Matrix Survival: One random treasure chest per day

Chapter 525 Something happened

"Okay, let's go with this price." After thinking for a long time, Li Zheng nodded.

One thousand and fifty white crystal coins would require a massive amount of materials to exchange at the registration office.

The price you can get for just 100 ml of intermediate culture medium is already quite good.

Li Zheng guessed that the reason the matrix set such an outrageous price was to make people in the outer city earn white crystal coins through other channels.

For example, increase the enthusiasm of people from outside the city to accept tasks.

“Alright, when my grandfather comes back, I’ll tell him the outcome of this matter, and then you can make a deal with him.” Basil nodded, glanced at the three tiger-men brothers who were ravenously eating fruit, and left with the words, “If you don’t have enough, just tell me, there’s more in the warehouse.” Then he prepared to leave the greenhouse.

"and many more."

Li Zheng stopped him and asked, "I see that your botanical garden mainly grows ordinary fruits. Why don't you cultivate some things that can develop genetic abilities?"

Compared to ordinary fruits, cultivated fruits are far more cost-effective, and Li Zheng doesn't understand why Kanger would abandon the essential for the trivial.

"Yes, I know about that!"

Tiger Two lifted his face, which was covered in juice: "Because the seedlings and seeds of the Ability Fruit are all controlled by major laboratories, ordinary botanical gardens are not allowed to cultivate them privately without experimental qualifications. Even if they are cultivated, they are black market goods and can only be sold on the black market, and there is no guarantee that there will be buyers."

"Is that so?" Li Zheng looked at Basil.

“He’s right.” Basil nodded, thinking that it wouldn’t be a problem to tell Li Zheng about this. “My grandfather once tried to cultivate ability fruits, but the growth cycle of ability fruits is too long, and the final results are not very stable, so he gave up later.”

"The effects of cultivation are not very stable? What does that mean? Are the effects of ability fruits in the outer city not fixed?"

Li Zheng was confused. He had produced a large number of Flame Flowers, and the properties of each Flame Flower were exactly the same, without any difference. How could it be that Basil said that the effect was unstable?
"I don't quite understand the reason either. Maybe I can ask my grandfather when he comes back." Basil shook his head. He was young and not interested in the botanical garden, so he only had a superficial understanding of many related issues.

"Alright, then I'll leave it to you." Li Zheng nodded, telling him to go ahead and attend to his own business.

After Basil left, Li Zheng looked at the tiger-man brothers who were stuffing themselves and asked, "Have you thought it through? Are you really going to follow me from now on?"

"Mmm, biajibiaji, following you means there's food!" Tiger Three's mouth was full of food, and he mumbled incoherently.

“We’re sticking with you, boss.” Tiger Two was a bit shrewd and knew how to flatter: “I see that you have an extraordinary presence, boss. You must be a genius among men. You’re destined for great things! Following you will surely lead to great success.”

Kota turned her head away, unable to bear looking at her two shameless and brainless brothers.

“Now that you’ve made your decision, you must follow my rules from now on and not break them. Can you do that?” Li Zheng looked directly at the three brothers.

"can!"

"Must be able!"

"As long as I can eat my fill, um... and give me money to go find Xiaohua, I'll do anything you ask."

"You stupid pig, can you forget about that Little Flower? She's a fraud. She won't even look at you if you don't have money!" Kota was furious. He couldn't stop talking about Little Flower and food. He was so pathetic!

"She's not a liar, I won't allow you to talk about Xiaohua like that!" Hu San was angry but dared not retaliate, looking timid.

This is truly a sycophantic mentality; Li Zheng is utterly speechless.

Kota was furious and jumped up to hit Tiger Three on the head, but Tiger Two beat him to it.

Then Hu San was pinned to the ground and beaten up by his two older brothers. While being beaten, he would stuff something into his mouth and mumble Xiao Hua's name indistinctly.

"Absolutely." Li Zheng was moved by Hu San's sycophantic attitude and decided that even if he were to receive a salary in the future, he shouldn't give it to Hu San directly, but rather entrust it to Kota for safekeeping.

At this moment, Kanger finally returned, accompanied by two delivery workers.

The two delivery workers looked like centipedes, crawling on the ground with hundreds of pairs of short abdominal legs on their bellies.

Two deliverymen were arranged to put the purchased plants into the greenhouse. Kanger then came to Li Zheng to discuss the final details of the transaction.

After comparing the information with both Basil and the Tiger Brothers, Li Zheng finalized the transaction details with Kanger, selling him thirty liters of intermediate culture medium at a price of 1,050 white crystal coins per hundred milliliters.

With just this one order, Li Zheng earned 315,000 white crystal coins, instantly becoming a small-time tycoon.

"Great! With this batch of intermediate culture medium, I can finally complete the order!" Kanger was overjoyed. He knew that if he breached the contract, he would not only lose all the money, but also have to pay the other party a penalty of 500,000 yuan, which was much more than what he was paying Li Zheng now, almost all of his working capital.

Li Zheng went with Kanger to see the newly purchased saplings. After walking around inside, they did not find any leaf-eating ant eggs.

"Strange, could I be mistaken?"

"What's wrong?" Miriel finished clearing away the dishes and noticed Li Zheng looking worried, so she asked.

“I initially thought those leaf-biting ants were secretly planted by the sapling supplier to earn some kind of penalty or fine.” Li Zheng glanced at Kanger, who was working on the greenhouse, and said, “But I just checked, and there are no leaf-biting ants in the new saplings.”

"Could it be that someone else released the leaf-eating ants, and it has nothing to do with the sapling merchants?" Miriel suggested a possibility. After all, competitors are rivals, and it's perfectly normal for them to sabotage each other in secret.

“It’s not impossible, but I still think the sapling dealer is the most suspicious.” Li Zheng shook his head, a thoughtful look in his eyes.

Leaf-eating ants are the nemesis of the wisteria tribe, and even if Kanger discovers leaf-eating ants, he doesn't dare to go in to drive them away immediately.

Even though Kanger immediately issued a private task to find someone to drive away the pests, the leaf-eating ants were enough to destroy some of the fruit trees in the meantime, and in the end, he still couldn't deliver the full amount of fruit before the deadline.

Or, even if Kanger dealt with a batch of leaf-eating ants ahead of time, he would still need to replenish the fruit trees afterward. The other party calculated that Kanger could meet the delivery deadline. If they could repeat the same trick once more, it would be very easy to make the botanical garden default on its contract.

"You want to help him find the mastermind behind this?" Miriel said. "Then you can go and ask that old tree man if there are any suspects."

"Find the mastermind behind the recruitment?" Li Zheng laughed. "I'm not that free. I just want to get some more leaf-eating ants. Besides, even if there are other suspects, Kanger must have already told us."

Since he avoids talking about it, it means he knows perfectly well who released the leaf-biting ants…

He paused for a moment, then said knowingly, "I know why there are no leaf-eating ants anymore. The old tree man was worried that if we came again, we wouldn't be able to meet the delivery deadline, so he checked carefully when he received the goods this time."

“Logically speaking, that should be correct.” Miriel thought it made sense and nodded, asking, “So, are you still going to get involved in this?”

Is it still under control?
Mind your own business!
The victims don't care, so why are you so eager to follow them around?

Perhaps we should think carefully about what to do next.

Li Zheng shook his head and called Kota over: "Since you've decided to work for me, then finish up the previous work and return the three borrowed translation tools to their original owners."

Then……"

He transferred 3,300 white crystals into the Kota Inscription: "Go and buy three more. The extra 300 white crystals will be your wages for helping me earlier."

"Okay, boss."

Kota's hands trembled slightly as he held the inscription card, which was worth 3,300 white crystal coins.

Just for helping out at the black market to ask about prices, I actually got paid 100 white crystal coins each!
This is more than any of the three brothers had ever earned in any of their previous jobs!
It seems my second brother was right; this boss is indeed generous, and following him will definitely make us rich!

Kota called his two younger brothers and took them out with him.

Li Zheng thought for a moment, realizing he had nothing to do, and returned to the greenhouse. He put away the wolves that had been roaming around, and mentally calculated the time. It had been almost twenty-four hours since he last opened the treasure chest, so he waited quietly inside the greenhouse.

Sure enough, not long after, that familiar electronic voice rang in my ears.

[Daily treasure chest is ready...]

[Ding: Time difference detected. Current time is 12:00 noon. This treasure chest update has failed and will be distributed in 12 hours.]

"..."

"???"

"!!!"

As Li Zheng listened to the prompts, he went from silence to confusion to shock. Could it be played like this?

When it's time to give out treasure chests, they say it's due to a time difference and postpone the distribution time by twelve hours.

I'm crazy~
Is this some kind of bullying?
What kind of unethical and unfair contract is this?

Is there a consumer association?

Do you believe I'll report you?

But then again, I arrived in the outer city before eight in the morning?
At that time, public officials like Yakumo and Yoran were already at work, and they were working quite hard.

Hopefully, there's no 996 work schedule in the outer city.

Well, since we can't open the treasure chest, we'll have to find something else to do.

He habitually rummaged through the capsule a few times, only to find it empty, and then remembered that all his weapons had been forcibly confiscated.

"Damn! This is so inconvenient! How am I supposed to practice martial arts without weapons?"

Li Zheng rolled his eyes, lay down on the ground, closed his eyes, and began to mobilize his mental energy, becoming quite familiar with the much stronger mental energy.

After the improvement of mental strength, the control became slightly weaker, and it was not possible to operate it freely.

He conjured a fine needle from the condensation of moisture in the air by rubbing his fingers together, and carefully lifted it with his mental power, beginning to draw various patterns in the air.

Draw an S in a bit
Draw an X in a bit
From simple to complex, it gradually became an obscure character: 藼豳龘

The fine needle flew and spun in the air, changing directions, and finally disappeared completely.

Li Zheng opened his eyes. He knew that the needles hadn't disappeared, but rather that they were flying too fast, making it difficult to detect the hair-thin ice needles using only ordinary optical reactions.

"Ok?"

Li Zheng's expression suddenly changed. He actually sensed a familiar spiritual force appearing and vying with him for control of the ice needle.

Although this spiritual energy was pure, its strength was much weaker than his own.

Li Zheng looked to his side, where Miriel sat and smiled, "This is an exercise that Mother used to do with me. It's a way to train the flexibility and cohesion of our mental strength through competition."

Your mental strength is strong, but too scattered, and your methods are crude. I'll be your sparring partner.

“Okay.” Li Zheng nodded, closed his eyes, controlled his mental power, lowered it to a level similar to Miriel’s, and then began to seize control of the ice needles.

However, after only a few rounds of fighting, the ice needle exploded into tiny ice crystals in mid-air and quickly disappeared.

"This is what happened because you used too much force just now. You can try to imagine your mental energy as your hand, and use your hand to wrap around the ice needle, so that you can snatch it while also giving it some protection," Miriel carefully instructed.

Li Zheng summarized the techniques, casually condensed another ice needle and threw it into the air, nodding to Miriel: "Again!"

The battle for control has begun again.

Thin, hair-like ice needles twirled and danced in the air, sometimes approaching Miriel, sometimes flying towards Li Zheng, as if two invisible hands were snatching a toy back and forth in the air.

Snapped!
The ice needle shattered again.

Miriel: "Your thoughts are scattered and your mind is not focused enough, which will cause your mental strength to be unstable."

Li Zheng: "Again!"

……

Snapped!
"Come again!"

……

……

Snapped!
"Come again!"

……

In this way, with Miriel as his sparring partner, Li Zheng's mental energy usage skills improved little by little.

After some time, the three Kota brothers returned.

However, when the three of them returned this time, only two of them were standing; Hu San was carried in through the door by his two older brothers.

“Li Zheng…”

Kota and Hu Er had bruises on their faces and were talking incoherently. Li Zheng only understood that they were calling his name; he didn't understand a single other word.

“Looks like we’re in trouble.” Miriel pointed to Kota’s ear, where the translation device wasn’t attached. “It’s been stolen.”

"I can see that." Li Zheng dispersed the spiritual energy around him, stood up, and walked out of the greenhouse.

He had sent Kota and the others to return the translation equipment, so it was obvious who had stolen it.

Miriel wanted to go with them, but Li Zheng turned around and said, "You and Xiaoying stay here, I can go by myself."

"OK then……"

Miriel weighed her own strength and realized that if she went along, she would only be a burden. It would be better to stay here and wait for Li Zheng to return.

"Then be careful on your way. If things don't work out, we'll just accept it as a loss and try again later." She gave him her advice with concern, like a wife seeing her husband off to work.

"I know." Li Zheng waved his hand and led Kota, who was in the best condition, toward the registration office.

On the way, he turned around and went into a shop that sold all kinds of translation props. He chose the cheapest one, put it on Kota, and then had him tell him what had happened.

(End of this chapter)