Matrix Survival: One random treasure chest per day

Chapter 140 The Influence of Personality on Pets (4,000 words, bonus chapter for donations)
A few minutes later, Li Zheng stepped back from the spot, looking speechless.

"What the hell..."

In those few minutes, he ran left and right in the fog, jumped forward, and soared into the sky.

Unable to find the edge of the fog, he took a step back, just one step!
So it reappeared from the same spot?
"Cow batch!"

Li Zheng was impressed. This was truly hardcore. Once the fog obscured the view, no matter how far you ran inside, you could simply step back and remain in the same spot...

Having failed in his attempt, Li Zheng was too lazy to even dig a hole in the ground to see if he could get any further, as he figured it was unlikely to work.

It's like he propelled the aircraft to fly at least 500 meters in the sky, landed, took a step back, and got out, didn't he?

"Let's go back and deal with that grove of trees first."

I promptly went back to check on the progress of those people's project.

After taking two steps, he turned back and stared at it for two seconds, then complained bitterly, "This is really... the kind of awesome thing that even a Kentair beef can't fill. I'm impressed."

Back outside the woods, Fengshan and the other three worked together to dig a 5-meter-wide blank area about 20 meters away from the center of the woods.

The project was already halfway done; it should be finished in a few more minutes.

Bored, Li Zheng found a boulder covered in moss, scraped off the moisture-rich plants with his black knife, and sat down on it.

"Since we can't get through the fog, the chances of the BOSS appearing from the fog are also slim. This restriction should be two-way; otherwise, the area division is completely unnecessary."

Li Zheng looked around and saw that, apart from the area where he had fought with Subject 3, which was full of craters, there was nothing unusual about the rest of the area.

"Besides the forest, there's nowhere that looks like a monster could hide... well, it can't possibly crawl out from underground, can it?"

Looking at the ground: "It's possible, but unlikely. This isn't a desert environment, and the concept of sandworms as monsters feels somewhat out of place on Misty Island."

So……

Where will the BOSS appear from?
"Speaking of which, these dungeons are too humane. The BOSS is always shown last, or it is released after the player triggers it."

There has never been a situation where a player uses their ultimate skill right at the start of the game, catching them completely off guard.

Are we really going to follow the game's dungeon format, killing the mobs first and then fighting the boss?

Li Zheng felt there were many flaws in this.

Why not just start by having the BOSS fight the players head-on, and then let the loser eat the dust?
After finishing the main course, why not treat the little monsters as dessert and play with them at your leisure?
If those teams with lower combat strength knew about his idea, he would probably be criticized a lot.

A bunch of overpowered guys completely overwhelmed the opponent, and yet they're making ridiculously difficult comments?
Given the attack they just encountered, a typical player team with silver and gold ability equipment would have paid a price.
Didn't you see that even the mighty Emperor of Europe, Feng Xiaoshan, was caught off guard by a sneak attack...?

"Life is so lonely... Hey? Is everything settled over there?"

Li was reflecting on life when he suddenly saw that Fengshan and the others had already gathered, so he jumped off the rock and went to join them.

Li Zheng, who had walked a distance away, did not notice that the boulder behind him shook twice.

"Is everything done?"

Li Zheng took a closer look and, wow... it was a standard moat pit, just short of being filled with water.

"The main problem is that the little spider is too fierce."

Fengshan leaned on his shovel, his gaze towards Xiaozhu filled with undisguised envy.

Look at other people's pets.

Then think about your own butt.

Sigh, people are afraid of comparison.

"hiss!"

The little spider tilted its head back, its forelegs clashing together, making a metallic clanging sound, appearing very proud and self-satisfied.

His expression seemed to say: When it comes to digging holes? You're all noobs!
"Little Spider used to be a mine tunnel spider. After following me, it underwent several evolutions before becoming like this."

Li Chun loved sitting on the little spider, and this time was no exception. He stroked the spider's head carapace and said, "The mining spider has a special ability to dig holes and can also identify some rare minerals."

Unfortunately, subsequent evolutionary processes went wrong, and these two abilities were lost.

Although its digging and burrowing abilities have been lost, its fundamental nature as a mining spider remains. With its gold-level rank, turning over this soft ground is incredibly easy for it.

As a player who also owns a pet, Li Zheng keenly noticed a problem: "When a pet evolves and improves, there is a chance that it will lose its original special abilities?"
"Can they even change their own race?"

Special skills or abilities are equivalent to racial talents.

For example, Black people are natural rappers, speaking with a certain strange rhythm. (Rhyming, skrrrr)

This process of "washing away talent" is like erasing a Black person's rap talent. Although they still have the memories from before, they can no longer perform it with ease.

The most terrifying thing is actually changing races.

The evolution of a mine spider into a rainbow-colored venomous spider is like evolving a black person into a rainbow person... (Old Xiao: You're kidding me, am I undergoing reverse evolution?)

Although they are all human, they are fundamentally different.

Li Zheng glanced at Sakura, who was still holding onto her light stick and slowly floating around the crowd, and a sense of worry suddenly welled up in his heart.

The little guy has grown a tail. Could it be that there's a problem with his own bloodline?

but……

As a Black Iron level creature, how bad could the Dreadbat possibly become during its evolution?

Thinking about it this way, Li Zheng felt relieved.

"Ah."

Li Chun nodded: "However, Little Spider doesn't seem to reject the changes brought about by this evolution. On the contrary... I feel like it has always been looking forward to becoming stronger."

"Hi~"

The five-colored venomous spider raised its head slightly, enjoying its master's caress. Its originally somewhat ferocious and terrifying appearance softened at this moment.

Li Zheng asked her, "What is Xiaozhu's personality like?"

"loyalty."

Li Chun glanced at the pet attribute panel: "A loyal pet will protect its owner at all costs when the owner is in danger."

The effect is a certain degree of enhancement to both support and defensive abilities.

"So that's it."

Li Zheng nodded knowingly.

Last night, when facing Lin Feng, Xiao Zhu knew she was no match for him, yet she didn't back down an inch, which must have been due to her loyal nature.

"Fengshan, what about you?"

Li Zheng then asked, "What kind of personality does your butt have?"

"...Can we not talk about this?"

Feng Shan looked a little grim and didn't want to talk any further.

Li Chun was also a little curious: "Tell me about it. I also want to know what other personalities pets have. Maybe I can recruit a few more pets to train in the future. More data will be helpful for training pets."

Fengshan was silent for a moment, then hesitated and asked, "Do you think there are any items in the Matrix that can change a pet's personality?"

"I don't think so," Li Zheng shook his head; he had never heard of it.

Li Chun also didn't know: "I've never seen a similar prop before."

"Depend on!"

Fengshan cursed and then said, "That's it, this burden will be very difficult to raise."

What kind of personality does he/she have?

Both Li Zheng and Li Chun were very curious.

Fengshan looked sorrowful: "Weakness! It instinctively avoids fighting, so when it encounters an opponent it can't defeat, it will deliberately expose its belly. The effect is... an increased success rate in begging for mercy..."

Li Zheng: "..."

Li Chun: "..."

Sakura: "..."

Little Spider: "..."

The others: "...A moment of silence."

"And what about yours?"

Li Chun became interested and looked at Xiao Ying, asking, "The pet that Brother Li Zheng raised must have a very special personality, right?"

Feng Shan sneered from the side: "Look at your brother Li Zheng's own combat strength, you can guess that his pet is not very good."

The combat power ranking calculates the combined combat power of the player and their trained pets.

This means that the stronger the player is, the weaker the pet will be.

The stronger the pet, the weaker the player.

The most obvious examples are Li Zheng and Li Chun, who form a stark contrast.

However, the fact is one thing, but Fengshan saying it like that is another.

So Sakura landed on Li Zheng's shoulder, whimpering in protest.

"I'm stating the facts, but I'm not seeking personal revenge!" Feng Shan immediately cowered when he met Li Zheng's dangerous gaze.

It's important to know that Li Zheng basically treats Xiao Ying like a daughter, and he tries to keep her out of battles whenever possible.

I was afraid of getting hurt.

It would be strange if Li Zheng gave a friendly look when someone spoke ill of his "daughter" to his face.

"Heh, even if Sakura is weak, her personality is still better than your butt." Li Zheng sneered and gave a rough description of Sakura's personality and effects.

"Oh!"

Xiao Siyuan laughed from the side, "So, out of these three pets, Sakura's personality is the strongest."

"Gan!"

Fengshan was deeply hurt and asked everyone, "Does anyone like kittens? I'll give him my butt!"

"Ha, the weather is so nice today, perfect for setting fire to... trees."

The group changed the subject, and Yan Guang raised his left arm, revealing the muzzle of a cannon by flipping over pieces of silver-white metal.

next second.

咻咻咻～
A barrage of artillery fire sent shells streaking into the woods, leaving long trails of flame.

When these shells entered the territory of those strange trees, a large number of branches formed a giant net in an attempt to intercept them.

Boom boom boom~
The shells struck the branches with a deafening roar, bursting into a sky full of fireworks.

"Aww~~" ×N
The strange tree's facial features twisted and contorted, opening the parts that represented eyes to reveal two empty holes, devoid of eyeballs.

The dull, eerie roar seemed to emanate from within those strange trees, creating a reverberation.

A massive number of branches stretched out, attempting to attack several players, but finally stopped three meters away from the "moat," unable to advance an inch.

"These tree spirits can't move, their weakness is too obvious, no wonder they need to do some camouflage."

The fireworks that filled the sky failed to ignite the strange tree. Li Zheng assessed its strength and concluded that these tree spirits were probably among the weakest in the Silver rank.

It's only slightly stronger than the vine monster from before.

However, because it is not as concealed as vines, it is not as threatening to players.

"It's unrealistic for a silver-level creature to be ignited by Yan Guang's cannons."

Li Zheng made a quick judgment: he had no choice but to take action himself.

After all, the miniature shells made by Yan Guang were not special incendiary shells; their destructive power came more from the impact force generated during the explosion and the shrapnel composed of various materials.

"If we want to rely on the combination of ice and fire to ignite those tree spirits..."

After a long absence, Li Zheng took out his Desert Eagle and habitually switched to special firing mode.

After thinking about it, I switched it back.

"The snake grass needle will explode upon hitting its target if it is not destroyed during its launch. Once it is imbued with fire-type abilities, the snake grass needle will burn even more frequently than those strange trees. Wouldn't that be a waste?"

boom!
boom!
boom!
There was no need to aim; Li Zheng only needed to raise his gun and pull the trigger one shot at a time.

Li Zheng rarely uses the normal firing mode because he can't stand the deafening gunfire; it's just too annoying.

I wonder who designed this gun. It fires energy bullets and can be as silent as a regular gun, but they insisted on replicating the sound of the Desert Eagle itself.

"Once the gun runs out of energy, it'll just sit in the house collecting dust."

By firing lava bombs one after another, Li Zheng had already decided the future of the Desert Eagle.

As expected, the bronze-level desert eagle itself wasn't powerful enough to do much damage to these tree spirits, but the flames attached to it were something they couldn't withstand.

Each lava bullet explodes with sparks upon hitting its target, landing on the tree spirit's branches or the ground.

Soon, just as Li Zheng fired his tenth shot, the dry leaves on the ground were ignited, and the fire gradually grew stronger.

"Ow~"

A tree spirit roared, seemingly aware that fire was its natural enemy. Instead of defending itself, it swung its branches and began to beat out the flames burning on the ground.

With its lead, several more tree spirits joined the firefighting effort.

The branches whipped out, and the nascent fire was suppressed, showing signs of going out.

How can this be done?

Li Zheng immediately switched to a special firing mode, increasing the firing rate and unleashing a series of lava projectiles.

Under his conscious control, twenty lava bombs were scattered and splashed, igniting more than ten bonfires.

Xiao Siyuan realized that Li Zheng alone couldn't fan the flames, so he quickly took out his M4 to assist in firing.

Old Xiao's goal was not to start a fire, but to damage the tree spirits who were putting out the fire, forcing them to retreat and defend.

Li Zheng took out two salted fish and tossed one to Feng Shan and one to Li Chun, asking them to help.

Soon, the five of them worked together, and the results were much more obvious.

When Li Zhengji had only 15 points of Force left, the fire finally escalated completely and became uncontrollable.

Blazing flames shot into the sky, the scorching heat distorting the air, as if the flames were burning a hole in space itself.

As time passed, some of the tree spirit branches that tried to extinguish the flames were ignited by the dried moisture. The high temperature quickly dried the branches and leaves, and the flames spread along the branches to the tree spirits.

Just as Li Zheng was certain that unless a super rainstorm came, the fire would be difficult to extinguish and the battle was over.

Suddenly, the ground beneath everyone's feet began to shake.

"Was it an earthquake?" Feng Shan exclaimed in surprise. Could such a natural disaster really happen in the Matrix?

Li Zheng's ears twitched, he turned around and his expression changed drastically.

I said I'd challenge myself to write a 4,000-word chapter today, and I'm going to do it.

Well, let's ignore the fact that I failed to complete five chapters yesterday; I didn't want that either.

I was originally thinking of shamelessly adding two extra chapters, but then I thought, one can't be so shameless, can one?
With all your support, how could I possibly do such a despicable thing?
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(End of this chapter)