Matrix Survival: One random treasure chest per day

The threat level is extremely high!
Li Zheng was shocked. How long had it been since Ma Long followed the leader of the Nine Heavens Legion deep into the Sin Domain? He had already risen to a level that could threaten him.
And this happened while the person was seriously injured?
"Ma Long?"

Li Zheng's nose twitched; he smelled a faint, sweet, metallic scent—the smell of blood. "What are you doing here? Where is everyone else?"

Many people entered the Sin Domain with the Nine Heavens Guild Leader. Ma Long's team included Qian Buqun and some other people he didn't know, numbering at least several dozen.

"died."

Malone's voice was devoid of any emotion: "They're all dead, only I'm still alive."

"All dead?"

Li Zheng suddenly raised his hand and lifted the hood covering the horse's head, revealing a head without skin, its flesh and blood directly exposed to the air.

"what are you doing!"

In a panic, Ma Long raised his hand to shield his eyes. Because he had no eyelids, his two eyes were wide open, looking quite eerie.

"this……!"

Li Zheng watched as Ma Long put his hood back on and frowned, asking, "What exactly did you encounter in the Sinful Domain? How did you end up like this? Also, you've already reached the Golden Light Zone of the Heavenly Dragon Clan, why didn't you go back to the outer city for treatment?"

Unexpectedly, he encountered one of the targets he was looking for as soon as he entered the Sin Domain. Seeing Ma Long's current state, Li Zheng had too many questions that needed to be answered.

"I can't go back."

Malone's voice was hoarse: "I don't know what happened to me, I only remember following...following..."

He pounded his head in confusion: "Damn it, who did I go into the Sinful Domain with? Why don't I remember? No, I definitely remember! But why did that name suddenly disappear from my mind the moment I was about to say it? Why? Why? Why!!!"

The pounding on his head became more and more intense, and Li Zheng, fearing that Ma Long might accidentally smash his head, quickly stopped him.

"Don't be anxious, speak slowly."

Li Zheng tried to soften his voice as much as possible to soothe Ma Long's emotions: "Don't try to recall things you can't remember. Tell me what you do remember, like why you became the way you are now?"

Something horrifying must have happened to Ma Long, and it is definitely related to the leader of the Nine Heavens!

"I do not know."

Malone was silent for half a minute, seemingly trying to recall something: "I really don't know. My memory seems to be fragmented. After the fragmentation, I was in a... yes! I saw a castle deep within the Sin Realm!"

"castle?"

A thought flashed through Li Zheng's mind: "The Domain of Sloth?"

He had also seen a castle deep within the Sloth Domain, where a woman was either living or imprisoned, though he could only tell from her voice that she was a woman.

Moreover, the other person seemed to know him.

"I don't remember which domain of sin it was."

Malone shook his head and said, "I only remember lying outside a castle when I was conscious, and I was already in this terrible state by then. I tried to enter that castle, but... it was so painful! Getting close to that castle would cause me immense pain! Not physical pain, but mental pain, a pain on a spiritual or even soul level, like being roasted over a fire!"

He seemed to empathize with the pain he felt then, and he curled up like a shrimp, his hands covering his head.

Seeing that Ma Long was on the verge of collapse again, Li Zheng quickly stopped him from continuing to recall: "Don't think about those painful things. Change your perspective. How did you get back to the Golden Light Zone?"

Li Zheng wanted to trace back along the route Malone took to find the castle Malone had visited. He suspected there was more than one castle in the Sin Domain. Perhaps every Sin Domain had one, or even… countless castles!

“I don’t know.” Malone said those four words again: “I tried to enter the castle, and was tormented by pain and became delirious. When I came to my senses again, I found myself on the edge of the golden zone. Then I tried to go back through the outer city entrance, but my nameplate was gone, and everything that could prove my identity was gone. The outer city would not allow me to return to the city.”

"The nameplate is gone?"

Li Zheng asked, "What about your capsule residence? Is it gone too?"

Like nameplates, capsule dwellings are bound to players and are not easily lost.

“That’s it.” Malone’s voice was hoarse. “Since I became like this, I’ve forgotten what hunger feels like, and I don’t need to eat anything.”

Li Zheng frowned. Ma Long's symptoms resembled some kind of assimilation, the kind of assimilation similar to that of the beasts of the Sin Domain.

However, for some reason, Malone still retains his sense of being human.

Considering the warning given by Old Pu, could it be that Malone has mastered some kind of major crime rule?
The document sent to him by the terminal before his departure stated that all the outer city residents who attempted to master the rules of the Great Sin had never returned to the outer city after entering the Sin Domain once.

It's like disappearing into thin air.

Residents of the outer city had organized exploration teams to venture into the sinful realm to search for those people, and not just once.

But each exploration ended in failure.

Li Zheng had no experience with the rules of major crimes, so he had no way of verifying these speculations. Perhaps keeping Ma Long by his side for a while and observing him would reveal something.

"What are your plans next?" Li Zheng asked. "I'm going to venture deeper into the Sin Domain to investigate the castle you mentioned. Would you like to come along?"

“It seems I have no choice,” Malone said with a wry smile. “You’re the only acquaintance I see here, and it seems I have nowhere else to go but to follow you.”

Unable to return to the outer city, and wanting to find out what had happened to him, Ma Long decided that since he had met Li Zheng, the best option was to follow him.

After all, Li Zheng was among the most powerful people he knew, and he had a powerful background, so perhaps he could find a way to solve his current predicament.

"Then let's go."

As Li Zheng stepped out of the golden zone, negative emotions surged in from all directions like a torrent, and a faint anger rose from the bottom of his heart, refusing to dissipate.

Fortunately, Li Zheng had prior experience in this area, so this negative emotion did not pose a threat to him.

After Ma Long caught up, Li Zheng looked back.

Malone seemed even more relaxed than him, as if he couldn't feel the negative emotions of the raging sin domain, and his steps were light.

"Try not to fight in your current state," Li Zheng advised. "Although I don't know how you got back to the Golden Light Zone from the depths of the Sin Domain, you are currently in an unknown state. Rashly engaging in combat might worsen the strange condition on you. If you encounter any strange beasts, just leave them to me."

"..."

Malone was silent for a few seconds, somewhat discouraged: "Although this makes me feel like a piece of trash, but... you're right."

If it weren't for figuring out what had happened to him, the best course of action would have been to stay in the Golden Zone and wait for Li Zheng to return, rather than following along as a mere accessory.

Although Malone has lost many memories and his thinking still occasionally becomes confused, he can at least clearly feel from his thoughts at this moment that he has not become an idiot and still retains basic rationality.