Matrix Survival: One random treasure chest per day

Chapter 636 Terminal: "How did I clone a thing like you?"

The next few days flew by.

During the day, Li Zheng accompanied Miriel shopping, visiting all the shops in Block 7. In the end, he chose a martial arts gym to stay at, and would come to spar with people whenever he had free time.

Although he spent a lot of crystal coins, Li Zheng's close combat skills became more and more mature. However, the Heaven and Earth One Slash was too powerful. Even with the special weapons provided by the martial arts hall, there was still a possibility of accidentally killing someone, so he hadn't used this move much.

However, apart from swordsmanship, he also went through the other martial arts techniques from the beginning during this process, and became more adept at switching between different moves and weapons.

Miriel wasn't idle either. Her proficiency with the Ten Thousand Whip Returns to Origin skill increased dramatically, and she could now freely switch between attacks within the Three Thousand Whip Shadows, though the power still needed to be enhanced.

Two days later, Zhan Zhouzhou returned from the Matrix, bringing Li Zheng some good news.

The outer city pass that originally belonged to Fengshan, Yanguang, and Lin Fengjiao was returned to her. After a meeting of the main leaders of the Qidian, Kunlun, and Jiutian legions, it was decided that each legion would select one person to enter the outer city ahead of time.

The Qidian Legion chose Lu Li because Feng Shan was considered to be among the strongest members of the Qidian Legion and needed to stay in the Matrix to help, so they chose him.

Kunlun sent in Ma Long, while Jiutian sent in someone who didn't have enough money.

The three had successfully arrived at Block 4 and were getting used to life in the outer city.

“Although Lu Li is unreliable when he has an episode, he is fairly reliable when he doesn’t. It was definitely the best choice for Lao Xiao and the others to bring him in.” Li Zheng had no objection to this. “The transformation of the Lamp Holders is not yet complete. I need to wait here. Go to Block 4 for me. It has been forcibly cleared out by the terminals, and I guess the shops are all idle. Try to find a way to rent one that you can use later.”

"Taking over a shop requires a lot of money, do you have that kind of money?"

The two were discussing their meeting at the blacksmith's shop. Zi Yuan was sitting behind the counter, not far from them, and couldn't help but speak up when she heard their conversation.

“If we pool our money, it should be enough,” Li Zheng said.

Li Zheng had inquired about this matter. If he opened a shop with the lowest standard, the registered capital would only be one thousand red crystal coins, which would be about the same as all of his and Zhan Zhouzhou's assets combined.

It's not difficult to find the missing ingredients by simply looking for some enhanced intermediate culture medium sold by botanical gardens.

Furthermore, the residents of Block 4 will be players from the Blue Star, so their starting point is relatively low, making it easy to meet their needs in the early stages, and the store size doesn't need to be too large.

If it develops further, it's not impossible to expand gradually.

"To facilitate the development of new players, the terminal usually allows a month. During this month, apart from your new player race, other races cannot apply for the right to operate a shop there." Zi Yuan pondered for a few seconds and said, "I will suggest to the teacher that if there are still vacant shops after the large-scale entry of Water Blue Star players into the outer city a month later, we can open a branch there."

"That would be exactly what I wanted!" Li Zheng's eyes lit up as he came up with a plan: "Actually, we don't need to wait that long. As long as the blacksmith shop is willing to open a branch there, I can help reserve a shop first. It's just that the blacksmith shop needs to provide the registered capital."

This is equivalent to Li Zheng registering a company in the name of a blacksmith shop, and then transferring the legal representative to the blacksmith shop after the policy is relaxed, thus getting ahead of the game.

"Can!"

A spiritual force emanated from behind the blacksmith's shop, condensing into a single word in everyone's ears.

Li Zheng was moved: "I had sensed that the blacksmith's mental strength was not weak before, but I did not expect it to be so strong that he could concentrate his mind to make sound!"

This requires extremely high levels of mental strength and control; anyone who is even slightly lacking in these qualities cannot achieve such precision. Currently, Li Zheng only knows that, besides himself, only the blacksmith can do it.

Zi Yuan's expression shifted slightly, and she pretended to listen intently, clearly hearing more than just one word.

After a moment, he stood up and said, "The teacher just told me that he agreed to the opening of a branch store and asked me to give you the registered capital directly so that we can secure a shop first."

As he spoke, he took out the inscription card, preparing to transfer the money.

Li Zheng asked in surprise, "The blacksmith trusts us so much, isn't he afraid we'll embezzle the money?"

"The teacher said," Zi Yuan laughed loudly, "If you are even greedy for this little bit of money, it means that the overall quality of this generation of Water Blue Star players is not good enough. In the future, all Water Blue Star players will be blacklisted by the blacksmith shop and will never be able to buy any goods from the shop."

Li Zheng smiled and praised, "The blacksmith has great courage! In that case, we will certainly live up to your expectations. Zhouzhou, collect the money."

He couldn't get away, so he had to let Zhan Zhouzhou handle the matter.

"Okay." Zhan Zhouzhou nodded, went over to accept the transfer, and glanced at the amount Zi Yuan had transferred. Her beautiful eyes widened immediately: "One hundred thousand red crystal coins?!"

Zi Yuan said reservedly, "The race on Water Blue Star is just starting out. They don't need or can afford very good weapons and equipment. So, we'll just register a small shop and sell some low-level equipment first."

With 100,000 red crystal coins as registered capital, how can the scale of the opened store still be considered small?

Li Zheng suddenly felt a lump in his throat, thinking that their budget of only one thousand red crystal coins was incredibly meager.

The difference between the two shops is like comparing a small shop to a supermarket... they're simply incomparable!

"By the way," Zi Yuan asked curiously, "what kind of shop are you planning to open?"

"Magic Crystal Shop".

"A magic crystal shop?" Zi Yuan was quite surprised: "To open a magic crystal shop, besides the shop itself, you also need at least one Optimist... Oh, I remember now, a half-Optimist came to see you a couple of days ago. Are you planning to poach her?"

“That’s right.” Li Zheng nodded. There was no point in hiding this; the other party would find out anyway once the store opened.

“A magic crystal shop… is indeed a good choice.” Zi Yuan pondered for a moment, expressing her approval of Li Zheng’s decision: “Street 4 is just starting out, and there are very few people purifying magic crystals, so you definitely won’t make much money at first. But magic crystals are the most important hard currency in the outer city, and there will definitely be more and more of them in the future, so the development prospects are very promising.”

Finally, he offered a sound suggestion: "Having only one Optimist in charge is definitely not enough. You need to recruit more Optimists before District 4 is fully developed, otherwise you'll be overwhelmed. If the crystal purification speed can't keep up with market demand, it could cause people to leave for other districts."

The loss of personnel can be fatal to the development of the entire neighborhood.

Like a snowball rolling downhill, the disadvantages grew bigger and bigger until the market completely collapsed, all residents evacuated, and it became a ghost town.

Similar incidents have occurred before in the history of the outer city.

It is precisely because the Optimists play an indispensable role in the outer city that so many people try to increase their population or study how to replicate their innate abilities.

It's quite a pity that, to date, the only known successful case of a mixed-race person is Le Jia. It's unimaginable how many failures he went through.

"We'll talk about the future later." Li Zheng remained noncommittal. In his plan, the Optimist Clan was just a transitional group, and even the Magic Crystal Shop was only a temporary measure.

In the future, not only in Block 4, but in all other blocks, the Magic Crystal stores may go bankrupt!

Because he will announce the method for condensing the nodes when the time is right!
By then, everyone in the outer city will be able to eliminate the evil aura in the magic crystals on their own, so why would there be a need for magic crystal shops?

"Whatever you say." Seeing that Li Zheng didn't accept her opinion, Zi Yuan didn't seem angry. She just shrugged and went back to sit behind the counter.

Just then, several residents from other races came in from outside and began selecting weapons and equipment.

Li Zheng led Zhan Zhouzhou outside the blacksmith shop.

Zhan Zhouzhou said, "If there's nothing else, I'll be going now. I'll wait for you in Block 4."

“I’ll try to get some more crystal coins in the next few days. You take care of the blacksmith shop business first, and come back when you’re done. I’ll give you the money then.” Li Zheng pondered for a few seconds and said, “There are some branch roads in each block where the houses are cheaper. They’re mainly for residential use. If possible, we can buy a few more to provide accommodation for our own people. Also, we need to get a house in the factory area…”

Zhan Zhouzhou asked, "This must cost a lot of money, right? Can you afford it?"

"Are you questioning my ability to make money?" Li Zheng's face revealed strong confidence, as if making some red crystal coins was not worth mentioning at all.

Zhan Zhouzhou thought about it and realized that Li Zheng probably had a lot of good stuff hidden away. It should be easy for him to exchange it for some red crystal coins. She had really been worrying too much.

Composing herself, she looked at Li Zheng, then at Miriel, who was following closely behind but habitually remained silent, and her expression became strange.

She had a feeling that something had happened between Li Zheng and Miriel, and their relationship was different from before. Although the two didn't show it and maintained their previous distance, Zhan Zhouzhou's intuition told her: something was fishy!

After looking at the two suspiciously for a while, Zhan Zhouzhou didn't say anything more and turned to head towards the street portal.

"I feel like the way Miriel looks at Li Zheng is the same way Yan Guang looked at Feng Shan back then!" Zhan Zhouzhou thought to herself. "And her previous flirtatiousness has faded quite a bit. Li Zheng must have done something with her!"

Her eyes flickered, and she seemed to be thinking about something before quickly arriving at the street portal to join the queue.

Li Zheng watched Zhan Zhouzhou's departing figure, his brows furrowing slightly: "Miriel, come with me to the factory area. We'll find a botanical garden and do some business."

“Okay.” Miriel replied and followed Li Zheng toward the factory area.

On the way, Li Zheng prepared several samples in advance and left them in the capsule for later use.

"To buy a house in Block 4, I need to spend a lot of crystal coins. I don't know how many goods I need to sell to raise enough..." Li Zheng was a little worried. He still had a lot of raw materials for making the enhanced intermediate culture medium. Based on the price he sold to Kanger before, he wouldn't actually make much money.

"If only there were a way to raise the price a little."

As he pondered this, Li Zheng turned his gaze to Miriel.

With a thought, Li Zheng took out the inscription card, found the special channel on the communication terminal, and sent a message: "If I use the racial characteristics of the succubus race to tempt others to spend more money when doing business, is that illegal?"

The person on the other end of the terminal seemed busy with something, or perhaps shocked by Li Zheng's act of exposing himself to the highest authority before committing a crime. It took a full three minutes for them to reply: "????????? How did I clone such a thing as you? Who checks with the police about whether something is illegal before committing a crime?"

"Isn't it because I have you backing me up?" Li Zheng shamelessly asked again, "Is it illegal?"

This time, the terminal's reception capability was much improved, and it quickly replied: "Yes! But if the victim doesn't report it to the law enforcement team, you'll be fine. If the other party reports it, you will be arrested by the law enforcement team for fraud, and the conviction will depend on the severity of the circumstances. At best, all illegal profits will be confiscated; at worst, you will be directly expelled from the outer city. Think it over carefully."

"Okay, thank you!" Li Zheng put away the inscription card, already having made up his mind.

Thanks?

Inside the central processing unit, the terminal read this information and felt that even its supercomputer was having some difficulty operating.

"What exactly does this guy want? He wants money? If he wants money, just tell me, and I'll change your account balance directly... Oh, to prevent such favoritism and fraud, the economic system was designed so that even I don't have the authority to tamper with the data in the background."

That's fine then. I'll just wait and see this kid court disaster.

Many people believe that the terminal is the richest entity in the outer city because the largest system for processing crystal coins—the mint—has always been firmly controlled by the terminal.

Empty magic crystals that have had their energy extracted must first be sent to the mint for cutting and registration before they can circulate normally in the outer city. Crystals that are processed privately are not recognized by official channels because they are not registered and can only be used in the black market; they are considered "black coins."

In the earliest days, the technology for processing crystal coins at the terminal was very rudimentary. Blank magic crystals could only undergo some simple processing, and the finished product looked like big white steamed buns.

For some reason, these foreign tribes gradually began to call the crystal coins circulating at the time "steamed bun coins".

When the terminal noticed this, he thought it sounded bad. Coincidentally, there was a breakthrough in the manufacturing process at that time, so he immediately ordered all the currency to be recalled, remade into long strips, and distributed back.

I thought that coins of this shape would never be given any strange names again, but the long, thin coins quickly became popular because of their long and thin shape, which made them look like a thin thread hanging on your body from a distance.

Over time, the long strip of currency came to be known as "a line of sky".

The terminal could only be recycled and processed again. He then shaped the currency that was subsequently issued, thinking that with an attractive appearance, it would be enough to be used as an ornament, and that it wouldn't be given a random name by someone else.

Unfortunately, the third edition of the currency was designed in the shape of a butterfly, which was the most aesthetically pleasing to the public at the time, and it soon earned the nickname "Butterfly Coin".

Moreover, because the third edition of the currency was extremely popular among the residents of the outer city, the black market secretly produced a large number of larger butterfly-shaped crystal coins to meet the residents' demand.

This crystal coin can be used as both a collectible and currency on the black market, so it is divided into two types.

The small-sized coins issued by the terminal are called "White Butterfly," while those circulating on the black market are called "Black Butterfly."

Finally, having no other choice, the terminal added a database to the supercomputer's program specifically for registering each coin and assigning a unique code to each coin upon issuance for identification.

He made the fourth edition of the crystal coins into a perfect sphere and issued a notice that the crystal coins would be distinguished and named according to their original colors: white ones were called white crystal coins, and red ones were called red crystal coins.

At the same time, the law enforcement team also received a mandatory order to crack down on the "black market" currency appearing on the market, arrest manufacturers who dare to produce black market currency privately, and impose severe penalties.

In this way, the monetary system was finally stabilized and has been in use ever since.

Once complete control is gained over the right to mint currency, a portion of all blank magic crystals cut at the mint will be collected by the terminal as a handling fee.

Everyone assumed that these fees went into the terminal's private pocket, but in reality, he used them all to pay the salaries of public officials and the rewards for official tasks, leaving him with almost nothing in the end.

He also has to do various research projects, and acquiring raw materials costs money, so the company is not as wealthy as people imagine; in fact, it is quite strapped for cash.

Even the terminal itself didn't have much surplus. At this time, Li Zheng was short of money. Even though he was a clone he had created, the terminal didn't have the idea of ​​giving him money. Instead, it told Li Zheng to find a way to earn it himself.

"At most, after the incident, we'll try to lighten his charges and sentence, since he's my most successful and final work."

As the terminal muttered to itself, the ground directly in front of the supercomputer suddenly cracked open, and a large container made of metal and blue translucent material rose up from below.

The container contained his former body; his eyes were closed, his face peaceful, as if he were simply tired and asleep.
Beside the container, the fluctuating numbers were rapidly decreasing, and the terminal stared at the data in silence.

Soon, the numbers dropped to zero, and he finally sighed, "Finally, I couldn't hold on any longer!"

Li Zheng's original physical body completely lost its vitality and could no longer produce more clones.

Li Zheng, his legacy has faded into obscurity.

"Even though I knew this day would come, I still feel a little uneasy when it finally arrives," the terminal muttered to itself as it began to dispose of its own body.

A command was sent into the container, and the container's dial flashed several times, releasing a large amount of cryogenic gas from inside.

A layer of white frost gradually condensed on the surface of the corpse, freezing everything from the hair and skin to the blood that had stopped flowing and the hard bones.

From now on, it will be preserved in this way in some corner of the underground of the central core, until the Matrix disappears, at which point it will evaporate from the universe without leaving a trace.

"When I'm doing business with those people, you use your newly acquired abilities to influence them and make them infatuated with you. Males have a characteristic of easily making promises to their desired females when they're infatuated. We don't need much, just 10% more than the market price will be enough... Hmm?"

Li Zheng, who was discussing with Miriel how to make more money from the botanical garden owners, suddenly had a thought and turned to look in a certain direction.

"What's wrong?" Miriel also looked in that direction, but didn't see anything.

Li Zheng remained silent for a moment, then said, "I don't know why, but a wave of sadness suddenly welled up inside me, and I felt a little like crying."

Miriel asked with concern, "Did something sad come to mind?"

“No.” Li Zheng shook his head: “I have a gut feeling that something very important to me in the world… is missing.”

"Something extremely important?" Miriel thought to herself, "Could it be Li Zheng's true form?"

It's not just Li Zheng.

In every corner of the outer city and the wilderness, people who looked somewhat similar to him or exactly the same as him were all looking in the same direction.

Some of those with blank expressions couldn't help but shed tears, overwhelmed with grief.

(End of this chapter)