Matrix Survival: One random treasure chest per day

Chapter 544 Fragments of the Wishing Stone

"No, no, you almost got me hooked."

After careful consideration, Li Zheng realized: "Where we live, there are more than one type of restaurant. Besides the kind of home-style dishes we usually eat, which are served as finished products, there are also restaurants that serve the dishes directly to the table."

There are also two other types of restaurants where the business owner only needs to provide the ingredients, and the customers can handle the rest of the cooking themselves.

“…Huh?” Upon hearing this, Miriel abruptly stopped chewing and stared at Li Zheng in disbelief: “There’s such a model? Wouldn’t that mean putting a lot of stoves in the restaurant?”

“Hmm…” Li Zheng thought for a moment, “Actually, all you need is some electric stoves. The vendors provide the ingredients and soup base or grills, and the customers are responsible for cooking themselves… Actually, it’s not really cooking. You just need to put the ingredients in the soup base to cook them or put them on the grill to cook them.”

Miriel looked puzzled: "Why does this last one sound like the kind of roasted meat that everyone's sick of eating?"

Li Zheng's face darkened. Indeed!

Everyone in the Matrix eats barbecue, they're sick of it. Ninety-nine percent of them feel like throwing up at the smell of barbecue now.

"Then I'll open a hot pot restaurant!" Li Zheng said confidently. "My hot pot restaurant will definitely be delicious!"

"How can you guarantee that your food will be delicious?" Miriel started chewing the food in her mouth again, tapping her chopsticks twice in mid-air: "According to your so-called hot pot model, if you want it to be delicious, you can only start from two aspects: one is the soup base used to cook the food, and the other is the ingredients that are cooked in the soup base."

"Your world must have a large population, right? The soup base recipe and ingredients have probably been thoroughly researched long ago. If you can't offer something unique, you simply won't be able to attract customers to your shop."

"..." Upon hearing this, Li Zheng frowned and pondered for a long time before finally blurting out, "Aren't you the little princess of the succubus clan? How come you're so good at doing business?"

"What's wrong with the princess?" Miriel said matter-of-factly. "The succubus royal family needs to eat too, you know? The business model of bartering or exchanging currency is common to every race. As the most outstanding succubus royal descendant, isn't it normal for me to learn about business from a young age?"

“What you said… actually makes a lot of sense.” Li Zheng was completely speechless and started to act like a rogue: “Forget it, forget it, whether we can go back is still uncertain, discussing what kind of shop to open now is a complete waste of time.”

As long as we can't go back to the original world, discussing the future is pointless.

Li Zheng found it amusing; he must have been incredibly bored to have the mind to discuss such things with Miriel.

"That's wrong!"

Li Zheng didn't want to continue the topic, but Miriel said seriously, "Even if you can't go back, have you considered where you'll go after we resolve the mental storm?"

"Should we leave the Matrix and wander the universe, or stay in the outer city of the Matrix and open a restaurant like you said? If we choose the latter, then what we're discussing now will come in handy, won't it?"

Li Zheng chuckled and tapped Miriel on the forehead with his chopsticks: "On the contrary, if I stayed in the outer city to open a restaurant, wouldn't I still have a stove?"

The food cooked on the stove is not only delicious but also provides a buff, so any restaurant you open will become a hit and you won't have to worry about business at all.

“…That’s true, that’s all you’re capable of.” Miriel thought about it and agreed, nodding without saying anything more.

Silence fell over the table, broken only by the sound of teeth grinding food together.

Privately, Li Zheng began to mentally rehearse according to the ideas he had just come up with.

If I could really go back to Earth, I might still be able to open a good restaurant.

With his current mental strength, he could learn the basics of a five-star hotel's signature dish simply by observing it once.

If all else fails, you can work in someone else's kitchen first, learn from their experience and accumulate experience, and then start your own business when the time is right.

Of course, this was based on his desire to live a peaceful life. Otherwise, with such power, he could crush the Earth with a single thought, so why would he need to work?

After the meal, Li Zheng continued to accompany Lao Pu in his studies, while Miriel went about his own business. Aside from the three Kota brothers coming over saying they were hungry, and Li Zheng telling them to find basil to get some, almost nothing else happened.

Time quickly passed to midnight in the outer city, which was also Li Zheng's first night in the outer city.

The daily treasure chest has been refreshed, and its quality is being randomly selected...

The familiar electronic voice in his ear pulled Li Zheng back from his study. His ear twitched suddenly, and a strange meaning flashed in his eyes.

[Successfully drawn. This treasure chest is of Silver quality. Claim now?]

The Silver-grade treasure chest is the lowest quality Li Zheng can currently obtain, and its value is practically zero.

Even if you use 'delayed extraction' to upgrade the quality by one level, it's not really necessary, and it might even affect the quality of tomorrow's treasure chest.

So Li Zheng didn't hesitate and took out the treasure chest directly.

'Boom! '

The sound of the treasure chest landing attracted the attention of others. Miriel, who was practicing her whip technique on the side, glanced over when she heard the sound, but didn't pay much attention to it. However, there was a hint of dissatisfaction in her eyes, as if she was complaining that Li Zheng's noise was affecting her practice.

"..."

Seeing this, Li Zheng couldn't help but be stunned for a moment.

I think I went a bit too far before, always avoiding Miriel and the others when I was collecting treasure chests.

In reality, there are all sorts of strange things in the Matrix. Unless someone has an ability similar to the Eye of Preys, who can see the anomaly in the treasure chest?

He chuckled and shook his head, then lifted the lid and reached in to scoop it out. Li Zheng was stunned again.

This time, the contents of the treasure chest didn't appear directly in the capsule residence as before; instead, they appeared in his hands in physical form.

[Fragments of the Wishing Stone]

[A complete wishing stone can theoretically grant any wish, provided you can collect all of them and afford the price to have your wish granted!]

[Old Pu: Everything you come into contact with has a price tag secretly attached by fate. Never try to use it to resurrect others. In exchange, if someone else is resurrected, you will die!]

Fragments of a wishing stone.

After reading the hints given by Lao Pu, Li Zheng scratched his cheek.

He never expected that the treasure chest system would give out something so... detached from the rules of reality.

However, he didn't pay any attention to it and casually put the fragment into the capsule, as if he had only touched an ordinary stone, which had only a little commemorative significance.

He also put away his handheld computer. Li Zheng got up from where he was sitting, stretched his arms and legs, and wanted to lie down and rest, but he felt uncomfortable all over.

He stepped out of the greenhouse, found Kanger who was still busy, and asked a question that even the old wisteria tribesman found difficult.

"Does your botanical garden... have a place to shower?"

(End of this chapter)