Transformers: Survival of Defective Products

Chapter 16, Second Repair

In the following few months, the gravitational vector resigned itself to its fate.

Since Zhen Tianzun wouldn't let her live in Qingqiu City, she had no choice but to continue running between the two places.

In the beginning, she felt like she was being forcibly split in two every day. One half stayed in the technical room and scanning table in Qingqiu City, while the other half dragged her still-adapting body back to Zhen Tianzun's side on the last few public transport buses.

I left home before dawn, and when I returned at night, my brain was still processing the structural compatibility, energy paths, and abnormal reconstruction records that Red Spider had talked about during the day. Even when I closed my eyes to rest on the train, what floated before my eyes were the disassembled body layers and parameter curves.

I'm really tired.

But after running for a while, she gradually developed a rhythm that wasn't exactly normal, but at least enough to keep her alive.

She knew which train was the fastest, and she also knew which tone of voice Red Spider used to indicate that he was in a good mood and could ask her a few more questions; and which tone of voice indicated that she should leave him alone.

The first phase of recovery gave her the strength to work hard again.

During the subsequent StarCraft weeks, she struggled to maintain the rebuilt foundation of her mecha while simultaneously cramming the knowledge she could actually learn from Starscream into her brain module.

This guy is no ordinary person.

Even the simplest steps or terms that Red Spider taught her, even if they were just casually mentioned, were actually useful and applicable knowledge.

He's like a knowledgeable, seasoned professor whose mouth is laced with venom.

So she didn't complain about anything.

Later on, Red Spider would occasionally glance up and realize that she was no longer just an assistant standing by, handing over tools and recording processes. When some structural diagrams were unfolded, she could keep up much faster than before; when some parameters were given, she no longer felt completely blank and had to go back and look them up bit by bit.

Of course, this doesn't stop the red spider from nitpicking as usual.

She pretended not to notice whether the extra sets of data the other party collected during each routine check and rescan were simply for repair purposes or had other motives.

Anyway, when she signed that agreement, she never really expected to only be paid for the hours and not have to pay any other price.

The second restoration was completed several months later.

As the vector stepped off the repair table, it paused slightly the moment its foot actually touched the ground.

She finally felt it again, and some things that she had almost given up on were starting to become her own again, little by little.

She looked down at her hands, slowly closed them, and then opened them again.

Her grip was much smoother than before. She even tried to turn half a circle in place, and her center of gravity was very stable, with good support from her joints and limbs.

She actually felt like laughing.

She hadn't felt this way in a long time—after completing a certain movement, she didn't have to worry about whether she would collapse the next second.

"Adapt for a week," Red Spider said from the side. "Don't touch that new stabilizing layer on your chest. Your legs will be much more responsive than before; you'll get used to it."

The vector nodded.

-

On a rare day off, instead of staying home to catch up on sleep, she went to the arena.

Although she hadn't been here for several months, the place didn't feel unfamiliar at all. The metallic clanging of the stadium, the waves of cheers from the stands, the oppressive atmosphere created by the lights and the constant announcements all rushed back the moment she stepped in.

Zhen Tianzun's popularity has clearly not dropped at all.

The stands were still full, with the front rows packed. Several groups of people, clearly not ordinary spectators, were even crowding the higher seats and the boxes. They didn't join in the commotion, standing quietly, their eyes mostly fixed on the audience.

A quick glance from the vector revealed that there were people from the arena themselves, as well as others who had come to "check out the goods."

As she was pushing her way to the front, her peripheral vision caught a striking glimpse of red, white, and black.

……oh.

This color scheme is indeed quite easy to recognize.

Just as the vector looked over, the other person also turned their head. The next second their eyes met, a hint of surprise flashed across those optical glasses.

"—You actually managed to fix it?"

He looked her up and down, his interest barely concealed through his optical glasses.

"While it's not quite at the point where we can show it off," he added slowly, "at least it's not like last time, when it looked like it was about to fall apart just standing there."

Yin Vector's lips twitched slightly: "Thanks, I'll take that as a compliment."

He chuckled and his gaze swept over her chest and forearms.

"I'm just telling the truth."

"As for you, you've disappeared quite completely lately. I haven't seen you since that incident. Are you not used to the arena?"

"No." Vector looked at the arena, where Zhen Tianzun had just kicked his opponent away. "I just haven't had time to come lately."

"No time?" He seemed to have heard something interesting, and his microscope scanned her again. "So you finally saved up enough Shanix and found a decent place to piece yourself back together?"

The vector raises an eyebrow.

"Pretty much," she said. "I've been busy lately trying not to look like a piece of junk."

He smiled again, but his gaze did not leave the area around her chest and forearms where the surgical lines had been clearly altered.

He said slowly, "This isn't the kind of work that can be done in a place that can only barely weld you into a machine shape."

The vector looked up at him.

"You have a really sharp eye."

"You can think of it as me making a living from this," the other person said casually. "That's why I lost my phone."

Just as she was about to steer the conversation elsewhere, she suddenly caught a glimpse of a very quiet machine silhouette at the edge of the observation deck.

Dark-colored, tall, blending into the shadows.

...That's the machine.

How come he's still so handsome?

As she looked over, the other person was also glancing in her direction one last time. There was no movement, no indication, not even a noticeable pause, yet she still inexplicably felt that the other person had noticed her as well.

Following her gaze, Jiang Ziya glanced upwards, and the smile on his lips faded slightly.

"It seems we're not the only ones here to join in the fun today," he said casually.