Matrix Survival: One random treasure chest per day

Chapter 480 Fishing Competition x, Legion Training √
"Get out of my way, all of you!"

He stomped hard at the foot of Fengshan Mountain, and the lava surged back like a curtain covering it before being dispersed by him. Like a raging little top, he crashed headlong into the chaotic crowd of people fighting.

Anyone who blocked his way was thrown into the air, regardless of the circumstances.

Fengshan's strength here is like that of a god of death descending to earth; anyone who touches him will fall, anyone who gets close will retreat, and he is invincible.

"Did you know this would happen?" Lu Li asked, standing next to Li Zheng, instead of following Feng Shan.

Li Zheng stared blankly ahead and nodded slightly: "Although the cause and effect of this chaos are somewhat different, but... you're right, this is the scene I expected."

"But...why? What's the benefit of doing this?"

Lu Li frowned. They were originally at the end of the crowd, but now that things were in chaos, the area around them was actually the safest.

What's more, there's also the towering lava flow caused by Li Zheng's explosive power. Although the scalding lava won't kill people immediately, players without protection will eventually turn into white light and fly away if they stay in it for too long due to the damage exceeding the critical point.

"benefit?"

Li Zheng turned his head and smiled: "From the moment the event started, I've been thinking about what the point of this kind of boring entertainment is?"

"Think about it carefully. Why would a fishing competition that doesn't involve any harm to life require a whole legion to participate?"

"If the goal is simply to help players relieve the tension that has accumulated over the past few days, wouldn't it be more interesting and more interesting to hold this kind of competition in the form of individual participation?"

Although Lu Li has a mental illness, it does not mean that his IQ is lower than others.

On the contrary, due to his special nature, Lu Li's thinking is more divergent than that of ordinary people, and he can think of some details that others cannot.

"what do you mean……"

“That’s right!” Li Zheng pointed to the scattered white lights flying away in the chaotic battle arena and said confidently, “This is the real gameplay that the terminal wants!”

"Legion warfare?" Lu Li seemed thoughtful.

“No!” Li Zheng shook his head and said, “To be precise, it should be called troop training!”

Training troops?

In the live stream, Bai Xiaosheng's pupils suddenly contracted as he flipped through the identity he was authorized to use by the terminal and carefully considered it several times.

[Special Correspondent!]

Temporary special correspondent on the front lines!
"So that's how it is! I knew it!"

At that moment, Bai Xiaosheng suddenly felt a surge of electricity coursing through his body, causing him to tremble slightly.

With his intelligence, he felt a strong sense of incongruity when he learned about the rules of the event and the final prize.

Create a legion.

Fishing competition.

The fact that these two major moves were released together by the terminal is itself quite intriguing.

In the early days of the Legion, the players were like a mob, and due to the unique nature of the Matrix, it was difficult for them to gather together for organized activities.

This fishing competition is an opportunity provided by the terminal.

This training exercise provides an opportunity for all legions to work together seamlessly!

"But I still don't quite understand," Lu Li asked. "According to your logic, if players just honestly compete by fishing without your deliberate actions to stir up trouble, wouldn't the terminal's design be a waste?"

That's right!

If the relatively peaceful atmosphere continues, the fishing competition will definitely end as a truly "entertainment" event.

Since the players don't fight each other, there's no such thing as 'training'.

Li Zheng looked up again at the gray sky and said meaningfully, "You should know that everything in this event was arranged by the terminal."

He took out a fishhook and showed it to Lu Li.

"Isn't this the limited edition fishing gear that you just had Fengshan buy?" Lu Li asked, puzzled.

"Look beyond appearances to the essence. Think back to what Xiao said," Li Zheng said calmly, flipping his hand to put away the fishhook.

"Collecting all six components will have unexpected special effects?" Lu Li was even more puzzled. They only had one fishhook, so what did that have to do with this statement?
"Do not."

Li Zheng smiled: "Even without collecting all six components, they still have special effects."

"You...huh?"

Lu Li was suddenly taken aback. He opened the legion channel and found that the requests for help contained some unusual words.

Xiao Siyuan: "Everyone, return to the transfer space and assemble!"

Zaetu: "Holy crap! Someone fished out a BOSS in the desert, and it's already turned thousands of people into white light! Everyone be careful!"

Zhan Zhouzhou: "A humpback whale appeared in the endless ocean, causing waves that swept across the entire beach, killing many people!"

Wang Chaoran: "The white light doesn't mean you're truly dead. You've been 'frozen' back in the Legion's transfer space and will need to wait half an hour before you can re-enter the various areas!"

Chen Xiangrong: "Are you crazy? There's a guy in the Thundercloud arena who caught a Thunderwing Golden Eagle with one hook, and it wiped out tens of thousands of people in a minute. I was a little too close, and the bullets I fired back felt like tickles!"

Wang Chaoran: "Arong, you're small... never mind, no need to be careful, I've seen you."

“This…this is…” Lu Li looked at the information that appeared in the legion and was shocked.

“That’s right, this is the method the terminal uses to train soldiers if the players don’t fight each other.” Li Zheng thought for a moment, took out the ‘Gold Rush’ fishhook, installed it on the fishing rod, casually hooked a bait on it, and cast it into the gradually calming volcano behind him.

"Was this even part of your plan?" Lu Li felt that he could see through Li Zheng less and less.

……

In a corner, Xiao sat comfortably in a leather chair, sipping his drink and watching the chaotic battle initiated by the players, his eyes revealing a mixture of satisfaction and disdain.

There was still some underlying dissatisfaction.

Although the scene had become chaotic as required by the terminal, the first challenge creatures in the other scenes had already appeared, but the lava mountain range he was in charge of was in chaos in a different way...

This made Xiao feel that things were not quite perfect.

"Tsk~"

Xiao sucked on the straw, feeling extremely annoyed: "I should have known better than to sell it to that guy. How could he resist using such a 'precious' item?"

This was completely unexpected.

It's important to know that one of the assessments the terminal assigns to them is the number of players whose venues turn white during the first round of challenges.

"Tsk~ Tsk tsk~"

As Xiao watched the white light gradually increase from a few scattered points, he began to shake his leg.

"Too slow! Too slow!"

The number of white lights in the other five scenes all exceeded 10,000, but the number of white lights in the Lava Mountains only exceeded four digits.

When compared to each other, his shortcomings become particularly apparent!
"Ok?"

Frustrated, Xiao's expression suddenly changed. He turned his head to look in a certain direction, stopped shaking his leg, and finally relaxed.

"Oh dear, it was a misunderstanding, a misunderstanding. You finally released it for me?"

"Roar!~"

"Boom, boom, boom!"

A deafening roar, accompanied by billowing black smoke and surging lava, slowly rose from the bottom of the volcano, as if a ferocious beast from ancient times was lurking beneath, its power overwhelming!
"Comfortable!"

Xiao leaned back in his leather chair, a relaxed expression on his face, as if the situation was already settled.

Once Sephiroth is released, surpassing his colleagues in other scenarios will no longer be a problem. However, the next second, he jumped up from his chair like a mermaid, cursing loudly:

"You bastard! What are you doing?!"

……

Li Zheng calmly put the Demon Blade Thirst back into its capsule, shifting his gaze from the fiery red rock that had just emerged from the volcano's crater. He felt reassured: "Now I've fulfilled my promise to Xiao about the surprise. Killing the Boss in five seconds is definitely the fastest in the entire match!"

All six area bosses have been released, and the Lava Mountain area was the first to be challenged by a player. As the person in charge here, Xiao's performance must be going to improve a lot, right?

Li Zheng thought to himself, "Let's just consider this a reward for Xiao revealing so many secrets to me in the first place. I'm not the kind of person who doesn't repay kindness."

Right?

Although the roar echoed throughout the Lava Mountains, it became less noticeable amidst the chaotic battle among all the players.

More than 99 percent of the players were not affected by it and were still angry, fighting with the people around them.

Only a few players who were close to Li Zheng noticed the anomaly at the crater, stopped attacking each other, and stared at Li Zheng in a daze.

Why are you looking at me?

Li Zheng waved to them and said, "You can continue."

"oh oh!"

The players nodded blankly, then raised their weapons again and began fighting.

Lu Li covered his face: "..."

Hopeless!
Li Zheng turned and waded into the volcano. His whole body was covered in 'extreme isolation', and the high temperature, which was enough to melt gold and iron, had no effect on him.

Molten Spirit

Special catches
7 level

This fish can be caught using extremely special fishing gear and is worth 700 points.

This is the message displayed by the terminal.

However, through Preers' Eye, Li Zheng saw a completely different information panel.

Sephiroth

Race: Molten Elf

Rank: King (Pseudo)
Rank: Elite

Status: Dead

Description: After dismantling, you can obtain the 'Core of the Molten Spirit', or you can submit the corpse directly to a special merchant to exchange for 700 event points.

Old Pu: You should know how to choose, right?
No way? No way?
Surely no one actually submitted their points to a special merchant for redemption?

"What a powerful creature!"

Behind him, Miriel, who was also covered in ultimate isolation, said with a serious expression, "Judging from the momentum when it appeared, it is already very close to the strength of Uncle Balrog."

"You mean the Fire Demon King?" Li Zheng didn't turn around. "It's probably far off. The Fire Demon King is a true king with king-level rank and king-grade strength, while this Molten Spirit is actually only a pseudo-king-level, and its grade is only elite."

"I reckon your Balrog uncle is here, he can take on more than ten Molten Spirits at the same time."

Sephiroth's appearance time was too short.

So brief was the encounter that Miriel didn't even have time to fully grasp the opponent's power before Li Zheng chopped her down.

It has to be said that this is probably the most pathetic death of a (pseudo) king-level life form in the entire matrix.

“But your blade already possesses the power to threaten a true king-level life form,” Miriel said. “However, you still relied on trickery to kill the Molten Spirit this time. If the crater hadn’t been too small, restricting its movements, and if it hadn’t been a true king-level life form, it probably wouldn’t have been so easy for you to kill it.”

"You're right this time."

Li Zheng raised his hand and placed it on Sephiroth's corpse, silently chanting "Disintegrate." As the dim light appeared, he continued, "In the terminal's settings, this creature is not meant for us to challenge alone. Instead, it should be an attack launched by all players in a disciplined, planned, and organized manner. With the cooperation of different unit types, it should be a long-term campaign, ultimately costing us a heavy price to take it down."

"But the terminal didn't expect that I would be such an anomaly... no, I should say that Thirst for Blood was such an anomaly."

Li Zheng seemed to be deep in thought. He had previously thought that the Legion function and this fishing competition were new functions and activities temporarily developed by the terminal.

However, all indications now suggest that the terminal had actually prepared for this event when it was challenging the mutant activities.

At least, the procedures for the fishing competition were already set at that time.

Judging from Sephiroth's strength, if he hadn't possessed the Bloodthirsty Demon Blade, or hadn't killed all the mutants back then, the Demon Blade wouldn't have grown to its current state.

The (pseudo) King-level life is just right for all players to train together.

In fact, even if the Demon Blade Thirst had grown to its current level, it would be a pipe dream for Li Zheng to easily kill Sephiroth in a one-on-one fight if he were to unleash him completely.

Strictly speaking, although a king-level demonic blade possesses the power to kill life forms of the same level, the wielder is too weak and thus becomes a burden.

Li Zheng's current situation is very awkward. When he has the Bloodthirst Demon Blade in his hand, he is essentially a fragile warrior with maximum attack power.

Although he can fight against beings of higher ranks, he would be finished if he were hit by a higher-ranking being even once.

This can be seen from the fact that he would go to Xiao Siyuan's place to lie dead after several battles with mutants.

Given Sephiroth's strength, Li Zheng and Sephiroth could each instantly kill the other.

Unfortunately, Li Zheng had already figured out how to release it, exploiting a terrain bug to instantly kill it the moment it appeared.

If it were any other location where the bosses had already been released, Li Zheng would have to obediently flee like the other players.

“From your conversation just now, I sense that there’s more than one of these creatures,” Miriel asked. “What do you plan to do with the rest?”

How to do?
Sephiroth's corpse disintegrated completely amidst the faint light, leaving only a crimson heart with a glassy texture in Li Zheng's hand.

"First, let's clear out all the players in the Lava Mountain Range before we make any further plans."

Li Zheng weighed the Molten Core in his hand a couple of times, revealing a smile that only appeared when he was doing business.

This time, Li Zheng intends to turn the tables and block the entrance to the Lava Mountain venue.

This only pristine spot will be completely monopolized by the Qidian Legion!
"Zhan Zhouzhou, how's the situation on your end?"

Li Zheng turned around and asked in the legion channel.

Zhan Zhouzhou: "All members of the Endless Ocean site have safely returned to the transit space and are ready to depart for any region at any time."

I don’t know if I should say it’s just bad luck, because the Endless Ocean was blocked before, and the dozens of members of the Origin Legion who stayed there all had the ability to fly, and they barely managed to escape from the Boss there.

Compared to them, the other legions fared much worse, with most of the legions left to fish on the beach suffering heavy casualties.

Some legions with poor overall strength even suffered total annihilation, with all five hundred of them returning to the transit space to wait for the 'freeze' to end in thirty minutes.

Li Zheng: "What about the people at the other venues?"

Xiao Siyuan: "...All wiped out."

Li Zheng: "..."

Seeing that he had stopped moving, Miriel asked, "What's wrong?"

Li Zheng scratched his chin awkwardly: "Actually, the terminal's use of the fishing competition as a training exercise was something I guessed on the spot. I forgot to tell the people in the legion beforehand..."

Miriel: "..."

Well, it seems it will take some time to train this master.

(End of this chapter)