CHAPTER 433: CHAPTER 433: WHICH COMPANY HAS THE BEST FREEZING TECHNOLOGY?

Ethan was focused on poaching from the Decepticons and did not notice Mikaela’s excited gaze.

Of course, she was excited. Although Ethan was an "alien" and not a truly omnipotent deity, in the eyes of ordinary people, his abilities were indistinguishable from those of a god.

Working for such a being, she might gain benefits she had never dreamed of before.

Mikaela once again felt longing and anticipation for her future. The thought of clinging to a dilapidated shop, repairing various cars day after day, year after year, was slowly fading away.

She was eager to know what kind of compensation Ethan would give her, but was also a little embarrassed to ask, as she had not officially "joined" yet.

The car became quiet. Fortunately, this awkward atmosphere did not last long, as they soon arrived at the Hoover Dam.

Normally, the Hoover Dam was a tourist attraction, but not today. The military had sealed off the area around the dam in advance to ensure that information which could cause panic and chaos among ordinary people, such as the presence of aliens, would not leak out.

Ethan had no objection to this. After arriving at the dam, he met with Secretary of Defense John Keller again.

Beside him was Senator Kevin Smith. Ethan had no memory of this Senator Smith; he likely had not appeared in the movie.

However, considering the current situation, it was impossible to leave all the tasks akin to diplomatic negotiations to the Secretary of Defense alone. Sending a congressman as a representative for some contact was a more appropriate choice.

"Nice to meet you."

Mr. Kevin Smith looked to be in his fifties, wearing a proper suit, his slightly graying hair meticulously styled, maintaining a friendly smile at all times.

Ethan could not say he liked this type of pure politician, but as long as the other party did not cause him trouble, he did not dislike them either. After exchanging greetings, Ethan cut straight to the point.

"You’re moving Megatron? How do you plan to do that?"

"Starting two hours ago, the staff began rapidly freezing NBE-1. Then NBE-1 will be placed in a special vehicle, and staff will continue to freeze it during transport to ensure it remains in a dormant state."

The answer came not from the Secretary of Defense, but from a Sector 7 agent. This agent looked much more serious than Simmons, also wearing a suit and with perfectly neat hair.

"We estimate it will take another two hours to freeze NBE-1 to a relatively safe level, and then we will have four hours for the transfer operation."

There was not much time, so they could not move him too far. Even with continuous use of freezing equipment to maintain Megatron’s low temperature during the process, they could not guarantee he would remain in a dormant state the entire time.

"The ambush site can only be chosen in the nearby desert area."

Fortunately, there was no shortage of desolate open space nearby. The only problem was that no one could guarantee Megatron would not suddenly wake up during transport. If Megatron woke up, the plan would completely fail.

John Keller did not have a better solution for this, as it was limited by current human technology.

However, this was not a problem for Ethan.

"You just need to arrange the ambush plan. Don’t worry about Megatron waking up early."

"You have a way?"

This was exactly what was giving John Keller a headache. If Megatron suddenly sprang up and initiated a battle before entering the ambush zone, all the previous arrangements would be for nothing.

"Just freezing Megatron is not a difficult task."

Following them into the secret facility inside the dam, besides helping freeze Megatron, he could also see the Allspark, and perhaps even have a chance to get close to its energy.

As someone who had personally experienced Ethan’s "power", John Keller had a lot of confidence in him. As for Kevin Smith and the other Sector 7 agent, they did not know much about Ethan.

As the Sector 7 agent who knew more about NBE-1, he felt a bit of aversion to Ethan’s attitude of not taking NBE-1 seriously.

This was only human nature. When someone spends almost a lifetime researching and pondering something, and then someone suddenly appears, treats that thing like garbage, and expresses various forms of disdain, any normal person would feel aversion.

However, some people were just bragging, while others genuinely thought the thing was garbage.

Which kind was Ethan? Everyone would soon find out.

"Is this Megatron?"

The Autobots slowly drove into the secret base behind Ethan and the others. Originally, to facilitate the transport of various large equipment, this base had a sufficiently spacious entrance that even heavy trucks like Optimus Prime could easily drive in and out.

Inside the base, the vast interior space allowed Optimus Prime to move freely in his humanoid form without worrying about bumping into anything.

The appearance of the Autobots attracted the attention of all the staff present. Kevin Smith, who was standing beside John Keller, witnessed an Autobot transform for the first time. Earlier, he had only been slightly surprised by a few driverless cars. Although he knew these cars were also aliens, he had not had a strong intuitive feeling about it.

His interaction with Ethan had not felt particularly different either, because Ethan looked just like a human. If he had not heard John Keller’s report, he would never have been able to associate the young man in front of him with the alien life form mentioned in the report.

It was not until this moment that he truly realized he was interacting with alien life forms fundamentally different from humans.

"Megatron."

Optimus Prime looked at the frozen Megatron ahead, unsure of what he should do.

Go up and land another punch? After all, this was the culprit who caused Cybertron to fall into civil war and ultimately collapse. He had every reason to deliver a final blow while Megatron was incapacitated.

But looking at Megatron’s current state, Optimus Prime suddenly had a strange feeling. Perhaps one day he would end up like this old adversary?

Optimus Prime remained silent, but the Autobots under him were not thinking as much. Ironhide and Jazz really wanted to rush forward and kill Megatron right away.

"Hold on, even if we’re going to kill Megatron, it’s not now."

Ethan looked at the situation. A special container had already been placed to the side, clearly prepared for Megatron. It seemed this was what they would use for transport.

As for the truck, Ethan thought it would be more suitable for Optimus Prime to handle the transport, because if anything happened, Optimus Prime could react immediately.

The Secretary of Defense also agreed with this arrangement. Standing in front of the frozen Megatron, Earth humans, the Autobots, and Ethan reached a consensus: the three parties would form a temporary alliance to jointly deal with the Decepticons.

Under this consensus, they continued to discuss other issues.

Issues like the ownership of the Allspark could not be resolved at the moment, but they could probe each other’s bottom lines.

What was the status of Ethan and the Autobots on Earth?

This time, with Ethan’s reminder, Optimus Prime did not emphasize his status as a "Cybertronian refugee", but focused on his identity as the Autobot leader.

It was just that Cybertron was in a poor state due to war, so Optimus Prime, as the leader, was traveling the universe, searching for a way to save their home.

Even if the actual situation was similar, to outsiders, it sounded completely different.

More importantly, Ethan implicitly reminded the Secretary of Defense and the Senator: there were many Transformers in the universe, and they should not think that killing these few would solve humanity’s problems. If they killed both the Decepticon and Autobot leaders in one go, it was not impossible for the remaining Transformers to unite completely and destroy Earth first.

Humans might have short lifespans, but they were a race skilled at summarizing and learning. Their thousands of years of history could be viewed as a chronicle of war. As long as something related to war was involved, humans reacted faster than anyone else. They immediately realized that such an action could lead to retaliation that humanity currently could not withstand. Before they had the means to ensure Earth’s safety, winning over one faction and striking at the other was the most feasible method.

Senator Kevin Smith did not speak much throughout the entire process, just quietly observing and listening. It was not until humans and the Autobots had largely settled on some basic cooperation plans that he curiously inquired about Ethan.

"It seems you haven’t made any demands?"

In the eyes of the shrewd senator, Ethan not making demands either meant he felt his own strength was insufficient and did not want to provoke human dissatisfaction, or he was extremely strong and simply did not care about these small benefits.

He had to determine which situation it was, as this would directly decide what attitude the human government should adopt towards this "interstellar friend".

During the previous exchange, Ethan indeed had not paid much attention to his own situation, because he simply did not care about these trivial small benefits, nor was he worried about being underestimated.

"I think we can cooperate more, and before cooperating, we should deepen our understanding of each other."

Ethan signaled for all the busy staff near Megatron to evacuate. He did not want to cast a spell and freeze a bunch of unlucky people along with him.

"What kind of cooperation?"

"You know, I often travel in the universe, but there aren’t actually that many planets suitable for resupplying."

Senator Smith understood Ethan’s meaning. It seemed the other party wanted to engage in long-term trade with the Earth government. This was a good suggestion, but the premise was that the other party had something they were interested in.

More importantly, if the other party had something or technology they were interested in but lacked the power to protect these things, then the transaction might turn into unilateral plunder.

Unfortunately, Ethan’s raising of his hand made him abandon the latter thought. With the staff evacuated, Ethan could freely cast his spell.

Megatron was quite large, but for the current Ethan, it was nothing. He waved his hand and took out an Arcane Spring. With a dazzling magical glow, thick layers of ice formed on the tall Megatron, directly turning him into a giant ice sculpture.

(To be continued.)