Matrix Survival: One random treasure chest per day

Chapter 299 Exclusive Dungeon for Red-Name Players
This is a city.

A city destroyed in war.

All that could be seen were ruins and rubble, with thick smoke billowing in the distance, creating a desolate and bleak scene.

Li Zheng and the others walked out of the light curtain. The entrance led to a large hall, which was in a mess. Construction debris from when the hall was destroyed was everywhere. The side near the door had been bombed by some weapon. A huge hole had been cut into the thick concrete wall, and the exposed metal mixture had melted, cooled, and solidified into a thin layer of irregularly shaped metal sheets.

"Another new instance. I wonder what kind of enemies we'll be facing this time." Li Zheng looked around for a while and pulled out half a poster from the construction debris.

The poster depicts a humanoid creature with a grayish-purple keratinous body. This creature appears to be a mammal, with a swollen chest, suggesting it is female.

Behind the female creature stood a row of robots, each with two tubes resembling those of a water turtle. The female creature had an excited expression, and the scene appeared to be a press conference.

"Machine Crisis?" Li Zheng looked at the half-poster in his hand and thought of a large number of movies featuring robots as protagonists resisting human atrocities.

Perhaps this city was no exception, having endured the baptism of fire from the very things they had created.

"Could the enemy be robots again this time?" Li Zheng threw away the poster and looked at Zhao Yu, who was still lying down and giving up.

After a moment's thought, he instructed, "You stay here. I'll have Sakura protect you. If any enemies appear, you fight them first. If you really can't defeat them, Sakura will step in herself."

As usual, Li Zheng wanted to act alone, find the BOSS as soon as possible, and kill him.

"Wow, I didn't believe Wang Chaoran when he was bragging in the regional channel before, but it turns out that the pro can really solo the dungeon boss?" one of the two healthy players said with a sigh.

"What else did you think? You got the top spot on the combat power ranking for nothing?" Another person took out a towel to wipe his hands. He was disgusted by the towel he had just touched Zhao Yu, and he had almost torn it to shreds.

"Alright, alright, let's skip the flattery. Be more sensible later. Sakura isn't omnipotent. If you mess things up and Sakura can't save you, don't blame me." Li Zheng waved his hand to shut them up, gave Sakura a few more instructions, and then turned to leave.

As I stepped out of the building and turned around, my gaze met a pair of eyes—eyes that were incredibly cold and chilling.

"There are still living people?" Li Zheng was somewhat surprised, because what appeared before him was not the robot on the poster, but a humanoid creature with a grayish-purple exterior.

The man seemed to be stunned for a moment when he saw Li Zheng appear, then reacted, raised the strange weapon he was carrying, aimed in this direction, and fired a shot.

call out!
A beam of red light shot out from the gun muzzle, piercing through Li Zheng's forehead and shattering him into pieces.

The next second, the shattered Li Zheng disappeared from the spot.

When it reappeared, it was already behind the creature, and it slashed out with its sword.

puff!
Li Zheng was stunned when the head fell to the ground.

This creature was weaker than Li Zheng had imagined; he defeated it with a single sword strike.

"Is this the enemy we'll face in the dungeon?" Li Zheng squatted down to examine it. The blood of the purple-skinned humanoid was also bright red, somewhat eerily so, and unlike human blood, it didn't have a foul odor; instead, it had a strangely sweet smell.

"This blood is so strange. The smell makes me want to drink some and try it." Li Zheng suppressed the inexplicable impulse in his heart and picked up the strange gun.

In terms of appearance, it looks a lot like a toy water gun on Earth. There is a thick, sealed can at the top, and a small display screen at the handle, which shows an icon that looks like battery level.

"A laser weapon?" Li Zheng recalled the beam of light from earlier and tried to activate it, but there was no response.

"A weapon that recognizes its owner is bound to an identity and can only be used by a specific target?" Li Zheng received the system notification and had no choice but to try to disassemble it, but he failed again.

However, the dissection of the corpse was successful, yielding a "Crimson Crystal".

Blood-red crystals

Rank: Gold Type: Special Item

Effect: After use, it merges into the player's body, stimulates blood energy, and has a chance to grant "blood energy" type abilities. It can also be used to upgrade the level of similar abilities.

Note: Only usable by players with red names; the effect varies depending on blood concentration.

"It's actually exclusive to red-named players!" Li Zheng glanced at the dungeon name and suddenly realized that this dungeon might be specifically prepared for red-named players.

If this dungeon doesn't drop any other types of items, it might become the dungeon with the lowest rewards that Li Zheng has ever run.

Li Zheng casually tossed the crimson crystal away. Taking such a thing out would only aid the enemy, and he wouldn't want it no matter what he could get in return.

However, after turning around and taking only a couple of steps, Li Zheng came back and picked it up again.

He thought of the disabled player; that person entered the dungeon to earn materials to modify his body. If he threw away the Crimson Crystal, he would definitely leave empty-handed this time.

It's better to keep it with you for now, and let others decide whether to take it out when the dungeon ends.

After all, Li Zheng was just a henchman and had no right to handle the rewards from this instance.

After finishing the cleanup, no new enemies appeared during this time, and Li Zheng was too lazy to search slowly, since who knew how big this city was.

So he simply flew into the air, hoping to find other enemies from above.

As soon as it took off, a sense of crisis arose in my heart, so I immediately reduced the power of the aircraft and landed.

Above his head, seven or eight red beams of light converged and intersected, almost blasting Li Zheng's head apart.

"Damn it, I was careless." Li Zheng breathed a sigh of relief; he almost made a fatal mistake.

The good news is that, judging from the direction of the beams of light, the other enemies are scattered and not difficult to deal with.

Having memorized those directions, Li Zheng randomly chose one and followed the street.

The city's style is very similar to that on Earth, with shops lining both sides of the street and tattered signs hanging on the walls and lying on the ground, indicating that the city was quite prosperous before the war.

However, these shops have now collapsed, been bombed, or been looted, leaving nothing of value behind.

Along the way, Li Zheng discovered a robot that had appeared in the poster.

The robot lay on the roadside, its head and body separated, the cannon barrel behind it twisted and deformed, its mechanical limbs broken, and parts scattered all over the ground.

Li Zheng tried to disassemble the robot with high hopes, but the terminal still mercilessly prompted: Disassembly is restricted.

"Well, looks like I won't be able to get any other materials this time." Li Zheng shrugged and was about to leave when a chill suddenly ran down his spine.

Danger!

Sensing something, Li Zheng didn't turn around and decisively lunged to the side, rolling away to hide in the ruins of a shop.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a red beam of light passing through the shop entrance; it was the light emitted from the weapon in the purple-skinned creature's hand!
Li Zheng hid behind the cabinet, peeking out one eye to look in the direction from which the light was coming.

The enemy we encountered this time was completely different from the one we had just met, even though they were of the same race.

(End of this chapter)