Matrix Survival: One random treasure chest per day

Chapter 533 Are there still travelers?
"Zishu is so kind! I must thank you in person later!"

Li Zheng first went back to his own greenhouse and handed the handheld computer to Miriel: "Here, wasn't this what you've been longing for? Perfect, I'll give you something to do."

“This is…” Miriel, who had been resting with her eyes closed, opened them and looked curiously at the handheld computer: “Your translation tools have arrived?!”

She jumped up, snatched the handheld computer from Li Zheng's hand, and started randomly pressing buttons with a look of curiosity on her face.

"Take it easy, don't accidentally delete the data inside," Li Zheng warned worriedly.

"Don't worry, the delete function will definitely be designed in a corner. As long as I don't touch the edge of the screen, I'll be fine." Miriel flipped through it for a while, but still didn't understand, so she handed it back to Li Zheng: "Can you help me see if I can change the system language to the Abyss Tribe script? Your script looks like blocks, and I can't understand it."

“You’re absolutely right, our language is indeed also known as square characters.” Li Zheng took the handheld computer and searched for a while, but couldn’t find the function to switch the system language. So he found a file comparing the Abyss Clan script with Chinese characters: “This thing doesn’t have a switching function. I’ll adjust it for you. You can learn by comparing it first. Once you can understand Chinese characters, you can use it normally.”

“...Okay, it’s just a bit slow.” Miriel didn’t care about this detail. Anyway, what she wanted to do was learn the foreign language and script, so it didn’t matter which one she learned first.

"Then you can learn slowly first. I still need to continue to learn about the terminal mission from Basil."

Li Zheng left Miriel behind and watched as the little succubus quickly immersed herself in her studies. He gently shook his head and walked out of the greenhouse.

He found Basil again; he and Kota had moved to a different location to tend to the plants. Seeing Li Zheng, he casually asked, "Are you done with your work?"

"Hmm." Li Zheng put on his earplugs. "Where were we?"

"Actually, I've covered most of the mission-related information I know. If you want to know more details, you'll have to try taking on a few terminal missions yourself to experience it," Basil said without looking up. "But it's best not to choose expulsion or patrol missions. You can start with basic mining missions."

Another basic task is hunting wild beasts, but those tasks have stricter strength requirements. You'd better wait until your overall strength reaches the beginner level of perfection before attempting them.

Mining task.

This mission is relatively the safest of all mission types because it does not require contact with the outside world, and there are no wild beasts inside the mine, so it poses almost no threat to life.

The downside is that the reward is also the lowest of all tasks; on average, each miner can only earn one or two thousand white crystals a day by working their hardest.

Even so, there were still plenty of people in the outer city waiting in the mission hall, eagerly anticipating the release of mining missions.

When Li Zheng went to the mission hall before, it was packed with people, and about 50 or 60% of them were waiting to grab mining missions.

"I will." Li Zheng nodded, and seeing that Basil was busy at work, he prepared to return to his greenhouse. Before leaving, he asked, "Oh right, I almost forgot the most important question. When you were in other districts, did you ever hear about anything in the wilderness that could disrupt someone's consciousness and render the target unable to think at all?"

"Disperse consciousness?" Basil paused slightly in his work. "I think I've heard of that."

He stopped what he was doing, as if he remembered something, his face full of dejection: "The last time I heard about something like this was a year ago. It was my best friend in the 469 block. He took on a mission to hunt wild beasts, but he didn't come back for more than ten days."

"I thought he had died in an accident in the wilderness."

"Unexpectedly, a month later, he actually returned to Block 469."

"According to the people who found him, he was covered in wounds when he returned, and it seemed that he had been attacked by at least ten kinds of weapons, the deepest of which almost killed him."

At this point, Basil paused to calm herself down.

"Looking back now, I think he might as well have died. He wouldn't have had to lie in the clinic in the 469 block for so long, relying entirely on IV fluids to maintain his vital signs."

"Wait, you just said your friend has been lying in the clinic for a year?" Li Zheng asked. "Didn't the doctors there try to find a treatment?" Luo Le shook his head. "They've already tried everything they could. Although the test subjects woke up from their unconscious state, the effects varied. Some people's intelligence seemed to have regressed to that of an infant, some just stared blankly with their eyes open, and some became like wild animals, with only survival instincts left."

What Basil said was basically the same as what Li Zheng saw at the doctor's.

This shows that not only doctors, but also medical professionals in every neighborhood of the outer city are researching treatment methods, but so far there has been no progress.

How exactly was this done, and who did it?

Li Zheng couldn't understand it.

What puzzled him most was that a large proportion of those unconscious patients were found by others from outside the city, and when others found them, they had already lost their consciousness, making it easy for others to kill them.

But these people were unharmed, while the others who went with them were torn to pieces and scattered all over the ground.

Why would the guy who did this deliberately leave someone alive?
This doesn't make any sense at all...

“Oh, right, my friend said something when he came back…” Basil recalled carefully: “He said, ‘I’m waiting for you.’”

"I've been waiting for you?" Li Zheng took out his earplugs, looking puzzled. "Say it again?"

“If I remember correctly, that’s how it’s pronounced,” Basil said in broken Chinese. “I’m waiting for you.”

"!!!"

Li Zheng was utterly shocked.

It really is in Chinese!
And it was made a year ago!

This is unreasonable!

This is not reasonable at all!
The Blue Star players and their Earth counterparts have only been in the Matrix for about a month, so how could someone have been using Chinese a year ago?
Could there be time travelers?
Who is he?
Bloodthirsty Ones?
Or is it someone lurking in the outer city?

Who is he waiting for?

Why did he do these things?

Li Zheng's expression turned serious. He had only been in the outer city for half a day, and yet one mystery after another had arisen, leaving him with a head full of questions.

There is only one way to figure all this out.

That is to go outside the city in person and try to find the other party.

As it happened, Li Zheng's original itinerary included a trip to the ancestral land of the Blood-Patterned Black Dragon.

According to Xiao, the ancestral land of the Blood-Patterned Black Dragon is located somewhere outside the city; you can try to find clues along the way.

Li Zheng had a strong premonition that the other party's target was likely him!

(End of this chapter)