Matrix Survival: One random treasure chest per day

Chapter 835 Rapid Development of Block Four

"You can't say that."

After a moment's thought, the terminal said, "Because the items from the treasure chests aren't immediately useful. They're valuable, but that value might become apparent sometime in the future. That's why I was so eager to build them as soon as I got the blueprints..."

As a result of the first attempt and operational error, everything that followed was caused by this.

Li Zheng thought about it and realized that what the terminal said did make some sense.

After all, many of the items in the treasure chests he opened didn't even have a chance to be used until almost a month later, so his earlier deduction was probably overthinking things.

Perhaps the Eye of Preys was given to it by the system because it feared a similar tragedy would happen again...

Thinking of this, Li Zheng suddenly stopped.

The terminal opened the treasure chest and found mostly technology products, while its own products were a mixed bag.

But at the beginning in the Matrix, the treasure chests you could open contained ready-made items that had been brought over from the outer city.

So……

What is the Eye of Preys?
Although it was an upgraded version of a detector, Li Zheng was 100% certain that the Eye of Preys did not belong to any technological tool!
Even the cultivation side doesn't count!
If I had to categorize it, I'd say I belong to the bizarre side.

Seemingly sensing that Li Zheng had noticed him, the Eye of Preys proactively displayed text in front of him.

I can't go into too much detail, but I can assure you that neither the system nor I have any ill intentions towards you; we are genuinely trying to help you.

Li Zheng frowned as he looked at the text in front of him, especially the part that said, "The system and I have absolutely no ill intentions towards you." Generally, the more someone says something like that, the more unacceptable their actions become.

It's like some parents' mantra: "We're doing this for your own good."

Yet the number of children who commit suicide simply because of this one sentence is chillingly high.

Previously, aside from spending the night with Miriel, Li Zheng had never been wary of the Eye of Preys. In fact, when faced with a difficult target, he would even proactively call upon the Eye of Preys...

But wait, something's not right...

If the Eye of Preys has bad intentions towards the system, why would it help me?

Li Zheng was puzzled again. Was the system also raising its own pigs through the Eye of Preys?

This world is too dangerous; all those you thought you could trust actually have their own agendas.

The virtual world is like this, the Eye of Preys is like this, and the system is like this too.

I bet even the terminal itself has some secrets it hasn't revealed to me yet.
For example, when Spring Rain enslaves the residents of the outer city to work, as a completely positive personality, the terminal will allow them to do so.

Although the terminal later added that it sent clones to monitor the other party, the credibility of this claim is not very high.

Since it's a completely positive personality, how could it possibly tolerate even the slightest bit of badness?
The same applies to certain aspects of the outer city environment.

How could things like public corruption, assassination, plunder, casinos, brothels, and opium dens possibly exist under the nose of a completely positive person?

Li Zheng had already thought of all this. The reason he hadn't questioned the terminal was that he wanted to see what the terminal was trying to do and how it could use its research methods to help him.

Li Zheng felt his mind was working faster than ever before, with countless thoughts flashing through his head.

He continued until he considered two possibilities that could explain the terminal's anomaly.

Firstly, the terminal is actually the negative personality, while the virtual represents the positive.

Secondly, the terminal is a positive personality, but because of the long time that has passed, it has been contaminated and is no longer pure.

Regardless of the possibility, Li Zheng believes that he should keep more information about the terminal in the future, and not tell the other party everything at once just to take advantage of them.

“We won’t be able to figure out anything about this in a short time.” Once Li Zheng made up his mind, he said, “We’ll know how the system is when the next treasure chest drops. Let’s focus our energy on improving the gene chain capabilities for now. I feel there’s still a lot to develop in this new system.”

If we can develop more, they might very well become one of our trump cards in the future.

“You’re right,” the terminal agreed. “Then contact me as soon as the system ships out next time. As long as I have enough information, I should be able to use the supercomputer to calculate a result.”

"Hmm." Li Zheng remained noncommittal and said, "Take me back first. We both have a lot to do, so I won't linger here any longer."

The terminal did not speak, but directly sent Li Zheng out of the central hub.

Back in Block 4, Li Zheng pondered for a moment: "I'd better not go anywhere for the time being. I'll wait until the used Twisted Magic Crystals are returned, then go to the Research Institute to get the paperwork done for the branch office. After that, I just need to train to improve my strength while waiting for the system to give me a result."

After making up his mind, he went out and wandered around Block 4 a few times.

They re-examined the distribution of the three races in Block 4 and found the addresses of the two branch institutes, the Heavy Research Institute and the Basic Research Institute. They were just waiting for the empty magic crystals to arrive so they could be cut into crystal coins and put to use immediately.

"And the blacksmith shop and that plantation should also be notified that they have officially moved in."

Passing by the blacksmith shop that had been built long ago but was not open for business, Li Zheng turned around and went to Block 7 to find Zi Yuan and tell her the news.

Zi Yuan nodded and said, "That branch should have opened long ago, but recently my teacher, my sister, and several senior brothers haven't come back, so we can't spare any manpower. Once they return, the branch will open immediately, so don't worry about it."

"Alright then." Li Zheng shrugged. Since Zi Yuan had said so, what else could he do?
The blacksmith shop has been notified, so I'll go to Menghuage again and have the owner handle the branch matters. This was something that was arranged a long time ago, but Li Zheng has been busy lately and the other party couldn't reach him to make contact, so it's been delayed until now. Otherwise, the Menghuage No. 4 Street branch would have opened long ago.

After that, Li Zheng returned to Block 4 and waited patiently.

The treasure chest is still being opened every day, and it continues to give me wish stone fragments.

Aside from some simple training, Li Zheng often wandered between his factory and several newly opened shops.

Icarus is in charge of operating the blacksmith shop in Block 4, and is also the creator of the bizarre "ham" weapon that Li Zheng once obtained as a reward for clearing a dungeon.

This guy is a bit unreliable, with a rather erratic personality, much like Lu Li, who has an untreated mental illness.

If it weren't for the strong mental energy fluctuations he sensed from the other party, Li Zheng would have almost thought that Icarus was also mentally ill.

A few days later, the two branch institutes, the Heavy Research Institute and the Basic Research Institute, were completed one after another. For this, Li Zheng spent 70% of the Twisted Magic Crystals he had acquired last time.

The returns are also quite considerable.

These two branch offices are said to be the two largest in all the districts of the outer city, with complete and advanced facilities, but they are slightly smaller in scale than the main office.

The new gene ability system and mental power node system are also beginning to be popularized, and are being carried out in the Basic Research Institute. As long as you pass the test set by Yan Bujin, you can obtain the cultivation methods of these two new ability systems.

After the establishment of the Reconstruction Research Institute branch, Zhan Zhouzhou and the other Blue Star people who had come before also came here for training with Professor Roscal. At the same time, the Reconstruction Research Institute also opened up to the public, allowing more people who wanted to train to participate.

As a result, apart from the two gravity chambers that are reserved for Li Zheng and Zhan Zhouzhou, everyone else has to make an appointment to get about two hours of training time, and then they have to make an appointment and wait in line again.

Thanks to the establishment of these two branch offices, the average strength of the entire Fourth District has increased dramatically in an astonishing manner!

Now, everyone you encounter on Block 4 is far stronger than the so-called "super god level," and has officially entered the "intermediate level."

The classification system, which includes beginner (Iron to Godlike), intermediate, advanced, and dimensional levels, is a legacy from the former residents of the outer city.

Li Zheng felt it was too monotonous, so he pulled everyone together to redesign it, classifying it according to the color of the distorted magic crystal.

That is, white, red, and purple.

Needless to say, a White-level being can only reach the gathering area at most when entering the Sin Domain. Even if they can barely escape from the weakest twisted creature, they are considered White-level.

The requirements for the Red Rank are much stricter. At the very least, one must reach the golden zone of the Celestial Dragon Clan and not be at a disadvantage against Red Rank twisted creatures to qualify.

The purple-level beings crossed the golden light zone, directly challenged the pale purple-level twisted creatures behind them, and successfully killed them.

Li Zheng and Zhan Zhouzhou have both surpassed the purple level and are now at the deep purple level.

The next level cannot be determined because they have not yet encountered any stronger twisted creatures.

Of course, this ranking method is not rigorous, since there are many factors that affect strength.

However, Zhan Zhouzhou said that it doesn't matter whether the basic ability has reached that level or not, their classification only considers combat power.

Even if an ordinary person were to drive around in purple-level warp armor and wreak havoc among purple-level twisted creatures, they would still acknowledge the other party's purple-level rating.

Therefore, this classification system was only implemented in Block 4, and residents in other blocks did not accept it.

Aside from Li Zheng and Zhan Zhouzhou, who were both in deep purple, Lu Li and the others also entered the light purple level, barely able to pass through the golden light zone.

Multiple people working together can hunt down pale purple-level twisted creatures.

Most of the remaining members of the Blue Planet are also between red and light red.

In short, with the support of Li Zheng's accumulated foundation over several months, the overall strength of the Water Blue Star people is closing the gap with the three races, including the Blood-Patterned Black Dragon.

But Li Zheng was not satisfied with the status quo. He knew that with this strength, he couldn't even break through the Sin Domain, let alone go head-to-head with the main body of the Emotional Storm.

Unfortunately, Yan Bujin and the terminal also said they had no solution, as the research and development of new gene capabilities has entered a bottleneck period.

Yan Guang's clone has been successfully removed from the warehouse and delivered to the reserved residence in Fengshan by the terminal.

Unfortunately, as expected, the Yan Guang clone did not inherit even a trace of its original memories, and its behavior and consciousness were almost no different from those of an infant.

Fengshan now focuses on taking care of Yan Guang every day, telling her about their relationship.

Perhaps Yan Guang's feelings for Feng Shan were truly destined. Even though Yan Guang's clone had no memories, he was not resistant to Feng Shan at all, and even relied on him very much, never leaving his side.

On the day Yan Guang returned, Li Zheng and others rushed to celebrate and held a banquet to welcome Yan Guang back five days later. The participants were all the people who had the best relationship with Yan Guang when they were in the Matrix. Even Ye Kai and others tried to come back after receiving the news.

The happiest person at the banquet was neither Fengshan nor Yanguang, but Li Zheng's "good" daughter, Xiaoying, who thoroughly enjoyed herself at the banquet.

The days that followed were much calmer.

Twenty-five days later, someone Li Zheng never expected came to find him in Block 4 and said the first thing:
"Li Zheng, hand over the Black Dragon Spear!"

(End of this chapter)