Matrix Survival: One random treasure chest per day

Chapter 282 Are You Willing to Help Me? (Two Chapters Combined)

With the BOSS dead, the remaining bio-monsters are no threat. The strongest one is just a platinum-level zombie mixed in with the monsters, which Li Zheng and Zhan Zhouzhou easily took down together.

By the time Xiao Siyuan and his group had finished cleaning up here, Li Zheng had already gathered all the monster corpses that could be decomposed and was chatting with Zhan Zhouzhou in a clean, open space.

"Wow!" Lu Li exclaimed as soon as he saw the two of them, "You two are too fierce! It's just fighting a BOSS, do you have to tear this place apart like this?"

Xiao Siyuan was usually quite composed, but seeing the damage to the buildings and the large holes in the walls of many rooms, his eyelids twitched uncontrollably.

These concrete structures are not as simple as they look; they are made of an unknown mixture of materials and are incredibly sturdy.

As they cleared the way, they also tried to damage the concrete walls, but at least platinum-level firearms would be needed to cause considerable damage.

It's terrifying that Li Zheng and his partner were able to demolish so many walls in such a short time.

"We didn't demolish it." Li Zheng explained simply. Almost all the damage to the buildings that Lu Li and the others saw was caused by the monsters that came to rescue the BOSS when it was born, and it had little to do with them.

"It can enhance other zombie monsters to a level close to diamond..." After learning the whole story, Xiao Siyuan felt a chill run down his spine.

Fortunately, Li Zheng and his group never followed the rules; the first thing they did upon entering the dungeon was to find the BOSS.

If we follow the usual dungeon format and patiently wait for the final boss to appear, the difficulty of this dungeon will be unimaginably high!

"Everyone's here." Li Zheng glanced at the dungeon exploration progress, confirming it was over 100, and pointed to the corpses and dismantled equipment, saying, "Then let's start breaking it down and dividing the loot."

There aren't many things that players can dismantle: the boss called "God Child," the Ghost Lion, the platinum-level zombies that were killed later, and the pipes that supply nutrients to the embryo.

Li Zheng also tried to dismantle the buildings here, but was stopped by the terminal. Otherwise, he would have liked to see what exactly was mixed into these building materials that could imprison a monster with Platinum-level combat power.

The task of breaking down the material was left to Lu Li and Lin Fengjiao. Working together, they quickly completed the process.

To Li Zheng and his group's surprise, the things that these monsters decomposed did not contain any biochemical viruses or zombie viruses, but rather something called "divine genes".

[First Generation Divine Gene]

Grade: Diamond

Type: Special Enhancement Item
Effect: When injected into the body, it has a chance to significantly optimize genes and acquire special gene abilities.

Description: This is a genetic modification of a mysterious gene that the ancient frog tribe accidentally discovered. Because it is the first generation version, its stability is extremely poor.

**Caution:** This method is extremely dangerous. Please use with extreme caution!

This was extracted from the BOSS's body. There are only three pieces in total. From the outside, it is a bright silver metal syringe filled with dark green liquid. After use, the syringe will disappear on its own and cannot be reused.

[First Generation Divine Gene (Dilute)]
Rank: Platinum

Type: Special Enhancement Item
Effects: When injected into the body, it has a small chance of slightly optimizing genes, a small chance of developing special gene abilities, and a high probability of causing mutations in flesh and blood.

Description: The first generation of divine genes extracted from the ancient frog clan's god-making experiment are so diluted that their effectiveness is greatly reduced, and the danger is extremely high.

Caution: This method is extremely dangerous; please do not attempt it lightly!

Note: Once a certain quantity is collected, it can be purified and compressed into "Primordial Divine Gene" (Diamond Grade) using designated equipment.

These are the items dissected from the Ghost Lion and the Platinum-level zombie. There are twelve items in total, and their value is relatively low.

In addition to these divine genes, the Ghost Lion also produces 20 pieces of fur (silver grade) contaminated with the aura of corruption, 16 pieces of contaminated lion claws (silver grade), and 1 piece of contaminated Ghost Lion heart (silver grade).

The prototype of the Platinum-level zombie monster is a long-armed armored ape creature, which also decomposes into some contaminated materials, but these are not very valuable, at most only Gold-level.

If we're talking about what's valuable, then the channels that supply nutrients are the real treasures.

Not only did it decompose into a large number of basic materials such as iron ingots and copper ingots, but it also obtained special materials of different grades, and even "reinforced plastic" material that Li Zheng had never seen before.

Reinforced Plastics

Rank: None
Type: Material

Description: A highly malleable material, not actually plastic but a more advanced chemical product, and an indispensable substrate in the production of shape memory metals.

It is worth mentioning that the concentrated liquid that leaked from the pipes evaporated completely in a very short time. Li Zheng and his team didn't even have time to collect it, and they didn't even know the name of the substance.

"There's a bit less than expected." Zhan Zhouzhou glanced at Li Zheng.

"Yes, it is indeed a bit too little." Li Zheng nodded, remaining calm.

He certainly knew what Zhan Zhouzhou meant by those words.

Because the BOSS was spawned prematurely, the rewards after dismantling it are reduced.

Actually, at that time, Li Zheng followed Zhan Zhouzhou's advice and honestly worked with her to clear out the other monsters. If they waited for the BOSS to spawn normally, they might be able to get more "divine genes".

There's nothing that can be done about it; all instances are unknown to them, and no one knows what kind of impact their decisions will have on the instances.

“But the difficulty has been reduced, hasn’t it?” Li Zheng said casually.

Li Zheng values ​​security more than returns.

After experiencing the Infinite Transformer and the Ice Giant, he decided that no matter what kind of enemy he encountered in the future, unless he was 100% certain that he could defeat them, he would rather not seek high returns than take risks.

Zhan Zhouzhou was silent for a moment, then finally nodded: "You're right."

The female warrior's views were completely different from Li Zheng's, even the opposite.

Because she has enough confidence in her own abilities, she tends to take on more challenging tasks, even during her explorations.

This is also one of the key factors that made Li Zheng feel that her strength improved at a terrifying speed.

Xiao Siyuan noticed the atmosphere was a bit strange. He didn't understand where the strangeness came from, but he still had the ability to smooth things over: "Let's stick to the old rules. I discovered the instance, so I'll take one divine gene first, and then we can discuss the contribution points for the rest."

"can."

No one objected to him taking a diamond-level item, because it was a rule they had set up long ago that they had to follow whenever they went into a dungeon together.

Li Zheng spoke first: "I killed the monster in the ventilation duct. As my pet, Xiaoying has been protecting you all during the dungeon, which is quite a duty. Her contribution should also be counted."

Although Zhan Zhouzhou and I killed the BOSS together, I didn't listen to her advice, which resulted in a smaller reward. Therefore, I only deserve one-third of the credit for killing the BOSS.

In summary, I should get 30% of the final loot from this dungeon, no problem, right?

Li Zheng took a clever trick here. Although he asked Xiao Ying to protect Xiao Siyuan and the others, it was actually Pink Polly who did the work. Pink Polly should be considered a special and independent individual, and the credit should not be attributed to Li Zheng.

However, considering that it is one with Sakura, and that no one knows about Pink Poring, no one has any objections.

After some discussion, it was finally decided that Li Zheng would take one of the first-generation divine genes, but he would have to give up some of the materials that originally belonged to him and a rare version of the gene. Therefore, his gains from this dungeon were:
Materials of various grades (small amounts of black iron to platinum), reinforced plastic +20, rare version gene +3, original divine gene +1. Li Zheng ignored the rest, letting them discuss it slowly.

With Sakura by my side, we drew two prizes and left the instance.

This lottery is different from the past. The "diamond" level item has officially appeared on the wheel, and it occupies a larger area than the last time we went to the Abyss dungeon.

The "Black Iron" tier, which had the largest share, was removed, and the lowest output was changed to Bronze.

Li Zheng's face remained as steady as ever; he received bronze-level materials as a guaranteed reward in both draws, so let's skip that.

……

After applying extreme isolation to himself and Sakura, Li Zheng exited the instance and returned to the room filled with lava.

The scene before him was a fiery red, making Li Zheng momentarily think that he had returned to hell.

Li Zheng found the card reader at the bottom of the lava and inserted his ID card into the lava to swipe it.

Uzi~

After a slight hydraulic sound, the bottom gate opened, revealing a depression in the lava at the opening.

This is lava being drawn into the portal.

Li Zheng stood above the door, sinking into the light curtain along with the lava.

Passing through the light curtain, the light dimmed, making it almost impossible to see the scene before me.

Li Zheng looked up and saw no trace of lava, except for Sakura and Pink Poring who had come down with him.

"That's right, this door can isolate a lot of things." Li Zheng recalled the stone he had thrown into the light barrier that disappeared.

Li Zheng took out the mysterious declaration and illuminated a small area around him, discovering that the room was not very tall, only about five meters from the ground to the roof.

After landing on the ground, I looked around and saw that there were stone walls all around, leaving only a passageway less than three meters wide.

Welcome to a maze with absolutely no gameplay experience! Next, Pu will guide you through breaking through the defenses here in the most brutal way possible!

I'm a little fast, please bear with me.

"..." Li Zheng sighed. Why didn't this kind of good thing, getting the answers before even receiving the test paper, happen when he was in school?
Arriving at the stone wall, and feeling its texture, Li Zheng realized it was indeed the same as ordinary stone slabs. Suddenly, an even bolder idea came to him.

"If other players came here, wouldn't they be able to destroy it directly..."

He drew his sword from its sheath and thrust it forcefully at the stone slab in front of him. The sharp tip of the sword pressed against the surface of the stone slab, unable to advance an inch.

"Alright, I was overthinking it. This is a closed-book exam." Li Zheng reluctantly sheathed his sword and obediently followed the written clues given by Lao Pu to explore the maze.

This maze is very complicated, and some of the forks in the path are very short. Li Zheng deliberately tried it and soon reached the dead end.

Some of the side roads are very long, and after five minutes of winding and turning, you still can't see the end.

If it weren't for Lao Pu's hint, an ordinary player would likely have continued down this path.

Sometimes tree-like forks in the road will appear, but they are all fake, and players have to keep moving forward.

Sometimes there will be traps that require players to activate to open up a stone slab that is not in sight, thus clearing the way.

It's fair to say that this maze wasn't designed to be easily completed by players.

Unless someone has an exceptional memory and sense of direction, they might have to stay in this room for 48 hours, triggering the time limit for staying and bringing unknown dangers.

Even with Lao Pu's cheat code, it took Li Zheng nearly an hour to find the "treasure" in the room, aside from a few deliberate mishaps.

This treasure is quite interesting; it's a semi-transparent disc filled with copper-colored threads.

Once activated, a screen will light up on the surface, where players can draw their own mazes, which will then be released as a "realistic projection".

So-called real projection can actually be understood as a kind of interference at the level of consciousness.

Li Zheng tried to draw a few strokes and project them. Two walls appeared in front of him. They felt very realistic when he reached out and touched them. If he hit them hard, his palm would feel a throbbing pain.

However, in reality, these two walls do not exist; they are merely a very real illusion.

"This thing is quite interesting. It can be released at night when we rest, and can be used as a kind of defense measure." Li Zheng played with it for a while, then turned off the projection and put it into the capsule.

At the moment the projection turns on and off, Li Zheng can vaguely perceive something strange.

It's as if someone has physically touched my consciousness and made changes to it.

"Is the reason I can sense these things because my mental strength is stronger than that of ordinary people?" Li Zheng pondered.

Perhaps a real maze is useless against some creatures with high mental strength, but at this stage, it is still a god-level defensive facility for resting at night, which can avoid many dangers.

Although Li Zheng didn't mind the wandering monsters entering his room, being woken up in the middle of the night was still a very annoying thing.

Having obtained the "treasure," Li Zheng turned to search for the other doors within the maze.

The process of finding the door was also extremely agonizing. Li Zheng felt like a puppet on a string, while Lao Pu was the puppeteer who was pulling the strings and driving him in certain directions.

In the end, Li Zheng had to speed things up, and after two hours, he found seven doors that were still closed.

The frustrating thing is that two of these doors are fake. After swiping your card to open them, you find only stone walls inside.

Although it will consume one more exploration opportunity for the day, it does not prevent players from exploring another door.

Fortunately, Old Pu gave him a heads-up, so Li Zheng didn't have these worries and successfully selected a door containing golden creatures.

Before Li Zheng could even enter after swiping his card, he received a private message from Zhan Zhouzhou.

There's only one question: "Does the method you mentioned really work?"

Li Zheng was taken aback for a moment before realizing what she was asking. He replied, "I only heard it from others and haven't verified it. Perhaps you could ask those players who have given birth to see what they have to say."

"Oh." After a while, Zhan Zhouzhou sent another private message asking, "If... I mean if... if this method really works, would you be willing to help me?"

Li Zheng: "???"

Li Zheng: "!!!"

(End of this chapter)