Chapter 75: Expanding Horizons
Alex found many treasures under the sea. Shipwreck treasures were everywhere, but he only recovered the well-preserved ones from different time periods.
He also discovered many natural resources but didn't touch them, except for a few interesting ones, like an emerald crystal the size of the Empire State Building and gold nuggets larger than his villa with one shaped like a fat chicken.
He could create all these things if he wanted, but finding the motivation to do so was different. He mapped everything, including sunken ruins, but left them untouched.
Returning to his villa, Alex stored the shuttle and took a relaxing bath. Changing into comfortable clothes, he briefly browsed the internet and found messages from former classmates about college and university plans.
He almost forgot he was still 19, and his birthday will be in three months. A lot had happened, and he had lost track of time in his home universe. He didn't have major plans here, so he'd just go with the flow and see what happened.
After replying to some messages, Alex stood in his bedroom and conjured another clone of himself sleeping on the bed. He separated a strand of his consciousness, bringing the clone to life. Satisfied, he teleported to the Mars colony base.
"Greetings, Your Majesty," a commander in the control room greeted.
"Be at ease. Any new information from the two exploratory ships?" Alex asked.
"Yes, sir. We've gathered data on two civilizations near us. The first, closest to Earth, are humanoids, pale, hairless, and slightly larger in body proportions and organs. They have high intelligence and physical capabilities but haven't started expanding beyond their home system.
"The second, 1,300 light-years away, are humanoid reptilians, similar to lizard men from Earth's myths. They have high adaptability, rapid reproduction, and remarkable intelligence. They're more advanced and have started conquering neighboring star systems, though their expansion is rather slow."
As several holographic images appeared, Alex pondered for a moment before saying;
"Gather technological data slightly more advanced than Earth's, based on these two civilizations. Distribute it through memory encoding to Earth's top scientists in their respective specialties. Let's see what happens."
"Yes, sir!" The commander and his staff immediately got to work.
Alex walked around the base for a while before vanishing into specks of golden light.
Meanwhile, his clone sat inside a private jet under JPMorgan, heading to Wyoming to check on a property and sign the final purchase papers.
Alex arrived in a new world. After a quick mental scan, he understood the era, 2007. Transformers.
With another scan of the planet, he spotted the main character, Sam Witwicky, with his crush in a beat-up yellow Camaro. The Pentagon was in a frenzy, scrambling to deal with a cyberattack on the military network.
Sand crackled beneath Alex's boots as he stood on a dune, watching a group of American soldiers running for their lives, chased by something moving under the sand.
With a simple gesture, Alex's figure shifted. He transformed into a seven-foot, well-built man, now fully geared in modern U.S. military equipment, carrying a mithril Anzio 20mm Vulcan, enchanted with unlimited armor-piercing 20mm bullets. He positioned himself on a ridge overlooking a Qatari village.
The sand behind a soldier suddenly boiled. A mechanical stinger poked out. One of the soldiers spotted it and fired, gunfire erupted as Scorponok surfaced, its metallic body shrugging off the bullets. Soldiers and armed civilians unleashed everything they had on it.
Alex aimed. Bang! His shot disabled one of Scorponok's claw weapons. The mechanical scorpion shifted, and his line of sight was blocked by a building.
Without hesitation, he teleported to a mosque rooftop and adjusted his aim. After a few more shots, he managed to blast off one of its arms.
Alex looked at the familiar characters below using his scope, Sergeant Robert Epps shouting into the radio, trying to get air support noticed Alex's presence pointed at him, signaling something.
Alex turned just in time to see a missile streaking toward him. He fired mid-air, detonating it before impact.
He disappeared from the rooftop and reappeared on the battlefield, handling his sniper rifle like a regular assault weapon, dodging debris, and taking precise shots at Scorponok's joints.
Finally, A-10 Warthogs arrived, raining down bullets, cutting Scorponok's tail off. The Decepticon burrowed into the sand to escape, but not before leaving behind a severed claw and tail.
"This gun battle is fun too," Alex muttered with amusement before slipping away.
Colonel William Lennox searched for Alex but couldn't find him. He asked Sergeant Epps but heard a negative answer.
He looked at the shell casing on the ground before running towards their injured comrade and prepared for extraction.