Matrix Survival: One random treasure chest per day

Chapter 273 Rubik's Cube
"A treasure chest of extraordinary quality, this is really terrible. Even if it were downgraded by one level, it would still be of diamond quality. I don't even have the materials to craft it, even if I get the blueprint." Li Zheng ignored the voice reminding him to retrieve the treasure chest and fell into a dilemma.

"How about... leveling up and unlocking the Star Glory realm directly? Besides blueprints and materials, you can occasionally get finished items from treasure chests. If you happen to find one, wouldn't that be like winning the lottery?"

"No way, with my face like a pot bottom, if I don't get any finished items from this treasure chest, then this treasure chest will have been a complete waste!"

"So annoying!"

Li Zheng had long anticipated that one day he would be caught in a dilemma because the treasure chests were of such high quality, but he never expected that day to come so soon.

He even had a strange intuition that the reason he was less lucky than others was probably because he had used up all his treasure chests when he opened them.

Otherwise, how can I explain why I always manage to open treasure chests of gold and platinum quality?

"Or should we skip the delayed extraction and just activate the Extraordinary Calculation?" Li Zheng's eyelids twitched slightly; this was the first time in his life he had experienced the fear of making a choice.

Just as he was feeling down, Ye Kai suddenly sent him another private message.

"What's wrong with this guy tonight? He rarely sends me private messages." Li Zheng wondered as he opened his private messages to check.

"Who is the author of Journey to the West?" Li Zheng almost questioned his existence after reading the private message. "What... what's wrong with you in the middle of the night? Are you trying to give me a riddle?"

Already troubled by the treasure chest, Ye Kai added to the trouble. Without thinking, Li Zheng replied with three words: "Cao Xueqin!"

"Thank you!" Ye Kai replied.

Li Zheng was able to discern a sense of "elation" from those two short words.

After carefully examining the name and confirming that it wasn't Lu Li who had sent him the message, Li Zheng was even more puzzled: "Have all of them gone a little mentally unstable after spending so much time with Lu Li?"

Forget about it!

He shook his head, putting the matter out of his mind, completely unaware that his answer had left the three of them questioning their very existence.

……

"Who is Cao Xueqin?" Ye Kai casually sent Li Zheng a thank you message before carefully looking at the name he had sent, and then fell into a daze.

Although he didn't remember who the author of Journey to the West was, he knew for certain that the author's surname was not Cao.

“Cao Xueqin?” Ye Yuan said without looking up, “I only know Li Xueqin, a stand-up comedian.”

"That's stand-up comedy..." Chu Xiao sighed helplessly. How come he hadn't noticed before that these siblings were so eccentric in some ways?

Ye Kai scratched his head frantically: "Li Zheng said that Cao Xueqin was the author of Journey to the West, but I remember that his surname wasn't Cao?"

Seeing that he was still agonizing over the matter, Chu Xiao rolled his eyes, lowered his head and busied himself sorting materials, ignoring the odd siblings.

Ye Yuan also found the topic pointless and lost interest in arguing, so she said perfunctorily, "Just take it as him. Let's get to work quickly. There's so much stuff to divide slowly, who knows when it will be finished?"

"..." Ye Kai opened his mouth to speak, but suddenly a name flashed through his mind.

When he opened his mouth to speak, the name vanished from his mind and was suddenly stuck on his lips.

This made him feel even more uncomfortable.

The answer was right there on my lips, but my brain was like a Kaspersky antivirus program, blocking everything out of its firewall.

"...It's uncomfortable." With his head down, Ye Kai resigned himself to his fate and obediently focused on his work.

……

"Let's just use the Extraordinary one. Forcing it might backfire." After giving Ye Kai a perfunctory reply, Li Zheng made up his mind and decided not to use the delayed extraction function, but to start it directly.

"Extract!" Li Zheng gave the order.

next second.

thump—

A magnificent chest, larger than any of the previous treasure chests, appeared before them. Unlike the previous treasure chests, this one was woven from green vines, with fresh buds visible through the gaps, as if the vines had just been picked a moment ago.

"Wow, this is something else!" Li Zheng casually remarked, opening the treasure chest and habitually reaching inside to grab something. [Obtained: Particle Restraint Device +1]

[Received: Capsule Residence Renovation Blueprint (Training Room) +1]

[Gained: Intelligent Humanoid (Agriculture) +1]

[Received: 500g of Loham Force Alloy]

[Received: Intermediate Particle Transfer Chip +20]

[Acquired: Blacksmith's Mysterious Invention +1]

[Received: Mystery Fruit +1]

[Acquired: Omniscient Training Device +1]

[Gained: +1 Loham Force Alloy Coin]

……

"Of the nine items, only three are diamonds; the rest are extraordinary!" After reading the hint, Li Zheng was both pleased and worried.

To my delight, I was once again ahead of everyone else and officially began to come into contact with extraordinary items.

The worry is that there are even more props gathering dust in the house now.

The three diamond-level props are: an agricultural doll, which is a faceless intelligent doll because it was not made by Li Zheng himself and did not go through the "face-shaping" process. Seeing this thing in the middle of the night really made Li Zheng's sanity drop like crazy.

The blacksmith's mysterious little invention is a palm-sized cube box. It looks ordinary from the outside, and when you open it... it's still ordinary.

This is a small toy invented by a blacksmith when he was bored. It was once very popular, but it could only be used to amuse himself and had no practical use.

Old Pu: Perhaps you could try playing with it while training your mental strength.

Li Zheng poured the contents of the box out and examined them carefully in his palm.

This is a cube about the same size as the box, with each side being a different color. From each side, it is divided into nine small cubes of equal size.

"This is... isn't it a Rubik's Cube?" The more Li Zheng looked at it, the more familiar it seemed, until he tried turning it and said with certainty, "This is a Rubik's Cube!"

It's hard to imagine that an ordinary Rubik's Cube could be classified as a diamond-level item.

"Could it be because the material is more precious?" Li Zheng took out the vibranium he had obtained before for comparison, and the feel was surprisingly similar.

"Wow, they're really rich!" Li Zheng exclaimed in surprise. The blacksmith truly lived up to his reputation as a special individual; even a small toy he made casually was crafted using such precious metal materials.

He weighed it in his hand and estimated that the Rubik's Cube weighed at least 800 grams!
That's 800 grams of vibranium!
Such a simple toy, yet it uses such high-quality materials.

According to the system notification, there are quite a few of these Rubik's Cubes!

"That would waste so much vibranium... Huh?" Li Zheng painfully turned the Rubik's Cube a few more times, then suddenly his expression changed, and he looked surprised.

He hadn't noticed anything unusual when he first turned the cube, but now that it had been scrambled and then restored, it emitted a soft vibration when turned to a certain point.

It's as if you're not holding a metal Rubik's Cube, but rather a cicada caught in summer, its wings flapping in your palm.

Most remarkably, this tremor is not uncomfortable.

On the contrary, after solving the Rubik's Cube a few more times, Li Zheng's emotions were also stirred up, and he gradually became calmer.

The emotional impact may not be significant enough to instantly calm someone who is already angry.

However, it's quite good for inducing sleep.

Li Zheng twisted the tweezers a few times, and a wave of weariness washed over him.

(End of this chapter)