Matrix Survival: One random treasure chest per day

Chapter 662 Is she really?

"It's nothing, I just saw a child's dream." Li Zheng shook his head, not elaborating.

Each person's inner world is formed based on the most important part of their inner self, and the pressure it brings varies depending on the complexity of that inner world.

For example, Miriel's mental world is an abyss, empty and barren, which hardly puts any pressure on her.

Zhan Zhouzhou's spiritual world is the martial arts hall in her family, the place where she has practiced swordsmanship since she was a child, and its importance to her is self-evident.

Compared to the Abyss World of Miriel, the Martial Arts Hall is much more complex, especially the completely replicated calligraphy by Grandpa Zhan, which puts immense pressure on one's mental strength.

However, Zhan Zhouzhou had practiced martial arts since childhood, and his mental strength and willpower were much stronger than those of ordinary people, so he could endure it with ease.

And Lu Li...

His spiritual world is a sports stadium, extremely complete and even more complex than a martial arts hall.

However, Lu Li himself is an ordinary person who has never practiced martial arts, and his mental world was likely formed before he was ten years old, which is why his mental body has not grown up and has maintained his childhood appearance.

It's not that it can't grow up, but rather that the spiritual energy it has generated over the years has been absorbed by the venue and used to stabilize its spiritual world.

Because the spiritual world is too complex, and Lu Li's own spiritual power cannot generate enough spiritual power in time to support the stability of the spiritual world, sometimes the spiritual body will enter "overclocking mode" on its own in order to ensure that the spiritual world does not collapse, and try to squeeze out its own potential.

This is often when Lu Li has an episode.

"So, the cause of my illness is actually my brother?" Lu Li's expression was calm, and it was impossible to tell what he was thinking.

After a long silence, he took the fairy fruit from Li Zheng's hand: "What method are you talking about? How should I do it?"

“It’s very simple.” Li Zheng pointed to the fairy fruit in his hand and said, “Eat this first, and then I will take you somewhere.”

"Okay." Lu Li did as he was told and ate the fairy fruit in a few bites.

As the Fairy Fruit's effects began to take hold, Lu Li clearly felt a jolt of energy, and his consciousness seemed a little clearer than before.

"And then?" he asked, looking at Li Zheng.

"Then just close your eyes." Li Zheng grabbed Lu Li's wrist, and with a thought, Lu Li slumped down and lay on the ground once again.

When Lu Li came to his senses, he was suddenly shocked to find himself in an endless dark space. He was floating in the space like a feather, with no sense of solid ground beneath his feet, but miraculously, he did not fall.

"here it is?"

"This is the Dark Realm." Li Zheng opened his eyes with the spiritual power he had left in the Dark Realm, came to Lu Li's side, and waved his hand gently. The two of them teleported, and several glowing objects in the distance were pulled closer to them.

Lu Li looked at the glowing objects and saw that they were different human figures standing still in the void.

"What are these...?" He looked at one of the ethereal female figures, whose face was blurred, and felt that she looked incredibly familiar. "Is that Zhan Zhouzhou? Also, why do I see my eleven-year-old self in you this time?"

"Don't worry, I'll answer your questions one by one." Li Zheng looked at Lu Li, who had grown into a boy of eleven or twelve, and smiled slightly. "First of all, this is a space that corresponds to the world we live in, called the Dark Realm. Only ethereal spiritual power can enter here, and I... can be considered to have inherited this space, so I'm temporarily the master of this place."

"!!!" Lu Li's eyes widened in disbelief: "Isn't this a bit too fantastical?"

Mental power... Dark realm...

It looks like something out of a fantasy novel!

"Is this already fantastical?" Li Zheng shook his head with a laugh, pointing at the figures and saying, "There's something even more fantastical, don't blink."

The next moment, several figures that had been standing still began to move slowly under Lu Li's gaze.

There was a bear-man whose palms moved with lightning speed, his thick hands seemingly capable of producing an air-exploding sound.

A ghostly rat-man, with a slight movement of its foot, vanished from its spot and reappeared not far away.

Some wielded long spears, their points flashing with a chilling light that sent shivers down one's spine.

One of them held a long sword and raised his hand to unleash a streak of sword light.

The most terrifying thing was the image of a woman who looked a lot like Zhan Zhouzhou. She raised her sword and thrust it out. Wherever the sword tip touched, the space collapsed. Within the collapsed area, all matter was destroyed.

"..." Lu Li was stunned, his mouth agape for a long time before he could come to his senses: "Gulp, are these things possible in the real world?"

Compared to these images, Lu Manjiang's Sanda (Chinese kickboxing) skills are like a three-year-old child playing around, utterly ineffective!
If... if only my brother had had that kind of strength back then...

How could he lose?!
"Impressive, right?" Li Zheng raised his hand to stop the video from playing again: "Which one do you think you could beat with a sniper rifle?"

Lu Li pondered for a few seconds before speaking, "If I have enough distance and powerful weapons, I can defeat everyone except the ratmen and Lady Zhan. By the way, isn't that woman Zhan Zhouzhou? Why can't I see her face clearly?"

"You're quite confident," Li Zheng said speechlessly. "The real experts in the outer city will gradually abandon firearms because firearms have great limitations, especially among those who enter the Sin Domain, there isn't a single one who uses firearms."

Whether in the Fourth Sin Domain or the Wrathful Sin Domain, Li Zheng had seen some former residents of the outer city, but he did not see any trace of firearms on them.

At most, they will use some technological equipment as an aid, such as aircraft.

"The Domain of Sin?" Lu Li asked blankly, "What kind of place is that? By the way, isn't that woman Zhan Zhouzhou? She really looks like her!"

Li Zheng replied, "The Sin Domain is a special area separated in the wilderness. Every generation of players must resist the final calamity in that place. Afterwards, it will be filled with a kind of twisted monster, and there is a crystal in the body of those monsters. The energy in the crystal can be used to enhance mental power."

"Hmm... So, does that mean firearms can't be used in the Sin Domain? For example, are there some kind of rules restricting their use, making them useless as firearms once inside?" Lu Li asked thoughtfully, "Who exactly is that woman?"

“There shouldn’t be such a rule, because almost all technological devices other than weapons can operate in the Sin Domain. I guess the power of technological weapons is relatively limited, or they are not easy to control, so they are implicitly prohibited.” Li Zheng was not quite sure why the residents of the outer city did not use high-powered technological weapons, but he guessed it might be related to the collections at the terminal.

"That's right!" A thought struck Li Zheng: "The things confiscated by the terminal are almost all pure material weapons with great destructive power. Could it be that the thermal weapons can only damage the twisted creatures from the surface?"

If a knife inflicts more damage on itself than on its prey, is there any point in its existence?

For some reason, Li Zheng suddenly thought of the dense, impenetrable black fog that filled the Sin Domain: "Could that black fog... have been caused by the residents of the outer city using black weapons to fight the enemy in the past?"

Although no one gave him an answer, he felt he must have guessed correctly.

Looking at the images, Lu Li asked, "Are you telling me all this to make me change my specialty and give up sniping? Also, is that woman really Zhan Zhouzhou? They look so alike!"

"I suppose so." Li Zheng nodded, recalling the scenes he had witnessed in Lu Li's spiritual world. "But it's up to you to decide. If you don't want to, no one will force you."

"Hmm, I'll think about it." Lu Li's expression showed some resistance, but he quickly recovered. "You said before that this place could make up for my... mental strength, right? How do you address the deficiency in mental strength? Also, are you really not going to answer me about whether that woman is Zhan Zhouzhou?"

“It’s very simple. Just turn around and push forward with your hand.” Li Zheng recalled the method Xu had used before and relayed it to Lu Li.

Laziness has been stored in the Dark Realm and research has not yet begun. The previous Rage Treadmill was fused into Li Zheng's body during the infusion of spiritual power, so for the time being, this most basic training method can only be used.

Lu Li turned around and curiously tried the method Li Zheng had given him, only to find that he couldn't straighten his hands even though he hadn't touched anything.

He tried another direction and found no resistance; his arms could be stretched out perfectly straight.

“The fact that the Dark Realm has no visible boundaries does not mean it has no boundaries,” Li Zheng explained. “Pushing the edge of the Dark Realm can have an effect similar to push-ups. This kind of training strengthens your spiritual body, allowing it to produce more spiritual power for your own use.”

“This method is very basic and the effect is not very obvious. In the next few days, I will study the laziness I got from you and try to modify it into a piece of exercise equipment that will be much more effective than this one.”

Lu Li held the edge for a while, then felt that the angle was strange.

He lowered his hands, looked up and down, then lay down, supporting his body with his hands. After comparing the angles of other things in the dark realm, he nodded: "This feels much more comfortable."

Li Zheng: "..."

It has to be said that Lu Li has never lost to anyone when it comes to divergent thinking.

Li Zheng had never considered the issue of angle before, and simply followed Xu's instructions to push the edge of the Dark Realm.

Although Lu Li's current posture may seem no different from before on the surface, it creates the illusion for him that he is doing push-ups, which is much more effective than pushing against a wall.

“This is truly the mind-bending nature of a mentally ill person…” Li Zheng shook his head and said, “You continue practicing, I have some things to do outside.”

He can multitask and completely ignore Lu Li to attend to other things.

However, he needed to maintain physical contact with Lu Li at all times outside to ensure that Lu Li could stay in the Dark Realm, so he couldn't do anything too specific. He could only ask Miriel about the progress of absorbing magic crystal energy today.

Returning to sit under the Bodhi tree, continuing to bask in the martial arts enlightenment buff, Li Zheng's main consciousness returned to his body.

Lu Li did a few sit-ups in the Dark Realm, then suddenly realized something and looked at the blurry image: "So, is she really Zhan Zhouzhou?"

(End of this chapter)