Matrix Survival: One random treasure chest per day

Chapter 464 Something's Wrong with This World! (5.6K)

"As the top leader recommended by Kunlun, is it really okay for Major Liu to be so close to the leader of the Knights of the Round Table?"

Liu Qishao's adjutant repeated Tang Qianzang's words, then chuckled, "What problem could there be? You Nine Heavens should mind your own business; Kunlun's affairs are none of your concern!"

"hehe."

Tang Qiancang smiled noncommittally, "Never mind what I said. Since Major Liu said that Kunlun can handle this matter, then we from Jiutian will not stay any longer. See you later, everyone."

After saying that, he nodded to Li Zheng, turned around and left with all the members of Jiutian.

Li Zheng waved to them and watched them leave.

After everyone from Jiutian had left, Xu Ying whispered something in Liu Jiale's ear. Liu Jiale nodded repeatedly and then bid farewell to Li Zheng.

"I was originally planning to come and help, but it seems like I've made a fool of myself instead." Liu Jiale scratched the back of his head and said, "Well... before I leave, I have a favor to ask, I don't know if I should say it."

"Given our friendship, don't hold back, just say it directly." Li Zheng frowned and glanced at Xu Ying, knowing that Liu Jiale's next words were at the instigation of that woman.

"Row!"

Liu Jiale gritted his teeth and said, "Brother, let me admit my mistake first. I know that with your strength, ordinary players can't do anything to you. I only came here because my wife persuaded me to. I just wanted to do her a favor. I was wrong to start this."

Like Zhan Zhouzhou and the others, Liu Jiale had a general understanding of Li Zheng's strength.

Since Zhan Zhouzhou and the others can remain still tonight, there's no reason for him to rush over to help.

The reason is actually quite simple: the Penglai Legion needs Li Zheng's help. However, Xu Ying just happened to notice a clue that the Creator was planning to plot against Li Zheng, so she took the opportunity to bring people over, hoping to do him a favor.

Liu Jiale himself opposed this, believing that given his relationship with Li Zheng, if he needed help, he should just ask Li Zheng directly, and Li Zheng would have no reason not to help.

But Xu Ying's words persuaded him.

Xu Ying believes that Liu Jiale is now representing the Penglai Legion, and the Legion's affairs are official business, so personal feelings should not be mixed in with official business.

After all, favors and human connections tend to wear off over time.

"Let's skip the formalities and just speak frankly. I'll definitely help you if I can." Li Zheng suddenly felt a bit tired. Ever since the legion was officially established, Liu Jiale and Ye Kai had become increasingly distant from him.

Unlike before, when people could just ask in the group chat if they had any difficulties, things are different now.

Unlike now, when Liu Jiale speaks to him, he's started playing dirty tricks.

Relationships between people evolve over time.

Such changes are often caused by differing stances.

"Actually, I don't have any unreasonable demands..." Liu Jiale hesitated for a moment before speaking, "I just want to trade a small share of the potion production with you..."

The more he spoke, the more guilty he felt, and deep down he began to reject his claim that it was "not excessive."

He had privately calculated that if Li Zheng accepted the pharmaceutical commission and worked 24 hours a day, the approximate production volume would be over two thousand bottles.

The production of more than two thousand bottles of medicine may not even be enough for the Qidian Legion and the reserves. How can it be "not excessive" for Penglai to want to occupy a portion of the production share?
Li Zheng hesitated for a moment, then asked, "How many do you want?"

"Four hundred bottles a day!" Liu Jiale stated the number Xu Ying requested, which was almost one-fifth of the total daily production of the medicine!

"So many?" Li Zheng frowned. "I do have some leftover stock, but it's not enough to complete the set. They're all black iron and bronze level potions. If you want them, I can sell them to you."

In the past, Li Zheng might have been very generous in giving it to Liu Jiale, but now he was saying 'sell' it.

The complete sets of potions in stock were sold at the last auction; what's left are potions that don't match.

He originally planned to find an opportunity to collect the potions and sell them a few more times in private, but the terminal suddenly opened the Legion function, which filled up his daily potion production commissions again.

In fact, even the stock left over from before is not much left. Some of it was put into the legion warehouse as a benefit when the starting point was first established. The number of potions that have not been redeemed so far is about three thousand bottles.

The potion-making station is now operating 24/7, but it still can't keep up with the demand from the Starting Legion and the reserves.

This is one of the reasons why he has always resisted selling his share of the potions to other legions.

Even the landlord's family is short of funds!
"Iron and Bronze?" Liu Jiale shook his head upon hearing this and said, "The rank is a bit low. Most of the members of Penglai have drunk a lot of special blood, and they are all veteran players. Their physiques are basically above the Bronze rank. At least a Silver-level potion is needed to take effect."

Silver-level base...

Li Zheng pondered for a moment and said, "I can only give you a supply for three to five days at most. If you need more medicine in Penglai after that, you can talk to Lao Xiao."

"Looking for Lao Xiao?" Liu Jiale realized something and asked, "Are you planning to go to the outer city?"

"Hmm." Li Zheng glanced at the members of the Knights of the Round Table not far away, but didn't say anything more.

“Alright! Give me four days, 500 bottles a day, and I’ll buy them from you at twice the current price. I won’t let you lose out, brother!” Liu Jiale made up his mind and gave his offer.

“No.” Li Zheng shook his head and said, “I will give you the full amount of the potion for five days, which will eventually produce about 11,000 bottles. As for the price, I will give you twice the market price, as you said.”

At twice the market price, meaning that after deducting costs, Li Zheng can earn three times the cost of potion materials and power cores.

As for Penglai, at least ten thousand silver to platinum-grade power cores need to be prepared!

In fact, with such costs, they could gradually acquire special blood of various grades themselves and achieve a similar enhancement effect to gene serums.

However, this development cycle will become unstable, and it may not be possible to acquire enough blood even within thirty days of the acquisition.

After all, the entire matrix isn't just comprised of his legion; others will definitely acquire the same things as well.

Blood with special effects has always been in high demand and commands a high price. Only a small fraction of it overlaps with the ingredients used in medicinal potions, making the cost of drinking gene-enhancing potions actually lower than directly consuming that blood. ①
It was because of the existence of this blood that Li Zheng did not set the price of the medicine too high in the first place.

Some people believe that for such a monopolistic item, it wouldn't be unreasonable to charge ten or a hundred times the price.

But they didn't consider that there are actually many things in the matrix that have the same function, only with different effects. If the price of gene serum is too high, why would anyone buy serum from you?
Why don't people just buy blood materials with special effects?

Compared to other similar items, the biggest advantage of gene serums is their low price, as a significant portion of their raw materials are ordinary blood that can only be consumed as water.

In addition, gene therapy agents have the advantages of "clear classification" and "stable effects".

Of course, it's not without its drawbacks.

That is, the effect of a single dose of the drug is much weaker than that of certain blood, and it requires the consumption of power cores to make, which is a considerable burden for many people.

Before heading to the outer city, Li Zheng planned to secure another round of benefits for his brothers and sisters in the legion.

"Great! That's fair! It's settled then!" Liu Jiale returned to Xu Ying, satisfied, to claim credit.

Looking at Liu Jiale's sycophantic manner, Li Zheng sighed inwardly. Sometimes it's hard to say whether feelings are good or bad. Even someone like Liu Jiale couldn't escape this fate. When he fell in love, even his principles of being a person changed a lot.

After seeing off the Penglai group, Liu Qishao approached Li Zheng and said, "Just like I said before, Kunlun can satisfy all your needs this time."

Li Zheng looked at him for a moment and then asked, "So... what's the price? What do I have to pay for this?"

“This isn’t a deal,” Liu Qishao said seriously. “Or rather, I don’t want to make a deal with you.”

???

Li Zheng was confused. What did he mean by "you don't want to do business with me"?
Who else would you like to trade with?

"It's like this... I'd like to ask you to introduce me to Dr. Xiao."

Upon hearing Liu Qishao's words, Li Zheng immediately understood that in the heart of this top leader of Kunlun, the disabled soldiers were the top priority.

“I think… Old Xiao would probably be happy to see you too.” Li Zheng smiled, knowing that Xiao Siyuan and Liu Qishao would definitely have a lot to talk about.

"Then it's settled!"

Liu Qishao extended his hand and said, "Teleportation is not allowed during the fishing competition, so the plan to destroy the higher-ups of the Creation World needs to be reconsidered. After the event is over, you can have the members of the Qidian Legion come... Hmm?"

He suddenly frowned and said coldly to Louis, who was listening intently not far away, "Eavesdropping on other people's conversations, is this the kind of quality people in Mickey Country have?"

Wow!
As he expressed his dissatisfaction, more than three hundred people from Kunlun stepped forward in unison, as if they were brothers and sisters under the same brain.

“Eavesdropping? No, no, no, gentlemen, please don’t misunderstand. As Captain Joanna’s attendant, I was merely fulfilling my duty.” Louis bowed slightly, his tone neither humble nor arrogant, his eyes revealing no emotion.

However, Li Zheng knew that this person was not as simple as he appeared.

"Duty?"

Li Zheng suddenly spoke up: "If your regimental commander is spending the night in Major Liu's room tonight, are you going to follow behind and help Major Liu push him around a bit?"

Upon hearing this, Liu Qishao was stunned for a moment, and Joanna blushed and spat at him.

As Li Zheng expected, Louis showed a fleeting look of annoyance.

"I never expected that Mister Lee, the number one fighter in the Matrix, would speak such vulgar and offensive words!" Louis's expression turned serious, his face ashen.

"Vulgar?" Li Zheng looked at him with amusement and asked, "Do you know why I didn't kick you out even though I knew you were listening to our conversation?"

Louis's eyes narrowed sharply. He thought he had tried his best to keep his presence to himself, but he didn't expect Li Zheng to be much more wary than he thought.

"Little thing, don't let me catch you red-handed, or I won't hesitate to kill a white-name player!" Li Zheng summoned the Demon Blade Thirst with a flick of his wrist. The power of the King-level Demon Blade was fully revealed, and a bloodthirsty madness instantly enveloped him, causing Louis to break out in a sweat.

The reason it's called the Demon Blade is naturally because of its uncontrollable killing intent.

Before Li Zheng completely subdued it, this demonic blade was capable of cutting down even its own wielder without hesitation.

At this moment, authorized by Li Zheng, Louis was able to freely unleash his demonic nature. Under the dense, almost tangible, blood-red light, Louis was presented with a scene of mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

The stench of blood filled his nostrils, making it impossible for him to distinguish between illusion and reality. It felt as if a huge boulder had been placed on his heart. After only ten seconds of being suppressed by the demonic blade, he was drenched in sweat, his mouth agape as he gasped for breath.

He had no doubt that if Li Zheng used this knife to kill him, it would be no different from killing a chick.

“Mister Lee, I know I was wrong. Everything I heard tonight will stay in my heart. Please... let me go.” Louis cried out as if he were drowning, his hands already clutching his neck as if they would snap at any moment.

"Don't worry, you won't die. You'll just feel a little uncomfortable."

Li Zheng gestured to Ke Xue: "Release him first."

'Okay!'

The Demon Blade Thirst instantly concealed its aura, reverting to an ordinary black blade with blood-patterned markings.

Li Zheng noticed that the tentacle patterns that appeared on the Demon Blade later were much brighter today, looking very lifelike.

With a slight change in expression, Li Zheng thought to himself, "It seems this demonic blade is hiding something from me."

But now is not the time to dwell on this. He waved his hand dismissively and ordered, "Get lost, don't get in the way!"

"Yes...yes!"

Louis wiped the sweat from his face and hurriedly retreated more than ten meters before looking at the members of the Knights of the Round Table who had followed him. He frowned when he saw that they were unmoved by his predicament.

"This kid has ulterior motives towards you, be careful," Li Zheng warned Joanna.

"It's alright, he can't cause much trouble."

Joanna didn't say much, but suddenly looked at Miriel not far away, her eyes lighting up: "What a cute little girl, where did she come from?"

As she spoke, she walked over, hugged Miriel tightly, and then walked away.

"You're amazing! You can even train members of the royal family in Mickey's Kingdom to be so obedient?" Li Zheng was filled with envy. In modern society, there aren't many people as sensible as Joanna in Western countries.

"Personal charm, I guess," Liu Qishao said with a smug smile.

Li Zheng rolled his eyes: "I think you look better when you're serious."

“Alright, let’s get down to serious stuff then.” Liu Qishao shrugged. “In a bit, you should take a count of how many people you have under your command so I can have enough teleportation devices prepared to make it easier for them to come to Kunlun’s territory.”

"As for the intelligence, I'll have someone compile it. My initial estimate is no less than thirty people, most of whom should be anonymous. Should I arrange for two soldiers to do this dirty work for you?"

Upon hearing this, Li Zheng glanced at Liu Qi a few more times, somewhat surprised that the other party would take the initiative to say such a thing.

"Don't look at me like that. I'm just thinking of you." Liu Qi pointed at Li Zheng and said, "Didn't you say before that becoming a red name would affect your ability to go to the outer city? Of course, we need to be on the safe side in this situation."

"You're so young, how can you be so forgetful?"

Li Zheng squinted and said, "Or are you afraid that I will kill innocent people indiscriminately, so you sent two people to follow and monitor me?"

"Uh... what do you mean?" Liu Qishao was slightly taken aback upon hearing this, seemingly genuinely unaware of what Li Zheng was talking about.

The adjutant leaned in and whispered a few words in his ear before he turned to look at Sakura, who was running around on the other side, his eyes revealing a sense of realization.

“I see. I didn’t notice last time. Don’t overthink it. The idea of ​​surveillance is nonsense. If I wasn’t worried about you feeling guilty, I would applaud no matter how many people from that country you killed.”

"Oh, by the way, there's one more thing."

He paused here, staring at Rebecca for a while.

It took Rebecca a while to realize that the next topic was not something she should be listening to, and she obediently walked back to the members of the White Bear Legion.

After all the irrelevant people had left, Liu Qishao continued, "Go back and contact Misaka Tsuchiemon, and tell him to take this opportunity to gather the leaderless members of the Founders, so that Takamagahara doesn't steal the spoils."

"I heard that there is a hidden mastermind behind Genesis, possibly related to the Kanno family. After the Genesis high-ranking officials are all killed, it's hard to guarantee that this person won't appear to stabilize the situation, and then all our efforts will be in vain."

Li Zheng's expression turned strange: "You...you didn't really come here after Ma Long notified you, did you?"

"Of course!" Liu Qishao was bewildered by his words. "I wasn't sure about the situation here at first, so how could I come with Ma Long and the others? I wanted to come, but they wouldn't let me! What if we encountered danger and got beheaded?"

“Alright…” Li Zheng sighed and said, “You can put your worries about the mastermind behind Genesis down.”

"Because I have already killed Sugano Yushin."

You killed him?!

Upon hearing this, Liu Qishao's first reaction was disbelief.

Since Sugano Yushin is the mastermind behind everything, how could he possibly step into the limelight so easily?
And he was even killed by Li Zheng?
Is that a mistake?

Let alone Sugano Yushin, Liu Qi, who rarely served as the top leader of Kunlun, was known throughout the entire Matrix, if not to everyone. At least the commanders of the major legions had heard of his name.

Even so, he usually keeps to himself and rarely appears in chat channels unless absolutely necessary.

Even after congratulating Li Zheng on winning the first major event, he cautiously used a teleportation item immediately after speaking and left the original channel.

As the person behind the scenes, shouldn't Sugano Yushin act even more discreetly than I do?
Why does it appear here?
He was even killed by Li Zheng?
Liu Qishao thought this was too surreal; even if he had several brains, he might not be able to figure it out.

"wrong!"

Liu Qishao suddenly realized: "If Sugano Yushin is dead, then during this chaos of creation, we should actually increase our efforts to win over the remaining forces!"

"The head of Takamagahara is his own brother. Maybe that guy has already started plotting to annex Genesis."

"His brother?" Li Zheng asked suspiciously, "Who is he? You seem very wary of this person?"

"Don't you usually pay any attention to international news?"

Liu Qishao said speechlessly, "At least you should know who the head of each country is, right?"

"Are you crazy? Why would I care about that?" Li Zheng felt baffled and scratched his forehead. "I'd rather use that time to think about how to make money."

If you can't even afford rent, why are you worrying about other things?

The landlady is a good person, that's true, but you can't take her kindness for granted, can you?
I never missed a single day of paying rent.
However, Li Zheng had unintentionally seen news related to the eventual leader of Nihong before.

Judging from Liu Qishao's words, Sugano Yushin is related to the ultimate leader of the Muddy Kingdom?

Isn't Emperor Naruhito?
Is "Sugano" a family surname?
"You've really lived a very muddled life." Liu Qishao was speechless: "Although Sugano Oshin is not as famous as his brother, you must have heard of Sugano Shinichi, the crown prince of Nihon Province, who can also be called the young emperor, right?"

Shinichi Suganno?

Li Zheng was even more confused.

Who is this person?
Is he Naruhito's son?

"Never heard of him?" Liu Qishao said again, "You must know the current Emperor, Sugano Morimasa, right?"

Is Suganno correct?

Shinichi Suganno?

Yunobu Suganno?

Li Zheng suddenly felt his once clear mind become chaotic.

What kind of nonsense is this?
Why are the news stories I've seen before different from what Liu Qishao said?
and many more!

Li Zheng's heart skipped a beat, and an absurd idea popped into his head.

Could it be that I... live in a different world than Liu Qishao and the others?

"I'm going to ask you a question, don't think I'm weird or overthink it. Tell me, what's our leader's name?"

"Xiwenqing, what's wrong?"

……

① (There is a limit to how much a person can improve their physical condition, and this limit varies from person to person. It is impossible for drinking both at the same time to achieve a 1+1=2 effect, otherwise there would be a bug.)
(End of this chapter)