Matrix Survival: One random treasure chest per day

Chapter 456 Reencounter with the Purple Tree (5.5K)

"Old Li, you're no good either. That kid just kicked you over there and you're lying dead over there with Old Xiao?"

The moment Fengshan saw Li Zheng, he jumped up dramatically and exclaimed, "You acted like nothing was wrong in front of us? You're too concerned about saving face!"

Upon hearing this, Li Zheng's face darkened, and he looked at Lin Fengjiao, who was following behind him.

"Don't underestimate Xiaolin. She just told us you're receiving treatment. As for the extent of your injuries..."

Zhan Zhouzhou stepped forward and said, "It takes Dr. Xiao two hours to get approval to go to the hospital. Even a fool could guess that, right?"

"That's right... um?" Feng Shan paused in his nodding, looking at Zhan Zhouzhou in a daze: "Who are you calling an idiot?"

“I wasn’t talking about you before, but now I am,” Zhan Zhouzhou said to Yan Guang. “Your boyfriend’s...thing seems a bit off.”

She extended her right index finger and pointed to her temple.

"Sigh... Actually, I don't approve of him having too much contact with Lu Li."

Yan Guang shrugged helplessly, which made Feng Shan jump up and down in anger: "Silly woman, are you already siding with outsiders now?"

"The college entrance exam is over, who still needs to study?" Yan Guang said with a sneer.

"Okay."

Fengshan suddenly calmed down and said, "Since you've said that, then from now on we'll only take the college entrance exam and not study again!"

Yan Guang: "???"

Zhan Zhouzhou: "...?"

Li Zheng: "!!!"

Car!

What a fast car!
What model of car just ran over my face?
and many more!

How come I, a single person, can understand the meaning behind this sentence?!

尻！
Li Zheng rolled his eyes speechlessly and changed the subject: "Alright, everyone's here. Let's go in and see what tricks the terminal is up to with this awards hall."

The place where everyone was now was brought in by a teleportation item issued to Li Zheng by the terminal after he confirmed receiving the award.

The environment is simple, just a spacious metal hall with soft light sources embedded in various corners, making it comfortable to look at.

In the center of the hall is another low building, which looks unremarkable from the outside.

A large gate, with three silver-gray pillars on each side supporting the wavy eaves.

"I've contacted Liu Qishao's team. When they received their awards, they did it remotely via a terminal. After selecting the type, the awards were sent to their capsules," Zhan Zhouzhou said. "It seems that only our team is qualified to come to this so-called award hall."

Yan Guang was somewhat puzzled: "Logically speaking, wouldn't it be better to just send the prizes directly to the general's pocket? Why go through all this trouble?"

"What's the point?"

Fengshan disagreed: "How can this be considered unnecessary? We're number one! We're the champions! Look at those esports competitions, don't the champions always have a ceremony to lift the trophy?"

"What's this called again? Right! A sense of ritual!"

Fengshan believes that their team, as champions, received some special treatment, so there's nothing to be surprised about.

A sense of ritual?

Li Zheng muttered to himself, "The terminal company is doing all this fancy stuff?"
In his opinion, it shouldn't be the case.

The reason they were brought to this so-called awards hall is perhaps because their prizes are different from those of Ma Long and the others.

Is it because of better quality?
Li Zheng immediately ruled out this factor. No matter how high the quality of the product, the terminal should be able to send it directly to the player's capsule through some means.

That is……

Tickets?

Li Zheng's heart skipped a beat.

Winning the competition will grant you an additional ticket to the outer city. This ticket is not included in the original prize rules but is a separate, additional clause.

Therefore, the terminal needs to issue outer city tickets on the spot in this way?
After much deliberation, Li Zheng felt that this idea was the most likely, and there was no other reason to explain it.

"Let's go, we'll find out once we go in."

Li Zheng led the way, bringing his four teammates and two pets to the front of the gate.

They reached out and pushed open the seemingly heavy metal door, revealing a burly figure inside.

Its skin is light purple, and its face has strange patterns formed by black lines. It has three eyes in a triangular shape.

His chest was bulging, and his gray-white leather armor was almost bursting open.

Li Zheng and Zhan Zhouzhou were surprised when they saw the figure.

"Miss Purple Tree?"

"Why are you here?"

That figure was none other than the blacksmith's ninth disciple, Zi Shu, whom Li Zheng had seen once before and who had guided him to discover the 'tyranny' lurking within him!
A large, yet extremely kind woman from another ethnic group.

"You are finally here."

Zi Shu stood beside a long table and said with a hint of resentment.

"I received the task from the terminal two hours ago and was waiting here for you to come and collect your prize. I didn't expect you to arrive so late."

"There was a slight mishap that caused the delay." Li Zheng smiled apologetically. He hadn't expected the terminal to distribute the prizes in this way, and that the one presenting the prizes was actually Zi Shu.

"Alright, hurry up and come over. After I finish distributing the things to you, I still have to go back to serve my master." Zi Shu didn't care that Li Zheng and the others were late. She waved her hand and told everyone to come over.

"You two know each other?" Feng Shan followed half a step behind Li Zheng and asked in a low voice.

“Yes, I ran into him when I first went to Channel 2 or 4. Didn’t I mention it in the group chat?” Li Zheng explained, “At that time, you and Yan Guang had to deal with Yu Xiaoyu and your dad, so you two didn’t go.”

Upon hearing this, Fengshan remembered: "This is the blacksmith?"

At this moment, the group had arrived in front of Zishu and happened to hear her words. Zishu smiled warmly and said, "My master is the blacksmith. I am just my master's ninth apprentice. Now... let's just say I'm a sales assistant in the blacksmith shop."

"I have admired you for a long time!"

Fengshan felt a surge of anticipation. He had been envious for days after learning what good things others had obtained from the blacksmith's shop, and he regretted missing out on such a great opportunity.

But then he thought about it again. Back then, all his wealth had been used to exchange for fire-type items to upgrade his 'burst' ability. He even had to buy the right to use the 'Star Pirate' on credit when trading with Li Zheng, let alone buy things at the blacksmith shop. Suddenly, he felt a little better.

On the contrary, Yan Guang was a wealthy woman at that time, but her combat power mainly relied on the mechanical limbs of her left arm, so it didn't matter whether she went to the blacksmith shop or not.

"Could the prizes this time be from the blacksmith's shop?" Li Zheng suddenly realized that the terminal had Zi Shu give out the awards here, so could it be that Zi Shu was also responsible for the prizes, in addition to the tickets?

"bingo."

Zi Shu nodded, confirming Li Zheng's guess.

"According to the conditions given by the terminal, each of you can obtain one item of no higher level than Star Glory. This item can be a weapon or armor, or some other miscellaneous item with different functions."

Zi Shu took out a metal cube that looked like a mobile phone, folded it over, and a virtual screen unfolded on its surface, displaying a three-dimensional image. She then reached out and started operating it.

Li Zheng was very curious and took a closer look at the thing. Preys' Eye worked its magic and displayed the item's attributes.

[Ling Tong]

Rank: None
Type: Communication Props
Description: A communication tool specially made by the blacksmith for his own shop, used to facilitate communication between himself, who works as a part-time sales assistant, and himself inside the forge.

This is the only one of its kind in the entire matrix, and it has already been bound to the identity of the blacksmith's ninth disciple—Purple Tree.

Ho!
Good guy!
Even though they're both in the same shop, the blacksmith actually invented this prop just to make it easier for them to communicate?
Speaking of which, when Zi Shu went to the blacksmith shop last time, he personally went to that room to relay the requirements, but now the equipment has been upgraded?

It's just a few steps, is it really necessary to make such a big deal out of it?
However, this also made Li Zheng realize a key issue: the outer city may not have a function like a 'chat channel'.

Or, even if it exists, after going to the outer city, even if he returns to the matrix, he might not be able to use the current 'chat channel' anymore.

Li Zheng kept this detail in mind.

The 'Lingtong' display showed a foreign script that Li Zheng couldn't understand.

However, this operating method reminded Li Zheng of the science fiction movies he had watched before. Wasn't that how computers in those futuristic concepts were operated?

I inexplicably find it kind of cool.

"Wait a moment, let me adjust it and connect it to the signal terminal in the blacksmith's shop."

Zi Shu quickly operated the device for a moment, and a refresh-like effect flashed across the virtual screen.

"Alright, one by one, tell me the specific requirements for the prize you want, and your master will make the corresponding items for you according to the highest requirements that a Star Glory level can achieve."

Zi Shu waved the refreshed Ling Tong in her hand, looked at Li Zheng and the others, and waited to enter the order into the Ling Tong and send it to her master.

"Which of you comes first?"

Li Zheng looked at his four teammates. He hadn't decided what type of props he needed yet, so he thought he might as well let the others go first.

"I'll go first."

Zhan Zhouzhou stepped forward, took out the gravity necklace, and said, "I want a similar item with even stronger functions."

This necklace can only be activated at a maximum of ten times gravity. Zhan Zhouzhou is almost used to this limit, so she might as well take this opportunity to get an even better one.

"no problem!"

Zi Shu input the requirements and sent them to the blacksmith shop, saying, "The Star Glory level can probably achieve a gravity limit of about 100 times. This is the highest gravity amplification that can be achieved at present. If you want something better, you can only do so after there is a major breakthrough in related technology in the outer city."

"Only a hundred times?"

Zhan Zhouzhou frowned slightly, seemingly dissatisfied with the hundredfold increase in gravity.

“A hundredfold increase is already a very high level of amplification.” Zi Shu carefully examined Zhan Zhouzhou. “If I remember correctly, you’ve had this necklace for less than twenty days, right?” “Twenty days to adapt to a tenfold gravity amplification, such an achievement might make you feel proud.”

"However, there have been players in history who adapted to ten times the gravity within three days, but none of them were able to increase the gravity amplification to fifty times by the day they died!"

"The record holder is still a player from the Luo Gui clan three years ago, who relied on the uniqueness of his physique to increase the gravity amplification to 49.8 times."

"Then he died from an imbalance inside and outside his body, his brain turned into a pulpy mess."

"When you go to the outer city, you can visit the exhibition hall set up by the Gravity Research Institute in Block 375. The specimen of that Luo Gui Clan player is still on display there."

At this point, Zi Shu's face showed a playful expression as she looked at Zhan Zhouzhou: "If you can surpass that record, maybe the next specimen to be exhibited there will be yours."

The expression, tone, and words she uttered sent chills down Li Zheng's and the others' spines.

Is that gravity research institute really that reckless?
Just because someone broke a record, their body was made into a specimen and displayed in an exhibition hall after they died?

This is so inhumane!

"The Gravity Research Institute?" Zhan Zhouzhou repeated, then nodded and said, "If I have the chance, I will definitely go and take a look."

Li Zheng and the others: "..."

Good heavens, what kind of bizarre competitive spirit does Lady Zhan have?
Judging from your expression, you seem quite excited about the exhibition there?
"Wait! I have a question!"

Li Zheng suddenly remembered something and asked Zi Shu, "I remember when Zhan Zhouzhou proposed making the 'super-weight' necklace, he even exempted us from using materials because of this idea. How come there are historical records of gravity research in the outer city?"

"I knew some of you would ask this."

Zi Shu explained, "In the outer city, the gravity research institute's research on gravity amplification is a project that only started in recent years. So far, the most widely used gravity facilities are still large-scale and multi-person gravity facilities, and most of them have been put into use in the city's defense facilities. Only the gravity research institute has a dedicated gravity generating device for convenient research."

"The Tortoise Clan player I just mentioned actually died while testing the limits of gravity tolerance and obtaining research data. Otherwise, how could he be qualified to be displayed in the exhibition hall of the Gravity Research Institute?"

"As for the lightweight gravity generator that this lady proposed, which uses gravity to temper one's physique, no one in the outer city has ever mentioned it."

"Because this kind of prop needs to be worn for a long time to be effective, and to be honest, after arriving in the outer city, there are quite a few quick and convenient ways to improve one's physique."

“There are very few people willing to invest time and effort in researching props like the ‘overweight’ collar, which are slow to take effect and have unsatisfactory results.”

Zi Shu, perhaps worried that her explanation wasn't clear enough, used another example from Liu Jiale, a player who had crafted a free item that day: "Let me put it this way, wasn't there another player who crafted an item called 'Training Post' last time? In the outer city, there are plenty of people who make a living as 'sparring partners.' When you want to practice, you can find a suitable training partner with very little effort. Why bother researching this so-called training post?"

After she said that, Li Zheng roughly understood that it wasn't that no one had thought of this idea, but rather that no one had formally studied it.

Or perhaps, people look down on such flashy but impractical things...

What's the point of researching something that's destined to be worthless and can't be sold?

Like the "technological cup" invented by "Fifth Brother," is it something the blacksmith takes out and displays to mess with his own mentality?

However, if the outer city really hadn't researched gravity generating devices, how did the blacksmith manage to create the 'super-weight' collar so quickly?
Seeing that Li Zheng had no other questions, Zi Shu picked up an opaque metal box from the table beside her and handed it to Zhan Zhouzhou, saying, "This is an extra prize. As for the prop you need, it will be sent directly to your private space by the terminal once it is made."

Presumably, this contains the ticket to the outer city.

Li Zheng glanced at it a couple more times. Old Pu's hint was: "[A keybox containing rare items. We might have to open it to find out what's inside.]"

This basically means that even Old Putin couldn't see through the so-called 'key box'.

Li Zheng turned to look at the table and saw four more identical 'key boxes', which looked no different from the outside.

After thinking for a moment, he asked the purple tree, "Do you know what's in here?"

Upon hearing this, Zi Shu gave him a look that suggested he was looking at an idiot: "The terminal sealed this item in a key box to prevent others from spying on it. Do you think I would know?"

Then she changed the subject: "But what happened to you this time isn't exactly a secret in the small circles of the outer city, so I actually know what's in the box."

“…” Li Zheng remained silent.

Your words are truly invaluable.

Are you putting it here?

"Okay, this is just a unique way of humor used by our Ziling tribe. If you don't find it funny, I'll be more careful next time."

Seeing Li Zheng's constipated expression, Zi Shu assumed he was angry. The blacksmith often taught her that as a sales assistant, she must never let customers feel dissatisfied with her words or actions.

This is a major taboo in business!

She quickly changed her tune, saying, "I think I understand what you mean. You're asking if the tickets for going to the outer city are different, right?"

Li Zheng's expression softened, and he nodded slightly.

"To tell you the truth, yes, there are."

Zi Shu composed himself, his expression becoming much more serious: "The location each player arrives at when they go to the outer city is random, and theoretically, they will not encounter any life-threatening dangers."

"But as you know, some people in the outer city will accept missions from the terminal and temporarily enter the matrix to handle matters."

"There might be some friction with an active player during the process."

“In the matrix, we outsiders are bound by rules and cannot attack you proactively.”

"But once we reached the outer city..."

All intelligent beings share similar ideas.

Even if veteran players don't clash with active players when they come in to do quests, who knows if some people might infiltrate the group to profit from it?
after all……

In their eyes, the skill level of active players is about the same as an adult looking at a child.

They're incredibly easy to bully.

That's why these outer city tickets are placed in the security box by the terminal, precisely to prevent the leakage of specific information, which could lead to a current player being targeted by a veteran player from previous years, who could then prepare in advance and eliminate them.

This must have happened before.

Otherwise, the terminal wouldn't have gone to such lengths.

"So the outer city is just a facade of order, and in reality it's still the same ruthless system of the strong preying on the weak?" Li Zheng frowned. If that's really the case, he'll be in a lot more trouble after he goes to the outer city.

"That's not it."

Zi Shu corrected, "Actually, as long as you don't do anything reckless and run out of the city, your life is still guaranteed. However, you must be careful after you get to the outer city. In addition to the professional guides arranged by the terminal at the active player guide points, there are also some people with ill intentions. Keep your eyes open and identify their identities, and you will basically be fine."

"Identify their identity?" Li Zheng was taken aback. What was so difficult about that?
Since it's someone arranged by the terminal, shouldn't they at least provide some token or something so that active players can verify the authenticity through 'official certification'?
Li Zheng explained his thoughts, and then Zi Shu gave Li Zheng a brief look with the same expression she had given him earlier.

"You should know that in this world, it's much easier to forge something than you think."

"and……"

“Once you go to the outer city, unlike in the matrix where you can see item information, otherwise why would those smuggling crops go to all the trouble of coming here to cultivate new species?”

At this point, the eye on the Purple Tree's forehead suddenly blinked: "I've said too much. The terminal gave me a warning. Let's continue with the awards ceremony. You'll naturally learn about the rest of the topics when you go to the outer city."

"it is good."

Li Zheng had already experienced the nature of the matrix terminal. Today, he received much more information from Zi Shu than before, and it was crucial for his future trip to the outer city, saving him a lot of trouble.

The two did not hide their conversation from Zhan Zhouzhou and the others. While the three from Fengshan were choosing their rewards, Li Zheng discussed with Zhan Zhouzhou and decided to also release the relevant information they had obtained that day to raise the awareness of all players.

It is precisely because of this move that those who profited by harming active players have seen their earnings reduced significantly.

The second person to choose a prize was Fengshan, who ordered a pair of custom-made gloves, specifically full-arm gloves that connect to the shoulders, effectively protecting his entire arm.

Moreover, it can amplify the power of his attacks to a certain extent, and apart from being incompatible with 'groping hands', it is quite suitable for him.

Yan Guang didn't know what kind of prop he should choose, so he simply changed Feng Shan's armor to a new set made of nanomaterials. It was thin, soft, and effectively reduced the damage caused by sharp weapons and ammunition.

When it was Lin Fengjiao's turn, she made an impossible request.

She wanted a set of medical tools that could treat skin injuries, but Zishu bluntly stated that this type of tool was not under the jurisdiction of their blacksmith shop.

However, he pointed out a clear path, telling Lin Fengjiao to find a "doctor".

In the end, Lin Fengjiao changed her terms and got a Star-level Gauss rifle in return, which she planned to give to Xiao Siyuan when she returned.

Incidentally, Zi Shu did Lin Fengjiao a favor by giving her a business card indicating where the doctor was located.

Li Zheng glanced at it; it was exactly the same as the one he had taken back then.

However, the one in Lin Fengjiao's hand was covered with countless arrows.

It seems she has a long way to go before she can find a doctor.

However, she finally saw a glimmer of hope. Lin Fengjiao was somewhat excited, her thin body trembling slightly, and her hand holding the business card visibly shaking.

When it was Li Zheng's turn, he was truly stumped.

To be honest, his need for weapons and armor is not actually very high.

In terms of weaponry, the Demon Blade Thirst has just been restored to the King rank today, significantly increasing its lethality.

If Li Zheng were to face Iki right now, he could easily break through the defenses of those hands!

As for his personal protective gear, Li Zheng planned to purchase it after arriving in the outer city.

The Earth Dragon Armor is a pseudo-supernatural item. In the Matrix, as long as Li Zheng isn't stupid enough to use his body to withstand attacks, it's no different from a Star-level armor.

Therefore, he turned his attention to "miscellaneous props".

After hesitating for a long time, Li Zheng thought of an item, slowly opened his mouth, and told Zi Shu his request.

After hearing this, Zi Shu looked troubled: "This..."

……

P.S. The paid word count is 5.5K, but this chapter was revised later, so the actual word count is 6.2K. The extra words seem to be considered free...

(End of this chapter)