Matrix Survival: One random treasure chest per day

Chapter 606 Team Battle: Annihilation!

“He is…a monster!” Erbatu’s face was pale, and his eyes were filled with horror as he looked at Li Zheng.

Very few players in the Matrix understand mental power. Erbatu didn't even understand how Li Zheng could severely injure him with just a glance.

But such terrifying ability was definitely not an enemy he could fight. He wisely shut his mouth and silently moved away from Li Zheng's location.

Li Zheng turned his head and looked around, and found that the place they were in looked like a gladiatorial arena.

A towering platform stood beside the circular pit, where only two figures were visible. One of them was Miriel, who had disappeared since entering this special room.

When Li Zheng looked over, Miriel raised her little hand and waved to him.

Li Zheng nodded. As long as he and Miriel were close enough, they would be connected by a kind of telepathic connection, and even if they couldn't see each other's faces, they could confirm each other's identities through this connection.

Miriel was clever. Seeing that everyone was wearing the same hood and looked identical, she wisely waved silently instead of calling out Li Zheng's name directly.

Another pet in the stands belonged to another player. It was a large, jet-black gorilla with the strength of a beginner in the extraordinary realm. It was as tall as a black tower and anxiously scanned the crowd. When it couldn't find its owner, it let out an urgent and sharp "ooh ooh" sound.

"It seems the final challenge is a real-world test." Li Zheng's eyes darkened slightly. Both the venue and the information provided by the terminal proved that his guess was correct.

Even the pets were present, clearly indicating preparations for the upcoming battle.

"That's what we're thinking too." Wang Xiaoshan asked in a low voice, "Boss Ruizhou, should we try to recruit a team to fight the enemy together?"

"The current competition format is still unclear, and teaming up with others may not be the best option." Tchaikov held a different opinion. If they get too close to other teams now, they may be vulnerable to being betrayed and sabotaged when the competition format changes. It would be a loss for them.

"It's better than doing nothing, isn't it?" Wang Xiaoshan muttered. He knew that Tchaikov was right, but he also felt that his own idea was not wrong.

Now that everyone's strength has been fully restored, Wang Xiaoshan felt an inexplicable pressure from many people on the scene, indicating that those people were much stronger than him.

Thinking about the enemies he would have to face later, he felt a little uncertain.

Feng Bujue thought of a question: "If it's a combat-oriented mission, then... people will die, right?"

If I kill a player with my own hands during a mission, will I become a red name (indicating my character is banned)?

This is a concern for many players present. After all, becoming a red-named player makes it very passive to encounter other players. In fact, it's not just Li Zheng who can't stand red-named players; a considerable group of people have a zero-tolerance attitude towards them.

Moreover, killing a red-named player guarantees the acquisition of three of the highest-quality items from their capsule, so no one will pass up the opportunity.

“There will definitely be deaths, but they shouldn’t turn red.” Li Zheng thought for a moment and said, “This kind of kill is within the rules set by the terminal. If they turn red, then this special room will lose its meaning.”

He felt that Feng Bujue was worrying too much. Among everyone present, he and Wang Xiaoshan were the weakest, even Sarutobi Yura was a step stronger than them, yet he was still worried about becoming a red name...

Zhan Zhouzhou glanced at him for a moment, then broke away from the group and came to Li Zheng: "Want to chat over there?"

"Mm." Li Zheng nodded. He knew that Zhan Zhouzhou wanted to summarize their experiences, organize the competition format and rules of this special room, and find an opportunity to give it to someone else to take out.

"Boss Ruizhou, be careful!" Wang Xiaoshan, unaware that the two knew each other, called out worriedly from behind Li Zheng.

Li Zheng didn't turn around, but just waved his hand to tell him there was no need to worry.

The two walked to a corner, and Zhan Zhouzhou chuckled and said, "Li Ruizhou? How did you come up with such a fake name?"

“Just use what’s available, like the ‘Rui’ in Miriel and the ‘Zhou’ in your name.” Li Zheng shrugged. “Didn’t you choose a fake name?”

"My name is Zhan Zheng now."

Li Zheng complained, "This name is awful!"

Zhan Zhouzhou chimed in, "Yes, I think so too. I regretted it after I took this pseudonym, but unfortunately I couldn't change it back then."

The two exchanged a few sarcastic remarks before getting back on track, briefly recounting the process their respective teams had gone through.

"Actually, the biggest difficulty in the first two rounds of missions should be the problems encountered when opening the door at the end of the tunnel race and the stealth relay race," Zhan Zhouzhou summarized. "The former is easy to be ambushed by the executors from the outer city. If they are silenced by the opponent at the last moment and cannot activate their abilities, they will be crushed to death by the metal ball."

“That’s right.” Li Zheng nodded in agreement. If his mission hadn’t been limited, he could have eliminated both of the Bloodthirsty Ones in the team.

"By the way, I've been wanting to ask you this: how did you answer those three questions correctly?"

This is what Li Zheng is most curious about. Of the three tasks, the first is to send out the message that there may be outer city executors in the team after this session ends, so that subsequent players will be mentally prepared when they take on the challenge.

The second question is almost impossible to answer incorrectly if you are careful.

The only bizarre thing was that last question asked for the user's birthday, which was really ridiculous.

“It’s very simple,” Zhan Zhouzhou said easily. “Let’s not talk about the first two questions. The third question is just a pretext to scare the players.”

Is it for scaring players?

Li Zheng's heart skipped a beat, and he realized what was going on.

If players answer one of the first two questions incorrectly and improve the mechanical body's abilities, they will be more cautious and hesitant to answer the third question carelessly.

If the time drags on, someone in the team will definitely be caught up and killed by the mechanical beings, thus eliminating them from the team.

Therefore, the third question may not have a correct answer; even entering just one number can open the door!
"Damn, the terminal is using such a low-level trick, and I still can't figure it out..." Li Zheng was speechless. His identity caused his thinking to go astray. After all, he knew the terminal's birthday, so he never thought that there might be no correct answer to this question.

At this point, the question that had been troubling him was finally answered, and Li Zheng mentally reviewed the process of this special room.

He suddenly realized that if no one from the outer city was placed in each team, as long as the players were united, the terminal was not actually that difficult and it would be easy to get to where he was now.

"By the way, which is your mandatory mission this time?" Zhan Zhouzhou asked one last time.

Article 4.

"The fourth one?" Zhan Zhouzhou exclaimed in surprise, carefully counting Li Zheng's team: "The numbers are wrong, aren't they? Your team lost one person at the beginning, and then two more were eliminated just now. Did you fail the mission?"

She had been keeping an eye on Li Zheng's situation, and she had witnessed everything from Carol's self-destructive actions to Li Zheng's eventual success in eliminating a teammate to pass the challenge.

Theoretically, Li Zheng's mission should be considered a failure.

“There’s actually a wording trap in the fourth task.” Li Zheng laughed: “If it were someone without the Eye of Prey, they definitely wouldn’t dare to risk eliminating a teammate to clear the level when there aren’t enough people left. But don’t forget… the task only says that no more than two people can be eliminated. Now count how many people are in my team?”

“Seven people.” Zhan Zhouzhou looked at him: “You’re really bold. Aren’t you afraid of being punished by the terminal if the mission fails?”

"Afraid? Of course I'm afraid!" Li Zheng said, "If I hadn't kept an eye on Yu Xiaoyu and the others after they fell, and hadn't discovered through the Eye of Preer that there was no death information, I wouldn't have dared to take the risk." That's right!

Wang Xiaoshan's earlier feeling that Li was staring blankly at the area below the platform was not an illusion.

Li Zheng was indeed observing the people who had fallen through Lao Pu's eyes, trying to find out where they had gone. He was surprised to learn that whether they succeeded or failed, there was no danger to their lives.

This allowed him to find the loophole in the fourth task and successfully exploit it, thus advancing from the previous round of challenges.

"And yours? What's your mission?" Li Zheng asked.

Zhan Zhouzhou said, "Mine is the first rule: when the mission ends, the number of executors in the outer city cannot exceed three."

"..." Li Zheng paused for a moment after hearing about the task: "Your luck isn't much better than mine..."

Besides the two of them, there were six other outer city enforcers who came with them this time, three of whom had reached the beginner level in strength evaluation.

They had just noticed that one of the team's executors had been eliminated, but not one of the three.

"If we join forces, there shouldn't be any major problems." Zhan Zhouzhou didn't seem too worried. "Besides, judging from your appearance, you should be able to use some of your abilities in combat, right? I saw you teach that guy a lesson earlier."

"We can use it, but only to a limited extent." Li Zheng did not deny it: "It's too much of a stretch to deal with enemies of low strength."

“The terminal won’t let them go all out; that wouldn’t be fair to the players,” Zhan Zhouzhou said. “We have a chance.”

Judging from the settings of the first two rounds of challenges, the terminal will definitely provide everyone with a fair arena for duels; otherwise, it will become a massacre show for outsiders, which would go against the terminal's goal.

"It's too early to say, let's decide later," Li Zheng said, taking a conservative approach.

"Um..." Two people walked up to us and asked hesitantly, "Have we met somewhere before?"

This is Sarutobi Ame-ro.

Even though he was wearing a hood, the moment she saw Li Zheng, she sensed a familiar aura emanating from him, much like a man who had once protected her.

“You guys are very smart,” Li Zheng said, feigning indifference. “You made a sudden move up there and won first; that was a good performance.”

“It was Fu Yulu who came up with the idea,” Yu Xiaoyu said. “She’s the clever one.”

Fu Yuluo?
Li Zheng raised his eyelids slightly. Another person using a pseudonym. This special room is really interesting; very few people use their real names.

So far, I've only met one honest man, Feng Bujue.

What he didn't know was that Sarutobi Yuro's mother's real surname was Fu, and in essence, the name 'Fu Yuro' was not a pseudonym.

She simply used her mother's surname.

"I'm sure I've seen you before!" Sarutobi Yura stared intently at Li Zheng, her eyes unwavering. "I can't mistake you for someone else!"

"..." Li Zheng remained silent. Where exactly had he given himself away? What made this woman so certain that she had seen him before?
"It really was you!" Sarutobi Yuraku's eyes flashed with a complex expression when he saw that Sarutobi Yuraku did not deny it.

Her feelings toward Li Zheng were complicated.

He had accepted Misaka Tsuchimon's invitation and protected her for a long time. No matter how much she hated the Misaka family, she was undeniably grateful for Li Zheng's actions.

While grateful, she also felt a bit of resentment towards Li Zheng because he had forcefully taken away her hard-earned Yagyu swordsmanship.

"Where have you been all this time?" Sarutobi Yuro hadn't received any messages from Li Zheng since he said goodbye to her last time. When she sent him a message, the system told her that the target was not in the service area.

To be honest, she once genuinely believed that Li Zheng was dead, just as the rumors suggested.

Now, he is standing perfectly fine in front of me.

The rumor was proven wrong.

"No matter where you went, it's good that you're back." Seeing that Li Zheng didn't intend to explain, Sarutobi Yuro continued, "Since you disappeared, the Qidian Legion has been besieged by multiple legions and can only barely survive under the protection of Kunlun and Jiutian."

"Wait a minute..." Yu Xiaoyu felt something was off as she listened, and was extremely surprised: "You're saying he's Li Zheng?! Didn't Li Zheng go to... that place?"

Neither Liu Qishao nor Feng Shan kept the news of Li Zheng's departure to the outer city from her, but no one knew what the outer city was like or whether he could return to the matrix after going there.

"You must have mistaken me for someone else?" Yu Xiaoyu was skeptical.

"Is your cousin's troubles resolved?" Li Zheng asked Yu Xiaoyu. "I remember he was dismissed not long ago, wasn't he?"

"You really are Li Zheng!" Yu Xiaoyu's surprise turned to joy: "You were able to come back after going to that place? That's great! Brother Fengshan talks about you every day, saying that if you were still here, those Japanese devils wouldn't dare to be so audacious."

"Shh, keep your voice down." Li Zheng glanced at the small groups gathered not far away: "Don't reveal that we're back yet. My current identity is Li Ruizhou, a skilled player who appeared out of nowhere."

"Yes, yes! I understand!" Yu Xiaoyu nodded repeatedly: "We're just the kind of nobodies who think you're really good, so we came here to tag along and ask to be carried!"

This explanation... is plausible.

Li Zheng didn't care. As long as he didn't reveal his true identity, it was fine. This was his first time returning from the outer city, and he didn't know how much freedom he had within the matrix. Even if he wanted to help the Qidian Legion get out of its current predicament, he didn't have any good ideas.

This time, upon returning to the matrix, Li Zheng could only see the terminal's system panel; all the previous functions were unusable.

It wasn't just him; all the other players were experiencing the same thing—unable to connect to the chat channel and only able to see quest information.

He is now unsure whether he will regain his player privileges after the dungeon ends, or even whether he will return to the outer city immediately. Simply revealing that he is still alive would be of no use.

After a few casual words, the players who were still in the previous round of challenges landed one by one.

Most people are delighted because the losers find they are not dead.

Once everyone had arrived, the terminal finally released the specific rules for the third round of challenges.

[Third Round Challenger Game: Team Battle!]

Current number of participants: 40

[Each team forms four squads of ten to compete in team battles. One point is awarded for each win. After four rounds, the team with the lowest score is eliminated!]

(End of this chapter)