Matrix Survival: One random treasure chest per day

Chapter 427 Dark Realm and Void
Before I could even contact him, he sent me a message requesting a specific transaction?

Li Zheng opened the trading hall, found the prop, and his eyes suddenly narrowed.

"This is... a component of the final seal of the Mysterious Declaration!"

The mysterious declaration has three layers of seals. Li Zheng has successfully unlocked two of them, but there are still no clues about the third component, so he can only rely on luck.

As a result, I searched high and low without finding it, only to have it come to me effortlessly.
A candle that cannot be lit
Grade: Platinum

Type: special props

Description: A candle that has burned halfway and can no longer be lit, but it may still have some other uses.

Effect: The carrier will not encounter wandering creatures at night.

Old Pu, the great collector: Oh ho ho ho ho ho! Looks like you've collected enough components?
Then let's open the final seal!

Let's see where this long-awaited key leads!

"This attribute... can be called platinum?"

Li Zheng was confused. He was just trying to avoid encountering wandering monsters, yet his item was rated as a platinum-level item.
The Death Declaration we got back then had several features that were far superior to this.
It's just a silver coin!

That's fucking ridiculous!

Li Zheng said: I don't understand it, but I am deeply shocked!

He casually took out the mysterious declaration and the candle and placed them together. The two seemed to be attracted to each other and wanted to merge into one.

At this moment, a notification popped up in front of Li Zheng:
Does it incorporate a mysterious declaration and an unlit candle?

This fusion may lead to unexpected results; please proceed with caution.

Upon seeing the prompt, Li Zheng paused subconsciously for a moment, then selected "OK".

Now that we've collected them all, we should definitely choose to merge them; otherwise, why go through all that trouble to collect them?

[Merger confirmed.]

[Fuse successful, triggering the hidden effect of the Mysterious Declaration, obtaining: Lamp Holder]

The Lamp Holder

Rank: Unknown

Type: Item/Proof
Description: From the mysterious Lamplighters organization. Obtain it, and you will be the next Lamplighter. It is also the key to the Lamplighters' headquarters.

"..."

Li Zhengzai carefully examined the lantern in his hand, its appearance unchanged, to make sure he hadn't missed a single word.

"What the hell?! Why are all the traits gone?!"

A piece of equipment with incredible power turned into an ordinary lantern after all its seals were broken.

How can anyone accept this?
"Does that mean we have to enter the so-called headquarters of the Lantern Bearers to regain those traits?"

Li Zheng activated the lantern in his hand according to the instructions.

The next moment, the lantern lit up, and the scene before him instantly changed, and he found himself in a pitch-black space.

Carrying a lantern, Li Zheng looked around, but apart from the bluestone slabs under his feet, he couldn't find any trace of buildings nearby.

Whenever he walked a little further in one direction, the darkness would materialize and bounce him back.

"What's going on? The Lamp Bearers' headquarters is empty?" Li Zheng asked, puzzled.

Suddenly, a thought struck him, and he looked up.

At this glance, all I see is starlight.

"This is..." The starlight was too far away for Li Zheng to see the attribute information.

"This is the Dark Realm. Every point of light above your head is a node."

A familiar voice suddenly sounded behind me.

Li Zheng suddenly turned around and saw a handsome man with striking good looks, wearing black dragon armor and without a single hair on his face walking towards him.

"you……"

"!!!"

Li Zheng looked at him and was shocked to find that the man looked exactly like him!
That's fucking awesome!
"Who are you?" Li Zheng subconsciously looked at the prompt interface of the Eye of Preys, where it was completely silent. Old Preys had disconnected again.

Gan!
Those eyes are definitely unreliable; they let us down at the crucial moment!
"Who am I? In your terms, perhaps my name should be: Emptiness. Or you can call me: X!"

"Empty?" Li Zheng clenched his fists warily, but found them empty!
He panicked; he couldn't contact the capsule accommodation from here.

That's true, he entered while the capsule was unfolded, so naturally we can't contact him.

But not being able to contact the Demon Blade is a bit much, isn't it?
That thing is connected to me by thought; even if the dwelling is set up, it should arrive instantly.

Xu chuckled, "Were you looking for the Bloodthirsty Demon Blade just now? Give up. In the Dark Realm, nothing from the outside can be brought in!"

"Dark Realm... You've mentioned Dark Realm several times. What is Dark Realm? And what is the node you just mentioned?" Li Zheng asked tentatively, seeing that Xu seemed to have no ill intentions.

“The Dark Realm represents nothingness. It may seem like there is something here, but it is actually nothing.” With a wave of his hand, Li Zheng looked down and saw that the original bluestone floor had disappeared, leaving only a void of 'black'.

"The opposite of the Dark Realm is the world you came from, which represents existence! And the terminals you are familiar with are, in contrast to me, called: Reality. Or rather, it is another X!" the Void continued.

This whole charade, with its mix of reality and illusion, left Li Zheng completely bewildered, his head spinning.

“But when I came in, I clearly called this place the Headquarters of the Lamp Bearers, not some so-called Dark Realm.” Li Zheng waved the mysterious declaration in his hand.

"Oh, you mean this lamp?" Xu pointed lightly, and the lamp disappeared: "See, it's gone."

Li Zheng: "() You fucking..."

I finally managed to gather all the components and open this door, and you just turned off the light with a flick of your finger?

You're an easy target for a beating, you know that?
“It’s not just that lamp.” Without the lamp’s light, the place was completely plunged into nothingness. Without light, Li Zheng discovered that there was not even sound or air. The ethereal voice seemed to be ringing directly in his head.

“Even you and I don’t exist in this world. If you don’t believe me, touch your own body,” Xu continued.

Following its prompting, Li Zheng raised his hand and touched the direction of his body, and surprisingly, he passed right through it.

Do not!
Not only was his body gone, he even felt that he was left with only his consciousness.

This feeling was strange and wonderful. He could clearly know that he had a body, but he couldn't perceive it, yet he could still send out the thought of moving his body.

He tried to clench his fist, but he couldn't feel anything in his fingers. He knew he was clenching his fist, but the fist itself didn't actually exist.

"What... what's going on?" Li Zheng was dumbfounded; this phenomenon was completely beyond his comprehension.

“This is ‘nothingness.’ I just let you experience the absence of consciousness here, but unfortunately, you don’t remember experiencing it. Because that feeling doesn’t exist for you; it’s nothingness.” The voice of nothingness continued. “So… can the concept of nothingness be explained by death?” Li Zheng tried to understand this concept in his own way.

"You could say that 'nothingness' includes 'death,' while 'life' is actually contained within it. Here's something fun for you."

As soon as Xu finished speaking, the light suddenly reappeared. Li Zheng looked down and saw that he was still holding the lantern in his hand.

It was as if everything that had just happened was an illusion.

"Look." With a slight gesture, a ripple appeared between the two "people."

A moment later, a figure emerged from the ripples, looking tense and fearful, muttering to himself incessantly.

"Stop shaking! Stop shaking! If you don't run, you'll die! Ah!!!"

The next instant, his figure vanished, and he became someone else.

"No! I'm not reconciled! How could I possibly die here, at the hands of this trash?!"

After that, he disappeared and became another man who bore some resemblance to him.

"Heh, the victor is king, the loser is villain. If it weren't for that idiot Lin Fan, how could I have lost?"

He disappeared too.

After that, one figure after another appeared, and Li Zheng watched all of this in shock.

Because he knows all these people!
The first one was the player "Chen Xiao" who was killed and devoured by the Desert Fire Scorpion. Li Zheng was once sentimental because of his death. It was also because he discovered Chen Xiao's identity card that Li Zheng experienced what it meant to "die".

The second is Lin Fan, who seems to be stuck in the moment of his death, shouting out a declaration of unwillingness.

The third one is Lin Feng...

Next up are Okamon (left side), Okasaka Nikawa, Umekawa Kuko, Kato Junkazu...

Some of these people died at the hands of Li Zheng, while others did not.

However, what they all have in common is that they are unaware that they have been dead for a long time, and their thoughts still linger from the moment of death.

"Are these... souls?" Li Zheng murmured. If so, perhaps there was a way to turn the illusory into the real and resurrect some people?
“Not souls.” Xu smiled slightly. “These are just traces they left behind when they transformed from the real to the virtual.”

“If it weren’t for your arrival, which added a tiny bit of ‘reality’ to the Dark Realm, I wouldn’t have been able to show you those marks just now.”

Just a mark...

It cannot be revived.

Li Zheng was somewhat disappointed. He had thought he could win back some players from here.

It seems that even if they were rescued, they would only repeat what happened before.

To put it in simpler terms: their souls are no longer whole, leaving only the memory of the moment of death.

Even if we manage to retrieve it, what's the point?

Li Zheng shook his head, clearing his mind, and asked, "You still haven't told me why this place is called the Lampholder's Headquarters?"

"Is that important?" Xu asked, puzzled. "Isn't it enough that you just need to know that this is the Dark Realm, also known as the Lamp Holder's Headquarters by some creatures?"

"That's not enough! I want to know more!" Li Zheng said. "I want to know how the creatures that came before me got in here, and... what's the deal with this lamp!"

Li Zheng looked somewhat stubborn at this moment.

"Wow, you really are... persistent in getting to the bottom of things." Xu chuckled helplessly, "It seems you won't give up until I explain it to you clearly."

"Before you, there were indeed some creatures that accidentally wandered into this place. They had one thing in common: they had no physical form and were a unique life form that existed between the real and the virtual."

"Between reality and illusion... I feel like I've encountered this before..." Li Zheng frowned: "Walking in the Abyss?"

"Hmm...it seems there really was a race that trespassed here." A look of displeasure crossed the void's face. "That was an impudent fellow, whom I imprisoned here for a very long time, before handing him over to another fellow who seemed more pleasing to the eye..."

"Speaking of which, the lamp you're carrying was made by that guy later. Using the Abyss Walk as a guide, he utilized the stable illusory nature of this race to travel between the Dark Realm and the Real Realm."

Xu's words resolved a question that Li Zheng had previously had.

That is, when encountering the abyss, after taking out the lantern, it actually absorbed the opponent completely.

It turns out that the Abyss Walker here is actually like a special kind of lamp oil, completely restrained.

"So, is the so-called Lamp Bearer an organization created by the person who made this lamp?" Li Zheng continued to ask, hoping to understand the reasons for the disappearance of several characteristics of the Mysterious Declaration in this way.

"It's not really an organization. Rather, the lamp holder is an identity; whoever holds this lamp represents the lamp holder." Xu explained briefly, having probably seen through Li Zheng's purpose, and said directly, "If you want to know why the characteristic disappeared, you don't need to beat around the bush."

"This lamp was originally designed as a key to enter this place. Those features are just a trick to lure you into collecting all the components."

"It's like when you're fishing, you always have to give the fish some bait before they'll take the bait."

"Once the fish have taken the bait, will you still feed them?"

"Of course, this is just an analogy in a way you can understand, it doesn't mean you are a fish."

This means that if you weren't told how incredibly powerful and useful this item is, would you be eager to collect it?
Li Zheng then realized that the characteristics of the Mysterious Declaration seemed to be specifically designed to find other components.

Whether it's ten more nighttime explorations, a 90% chance of encountering other players, or obtaining more items from players' residences.

Even the last half of the candle was to ensure safety during nighttime operations.

In comparison, the "add one more" feature is the bait in the "trap".

Enticing players to constantly search for other people, and when necessary...

He committed murder!
Everything seemed to be arranged very reasonably, ensuring to the greatest extent possible that this prop would eventually be assembled.

Once the "trap" has caught its "prey," the trap becomes unnecessary.

Because this is a one-time trap, catching the "prey" only once is enough.

"So each generation of players will have a lantern bearer?" Li Zheng pondered and said, "When all the players of that generation graduate from the matrix, or die, the lanterns will be separated again, scattered to every corner of the matrix, waiting for the next generation of players to fight and vie for them?"

This concept is kind of like Dragon Ball, isn't it?

"Though not quite there, it's not far off." He chuckled mysteriously, "The original intention behind making this lamp was not for you to fight each other, but an accident happened during its creation, and some strange things got mixed in."

"The first lamp holder originally intended for you successors to collect the components through peaceful means of trade, but there was not enough material and time to make another lamp, so he barely managed to distribute this thing, which can be considered a defective product."

"I haven't seen that guy since then..."

"However, from time to time, various creatures carrying lanterns will appear here, and you are the most special one among them."

The most special one?
Li Zheng's heart skipped a beat; he had already guessed what Xu wanted to say.

"Although I don't know how you acquired all the components of this lamp, you are the only player who brought the lamp here without any bloodlust on you." Xu revealed a satisfied expression and praised, "You are very good! You are qualified to know some of the secrets and benefits of the Dark Realm."

(End of this chapter)