Transformers: Survival of Defective Products

Chapter 53 Having a Meal

After the check on the other side was completed, the homing vector was finally released.

However, it wasn't exactly easy. Although the cold blue magnetic ring around her chest had quieted down, she still hadn't fully figured it out.

The review given after watching it was both irresponsible and incredibly disheartening.

"Congratulations," he said, adjusting the parameters as he looked down, "you've finally upgraded from a regular problem to a high-risk problem."

Yin Vector sat down beside the scanning table, a twitch at the corner of his mouth: "Is this how you medical officers comfort patients?"

"This isn't comforting, it's a diagnosis." He knocked her down without looking up. "And I've been very restrained, otherwise I would have said you're like an unstable experimental subject right now."

The person next to him, who was organizing equipment, didn't stop moving when they heard this.

Zhen Tianzun stood to one side, his optical mirror coldly sweeping over him: "You talk too much."

"Then don't get hurt." Knockout answered very quickly, "As long as you two don't keep getting yourselves into this state every few days, I might even consider becoming a quiet, ethical, and good doctor."

The vector felt this scene was quite outrageous.

She was still lost in thought when her terminal suddenly vibrated. She thought it was something work-related, but when she looked, it was Orion.

There was only one sentence on the screen.

What's wrong with you lately?

Her fingertips paused for a moment.

Actually, Orion had messaged her several times in the past few days. It's just that she was busy with one thing after another, so her replies were very short, sometimes even taking a long time to respond. In the past, he wouldn't have pressed her for details. But this time was clearly different.

She stared at the message for a few seconds, and was about to reply with "It's okay" when another message popped up.

Don't reply with "It's nothing."

As expected of Orion, he may be gentle, but when he really senses something is wrong, he's not so easily fooled.

She typed two words, then deleted them, and finally replied with only one sentence:

Can we meet in person?

This time, the other side responded almost immediately.

That's exactly what I wanted to say.

Tomorrow? Iron Fortress.

Yin Vector looked at those two sentences, paused for a moment, and replied with "Okay".

She had just put the terminal away when Zhen Tianzun looked over.

"Who else?"

"Orion," the vector said honestly, "we've arranged to meet at Iron Castle tomorrow."

Zhen Tianzun raised an eyebrow slightly, but didn't say anything immediately. He just lingered on her face for two seconds before saying, "You're going."

"Yes." She nodded. "I already promised to treat him to dinner. And..."

She paused for a moment, then said the second half of the sentence.

"I also think it's about time to tell him part of it."

Zhen Tianzun remained silent.

There was a brief silence in the medical area. Knockout, standing to the side, wisely refrained from saying anything, and even Deadfire continued to do his own thing as if he hadn't heard anything.

Leaning against the edge of the scanning table, his voice was low: "He's already realized it. If we keep dragging this out, we'll either continue to make him worry for no reason, or we'll gradually drag him into this without him knowing anything."

"You want to push him away?" Zhen Tianzun looked at her.

After a two-second silence, the vector said, "...I want him to know what he's getting close to first."

The light blue optical glasses of the Heavenly Emperor lingered on her face for a moment, then he only gave a soft "hmm" and didn't stop her.

He could tell, of course, that while she said "let Orion know," she actually meant more than just pushing the plane away.

If he just wanted to sever ties, he wouldn't have specifically agreed to meet in person, much less prepared to confront the other party directly.

She's giving the other person a choice. And being willing to give a choice shows that she cares.

Zhen Tianzun understood this, but didn't say it aloud. He simply added in a light tone, "Keep location sharing on before you come back."

Yin Xiang looked up at him and couldn't help but laugh: "You're becoming more and more like the type who waits at the door for the airport to go home."

Zhen Tianzun looked at her and said, "You can also choose not to come back and try."

-

The next day, the vector went to Iron Fort.

When she arrived at the agreed location, Orion was already there.

He sat by the window with two drinks in front of him, one of which was clearly ordered for her. When he saw her approach, he stood up, his gaze sweeping from her face to her shoulders and arms, then to the area on her chest covered by a carapace, where a slight unnaturalness was still faintly visible, and his brow furrowed slightly.

"You've lost some weight," he said.

As soon as Yin Vector sat down, he heard this as his first words, and couldn't help but chuckle: "Iron Fortress Machines, is this how you show concern for each other when you meet?"

"It's not healthcare." Orian looked at her, his tone still gentle, but more serious than usual. "You've just been acting really strange lately."

Upon hearing this, my initial thought of casually brushing it off completely vanished.

Yin Xiang glanced down at the drink on the table, reached out and took it, his fingertips lingering on the cup for a moment before he murmured an "Mmm".

"That's definitely not right."

Orion did not immediately ask further questions.

He simply looked at her and waited quietly.

This is also one of the things that makes him feel very comfortable. He won't be like those machines in the arena, which will analyze every reaction of yours with a purpose and a desire to probe; nor will he be like some overly intelligent research machines that will immediately point out the things you least want to say.

The atmosphere remained quiet for a few seconds.

Then both machines opened their mouths almost simultaneously.

"I actually wanted to tell you..."

"What I actually wanted to ask you was..."

The words collided, and both sides stopped talking.

As the vector looked up, Orion was also looking at her. For a mere second, both machines were stunned.

Orion chuckled first and gestured for him to speak: "You go first."

"You go first." The vector was also amused by this. "You ask first, you've been holding it in for days anyway."

Orian looked at her and didn't refuse anymore.

"Okay," he said. "Then I'll get straight to the point."

He placed his hand lightly on the table, his voice low.

"I've noticed something's off about you lately. You're slow to reply, talk less than usual, and even though you're online, you seem distracted. I looked through your search history and some browsing activity, and I can guess that you're facing more than just a minor problem."

The vector looked up at him.

Orion met her gaze, and his next words were very direct.

I'm very worried about you.

The vector finger froze.

She hadn't been completely unaware that Orion would say this. But when she actually heard it, the spark still trembled slightly. There was no coercion, no exaggeration, and no self-pity.

That's how it is—serious and straightforward.

She looked at him for a few seconds, and finally gave a slight twitch at the corner of her mouth.

"Okay," she said softly. "That's exactly what I was going to say."

Orion's eyes flickered slightly: "What were you originally going to say?"

Yin Vector leaned back in his chair, stared at the table for two seconds in silence, and finally decided to be direct.

"I originally wanted to tell you what happened on my end," she said. "Also, I didn't want you to continue getting involved so quietly, so that when things really go wrong, you wouldn't even know why you got dragged into it."

Orion was slightly taken aback.

He clearly hadn't expected her to be so direct and straightforward.

Yin Xiang looked at him and said, "I haven't been feeling well lately. It's not because I've been busy, nor is it simply because I'm in a bad state."

"My entanglements with the Caron Arena are much deeper than you know."

"Starting some time ago, they've stopped targeting me and started targeting me directly."

She paused for a moment, then said the last sentence.

"They were also watching the machine next to me."

After these words were spoken, the area around the table fell silent.

Orion didn't interrupt her, but his eyes darted around as if he were quickly processing the information in her words.

The vector was no longer used in a roundabout way.

She recounted the events, starting with how she was initially drawn into the periphery of the arena, how she was gradually implicated, how the management began to test her and Zhen Tianzun, and finally the recent attack that almost led to a complete breakdown in relations. She picked out the parts she could explain and told them one by one.

She didn't lay everything out in the open.

For example, she still kept some secrets about the most critical anomaly of the Fire Seed, and some parts that she herself hadn't fully understood yet.

It wasn't that she didn't trust Orion, but rather that she herself hadn't figured these things out yet, and revealing them too early would only drag other machines into more risks, which wasn't very meaningful.

Even just saying this much is already heavy enough.

Orian remained silent throughout.

His fingers on the table tightened slightly when she mentioned that their residence had been destroyed and that she and Zhen Tianzun had almost died there.

The vector noticed, but pretended not to see it and continued to finish the last paragraph.

"That's pretty much it," she said. "So I'm not here today to ask you to do anything for me. I just think you should at least know what you've been worried about lately."

After she finished speaking, there was no one at the table for a long time.

Elsewhere in the restaurant, there were normal conversations, and the machinery in the distance continued to operate as usual, but their corner was as quiet as if it were isolated from the outside world.

Finally, Orion spoke first.

"You just said," he looked at her, his voice still unhurried, "that you don't want me to get dragged into this for no reason."

"Um."

"Have you ever considered that," Orion paused, "that sitting here and listening to all this is my own choice?"

The vector was slightly taken aback.

Orion stared straight at her, showing no hesitation from the sudden danger, nor any reckless impulsiveness. He simply stated his words clearly and earnestly.

"I'm worried about you, not because I don't know these things are risky."

"It's because I know you're in a really bad situation."

"So it's even less likely that I'll pretend I didn't see it."

The vector was momentarily speechless.

She suddenly realized that she had always subconsciously placed Orion on the side of "normal," "gentle," and "unworthy of being tainted by such filth."

But she forgot that this did not mean he was weak, nor did it mean he would back down just because he knew the risks.

Quite the opposite.

These machines, which are usually the most discreet and least likely to overstep boundaries, become more stubborn than anyone else once they've decided on their direction.

She lowered her head and gently exhaled.

"Okay," she said. "Then I didn't talk for nothing."

Orion looked at her, as if he had finally relaxed a little, and his voice softened.

"At least now, I know what I should be worried about."

Yin Vector smirked: "That sounds like you're taking over a project."

"Maybe a little bit," Orion laughed. "After all, you've really been acting like a faulty machine lately, with lots of problems but unwilling to report them."

"...Why are your Iron Fortress machines starting to break down too?"

"One who stays near ink gets stained black." He said it quite naturally.

The vector was amused by this remark, and its laughter became more cheerful.

The atmosphere finally lightened a bit at this point.

Orion pushed the things on the table toward her: "Eat something first. You've been talking for a while now, and it doesn't sound like you've had a proper rest lately."

"I haven't had much rest." Yin Xiang took a sip of his drink, then looked up at him as if he had suddenly remembered something. "But speaking of which, there's something that surprised me a bit."

"What?"

"Your reaction when you heard about Zhen Tianzun wasn't as strong as I expected."

After a moment's hesitation, Ollie surprisingly nodded quite readily.

"Because I already knew him."

The vector blinked through the optical lens: "Do you know his level, or to what extent?"

“A little more than you think,” Orion said. “I’ve seen his lecture notes and checked some of his public records in the mining and lower-level areas.”

This time, it was the index vector's turn to be stunned.

"Have you seen him give a speech?"

"I've seen it," Orion said calmly, "and it left a deep impression on me."

As the vector stared at him, the first thought in his brain module was, "Fine, if that guy Zhen Tianzun knew he had an audience like this in Iron Fortress, he'd probably be smug."

Orion seemed to understand what she was thinking and chuckled softly.

"It's not what you think," he said. "I've just always felt that he has a very powerful voice. Even if many people don't like him, they can't deny that."

The vector was really unexpected this time.

Because when Orion said this, there was no hint of casual politeness in his tone. He had genuinely read the text carefully and made his own judgment.

She lowered her head and thought for a moment, then finally said honestly, "If you actually meet him someday, you might find him more annoying in person than when he gives a speech."

"That doesn't matter," Orion replied calmly. "Those who are capable and deserve to be taken seriously are not necessarily easy to get along with."

...That's actually quite true.

Even the vector didn't know who to complain about first, so he could only lower his head and take another sip, suppressing his messy emotions.

Orion, however, continued at that moment.

"And," he said, "if things really do continue to worsen as you said, then I actually hope to be able to meet him formally."

The vector looked up: "Are you serious?"

"I'm serious." Orion looked at her. "At least I don't want to judge someone whose fate is so closely tied to yours based solely on your words and some public records."

The moment those words were spoken, even the vector pointer fell silent for two seconds.

After a long pause, she could only lower her head, cover her face with her cup, and mumble back, "You've been getting better at picking out the important points lately."

Orion just smiled and didn't press her for more details.

The atmosphere around the table finally calmed down.

Once the most difficult things at the beginning were explained, many of the subsequent conversations flowed smoothly. Orion didn't press her for every detail, nor did he immediately offer any further assistance. He simply outlined the known facts with her, including whether she could still come to Iron Fortress normally in the near future, which information should not be publicly accessible, and how communications should be maintained should any further incidents occur.

The more Yin Vector listened, the more he felt that coming here today was definitely the right thing to do.

Because Orion is such a good tool for helping her untangle her messy yarn.

By the end of the meal, Yin Xiang was leaning back in his chair, completely relaxed.

Orion looked at her and finally just reminded her, "Don't use one machine to this extent in the future."

Yin Xiang lowered his head and twirled the cup. After a long while, he finally responded with a soft sound.

"...as much as possible."