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Chapter 707: The Formation of the Black Market
🕑 Added 2023-10-09 08:55:29 +0000 UTCTransformers Begin : Table of Content/Chapter List
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Sun Cheng wasn't overly concerned about Base Two's exposure. Under his pig farming policy, the economies of several South American countries controlled by Base Two hadn't seen significant changes in their total GDP growth rates, but the cost of living, income, and national welfare were steadily improving.
Even if someone intended to oppose them, there was no need for Base Two to personally intervene. The Decepticon spies had a firm grip on the military forces, ready to crush any resistance.
However, not worrying didn't mean Sun Cheng couldn't see the potential downsides after the exposure. This included human resistance, blockades from other human nations, and heightened vigilance and hostility from neighboring border countries.
If this stable rear base became chaotic, it would undoubtedly affect Sun Cheng's operations elsewhere.
Of course, what concerned him most was that Base Two's exposure to humans might attract the attention of the Autobots and the Skytiger Legion.
Especially the latter. If Megatron were determined to take Sun Cheng's life, with the might of the Skytiger Legion, Base Two might hold out for a short while, but it wouldn't last more than two months before being utterly destroyed.
It wasn't a matter of Sun Cheng underestimating himself, but the Skytiger Legion genuinely possessed such capability. They didn't even need Shockwave's led troops; all it would take was Starscream and his forces going all out.
Therefore, the Mars plan had to be advanced.
Time slipped away like an uncontrollable tide while Sun Cheng was fully immersed in the development of a small spaceship.
In the blink of an eye, a month had passed!
When Sun Cheng returned to Terindad Island after sending the design data back to Base Two, he realized that he hadn't paid much attention to the island for almost a month. Now, he finally noticed the changes on the island.
The current Terindad Island was entirely different from what it had been over a month ago when he had discreetly arrived in the country.
To the southeast of the island, a massive complex resembling ancient Greek temples now dominated a significant portion of the southeastern corner.
It covered an area of nearly seven hundred thousand square meters and consisted of a main temple and two adjacent side temples.
The main temple, reminiscent of ancient Greek temples, served as the trading hub between Forerunner and visiting representatives from various human nations.
The main hall stood at fifteen meters tall, and its spacious interior lacked the awe-inspiring frescoes typically found on temple walls. Instead, rows of merchandise were displayed, showcasing the various goods that Sun Cheng was willing to trade with the human nations.
There were a plethora of goods, numbering in the hundreds.
Although none of them represented the coveted extraterrestrial black technology that the human nations desired, not even a trace of weaponry, it didn't mean there weren't valuable items here.
On the contrary, everything Sun Cheng had prepared for trade with the various nations in the Transformers Universe consisted of highly sophisticated equipment and instruments, tightly controlled and prohibited for export by European and American nations on Earth.
Moreover, the equipment provided by the Precision Instrument Manufacturing Company, thanks to the unique Decepticon craftsmanship and some modifications by the engineers, outperformed the top products currently manufactured by European and American nations by one to two generations.
Initially regarded as a stepping stone, the human nations had willingly placed orders for a batch of these items once they discovered this fact.
In one corner of the main hall, there was a large meeting room designated for negotiations between Forerunner and representatives of various nations.
Adjacent to the main hall, two side temples were designed by Forerunner to resemble hotels on Earth, fulfilling the requirements of providing accommodation, meeting spaces, and communication with the home countries for the visiting representatives to the island.
Both side temples had four floors, with a total of one hundred and sixty guest rooms, four medium-sized meeting rooms, two bars, and various restaurants and facilities.
The chefs responsible for cooking on the island and even some of the waitstaff, though they appeared to be humans, were actually First Generation Decepticon engineers. They were the spy reinforcements prepared by Base Two, and the Black Market on Terindad Island had now become a training ground for these future spies.
The one responsible for formulating and arranging the arrival of these spies was Mora, who had already received a promotion. He had successfully transitioned from being a First Generation humanoid Decepticon engineer to a genuine humanoid Decepticon spy. Sun Cheng saw him as a promising future head of intelligence and had begun granting him a certain level of authority within Base Two.
Mora was no longer holding a high-ranking position in Bo Nation, but another engineer, who looked exactly like him, had absorbed most of his data and taken his place. The current Mora was busy training the engineers within Base Two. He had two specific requirements for the First Generation humanoid Decepticon engineers sent to Terindad Island: to mimic humans as closely as possible and to subtly leak some semi-real, semi-fake information.
Sun Cheng returned to the island, having just come out from the sub-base hidden within Tristan da Cunha's peak. Forerunner had already arrived.
"Master, I was just about to report the situation on the island during this period!"
He extended a hand, and in his palm, a blue light gradually appeared. Upon closer inspection, one could clearly see streams of azure data flowing continuously in the palm of Forerunner.
If Sun Cheng needed it, he could instantly link up with one of the Artificial Intelligence systems on the island and gain access to everything that had happened on the island in recent times.
This was his request to Atlas and the others, to develop a pseudo-Artificial Intelligence system. It possessed about 8% of the intelligence and roughly one-fifth of the computing power of a human's perspective, making it arguably a super-intelligent supercomputer in human terms. Although there were still significant shortcomings, it was more than capable of managing the day-to-day affairs of a sub-base.
If Forerunner hadn't come, Sun Cheng would indeed have linked up with the island's Artificial Intelligence to learn about recent events on the island. However, now that he had a better option, Sun Cheng nodded slightly, and two blue lights emanated from his eyes. In an instant, he scanned through all the data streams shared by the Forerunner.
After digesting this data, he smiled and nodded approvingly at Forerunner.
"You've done well during this time!"
While it was true that he had suddenly decided to build a small spaceship and had essentially delegated the island's affairs to Forerunner, Sun Cheng had also used the island's Black Market as a means to hone Forerunner's abilities.
From the memories shared by Forerunner, it seemed that he had performed quite well over the past period.
Now, Terindad Island had met all of Sun Cheng's initial requirements, and it was open to all human nations that could discover it. It was even gaining recognition among the top echelons of some countries on Earth.
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Next Chapter >>Chapter 708: Spherical Space
