Matrix Survival: One random treasure chest per day

Chapter 283 Luo Aimang: Is this guy toxic? (Two-part summary)

"No, I just heard about this method from someone else. Are you really going to try it?" Li Zheng replied speechlessly, "Aren't you afraid it won't work for your problem? Wouldn't that just be letting me benefit for nothing?"

"It's okay to take a little advantage, I don't mind, why would you mind?" Zhan Zhouzhou replied in a very magnanimous tone.

Li Zheng suddenly felt something was wrong; this didn't sound like something the heroine Zhan would say.

It sounded more like Yan Guang's tone.

Among the people Li Zheng knew, only Yan Guang could say something so shameless.

Given Zhan Zhouzhou's personality, she simply couldn't bring herself to say it!
Realizing this, Li Zheng asked with a face full of black lines, "These... Yan Guang taught you, right?"

Zhan Zhouzhou readily admitted, "That's right."

really!

After confirming the news, Li Zheng was relieved, at least the female warrior Zhan herself didn't really want his help: "I told you to stay away from her, or she might ruin your image."

Zhan Zhouzhou replied, "Yan Guang said that since you care about me so much, you must be interested in me, and he wants me to test you."

Li Zheng was confused: "Me? You have feelings for me? How could that be? I just consider you a good friend. Isn't it normal for friends to care about each other?"

"Oh, then I'm relieved." Zhan Zhouzhou then asked, "From my own perspective, isn't it normal for good friends to help each other? If I really asked you for this favor, would you be willing?"

Li Zheng smiled coldly. You just tested me, and now you're going to launch a series of traps?

Do you think I'd fall for your trick?

"My surname isn't Hua! Besides, women will only slow me down!"

After sending that message, Li Zheng ignored her and focused on the next part of the exploration.

Open the door, go inside, find the gold-level creature, and release Sakura.

Sakura herself possesses the strength of a Gold-level leader, and even without Pink Poring's help, killing an ordinary Gold-level creature would be effortless for her.

In just thirty seconds, the golden creature became material and was put into a capsule by Li Zheng.

There was a time when Li Zhenglian struggled even against an old, three-headed demon lion.

Nowadays, when he encounters creatures of the same level, he doesn't even need to take action himself.

"Not bad, another Gold 1+ blood. If I collect two more, I can officially break through to Gold." Li Zheng looked at the material list, full of anticipation for the next exploration.

"Hopefully I can collect them before tonight, otherwise I'll have to trade them on the world channel."

On the way to explore the other doors, Li Zheng took out the crystal core material he had just decomposed and threw it directly to Xiaoying so that she could eat it.

This is a creature with earth-attribute abilities, which Sakura can use to upgrade her abilities.

After Sakura finished eating, Li Zheng checked the panel and found that all the experience points had gone into the "Flying Rock Shot" ability, which had just reached Lv3...

"Both Flying Rock and Earth Piercing are earth-attribute abilities. Is it because Sakura obtained Flying Rock first that the experience was attributed to that ability?" Li Zheng didn't think there was anything wrong with this. It was just a gold-level crystal core, not worth much money.

He was just curious why Sakura didn't turn the Earth Dragon Crystal Core into an experience-upgrading Rock Shot when she ate it.
After carefully recalling the item description, Li Zheng remembered that the description of the Earth Dragon Crystal Core was to obtain the ability of "Earth Dragon", rather than to develop earth attribute abilities.

Perhaps that's where the difference lies.

"That's also a point worth noting, I'll make a note of it," Li Zheng muttered to himself, recording it in the system to prevent himself from forgetting it someday.

Soon, the five doors were explored: one empty room, two biological rooms, one environmental room, and one trap room.

There was a special silver-level plant in the environmental room, and a platinum-level plant in the biological room. After weighing the options, Li Zheng chose the silver-level plant environmental room.

With petri dishes and nutrient solutions available, using specialized plants is undoubtedly a more valuable option.

In two days, it will be the day he holds the auction. He needs to prepare more things so that he can plunder the resources from other players.

Upon entering, Li Zheng found himself on a small island. The sky was overcast, the wind howled, and thunder rumbled.

At the edge of the island, countless lightning bolts shot out from the dark clouds, striking the ground and sending up sparks.

The plant was growing in the area with the most frequent lightning strikes, and when Li Zheng saw this environment, his heart sank.

Most special plants require specific growing conditions to bear fruit, while only a few, such as the Flame Branch, do not require specific growing conditions.

Currently, he can only meet the requirements for low-temperature environments; even high-temperature environments are difficult to achieve because he cannot maintain a stable high temperature for an extended period.

Because he needs to rest at night, the Arctic thorn tree that Li Zheng planted has not yet borne its first fruit, which shows how demanding these special plants are in terms of their growing environment.

Upon closer inspection, the plant revealed a purple-blue flower with its lower part closed, forming a bud-like cavity.

Old Pu detected that the plant, named "Thundercloud Purple-Blue Flower," was mature and that the fruit inside could be extracted by cutting open its cavity.

The "Thundercloud Purple-Blue Flower" can only grow in places with abundant lightning elements. It is almost impossible for Li Zheng to artificially simulate such an environment, so he had to give up on transplanting it.

Carefully pluck the flower, peel back the bud to reveal the lotus seed-like fruit inside, shimmering with a luminous blue light, like a luminous pearl, truly beautiful.

"What a wasted trip. All I got was this silver-grade item." Li Zheng checked the fruit's attributes and, as expected, it only had a 2% success rate.

The odds were so low that Li Zheng dared not try it lightly.

Even though he currently has a bottle of "Thunder Essence" that he desperately needs to use, he doesn't want to use a silver-level item to gamble on developing its abilities; he can only keep it and wait for the auction to trade it away.

Perhaps we can get a higher-level lightning-type development tool by then.

The island has a unique environment; there are no doors leading upwards into the sky, only the ground and the four directions, a total of five doors.

Li Zheng quickly chose another direction with reasonable value, opened the door, and left.

While Li Zheng was exploring methodically, some people couldn't care less about their daily explorations.

Ban Quanlongma summoned all the top executives of Genesis to a meeting to discuss how to retaliate against the Nth Room organization that stole from the country.

"Issan-kun, are you sure the people who attacked us last night were thieves?" someone asked.

"As far as I know, the Nth Room has been hiding in their territory, exploring on their own, and hasn't found anyone leaving in private. Have you been deceived?" another person said.

"Should we negotiate with them and ask them for clarification before taking action?" The third person also believed that caution should be exercised.

They were terrified of having provoked Li Zheng.

A skilled player can kill them so badly that they dare not show their faces.

Now that they're facing another organization, they have to be careful.

“No need to negotiate,” Banquan Longma said in the group. “No bandit will admit to what they did afterward. Negotiating with them will only be a waste of time and may even alert them.”

“But…” someone hesitated, “The Nth Room is not weak either. I heard that there are already three players who are ranked number one on the regional channel battle power list. It would be too dangerous to start a war with them rashly.”

"Danger?" Itsuki Ryoma's eyes seemed to blaze with fire, almost spitting it out: "Aren't you all just making excuses because you're worried about the losses being suffered by my men? I contacted you all today not to discuss whether the counterattack plan is dangerous, but simply to ask each of you to spare a retainer for my use." A retainer, in layman's terms, is a thug recruited by a family.

From the Warring States period onwards, large clans would recruit skilled or renowned ronin samurai to serve them, becoming pawns within the clan.

To support these "retainers," large families have to pay a huge price, often resulting in situations where they take the money but can't get anything done.

There have even been instances where, due to the enemy's overwhelming power, retainers absconded with funds, proving they were utterly unreliable.

Later, these families gradually developed into families that cultivated their own talent.

Although the process takes longer, they are more reliable than previous retainers in terms of both loyalty and military strength.

Especially in modern times, the process of training retainers has been improved, making them comparable to the special forces of every country, and their skills are even more extraordinary.

It's fair to say that the death of even one of these retainers would cause the heads of these families a great deal of heartache.

A player named Shangchuanliu said, "It's not that we don't want to lend it to you, it's just that this operation is questionable."

He paused, then continued, "The number one player on the regional channel power ranking of a mere Dragon Kingdom is that terrifying, killing dozens of people from different channels in just one or two days."

If those three masters in the Nth Room case possessed similar methods, what kind of retaliation would Genesis face? Has Banquan-kun considered this?

Being able to move freely between different channels, they had never even imagined that such a prop existed before meeting Li Zheng.

It should be noted that even with the combined efforts of hundreds of people in the Genesis organization, they had never obtained similar items during their exploration.

Nobody knows what the situation is like in the Nth Room.

Another person named Hojo Chiki said, "I just checked the power rankings and didn't find the name of the thief, which means that the other party left the channel immediately after succeeding."

This method of frequent teleportation in a short period of time is somewhat reminiscent of what Li Zheng did.

“That’s right,” Kamikawa Ryu said. “I even suspect that the attack on your men last night might not have been by thieves, but rather an act of revenge by Li Zheng who returned after leaving.”

Is it Li Zheng?
Banquan Longma was slightly taken aback; he had also had his doubts before.

But Li Zheng is just a solo player, so how could he know the identity of the player who owns the Genesis Guardian's inventory?

Moreover, if it was Li Zheng who did it, given his relationship with Genesis, why would he need to pretend?

Even if they brazenly steal a warehouse, what can Genesis do to Li Zheng? Anyway, no one can beat him, and no one can catch him.

Therefore, this claim is completely untenable.

Compared to Li Zheng stealing things, Itagaki Ryoma is more inclined to believe that the organization that stole the country took advantage of the situation and wanted to frame Li Zheng.

"In the end, aren't you just reluctant to part with a few retainers?" Banquan Longma sneered. "It's fine if you don't want to participate now. The Banquan family has plenty of dogs. We can release one or two and wait it out!"

"The Izazumi family is large and powerful; of course we can't compare." Hojo Senjo sneered in return. "Why should we bail out the trouble that Izazumi Ryoma caused? Just because we've both joined Genesis?"

"Hojo-san, be careful what you say!" Kamikawa Ryu quickly reminded his colleague, warning him not to say the wrong thing.

"What's there to be afraid of?" Hojo Chiki said nonchalantly, "Even if Sugano-kun finds out, he won't blame me for such a small matter."

Kamikawa Ryu didn't dwell on the topic too much, and instead said to Itazumi Ryoma, "In any case, this incident was caused by Itazumi-kun, and only Itazumi-kun can resolve it himself. Please forgive me for being unable to help."

After saying that, he left the temporarily created group chat.

“Kamikawa-san is right. You have to clean up your own mess. It’s none of my business.” Hojo Chiki also left.

Once those two left, the others who hadn't said much also withdrew, and soon only Itazumi Ryoma remained.

Banquan Longma's face turned ashen: "Hmph! When there are benefits, they're all like piranhas, rushing to the scene at the first sign of trouble! Now that it's time to pay the price, they've all turned into cowards!"

He now regrets it a bit; perhaps he shouldn't have joined Genesis in the first place, as he's now in a dilemma.

"No matter what, we can't just let this loss go!" Ryoma Itagaki's expression was uncertain as he looked at a name in the private chat panel. After hesitating for a long time, he sent a message.

……

Not long after Li Zheng left his room on Thunder Island and explored three rooms, a phantom figure appeared before him.

As soon as the figure appeared, he let out his signature loud laugh: "Oh ho ho ho ho, esteemed customer, the rental of the props has expired, and I, the shopkeeper, have come to collect them."

The visitor was none other than Roemand.

However, this time it wasn't the real body that came, but a phantom clone that descended using unknown means.

"I've been waiting for you." Li Zheng took out the Star Pirate and handed it over.

Luo Aimang took it without checking it, put it away, stared at Li Zheng for a while, and said with a strange smile, "Oh ho ho ho, it seems that the esteemed customer has already solved his troubles. This shopkeeper has lost a business opportunity."

Li Zheng was slightly taken aback by what he heard: "What do you mean by that, Manager Luo?"

"Oh ho ho ho!" Luo Aimang extended a tentacle, pointing at the necklace Li Zheng was wearing, and said, "Didn't you already know? Just a little trick from ancient technology."

"You... you figured it out a long time ago?" Li Zheng asked.

With a flick of his tentacle, Luo Aimang produced an identical necklace, which he showed to Li Zheng, saying, "As long as I'm not blind, I can certainly see through the tricks of ancient technology."

It said regretfully, "It's a pity that I wanted to take this opportunity to promote the Balance Necklace, but... that doctor beat me to it."

After a brief silence, Li Zheng said, "We've gotten to know each other better before, so you noticed I'd fallen for it but didn't even warn me."

“No, no, no, business is business.” Luo Aimang shook his tentacle and said, “Besides, I gave you a chance to ask questions last time, but you asked some irrelevant things. No wonder I didn’t remind you.”

"Is it my own fault?" Li Zheng squinted and complained, scoffing at Luo Aimang's words "irrelevant".

In that situation, anyone would ask a similar question, right?

"Oh ho ho ho, anyway, it's not my fault." Luo Aimang put away the necklace and said, "Since you solved it by your own luck, it saves me the trouble of breaking the rules and actively promoting it."

"Breaking the rules?" Li Zhengqi asked. "You mean, even if I don't get the necklace these two days, you'll take advantage of today's opportunity to reclaim the space pirates and sell me one?"

Snapped!
Roemang snapped his forked tentacles together, rubbed them together, and then snapped his fingers: "Correct! Too bad there's no reward!"

Li Zheng didn't think he had enough influence to warrant an exception from Luo Aimang. He felt that Luo Aimang's idea was simply to repay a favor, since he had provided clues to obtaining the "Valloc Eye".

"Oh, right!" Li Zheng suddenly remembered something, looked at Luo Aimang with a burning gaze, and asked, "Can we conduct a normal transaction this time we meet?"

Snapped!
Luo Aimang snapped his fingers again: "Of course! But there's a verbal condition: the old practice of having Black Iron Blood again is not allowed!"

"No problem!" Li Zheng happily poured out a large amount of material, extremely excited.

Looking at the ridiculously large amount of material, Luo Aimang almost slapped himself to death.

Is this person toxic?
How did you accumulate more material in just three days than in the previous two sessions combined?

(End of this chapter)