Matrix Survival: One random treasure chest per day

Chapter 490 "What makes you stronger than me isn't your swordsmanship, but me!" (A long-awaited 6K)

Zhang Yue's blunt and somewhat vulgar rejection did not offend Xu Ying.

On the contrary, she understood that the other person knew why she had come to see her.

"I was abrupt."

Nodding, Xu Ying returned to Liu Jiale's side and sat down, taking out her fishing rod and loading it with bait.

Since I've been rejected, staying here will only make me look foolish.

"Tch~ This is Xu Ying, the ruler of Penglai?"

Wang Erzhu sat cross-legged, a hint of sarcasm in his eyes: "They think they can undermine our Qidian? Who would give up a 10% daily profit increase to mingle in one of their bottom ten legions?"

"Would it kill you to say less?" Tian Liuya slapped him, almost sending him flying into a volcano.

Wang Erzhu rubbed his shoulders and grinned, saying, "I didn't say anything wrong."

Tian Liuya: "You can't just blurt out the truth like that. Look at Sister Chun."

She gave Wang Erzhu a wink, signaling him to look at Li Chun's current appearance.

Sitting on the edge of the volcano, even though I was looking in the direction of the buoy, my gaze was unfocused.

"what happened?"

Zhang Yue moved closer to Li Chun, nudged her gently with her shoulder, and asked in a low voice, "What are you thinking about?"

Li Chun's thoughts were interrupted, and she turned her head as if waking from a dream: "Huh? Oh... I wasn't thinking about anything."

Looking at Li Chun's slightly immature face, Zhang Yue sighed and said, "That's just how the world is. Everyone has their own life. We can't let a change in our stance create distance between us and our old friends."

"Oh, Sister Yueyue, I'm not a child anymore. Of course I understand these things." Li Chun realized that Zhang Yue had mistakenly thought she was troubled by Liu Jiale joining Penglai.

Li Chun knew about Liu Jiale joining Penglai on the very day Qidian was founded.

The reason I didn't want to talk to him earlier was simply because I was a little resistant to the word "buy and sell" that he used.

As for staring blankly at the float, it was entirely because of the empty treasure chest that had just been put away.

To outsiders, the treasure chest's attributes seem unremarkable.

However, with the Eye of Prey, she saw another attribute information.

Lost Treasure Chest

5 level

Special catches
Status: Enabled (Content empty)

Function: It can carry a "high-energy core" for a dimensional transfer.

Note: After loading, this item will be automatically destroyed after 20 seconds in the Legion Transfer Space.

If the carrier is still in the transit space when the destruction occurs, the "high-energy core" will be forcibly removed from the carrier's private space and returned to the previous plane.

The terminal refers to all the items produced after the bosses are dismantled as "high-energy cores," which, judging from their rank, does indeed fit the definition of "high-energy."

But once Li Zheng gets his hands on it, he might complain about how terrible the terminal's design is...

Besides this attribute that others couldn't see, the system terminal also gave her a notification when she touched the treasure chest.

That means an empty treasure chest can be broken down into pure Orichalcos.

Judging from the initial weight, it weighs approximately ten kilograms.

However, given the usual practices of end users, they'd be lucky to get even 150 grams.

However, the value of this treasure chest does not lie in its material, but in its ability to transfer "high-energy cores".

With this effect, the item that Li Zheng secretly gave her could be freed from the limitations of the lava mountain range and sent to other regions.

If used properly, it might have the effect of a "surprise attack".

While Li Chun was "dazed" just now, he had already stored the core of the Molten Spirit Sephiroth into the empty treasure chest. The treasure chest seemed to have some unique spatial properties. After the storage was completed, it shrank from its original size to a small box the size of a palm.

"It's good that you can think positively." Zhang Yue tightened her grip on the fishing rod; now it was her turn to get hooked.

"Fish caught! Fish caught!"

"Quickly! Everyone come and help!"

A group of people gathered around, eagerly anticipating Zhang Yue catching the fish.

Even novice anglers have mastered the essential skills of beginner anglers.

That is, they like to rush over and frantically help others when they are catching fish.

Or watch a play.

……

"time up!"

The half-hour freeze time passed in the blink of an eye. Li Zheng stood up, stretched, and said to Miriel, "I should go catch the next match. Are you coming with me, or staying at the transit station?"

Miriel pondered for a moment and said, "Take me to the beach. It's lunchtime anyway. Leave the stove there so I can practice my cooking."

"also."

Li Zheng nodded in agreement. He was also feeling a bit hungry, so he walked towards the portal leading to the Endless Ocean. He casually tagged Li Chun in the Legion Channel and sent her a message, asking her to tell Liu Jiale to come to the Endless Ocean to find him.

After passing through the portal, Li Zheng reappeared on the beach in the Endless Ocean.

The salty sea breeze, the clear weather, and the golden sand.

Blue sky, sea, white clouds, sunshine, waves, and beach.

Without the crowds that plagued them last time, Li Zheng almost thought he was on vacation.

My body and mind relaxed like never before, and my tense nerves were relieved.

After the humpback whale was killed, the seafood left on the beach when the tide receded had already been cleaned up by the people at the starting point.

Hundreds of bonfires were lit on the vast beach, and each bonfire was filled with people.

It was lunchtime, so everyone decided to use whatever they could find and grill the seafood that had died in the fighting.

"The commander is here!"

In addition to the members who gathered around the bonfire to enjoy a seafood feast, Xiao Siyuan also arranged for more than fifty people to guard the entrance.

At this moment, someone saw Li Zheng arrive and immediately shouted loudly, attracting everyone's attention.

"Welcome back, Commander!"

"Whoosh~ Crack crack crack~"

A loud shout was followed by thunderous applause on the beach.

Having almost single-handedly defeated two invincible bosses, all members of Qidian, from veteran players to newcomers, no longer doubted Li Zheng's strength.

People always have great respect for the strong, and they didn't hesitate to give Li Zheng the loudest applause for his arrival.

Seeing the group members' enthusiasm, Li Zheng's lips curled into a rare genuine smile, and he raised his hand to signal to them.

His old-fashioned demeanor made Xiao Siyuan and the other deputy regimental commanders roll their eyes repeatedly. They didn't want to embarrass him in public, so they just forced a smile and applauded him.

Wang Chaoran was extremely excited. It seemed that the higher the idol's prestige, the happier he felt. He clapped his hands until they were red, put two fingers in his mouth, and made a sharp and high-pitched whistle.

"Commander! I want to have your babies!" Chen Xiangrong pulled out a handkerchief to cover half of her face and shouted loudly, feigning shyness.

The crowd at Qidian burst into laughter.

Upon hearing this, Li Zheng, who had been enjoying popularity, instantly turned pale: "No! Magnets repel each other even if they are of the same sex!"

Seeing that Li Zheng responded to him, Chen Xiangrong became even more excited and shouted, "I...I can carry him on my back!"

Turn your back...

As we all know, the properties of a magnet change when it is rotated.

"Go to hell!" Li Zheng shouted exaggeratedly, which once again caused everyone to burst into laughter.

"Ooh~" Chen Xiangrong sat down with a mix of grief and shyness, looking just like a wronged little wife.

After a few jokes, Li Zheng sent a message in the legion: "No matter how delicious the charcoal-grilled food is, everyone's tired of it, right? Today we're going to improve our meals. If anyone has any fresh or rare ingredients, you can bring them to the entrance and have me cook them. I guarantee they'll be just as good as the chefs in five-star hotels!"

Then he shouted, "Time is limited, first come, first served!"

He then immediately placed the stove at the entrance.

With a loud bang, this technologically advanced stove, completely different from the induction cookers and gas stoves that people are used to every day, made its first appearance in front of everyone.

Li Zheng then took out a large pile of various seasonings and placed them aside. He said to Miriel, who was standing in front of the stove, "The rest is up to you."

"no problem!"

Miriel stood on tiptoe, grabbed the large ladle from the pot, switched to manual mode, and confidently brought over a cleaver with her tail.

When it comes to cooking, as long as you master the heat and seasonings, the food you make will taste pretty good.

After practicing with the previous meals, Miriel was confident that no matter what ingredients she had, she could cook something delicious.

"Give me a serving of salt-baked prawns and braised sea cucumber with scallions first!"

A figure rushed forward like the wind, taking the lead and pulling out two baskets.

However, it was to prevent any accidents from happening, and Zhan Zhouzhou, who was not far away to begin with!
Zhan Zhouzhou held out his arms, each hand holding a sturdy basket. One basket contained several broken Australian lobsters, and the other contained several sea cucumbers of varying thicknesses and lengths.

Li Zheng looked down at the two baskets held in front of him and suddenly realized that even if he didn't have to cook, the translation work would keep him busy for a while.

Looking at the enthusiastic group members, Li Zheng suddenly felt overwhelmed. It seemed that this act of distributing benefits had backfired on him.
Apart from those who remained in the Lava Mountains, the remaining 1,800+ members of the starting point group who participated in this event all gathered in the Endless Ocean.

Even though the seafood produced by the matrix has extraordinary characteristics and can be cooked with minimal processing, it would still take several hours to process orders from over 1,800 people...

Rubbing his forehead, Li Zheng said to Zhan Zhouzhou in her expectant eyes, "Go, prepare the ingredients yourself before bringing them over."

"What did you say?!" Upon hearing this, Zhan Zhouzhou immediately raised her eyebrows and frowned. Isn't preparing ingredients a chef's job?
Li Zheng pointed to the long queue that seemed to stretch on forever and said, "With so many people, if Miriel and I have to handle all the ingredients, how long will it take?"

As he spoke, he added a rule to the legion channel: anyone who wanted to eat delicious food had to prepare the ingredients themselves beforehand and bring them over.

The next moment, the scene of the endless ocean took a sharp turn, transforming into nearly two thousand people lining up to process seafood.

Some are scaled, some are skinned directly, some have their shells broken, and some have their threads removed.

Many more culinary novices looked at each other blankly, messing up the ingredients while discussing how to best prepare them.

Li Zheng once sold dishes at an auction, and they fetched high prices!
Those dishes are not something everyone can taste. Now that the opportunity is right in front of us, what does it matter if we have to deal with seafood ourselves in order to be able to eat the "legendary" dishes as soon as possible?
Nearly two thousand people!
They all squatted on the beach to process seafood, creating a truly spectacular scene.

The people watching the live stream outside were completely baffled.

Others are scrimping and saving in the Lava Mountains, barely daring to eat fish to accumulate enough points. And you guys, on the other hand, are having a seafood feast?

"Compared to the starting point, I suddenly feel sorry for those legions who are still hiding in the transit space eating dry rations."

"Don't even mention you, I feel sorry for them too..."

"It's so pitiful. Other people have fish, shrimp, crabs, sea urchins, shark fins, abalone, oysters, scallops... to eat, but they can only eat barbecue."

"Ugh~ Can you please stop mentioning the word 'barbecue'? I'm about to throw up from eating it these past few days!"

"Waaah, tears are streaming down my face!"

"Mommy! I want to eat seafood too!"

You look like seafood!

"By the way, I have a question~ You guys said that fish caught from a volcano... can they be cooked?"

……

Within this peculiar scene, there exists an even more peculiar art style.

Led by Zhan Zhouzhou, all the swordsmen who had learned swordsmanship from her tossed the seafood into the air while handling it, and with their other hands holding swords, they repeatedly shook their wrists in an exaggerated manner, just like in the movies.

A cold light flashed everywhere, and the seafood that was thrown up was evenly sliced ​​into the desired shape by the sharp blade.

"Hey, hurry up!"

Zhan Zhouzhou handed the prepared lobster pieces and sea cucumber slices to Li Zheng: "I can't wait!"

No Chinese can resist the temptation of delicious food!
Even Zhan Zhouzhou, who was holding a sword!
"Are you serious?"

Li Zheng stared silently at the fragrant ingredients in the basket.

Even if you're in a hurry, there's no need to use the Purple Extreme Sword to cut it, right?

The powerful electric current penetrated the meat the moment it came into contact with the tender food. Li Zheng dared to guarantee that if he were to take a bite of lobster now and say that he had eaten sashimi, he would be deceiving himself!
Seeing that Zhan Zhouzhou, whose appetite had been whetted, was about to stab himself a few times with his sword, Li Zheng quickly handed the things to Miriel. He searched through the cookbook that came with the stove for a while, selected the recipes for the two dishes that Zhan Zhouzhou needed, and explained them to the little succubus word by word.

Soon, Miriel nodded confidently: "Okay, I got it!"

Li Zheng: "..."

"You'll understand after just one listen"—this feels so similar to the comments and bullet screen messages in those cooking tutorial videos!

You can improve your cooking skills while lying at home, right?
Considering Miriel's "inquiry-seeking" nature, it's quite possible that he can grasp the general idea after just a few sentences, so Li Zheng didn't dwell on it too much.

Cooking requires a lot of ingredients, and Miriel definitely can't handle it all by herself.

Li Zheng thought for a moment, then released two intelligent humanoid robots (housekeeping models) and tried to get them to help with the cutting and preparation.

I thought that since I had never asked them to do anything like this before, this command might not be able to be executed.

To everyone's surprise, the two intelligent humanoid robots each picked up a knife and stood in front of the table, wielding the knives with surprising skill.

Li Zheng was stunned for a while before nodding silently. After all, it was a housekeeping machine, and cooking was a housekeeping job. How could it not know how to prepare food?
However, the AI ​​is too rigid; it only cuts basic diamond-shaped slices regardless of the ingredients.

Hey! Old Li!

Liu Jiale led Xu Ying out of the portal and immediately saw Li Zheng at the front of the line, greeting him.

"You've come at the perfect time. Let's have lunch together." Li Zheng turned around and extended an invitation.

Beside Liu Jiale, Xu Ying's eyes lit up slightly, as if she was somewhat tempted.

Liu Jiale said, "We can talk about food next time. We're here to discuss something with you..."

“What could be more important than eating?” Li Zheng waved his hand to interrupt him, saying in an unquestionable tone, “Even if there’s something incredibly important today, we’ll talk about it after we finish eating.”

“Yeah, can’t we talk about this after we finish eating?” Xiao Siyuan walked over, carrying several volleyball-sized, sea urchin-shaped things in his hands. “Besides, you know what kind of person Lao Li is. He seems generous, but he’s actually very stingy. If we miss this meal today, who knows when we’ll get another chance to eat here.”

Lin Fengjiao followed behind him, took out a 5x5 tablecloth, unfolded it, and spread it flat on the beach.

Xiao Siyuan put down the 'sea urchin' in his hand, and then extended an invitation to Zhan Zhouzhou: "Miss Zhan, may I borrow your swordsmanship?"

Zhan Zhouzhou nodded slightly. Then, without seeing her make any move, the others saw swords flashing across the field before she sheathed her sword and stood still.

She coldly uttered two words: "That's enough."

As soon as the words were spoken, several sea urchins cracked, separating one by one, leaving a thin, inconspicuous gap in the middle.

Upon witnessing Zhan Zhouzhou's swordsmanship, Xu Ying's pupils constricted sharply, and her expression turned serious: "Your surname is Zhan, from the Zhan family of Hangzhou, Zhejiang?"

"You are...?" Zhan Zhouzhou frowned, looking Xu Ying up and down, and noticed a 'Sword Mastery' ability in her attributes.

"The Xu family from the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region." Xu Ying raised both hands, right fist against left palm, tiger's mouth facing her, and bowed: "Nice to meet you."

"The Xu family?!"

Zhan Zhouzhou looked at the slender Xu Ying with surprise and asked, "Isn't your family involved in greatsword fighting?"

Greatsword, also called "giant sword" or "heavy sword".

It is a branch of "sword".

In Zhan Zhouzhou's memory, those who play with greatswords are usually strong and burly men, and it is rare to see women learning it.

Even family-inherited skills are generally not passed down to daughters.

It is said that if a family that practices greatswords reaches a point where only female descendants remain and no sons can be born, they will hold a martial arts contest to find a suitable son-in-law to inherit the family's unique skills and prevent them from being lost.

Because the greatsword itself is a heavy weapon, it requires a very high level of physical fitness from the user. Women's bodies are naturally not as strong as men's, and due to issues such as body fat percentage, it is extremely difficult for them to build a muscular physique!

Of course, there were women who practiced greatsword skills throughout history.

But as far as Zhan Zhouzhou knew, those people needed to eat a lot of high-protein and high-fat foods every day in order to increase their muscle mass.

In the end, their bodies became out of shape, and they all looked like burly female tyrannosaurus rex, the kind that could knock someone to the brink of death with a single punch.

Judging from Xu Ying's attribute panel, she must have practiced greatsword, and her skill level is quite high.

But to maintain such a 'slender' physique after training is simply unheard of.

"I've been practicing since I was a child, so I have some experience with it."

Xu Ying, seeing an opportunity, pulled out a door-shaped weapon from the capsule and slammed it heavily into the sand: "Miss Zhan, may I ask for your guidance?"

The saying goes: "In literature, there is no first place; in martial arts, there is no second."

Some martial arts practitioners have this common problem: they want to spar with anyone they meet who shares their skills.

Occasionally, when a real fight breaks out, cases of injury or even death are not uncommon.

"You mean, you want to challenge me?" Zhan Zhouzhou's expression turned completely cold, and a murderous aura filled his entire body, causing his clothes to flutter and rustle even without wind.

"I dare not accept the challenge."

Xu Ying remained calm and said softly, "It's just a friendly exchange between like-minded people, we'll stop here when we've reached our goal."

Those cases that resulted in deaths—that's what they said before they even started…

Zhan Zhouzhou stared coldly at Xu Ying, her aura growing stronger, as if her fighting spirit was rising.

The atmosphere in the room suddenly became oppressive, and even the others who were queuing behind them felt uncomfortable, putting down what they were doing and looking in their direction.

The atmosphere grew increasingly somber, and even the sky darkened.

Li Zheng looked up and saw a dark cloud that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, blocking out the sun.

A chilling atmosphere permeated the space between the two, and everyone fell silent. The only sounds around them were the crashing waves, the clatter of spatulas, and the chopping of knives.

After an unknown amount of time, Miriel called out, "The braised sea cucumber with scallions is ready!"

The peace was shattered.

Zhan Zhouzhou then slowly spoke: "You are not qualified."

"Are you underestimating the Xu family's greatsword?" Xu Ying narrowed her eyes, exuding a dangerous aura.

Zhan Zhouzhou's words "not qualified" completely trampled on her dignity as a martial artist. Such contemptuous words would be unacceptable to any martial artist.

Zhan Zhouzhou didn't respond to her. Instead, she put away the Purple Extreme Sword in her hand and went back to the stove to bring over the braised sea cucumber with scallions that had just been cooked.

As she passed by Lin Fengjiao, she reached out and plucked a strand of her hair before sitting cross-legged on the tablecloth.

"Come back and challenge me when you can handle things with ease."

Zhan Zhouzhou spoke calmly, taking a piece of sea urchin shell that had been separated from the upper part, and gently scratching the base of the grotesque, thin spines with two fingers, using the short hair taken from Lin Fengjiao as a guide.

clack clack...

The spikes broke off one by one, leaving a smooth, mirror-like cut.

Sweeping away the sharp spikes, Zhan Zhouzhou slowly took out clean water and tableware, rinsed half a sea urchin shell slightly, turned it over to use as a natural bowl, and slowly savored the freshly cooked braised sea cucumber with scallions.

Although he didn't physically attack her, Zhan Zhouzhou used martial arts to thoroughly crush Xu Ying from another level.

Martial arts are not the path to enlightenment; Zhan Zhouzhou is confident that no one can rival her.

Unless someone is like Li Zheng, who can rely on the advantage of weapons or has some unique means, they can't possibly fight her.

Li Zheng glanced at Zhan Zhouzhou's slender, fair neck, where a necklace hung, and sighed inwardly, "This woman is truly terrifying; she's even wearing an extremely heavy necklace."

Keep in mind, this is on the beach. Zhan Zhouzhou can drive at ten times the force of gravity and carry tens of kilograms of weight, and still walk normally on the soft sand without getting stuck.

To be able to do this, how terrifying must this girl's self-control be?

Xu Ying was not an ignorant person who could not recognize talent. Zhan Zhouzhou's skill, in every aspect, far surpassed her current achievements in martial arts.

If the two of them really fought, he would probably lose in just one round.

"I lost."

Breaking free from Liu Jiale, who had just restrained her from forcibly attacking Zhan Zhouzhou, Xu Ying exhaled and said, "The swordsmanship of the Zhan family of Zhejiang and Hangzhou is indeed well-deserved of its reputation."

Such flattery is usually just polite talk, but to everyone's surprise, Zhan Zhouzhou suddenly looked up at her and said very seriously, "My family's swordsmanship is not much better than your family's greatsword. In the end, martial arts training still depends on talent and one's own efforts."

"What makes you stronger than the Zhan family sword technique is not the Zhan family sword technique, but me."

"I'm more talented than you, therefore I'm better than you!"

"I work harder than you, therefore I'm better than you!"

"This is where you lost to me!"

Although these words were harsh and merciless, outsiders who didn't know the situation would think that Zhan Zhouzhou was an arrogant person who looked down on the weak.

Only a few people, including Li Zheng, knew how much effort Zhan Zhouzhou had put into the path of swordsmanship.

(End of this chapter)