Matrix Survival: One random treasure chest per day

Chapter 493 Dragon Blood No. 3
"Hmm~ Does the idol mean he wants us streamers to notify our respective legion leaders to make a deal with you?"

With her mouth full of food, Zhou Shufen's speech was muffled: "This doesn't seem like a 'reporter' would need to make a special trip, does it? Almost every live broadcast room outside is showing footage of you here right now. You just need to say something."

She grabbed a plate of braised sea cucumber with scallions, gave a thumbs-up to the live stream camera and praised it wildly: "Brothers, it lives up to its name! The dishes made by our idol are definitely better than those made by many famous chefs, and they even have a buff. Although this plate of braised sea cucumber with scallions is only a bronze-level dish, eating it will give me a buff that enhances muscle toughness and lasts for four hours!"

After praising it, she picked up her chopsticks and started eating heartily, muttering, "So clean and hygienic, guys!"

Li Zheng could roughly guess what was going on in the live streams outside, but it was too embarrassing to shout into the 'void', and he couldn't bring himself to say it.

Moreover, he was indeed planning to do that if Zhou Shufen hadn't come.

To be honest, Li Zheng always felt uneasy knowing that his every move was being watched in real time.

There is no privacy at all.

"I've never done a live stream before, so I'm not used to talking to thin air." Li Zheng scratched his chin awkwardly. "Since you're here, I'll take this opportunity to tell you about the transaction."

Hearing him say that, Zhou Shufen put down her chopsticks and thought about it: "That's true. When I first started as a live streamer, I also felt ashamed of talking to thin air. I can understand."

After putting down her chopsticks and glancing at the time remaining in the interview (which was over a minute), Zhou Shufen asked seriously, "So, idol, what were the details of the transaction?"

Seeing that Zhou Shufen was willing to cooperate, Li Zheng found her more and more pleasing to the eye and said with a smile, "It's very simple. If any streamers who belong to a legion enter the event, they should be able to use the legion chat channel. As long as you spread the word, I am willing to assist each legion in conquering the remaining four bosses."

"How about taking down the other bosses?"

Zhou Shufen asked cooperatively, "So what price do those legions have to pay?"

"The cost is simple, mainly two points," Li Zheng said, holding up two fingers.

Zhou Shufen: "Which two points are they?"

Li Zheng: "First, the legion that invites me to attack the Boss must be absolutely certain that they can delay the Boss's actions for twenty seconds!"

Zhou Shufen: "In twenty seconds, many people outside know about this. We broadcast the conversation between the Penglai Legion and the idol."

"But for a typical legion, it would be a huge strain to deploy enough manpower to hold them off for twenty seconds. I doubt many have that capability." Zhou Shufen was indeed a competent streamer; every word she spoke echoed Li Zheng's, expressing the true thoughts of most people.

“If one doesn’t work, how about two join forces?” Li Zheng said meaningfully, narrowing his eyes. “If two don’t work, then three, four, five, or even ten. With a larger pool of personnel, we can always gather enough, right?”

"A coalition of multiple forces?"

Zhou Shufen nodded: "So what are the idols willing to give to these fan clubs?"

"I?"

Li Zheng raised an eyebrow: "I already said that I am being hired, so the final products that the Boss decomposes belong to them, and I am the one who receives the payment."

At this point, Zhou Shufen seemed a little surprised: "Idol, are you sure you're not mistaken? There's only one Boss product, so how are those allied forces going to distribute it?"

"That's not something a wage earner like me should worry about." Li Zheng made a quotation mark gesture with his hands and shrugged, saying, "And I can reveal one thing clearly: all the Boss's products are genuine King-level items, with no side effects when used. Anyone who gets one of them can be on equal footing with me!"

"So strong?" Zhou Shufen exclaimed in surprise, "Doesn't that mean the legion rankings have a chance to be reshuffled?"

"Of course." Li Zheng smiled and said, "As strength increases, the terminal's evaluation will also be refreshed. At that time, any legion that obtains Boss products will have a chance to break into the top ten and get the daily buff."

"Now that you mention it, it is indeed a great temptation!" Zhou Shufen exclaimed. "Whether from the perspective of the development of the legion or the improvement of personal strength, it is worth the effort to obtain a Boss item."

"If you, idol, hand over Boss's creation to someone else, what will you do?" she asked again. "Are you going to work for them for free?"

Working for free?
How could such a good thing possibly happen?
Li Zheng said, "This brings us to the second condition: for every Boss I kill, the legion that invited me to help must provide twenty Extraordinary-grade blueprints or five Star-level blueprints as a reward."

"I believe this condition shouldn't be too difficult for a multi-party united legion, right?"

Legions with ambitions to take down the boss are almost always strong and must have some hidden treasures. Li Zheng made the reward he asked for sound trivial, but only those who are actually legion leaders and whose legion ranks are around 11th to 50th on the legion leaderboard know how outrageous Li Zheng's offer is.

They're basically stuck on a dividing line where agreeing feels like a huge loss, while not agreeing feels like an even bigger loss.

Zhou Shufen herself hadn't created a legion, and in fact, she hadn't even joined one for the sake of convenience during her live streams, so she didn't understand the intricacies of the system. She simply cooperated with Li Zheng unconditionally, putting on a surprised expression and exclaiming, "To be honest, brothers, I think the price our idol is offering is incredibly reasonable, isn't it?!"

"Twenty extraordinary-grade blueprints for one king-grade item, do you think it's worth it!"

Is it worth it!?

"We've made a fortune, okay?!"

"Once we get the King-level item, and do a few days of daily exploration, we'll be able to get countless extraordinary blueprints, right? Don't you think so?"

"What do you call this? Video websites call it 'advanced on-demand,' but we call this 'advanced investment'!"

"Hey! My fellow streamers, aren't you tempted yet?"

"Quickly use your interview privileges to access the event and inform your team leader about this!"

"There are only so many bosses, friends!"

“First come, first served!”

"To be honest, if I didn't lack a legion, I would definitely be the first to make a reservation!"

……

Zhou Shufen rushed to finish her interview before the deadline, and said a series of highly persuasive words to the live broadcast camera, which swayed the other anchors.

Just as her interview deadline was approaching and she frantically grabbed two plates of seafood dishes, intending to take them out of the event, figures appeared at the entrance to the endless ocean and lava mountains.

These are all 'special correspondents' selected by the terminal.

Li Zheng watched as these people entered without striking up a conversation with anyone else, each one standing blankly at the portal entrance, clearly sending messages in the legion channel. He then revealed a meaningful smile.

The pie in the sky has been drawn; now it's just a matter of whether anyone will willingly jump into the trap.

There must be many legions that want the Boss's loot, so Li Zheng has no shortage of people coming to him.

No matter what conditions those legions use to unite, when they see the attributes of the products after dismantling the Boss, they will definitely not be able to resist the temptation and will choose to overturn the agreement and fight each other.

By the time……

Li Zheng's smile grew increasingly gentle; he could almost picture himself and Zhan Zhouzhou mingling in the crowd, taking advantage of the chaos to snatch Boss's loot.

"Is it just my imagination? I have a feeling that Li Zheng's plan has ulterior motives?"

"I feel the same way, but I can't quite put my finger on what's wrong."

In Bai Xiaosheng's live stream, watching the barrage of comments fill the screen, Bai Xiaosheng's eyes flickered. He also felt that there was a problem with Li Zheng's plan, but he couldn't quite put his finger on what it was.

This made him, who prided himself on his infallible strategies, feel like he was being scratched by a cat. He wished he could hold a knife to Li Zheng's neck and force him to tell the truth.

With no other option, he had to start from scratch, piecing together the clues and deducing what Li Zheng was planning based on the information he already possessed.

After calculating for a long time, he suddenly realized that Li Zheng had been out of touch with everyone else.

Because from beginning to end, only the people at the starting point know the attributes of the Boss's products.

Others, including these special correspondents, were unaware of the specific characteristics of these products.

"Could it be that……"

Bai Xiaosheng thought of a possibility and immediately used his interview rights to enter the event venue to inform the higher-ups of Jiutian of his speculation.

However, at that moment, a comment appeared on the screen:
"Everyone, come and see! Kunlun and Jiutian have joined forces, and all their experts are ready to take on the Oasis Boss!"

Before Bai Xiaosheng could react, more than 20,000 viewers in the live stream had already asked which streamer had so accurately captured the situation.

The rest of them were urging Bai Xiaosheng to switch the camera over quickly, as they were too lazy to find other live streams.

"That's strange. When those two were cooperating with Li Zheng earlier, they didn't seem to do much damage to the Boss, did they? Now that they're working together, can they really do it?"

"Yeah, I'm wondering about that too."

Some people raised questions in the live chat.

Soon someone provided an answer to their questions from another perspective:
"Didn't you notice that neither of these two groups sent out any top experts before?"

"Yes, yes, yes. Ma Long's team didn't even show up back then, not to mention that these large legions must have hidden experts who haven't been mobilized yet." "Now that we see them working together, it has cleared up some of my doubts. It turns out that when they cooperated with Li Zheng before, they were actually collecting data on the boss. Now that they are sure they can take action, they are not hesitant."

"Holy crap! So, after all that, Li Zheng used two companies to conquer the Endless Ocean, but they ended up using Li Zheng to get the Boss's test data?"

"This is called mutual exploitation, each getting what they need. Do you really think they can reach the top of the legion rankings without having some ulterior motives?"

"I'm completely convinced!"

……

Meanwhile, Zhou Shufen returned to her room, looked at her empty hands, and let out a loud wail: "Oh my god!!!!!!!!! I didn't bring back those two plates of seafood!!!!!!!!! I'm devastated!!!!"

The viewers in the live chat burst into laughter, gloating.

Someone advised, "Come on, you ate two plates of food in less than two minutes, and you still want to take some with you when you leave?"

Another person added, "The important thing is, it didn't cost any money!~"

This comment was full of resentment, implying that Zhou Shufen had raised funds from the audience before going, but then pocketed the money herself.

Someone quipped, "Following the Phil's Burger incident and Cong's Hot Dog incident, another memorable scene has been added today: Zhou Shufen devoured a whole plate of seafood in two bites, without even spitting out the shells!"

"A scene from the underworld, huh?! It's no wonder Shufen has such a big mouth; it's hard to keep it to herself!"

"Alright, alright, stop arguing. Kunlun and Jiutian are teaming up to take down the boss. Shufen, hurry up and switch the camera over, or we'll lose viewers."

After someone pointed it out, Zhou Shufen realized that the popularity of her live stream, which had millions of viewers, was plummeting at an alarming rate, and in the blink of an eye, it had dropped to just over 600,000.

"Holy crap~ When did this happen?!"

She couldn't care less about the two plates of seafood she hadn't brought back; she quickly switched cameras, trying to find an angle that could perfectly encompass the entire battlefield.

At times like these, it becomes a competition among all the streamers. If someone can find the perfect camera angle first, they will undoubtedly have an advantage in the subsequent live stream.

After a flurry of activity, the camera panned to a desert oasis, which was now filled with Kunlun warriors and Jiutian support members.

Looking down from above, the scene was bustling with people, and all that could be seen were colorful energy attacks flying everywhere, making it impossible to get a full picture of the actual battlefield.

"Switch to a close-up! Get a close-up!"

"Let's take a look at the formations of Kunlun and Jiutian!"

"No, let's give the Boss a shot first. I haven't seen what the Boss of the desert oasis looks like yet!"

The viewers in the live chat expressed their dissatisfaction and offered their opinions.

"Shut up!" Zhou Shufen simply turned off the bullet screen function and randomly selected a player's perspective to immerse herself in.

The next second, the entire live broadcast was covered by a sandstorm that blotted out the sky, like a building about to collapse. The oppressive force was terrifying, and all the viewers held their breath.

"Stop it! Wind controllers and air controllers, use all your strength to stop the sandstorm!"

A roar came from afar, and then strange shapes appeared densely packed in the yellow sand that blotted out the sky.

It was as if someone was sketching on this screen from above, with fist marks and furrows crisscrossing across it.

Round after round of inverted bowl-shaped protective shields squeezed the yellow sand, creating gaps that were instantly submerged.

It was all the wind that was being manipulated, trying to break the curtain of yellow sand that was blocking the sky, or to slow down its descent.

Almost instantly, yellow sand descended, plunging the entire scene into darkness.

The soldier, in a first-person perspective, was swallowed by the sand within two seconds without being able to react, and returned to the transit space. The live broadcast camera couldn't find the next target for a while and was plunged into endless darkness.

It's like the world of the dead that a person will experience after death, giving people endless fear.

One audience member slowly exhaled the air stuck in his lungs and said, "Damn, I almost thought I was going to die!"

"This first-person perspective is even more exciting than watching a 3D movie; the yellow sand seems to be right in front of you."

"Although I have witnessed towering waves before, experiencing this desert disaster again still brings a different feeling."

"I suddenly feel a sense of awe for nature."

……

Zhou Shufen was slightly taken aback, not expecting that the first-person perspective she had randomly switched to would go dark so quickly, and she quickly switched to another person.

The scene shifts, and the perspective returns to the sky, this time from the viewpoint of a player with flight capabilities.

The player's name is in the lower left corner: Ma Long!

"Old Zhang, Old Xu, come with me and charge onto its back! That should be its blind spot!"

As Ma Long flew through the air, the roaring wind filled his ears, creating a deafening noise that made it almost impossible to hear anything else.

"Roger that!"

"it is good!"

Yet, amidst this chaotic and jarring ambient noise, the audience could still clearly hear two muffled replies, as if they were ringing right next to their ears.

"It's a communicator!" someone commented in the live chat.

Most people blocked the comments, held their breath, and ignored him.

At this moment, the camera rises and slowly passes over the sand waves in front of it, and a large hand wearing protective gloves wipes away the sand and gravel attached to the 'lens'.

The blurry scene suddenly became much clearer, and as they passed over the sand dunes, everyone felt a sense of their own insignificance.

In the image, the horizontal sand waves stretch out endlessly, with no visible edge.

The person standing above the sand waves is like a tiny insect, so insignificant in the face of the sand waves.

Behind the sandstorm, the instigator of this catastrophic attack was revealed.

It was a gigantic scorpion, hundreds of meters long, covered with a hard, yellowish-brown shell. If it weren't for its long, curled tail and conspicuous giant claws that gave it away, its natural camouflage would have made it impossible for anyone to spot it.

"Let's give them adrenaline and get ready for battle!"

Ma Long looked around and saw two fully armed figures appearing on his left and right sides not far away.

After he gave the order, the three men pressed on their arms at the same time, and a needle appeared inside their combat suits and pierced the skin, injecting the "Dragon Blood No. 3" developed by the Nine Heavens Legion.

Dragon Blood No. 3 is a modified synthetic adrenaline produced by the medical department of Jiutian Group.

Regular adrenaline is generally used in clinical medicine and has a wide range of applications.

Due to its unique nature, some athletes also use it to cheat on the field.

It is an endocrine hormone that can comprehensively improve the user's physical fitness and even affect their mental well-being.

However, this stuff has strong side effects, and it can be life-threatening if used improperly, so it's generally difficult for ordinary people to come into contact with it.

Dragon Blood No. 3 is a product that Jiutian developed after several improvements based on the effects of adrenaline.

It greatly reduces the side effects on the body and enhances its stimulating effect, making it extremely powerful.

After Ma Long received the Dragon Blood No. 3 injection, he waited quietly for ten seconds, and suddenly a light red color appeared in front of his eyes.

Dragon Blood No. 3 has taken effect; this is a visual abnormality caused by bloodshot eyes.

Feeling the seemingly limitless energy surging within him, and suppressing his urge to self-harm, Ma Long gritted his teeth and roared, "Go!"

As he heard the response, Malone crossed his arms and slowly drew two lightsabers from behind him, forcefully slashing them to shatter the air.

boom! boom! boom!
Three loud explosions rang out, and the aircraft behind Ma Long and his two companions unleashed pale blue flames, transforming into three streaks of light that rushed toward the giant scorpion!

(End of this chapter)