frightfiction Chapter 23 Want to Enjoy a Buffet
Chapter 23 Want to Enjoy a Buffet
The party continued the following afternoon, but Rosa didn't participate much. Or rather, Rosa spent the entire day in her room researching how to replicate a weapon she had seen before, so she didn't come out much except to collect supplies.
She considered killing all the edible life forms, but she also realized that if she wanted to go back, she would need to rely on the resources of one side to research and build the device to return—either the Decepticons or the Autobots.
But she preferred to join the Autobots. The reason was simple: based on her experience at boot camp, a group of Transformers mocked her for being a non-transformer, only to be thoroughly beaten up by her before they behaved. All the Transformers held a contemptuous attitude towards 'non-transformers,' seeing them as a bunch of bullies.
With her abilities, could she gain a foothold in the Decepticons? Perhaps she could, but what if, after gaining a foothold, she wanted to develop a way to teleport home?
She couldn't entrust her and her family's future to a group of people with serious character flaws.
It would be better to wait for the war to end among the more skilled Autobots, and then research and develop a way to return home once Cybertron has the resources to rebuild in the future.
She originally thought that the Autobots would have another teammate, but she didn't expect that Jack would leave that evening after repairing the spaceship. When she received the news, Rosa also went to see Jack off.
"Aren't you staying?"
Rosa came out to say goodbye to the jack, while the partition slapped the jack hard.
"The conman never stays long, but he always comes back!"
The land bridge opened, and the jacks were sent to his spaceship. Rosa didn't go because she was called away by an ambulance.
"I'm sorry, but as a doctor, I still have a few questions to ask." The ambulance looked at her seriously. Rosa hesitated; would it be impolite not to take them?
"Go ahead, little girl," Jack said, seeing Rosa's thoughts. "You might become a powerful warrior." It was encouragement. Rosa thanked Jack and obediently followed the ambulance into the medical room for another talk.
"First of all..." The ambulance looked at Rosa, who was still wagging her tail, the blue syringe bobbing back and forth.
"What is the essence of your solvers?" The ambulance remembered that conjecture: the iron-devouring worm was afraid of her, who resembled one of its own kind, and its core would gradually heat up, requiring energy to cool down. Individually, this might not be a problem, but when combined, it was hard not to imagine that the solvers might also have a certain devouring nature.
"This is a question even we don't know the answer to," Rosa said, tilting her head.
“But I can tell you, the solver is our underlying logic; we’re born with it. The only difference is that ‘this battery is leaking electricity.’” As she spoke, a solver symbol appeared on Rosa’s hand.
“The essence of devouring is that our core gradually heats up over time, and energy can cool it down. If the core temperature becomes too high for the body to withstand…” Rosa looked up at the ambulance, and the ambulance driver, guessing the answer, responded to Rosa.
"You will explode and die."
Rosa nodded and continued to explain the solver's other countermeasures before it exploded and died.
"Before that, if the core temperature reaches the threshold, consciousness will be taken over by the solver's underlying logic."
"What do you mean?" the ambulance driver asked, frowning. Rosa didn't explain but instead found a medical bed to sit on and crossed her legs in the ambulance driver's sight.
"One of the underlying logic steps of the solver is..." Rosa placed her hands on her lap.
"Devour"
"If energy is insufficient, the underlying logic takes over consciousness and consumes everything we can see that contains energy." The ambulance was puzzled. It's like when a person is hungry, they want to eat; when the fuel tank is empty, it wants to consume energy. Isn't that normal?
Rosa's next words made the ambulance driver realize he had misunderstood.
On her near-perfect face, "including the living," Rosa lowered her head slightly, revealing her sharp teeth. Her beautiful face was shadowed by the overhead light in the research room, obscuring her expression and details. All that could be seen was that her blue eyes were gleaming with a soft blue light as she stared at the ambulance.
These eyes seemed to be sizing up prey, treating anything with energy as prey—it was their instinct. However, her true form was somewhat deceptive, so even with this gaze, no one would notice it unless they looked closely. (ps: A small illustration by the author, Xia Ji Ba Ran Hua, is included here, merely to capture the atmosphere.)
Rosa looked up, the shadow disappeared, and she looked perfectly normal, like an innocent little girl.
“Once controlled by the underlying logic, even if the core cools down to a safe temperature, it will still follow its instincts. Providing certain stimulation can awaken its will.” Rosa nodded, raising her index finger, thus explaining the core's basic operation. The ambulance driver was somewhat shocked by the speed of Rosa's change in demeanor.
And what she just meant was... if her core temperature gets too high, she'll instinctively eat... the people around her...
Any object with energy... "including carbon-based ones?"
"Including carbon-based." The ambulance driver was shocked. Even the TF Nightmare Iron-Eating Insects were afraid of her, and now he believed everything she said. Rosa's converter, capable of transforming anything, was the best proof of that.
Now he knows why he thought Rosa and the Iron-Eating Bug were the same kind of creature back then.
"Don't worry, I'm not at that point yet." Hearing this, the ambulance driver sighed. Of course, he knew Rosa wasn't hungry right now; what he was afraid of was that one day Rosa would lose control and eat her own people.
“I know, but don’t you have any other countermeasures?” The ambulance looked at Rosa. “I mean, eating TF and the human part.”
"Don't worry, with TF around, I won't choose humans. Fresh energy bodies and engine oil are more to our liking." Rosa clearly missed the point.
"That's not what I meant! I was worried that if you went berserk during the battle, you might eat the Autobots!" Ratchet said, his face darkening. Sometimes he really wanted to disassemble Rosa's brain module to see what was inside.
"This? I'll carry a canister of super energy with me in the subspace, so I can control it in time, and..." Rosa approached the ambulance and lowered her voice, "Even if it goes berserk, it'll be in a bunch of tigers, wouldn't it be better to enjoy a tiger buffet?"
The ambulance driver's face darkened even more; he simply couldn't accept the idea of cannibalism, especially from Rosa, who shared Cybertronian genes.
"Rosa, we can't eat people. Even the Decepticons wouldn't do that," Optimus Prime said as he entered and closed the door behind him.
“This is our instinct. Optimus Prime and the Awakened Solver both have this instinct, because dying from an explosion is the only way for me to truly die,” Rosa said, walking up to Optimus Prime.
"That's what we fear too." Two pairs of blue eyes met. In Optimus Prime's eyes was compassion and pity, while in Rosa's eyes... Optimus Prime couldn't explain the emotion.
It's like numbness, like bloodlust, but within it lies a gentle and upright spirit that is the complete opposite.
Chaotic, disorderly, yet orderly
But that bloodthirsty feeling reminded him of someone, and he would never let Rosa become that person, become a second Megatron.
“We’re not asking you to completely suppress your instincts, we just want you to control them where you can,” Optimus Prime said, crouching down to be at Rosa’s eye level.
"At the very least, do not hurt your family."
...family
The words left her somewhat stunned. She hadn't seen her parents and relatives for a long time and naturally missed them very much.
At the highest command level, her longing to go home stemmed from her desire to see her family. So far, the Autobots weren't her enemies, but they weren't quite at the level of "family" in the context of "highest command level." However...
For the Autobots, the other Autobots are like family... and they can't go home either.
Wandering in a foreign land, a hometown that exists only in one's memory, a hometown that can never be returned to...
"Okay, I'll try to control myself." I was a little dissatisfied, but I'll still try my best. They're not my family, but they're not my enemies either. I'll avoid eating them if I can.
"Also, give me some of your saliva, and a sample of the acid from your tail." The ambulance hesitated for a moment before finally saying this.
After collecting everything, there was nothing else to do, so Rosa was sent back.