival of Defective Products

Chapter 18 Completed

The vector machine lay sprawled on the metal floor of the underground training room, its eyes vacant, its optical mirrors pointing towards the ceiling. The entire machine was in a state of calm, as if it had been struck and temporarily rendered incapable of thinking.

She has only one thought right now.

Aren't Cybertronians robots?

Why is the robot in so much pain?

Or perhaps it's not that Cybertronians feel pain, but that Ultraman went too far.

She even began to suspect that her current state was probably equivalent to an ordinary person who had just mustered up the courage to learn boxing, only to be personally forced to the ground by Tyson and given a severe lesson on the first day.

No.

It might be more than three wheels.

After all, Tyson wouldn't just kick you back down as soon as you've managed to get up, and then coldly comment, "You've lost your balance again."

Yin Vector stared at the ceiling, remained silent for a few seconds, and finally squeezed out through gritted teeth, "...Didn't you go a little too far?"

Zhen Tianzun stood not far away, his exhaust pipes barely moving, and upon hearing this, he merely glanced at her with lowered eyes.

"Is this what you call heavy?"

The vector almost came to life on the spot.

"I'm practically lying down thinking about how to survive now, what more do you want?"

Zhen Tianzun scoffed, his tone so flat it was irritating.

"Have you figured out why you're lying here?"

The optical mirror was closed by the vector.

Of course she knew she had played terribly.

The problem was that she originally thought that the so-called "teaching some fighting skills" should at least start with normal teaching, instead of making her understand so profoundly what the difference in strength meant right from the start.

As it turned out, she was still too naive.

Zhen Tianzun walked to her side and looked down at her as if she were a machine that he had just beaten up and caused problems.

"The way you did that just now, your eyes moved first, then your shoulder shifted inward, causing your center of gravity to shift out of control prematurely, leaving a gap big enough to kill you three times over."

He paused, his tone cold to the point of being cruel.

"If you had a machine that really wanted to kill you, you wouldn't be lying here crying in pain anymore."

Vector knew he was telling the truth, which was why she wanted to beat him up even more.

She raised her hand to wipe her face, forcing herself to suppress her anger. After a few seconds, she first propped herself up on the floor, then slowly straightened herself up by holding onto the wall next to her.

Halfway up, she didn't forget to look up and warn him:

"If you kick me again while I'm getting up, I'll assume you're not teaching, but trying to murder me."

Zhen Tianzun looked at her without even lifting his eyelids: "The fact that I kicked you down a second time means you weren't steady on the first kick."

Yin Vector's lips twitched; he was too lazy to argue with him anymore.

After she regained her balance, she moved her shoulders and wrists. Her right leg still felt a little numb from the shock, and the new stable layer on her chest was also faintly warming up.

"My brain can sometimes keep up," she said, adjusting her posture, "but my body can't."

Zhen Tianzun glanced at her and said calmly, "Then let it follow."

The vector took a deep breath and readjusted its stance.

"bring it on."

-

After that, life suddenly became much busier.

The schedule for Red Spider didn't stop. After the third phase of repair was completed, preparations for the final complete overhaul were gradually being pushed forward. Between each routine check, parameter rescan, and structural correction, he tirelessly stuffed a bunch of new things into her brain module.

Zhen Tianzun wasn't idle either.

After the combat training began, Yin Xiangzhu truly realized that there was no transitional phase between "teaching you some techniques" and "beating you to the ground until you remember the techniques" as she had originally thought.

She still had to go to the arena.

Sometimes I watch Zhen Tianzun's matches, sometimes I go backstage to wait for him, and sometimes I just want to take advantage of the rare free time to pay more attention to his speeches, to confirm just how many outrageous things this bastard has said, and to also memorize the people and events of that place more deeply.

She didn't let the rest of the time go to waste either.

She practically turned the mobile terminal on her left forearm into sparks. She was researching Cybertronian common sense, the social operating system, the terminology and structural logic that Starscream had casually thrown at her during the day, and where she could find some odd jobs, manual labor, or temporary moving work so that her Shanks wouldn't just be going out without coming in.

The problem is, very few people can actually connect with it.

Otherwise, the price is pitifully low, the timing clashes with the schedule, or the location is too far away. She has to go there, do the job, and then come back, and she doesn't even earn enough to cover the transportation costs.

Even so, she would still investigate.

She is much stronger now than she was at the beginning, and therefore knows better how much she still needs to catch up on.

So she could only continue learning, continue running, and continue to break her day into several segments.

-

The fourth phase was completed several months later.

As the last set of stable parameters fell, Red Spider raised her hand and turned off the projection in mid-air. Her tone was calm, and she seemed to be working on a pretty good project.

"Alright."

The moment the vectoring unit stepped off the repair table and its foot truly touched the ground, the entire machine fell silent for two seconds.

There were no warnings, no error messages, and nothing subtly reminding her to be careful.

She even subconsciously moved her shoulders, wrists, and legs in unison, the movement so smooth that she herself was slightly taken aback.

This time it's truly complete.

Red Spider glanced at her from the side, finding even her momentary daze unnecessary.

"Don't give me that 'finally graduating' look." His tone was icy. "The end of the repair project doesn't mean your hours here are wiped clean."

The vector snapped out of his daze and glanced at him.

"You're making it sound like I was just about to get emotional."

"That's best not to." Red Spider lowered his head and continued to adjust the next set of data, "so I don't have to suspect that you didn't fix something correctly."

Tsk, how come all these people have such sharp tongues?

-

Since it was a rare time slot that wasn't full, Vector still went to the arena.

As that red, white, and black color scheme flashed by in the backstage corridor, she didn't hesitate and immediately called out to the other person.

"Hey, knock him down."

He turned his head, saw it was her, and a slight smile appeared on his lips.

"Finally, you've stopped giving me random nicknames in your mind?"

Even the vector couldn't help but chuckle and let out a soft hum.

"I've heard your name so many times I know it by heart." She stood there with her arms crossed. "But you still don't know me. That's not fair."

Knockout was quite amused by that remark, and the amusement in his eyes was undisguised.

"It sounds like you're complaining that I'm not proactive enough."

"If you're willing to understand it that way, that's fine too," said Vector.

He knocked her down, raised the terminal, and slowly glanced at her.

"Let's make it more formal then," he said with a smile. "Knock out."

The vector also raised its left forearm and brought up the frequency band interface.

"Attraction vector".

The two identification signals touched lightly in mid-air, and the frequency band exchange was successful.

He knocked her down and retrieved the terminal, then casually gave her another once-over, this time with a more genuine sense of professionalism.

"At least it doesn't look like last time, where you looked like you were waiting to be resuscitated just standing there." He paused, then added, "But if one day you feel that your tech-savvy friend has made you look less like a living organism, remember to come and find someone who truly understands medicine."