Matrix Survival: One random treasure chest per day

Chapter 226 Am I wrong for liking two-dimensional waifus?

Following the directions on the business card, Li Zheng quickly completed all of today's exploration.

In order to find a doctor as soon as possible, he did not choose to take a detour to explore the valuable rooms, because that would likely lead him further and further away.

After taking stock of the spoils, in the seven rooms behind, besides two wild ginseng flowers, we also killed a black iron creature, a bronze creature, and two silver creatures.

The last two rooms were empty, so their luck was neither good nor bad compared to other players.

The materials obtained, except for the blood, were all packaged up and thrown into the trading hall.

Looking at the time, it was just noon. With nothing else to do, Li Zheng decided to release his capsule residence to prepare lunch and also asked Xiao Siyuan in his two-person group chat when he would return to Channel 879.

Old Xiao quickly replied to the message: "In a bit, I found a room with special crops, I'll go back after I get them."

"Okay, contact me in the group once you've sorted things out. My private chat is locked; I won't accept any private messages." Li Zheng asked, "What about Lin Fengjiao? How is she?"

Xiao Siyuan replied: "She's alright, she has a slight rejection reaction, but it's not serious."

"Rejection reaction?" Li Zheng was slightly taken aback. He hadn't even considered that human modification could have this problem. He immediately asked, "Which eye? The one I gave her?"

“No, it’s the ordinary bionic eyeball.” Xiao Siyuan then sent another message: “However… the eye you gave me also has some problems.”

After a night of adjustment, the eyes, which initially had a very mechanical feel, are starting to look more like flesh and blood, and are becoming more and more like a real eye.

To be honest, this phenomenon is a bit beyond my scope of knowledge; it's completely outside my area of ​​expertise, so I can't say whether this change is good or bad.

"It's changed?" Li Zheng asked. "Didn't the Eye of Prey give any hints?"

Xiao Siyuan replied, "That's why I said it's beyond the scope of the curriculum—because there was no hint! By the way, where did that eye of yours come from? It's too weird!"

After being installed, the mechanical bionic prosthetic eye actually transforms into the shape of human flesh and blood.

Could this be another patent of ancient technology?

Kind of outrageous.

Li Zheng thought for a moment and replied to Xiao Siyuan, "I can't really explain where it came from. Just think of it as something I picked up during my exploration. But judging from the item's name, it's probably related to the first dungeon we went through."

"Copy?"

Something must have happened on Xiao Siyuan's end, because he paused for a moment before replying: "You mean ancient ruins?"

“That’s right,” Li Zheng added, “These eyes weren’t obtained that time. I distributed all the loot from that time.”

He was a little guilty as he said this, after all, a little guy had stolen two blueprints when no one was looking.

Xiao Siyuan laughed and replied, "Hahaha, what are you thinking? You expect to get diamond-level items from that crappy dungeon?"

"It's great that you think that way."

“Okay, now that you say that, I’m suddenly starting to doubt you again.” Xiao Siyuan steered the conversation back on track: “Although the change in that eye is quite strange, I asked Lin Fengjiao, and she said she didn’t feel any discomfort. In fact, as the change became more and more complete, the eye’s function became stronger and stronger.”

"Oh? That's a good thing!" Li Zheng raised his eyebrows.

The stronger Lin Fengjiao is as a bodyguard, the safer Xiao Siyuan will be, and the more at ease she will feel.

"It can't be considered a good thing either," Xiao Siyuan texted. "This change also has its drawbacks. According to Lin Fengjiao, the interface for the subsequent modification and upgrade of that eye is disappearing."

Li Zheng: "What do you mean?"

"That means that once that eye becomes completely flesh and blood, its rank will be fixed at diamond level. If you want to upgrade it in the future... you'll have to have another surgery to implant a prosthetic eye of a higher rank."

"And this is such a ridiculous plot point?!" Li Zheng exclaimed, his teeth aching. "What did she herself say?"

Xiao Siyuan: "Lin Fengjiao's idea is that this is good, so that resources can be concentrated on upgrading the other eye in the future."

Li Zheng thought for a moment and asked, "Doesn't she want to have another ancient eye implanted, to restore both eyes to a living form?"

Xiao Siyuan replied: "I asked her, and she said she didn't want to change. She always wants to have a way to become stronger."

"Alright, it's only natural for her to have this thought."

Although ordinary bionic organs can be upgraded, no matter how much they are upgraded, they are still mediocre and lack any distinctive features.

For example, Yan Guang's left arm, even if it continues to be upgraded, will at most become stronger and be able to fire higher-level shells, but there will be almost no other changes.

The ability of mechanical limbs to freely change into various shapes, as seen in movies, is almost impossible to achieve in ordinary bionic limbs.

Li Zheng even speculated that there is an upper limit to the upgrade of such bionic organs.

However, he himself has not made any modifications, so it is unclear what the upper limit is.

It could be diamond-grade, or it could be extraordinary or even higher.

In short, it can't be too outrageous, otherwise all players would be doing body modifications, and all we would need to do is collect materials.
Xiao Siyuan sent a message: "Alright, not bad luck, got a gold-level lightning-type development tool. It's a pity that the electromagnetic coin is also gold-level, so there's a slight conflict between the two."

Thunder type?

So lucky?
Li Zheng's thoughts were interrupted, and he immediately focused on the prop: "Old Xiao, we've been getting along pretty well these past few days, haven't we?"

Once these words are spoken, anyone who isn't completely clueless will basically understand what they mean.

Is Lao Xiao a hothead?
Of course not!
After all, he's over thirty, right? "So-so, what's wrong?" Old Xiao replied.

"How can you call it so-so?" Li Zheng said anxiously, "I'm always thinking of you when there's something good going on!"

Old Xiao deliberately said, "Oh, really? I just remember someone selling me a stinky fruit back then."

Li Zheng scratched his head awkwardly: "But I already said beforehand that the taste wasn't very good..."

Old Xiao said, "Is it because the taste wasn't very good? I took a bite and it almost made me rot from the stench, you know?"

Actually, it's not about the taste; the main thing is that after eating that fruit, my skin turned completely dark!

Lin Fengjiao asked me about my nationality several times today. If I didn't know I was 100% Asian, I almost lost my confidence because of her questions, you know?

Li Zheng was puzzled: "It's just skin color, what's the big deal? Look at Principal Gu, who's known for being ordinary, he even tanned himself!"

"Damn it!" Xiao Siyuan said angrily, "That's called a bronze tan, so handsome! So manly! And look at me? If it weren't for the matrix providing a faint light at night, I'd be invisible if I took off my clothes, okay?"

Li Zheng said, "Then you can't laugh. If you laugh and show a mouthful of big white teeth floating in the air, who wouldn't get creeped out?"

"You still know that?!" Old Xiao said irritably, "Fine, fine, I won't tease you anymore. I'll trade you the goods."

Immediately afterwards, Li Zheng received a message notification that there was a specific order for him in the trading hall.

Upon receiving it, it was a shimmering, colorful... cucumber.

Lightning-struck melon
Rank: Gold

...]

"Thanks," Li Zheng said in the group chat.

"You're welcome," Xiao Siyuan replied quickly. "Judging from your tone, I know you're in a good mood, so I'm relieved."

Li Zheng: "???"

No, why would I be upset over a gold-tier item?
Xiao Siyuan explained, "I've heard about what happened to Chizuru Kamishiro. I believe you're not that kind of person, and you know it must be hard to feel bad to be framed and cyberbullied."

"Oh, is that all?!" Li Zheng suddenly realized that Old Xiao was worried about him because of this, and his earlier banter was probably meant to help him relax.

He replied, "Don't worry, I've already figured out a solution. I'll go see her after I finish what I'm doing."

"Ha! I knew you had a lot of tricks up your sleeve!" Xiao Siyuan was relieved and teased, "But I have to say, that woman must have a good figure. Judging from the angle in the photo... how's the view?"

Even from the text message, Li Zheng could guess that Xiao Siyuan must be wearing a lewd smile right now.

He said irritably, "Oh, you scumbag who's dated twelve girlfriends, you're actually quite curious about this kind of thing."

Xiao Siyuan paused for a moment, then said, "Who are you calling a scumbag? Let me tell you, I'm completely sincere towards them!"

"Really?" Li Zheng sneered, "Speaking of which, at your age, all twelve of your exes should be in the Matrix by now, right? Why don't you contact them? If any of them are having a hard time, I'll lend you my space pirates, and you can bring them over. And while you're at it, introduce me to those ex-wives' wives too?"

"Ahem!" Xiao Siyuan seemed a little embarrassed: "Wait, wait for an opportunity..."

Then no matter how Li Zheng tried to tease him, he pretended to be dead and stopped replying.

Having no other choice, Li Zheng had to rent the space pirates to him first, so that the two of them could return to Channel 879.

Old Xiao isn't there, and I don't even have anyone to contact for the dungeon. If I send him back early, maybe I can contact another dungeon in the afternoon.

……

On the other side, Xiao Siyuan took out the Star Pirate from the trading hall, looking utterly dejected.

Lin Fengjiao noticed this and asked, "Dr. Xiao, why do you look so pale?"

Xiao Siyuan looked at her, hesitated for a long time, and asked, "Xiao Lin, do you think it's really scummy for someone to have twelve exes?"

After thinking carefully for a moment, Lin Fengjiao replied with great certainty, "Extremely scummy!"

Upon receiving this reply, Xiao Siyuan looked up at the sky, dejected, and said, "But... what's wrong with liking anime characters?"

Lin Fengjiao was taken aback: "Huh? Paper...paper doll?"

"correct."

Xiao Siyuan counted on his fingers: "Ristalta, Aqua, Adeneira, Rem, Emilia, and..."

"No! Wait a minute!" Lin Fengjiao raised her hand to stop her: "Putting aside whether it's ridiculous for someone your age to like anime characters, those three names sound so familiar to me."

Xiao Siyuan replied matter-of-factly, "Of course they sound familiar, after all, they were all very popular anime back then... I relied on them to pass the time on my way to the outpost."

"Speaking of which... does liking too many anime/manga characters make a guy a scumbag?"

"I... I don't think so..." Lin Fengjiao said uncertainly.

"That's good. But..." Xiao Siyuan looked sadly at the sky, "Why don't I feel relieved?"

(End of this chapter)