Matrix Survival: One random treasure chest per day

Chapter 824 Losing is harder than winning

After the tentacles were burned, the attraction that Li Zheng felt from those devices vanished instantly.

“I see.” Li Zheng understood: “These tentacles can be contagious. By directly contacting the target, they weaken the target’s subconscious resistance to negative emotions and unknowingly pull the other person into the same situation.”

He sneered dismissively, "A mere trick, easily countered!"

Even so, without Li Zheng's powerful mental strength, it would be very difficult for ordinary people to get rid of the attack once they were hit, and a single mistake could lead to utter ruin.

Among those on the edge of the Golden Zone, many may have fallen victim to this scheme.

Xiahou Fei walked into the hall, casually sat down in front of one of the entertainment machines, and, without any instruction, inserted a chip to start playing.

This is a gambling machine commonly known as a "slot machine". After inserting chips, you select the target to bet on, and the machine will automatically jump to whichever target it stops on, and then return the winnings based on the multiplier.

Xiahou Fei randomly pressed the maximum multiplier, and the slot machine rang with pleasant music before slowly coming to a stop. The icon was the one Xiahou Fei had placed his bet on.

"Such good luck?" Li Zheng was taken aback when he saw this scene, and then realized that something was wrong: "This is to give the target some sweetness first, arouse his greed, and gradually drag him into the quagmire of addiction. If Xiahou Fei cannot maintain a peaceful mindset, he may slowly fall into depravity."

Li Zheng wanted to offer a reminder, but Xiahou Fei remained clear-headed and did not seem overjoyed at his victory.

Not only that, Xiahou Fei also put all the chips he had just won, plus all the ones in his bag, into the game, and then forcefully and repeatedly slammed down the highest multiplier.

"As long as I lose all my chips, I should be able to get rid of this eerie building." Xiahou Fei was full of confidence: "I already hit this option before, and the probability of hitting it twice in a row is extremely low. I don't believe it..."

His confident expression froze on his face as Xiahou Fei stared at the machine in disbelief. He had actually won again!

"This...this is impossible!"

He panicked a little. His bet hit the target, and his chips instantly multiplied by more than a hundred times, reaching more than two thousand!
Li Zheng felt a chill and said, "Our guess was wrong. These things might not lure the target into ruin by losing, but by increasing the stakes by winning."

Those chips are all formed from negative emotions. Once Xiahou Fei's chips exceed his limit, the palace will send him back to the spiritual world, which will probably destroy Xiahou Fei's spiritual body in an instant!

Xiahou Fei was at a loss. Looking at the entertainment facilities, he suddenly felt powerless: "If winning is losing, then what should I do if I want to really lose all my chips?"

Everything in the palace has a win-lose mode, seemingly a 50/50 chance, but if winning or losing can be manipulated, then it becomes 100% to 0%.

Li Zheng looked at the gambling machine for a while and said, "Try betting on the lowest odds with one chip."

"Okay." Xiahou Fei tried it out. The lowest multiplier was two, so one chip became two.

"Two chips, bet five times and two times respectively," Li Zheng suggested again.

Xiahou Fei did as instructed, and his two chips became five.

"Huh?" Xiahou Fei seemed to have discovered something. This time, before Li Zheng could speak, he tried it out first.

Three chips, one bet five times, two bets twice.

This time, he won the five-fold prize again, but Xiahou Fei lost one win.

Xiahou Fei was about to try again when Li Zheng stopped him: "Don't move! These multipliers don't have a guaranteed loss scenario, so trying again won't yield any results."

These machines seem to automatically select the option that yields the greatest benefit.

Even if Xiahou Fei wanted to reduce his profits by splitting his chips, he would only win less and not lose, and he would never lose!
"Then... what should we do?" Xiahou Fei panicked completely, losing all the confidence he had shown earlier.

He had thought he could escape the palace of his mental world by losing all his chips, but here there was only the possibility of winning and no possibility of losing, which ruined all his initial plans. Li Zheng was also quite troubled. This was the first time he had ever seen such a bizarre thing. Other casinos would profit by manipulating the system to amplify the losing side, but this place did the opposite, amplifying the winning side.

This situation...

It seems there's absolutely no solution!

"Let's try something else." Li Zheng thought of the arcade machines nearby, those kinds of machines only accept coins and don't have a refund option, so that should work.

However, Li Zheng still oversimplified the matter.

Although arcade machines don't offer a refund option, once you've invested a chip, you have to keep sitting in front of the machine and playing as long as your character doesn't die.

The player-controlled character is practically invincible in the game. They can stand there and let monsters attack them without taking any damage. Instead, they will reflect the damage back and kill the monsters.

Xiahou Fei spent three hours completing the game, and his character only lost a tiny amount of health in the final boss battle.

But then the screen changes, and the game restarts.

"Do not!!!!"

Xiahou Fei slammed his fist on the machine in despair: "Why isn't it over?! Why?!"

Even though I've already completed the game, why hasn't this chip been used up, and why has the game started again?

"Don't worry," Li Zheng said, pointing to the character's health bar. "Look here, he's not at full health!"

Although the game restarts, the character's health is carried over.

In other words, as long as Xiahou Fei repeats the same process of clearing the level, there will eventually be a moment when he wears down the character.

By then, one chip will have been used up.

but……

A game lasts three hours, and each time you lose one percent of your health, it would take three hundred hours to wear down your character!

Two thousand chips would require more than six hundred thousand hours!

Xiahou Fei might not even survive that long; he would starve to death halfway through.

"Something's not right!" Li Zheng frowned. "Something's not right!"

"If the chips are formed from the consumption of those tentacles, why are those people still frantically devouring them?"

This question also made Xiahou Fei realize something: "Yes, why?"

Li Zheng said, "Think carefully, what's the biggest difference between you and those people?"

"The biggest difference..." Xiahou Fei's eyes lit up: "Because I didn't want to give up, I wasn't affected by the Laziness Domain! And the reason I wasn't affected is... I'm in the Golden Light Zone!"

“That’s right!” Li Zheng nodded: “Xiahou Fei, I can send your body back to the Lazy Domain, but it will be very dangerous for you to do so. Your consciousness may be corrupted, you may become extremely eager to win, and you may even consume those tentacles for the sake of the chips. Can you maintain your original mindset?”
"I can!" Xiahou Fei declared firmly, "Because my fate is in my own hands!"

“Fine.” Li Zheng said solemnly, “I will send you back, and then I will no longer provide you with any help. If you fail to uphold your principles and succumb to depravity… I will kill you.”

(End of this chapter)