Matrix Survival: One random treasure chest per day

Chapter 28 "More money is needed!"

As the light screen dispersed, Li Zheng immediately surveyed the room, searching for the player's figure.

The room was small and still had a metallic style. In the center, in front of a capsule residence, a bald figure held a long sword, seemingly having just practiced swordsmanship.

Once the detector locks onto the player, it displays the player's identity information.

Name: Zhan Zhouzhou

Race: human

Gender: Female
Height: 165
Weight: 48KG
Status: healthy
Equipment: Tungsten steel longsword (Iron grade), tungsten steel soft armor (Iron grade)
Abilities: Agile and skilled in swordsmanship

Genetic Ability: Lightning Sword (Gold Level)

Modification: None

Remaining exploration attempts for today: 0

"Zhan Zhouzhou?"

Upon recognizing the other person, Li Zheng breathed a sigh of relief. They were acquaintances, so nothing unpleasant should happen.

"hello!"

Li Zheng walked over and greeted him with a smile.

Zhan Zhouzhou was engrossed in practicing swordsmanship when she sensed someone open the metal door and sheath her sword.

"Li Zheng?" Upon seeing Li Zheng's face clearly, Zhan Zhouzhou recognized him as well. She frowned slightly: "You look so pale, are you injured?"

"One should always be wary of others," Li Zheng secretly took out his Desert Eagle and carried it on his back. Standing about seven steps away from Zhan Zhouzhou, he made no attempt to hide anything: "Well, I encountered a bit of an accident during my exploration just now, a minor injury."

There's no use hiding it. Anyone with eyes can see that he's not in good shape.

"Wait here for a bit." Zhan Zhouzhou said this, turned around and went into the residence. She came out a short while later with two skewers of grilled meat in her hand.

Fearing that Li Zheng might misunderstand, Zhan Zhouzhou didn't approach him abruptly. Instead, she stood at the initial distance, waved the grilled meat in her hand, and asked, "If you don't mind, would you like to eat some together?"

Li Zheng stared intently, and the attributes of the roasted meat in the other person's hand were fully revealed.

The grilled meat was just so-so.
Rank: Bronze

Type: Cuisine

Description: Made by roasting meat from the bronze-level creature "Azure Hound" with black iron-level "Rain-Scented Mushrooms". The preparation is rough and the taste is average.

Effects: Due to the inherent properties of the ingredients, it has a slight healing effect and is non-toxic.

"It has healing effects?" Li Zheng's expression shifted slightly as he asked, "There's no such thing as a free lunch. What's the price?"

Zhan Zhouzhou smiled like a fox hiding its tail: "The price isn't high at all, and you can definitely afford it."

Li Zheng made no move, waiting for her to name her price.

Seeing his wariness, Zhan Zhouzhou said directly, "What do you think of my hairstyle?"

"Hairstyle?" Li Zheng was slightly taken aback, his gaze focusing on it.

This glance almost made Li Zhengle cry out.

Zhan Zhouzhou herself has delicate features, fair skin, rosy lips, and a pair of narrow eyes with slightly upturned corners. Even without expression, she exudes a kind of smile, as if she is bewitching people.

But for some reason, Li Zheng didn't have any bad thoughts when looking at those captivatingly beautiful eyes.

On the contrary, one could see seven parts of heroism in him, coupled with the three-foot-long sword that he always carried in his hand, giving off a sense of female chivalry.

Judging by appearance alone, Li Zheng thought the other party was very beautiful, even more beautiful than some top female celebrities.

But... this beautiful woman, ironically, has a shaved head.

"Pfft~" Li Zheng couldn't help but laugh out loud. He raised his hand to cover his mouth, but this aggravated his injury, and he coughed lightly twice.

Zhan Zhouzhou's face darkened slightly: "You still have the nerve to laugh!"

"My hairstyle is all thanks to you. One Flame Flower burned my hair, which I had carefully maintained for ten years, to ashes."

Li Zheng sensed something was wrong: "What do you mean? You bought the Flame Flower yourself, and you ate it yourself. Now it has triggered a negative effect and made you lose your hair. You're not going to make me, the seller, responsible, are you?"

"Of course not!" Zhan Zhouzhou said disdainfully, "I'm not the kind of unreasonable person who would blame you for triggering the side effects myself."

“Then why did you bring this up…” Li Zheng glanced at the meat skewers in her hand and suddenly had a bad feeling.

Damn, is this girl trying to trade two skewers of grilled meat for my handsome head of hair?

"Dream on! Goodbye!" Li Zheng turned and ran away before Zhan Zhouzhou could speak.

As a result, he ran too fast and the bones in his chest that hadn't been set yet were suddenly pulled, causing him to turn pale with pain.

Zhan Zhouzhou followed behind with a smile, carrying two skewers of grilled meat. Seeing this, she asked, "How about it? Trading hair for meat skewers, that's a pretty good price. At least these two skewers of grilled meat have some healing properties, which will be good for your injuries!"

Li Zheng ignored her; the most severe blunt trauma to his back was burning with pain, and his broken ribs were also in excruciating pain.

His complexion grew increasingly worse, and Zhan Zhouzhou continued to persuade him, "You're not planning to continue exploring in this condition, are you? If another danger arises in the next room, you might not live to see tomorrow."

This stunningly beautiful woman now resembled a demon with fangs, a triangular tail swaying behind her, coaxing, "Look, it's just hair. Even if you shave it all off, no one will see it."

Besides, it can grow back later, so why make things difficult for yourself?

Li Zheng stopped and took a deep breath: "You're right, it's just hair. Even if you shave it all off, it won't affect your life. But why are you so bothered by it?"

Zhan Zhouzhou laughed: "Because I'm a girl, what girl doesn't love to look beautiful?"

Li Zheng looked her over for a couple of seconds and said, "Actually, you're very beautiful right now..."

Zhan Zhouzhou said, "That's because I'm naturally beautiful! If I still had hair, I would be much more beautiful than I am now!"

Li Zheng opened the regional channel, found Zhan Zhouzhou's profile picture and looked at it carefully. He realized that the other party was not narcissistic, but was stating a fact.

The difference in appearance between Zhan Zhouzhou with and without hair is several times!
"Good heavens, even with a bald head, she looks prettier than top-tier female celebrities. Your family has really good genes," Li Zheng said sincerely.

"Thank you for the compliment," Zhan Zhouzhou said. "But don't think that just because you compliment me a couple of times, I'll change my mind."

"Meat skewers or hair, your choice!"

After saying that, she smiled and waited for Li Zheng to make his choice.

In truth, Li Zheng knew that Zhan Zhouzhou wasn't really bothered by his hair loss; she was just trying to help him out of kindness, given his miserable situation.

Otherwise, she could simply ask for a silver-grade power core and take back what she had previously traded.

All they want now is his hair; the price is ridiculous.

However, Li Zheng still wanted to try again: "Um... how about I trade you snake grass needles?"

"Hehe." Zhan Zhouzhou still insisted, "No way!"

"Damn it..." Li Zheng gritted his teeth: "Ten!"

"no!"

"Twenty!"

"no!"

"Fifty pieces!" Li Zheng went all out, and his asking price became increasingly outrageous.

"Hehe, it still won't work!" Zhan Zhouzhou advised, "Just give up. My strength is beyond your comprehension. I don't even care about the dangers in the matrix."

"Even if you put ten tons of diamonds here today, I'll still tell you, no way! Absolutely no way!"

"Are you being stubborn? What are you after?" Li Zheng said helplessly.

"I just want to be happy and have fun!" The beautiful Zhan spoke like a rogue, her tone exuding an air of self-righteousness.

"..." Li Zheng looked at the beautiful Zhan and said after a long while, "You know, my hair has been with me for many years, and I have to spend a lot of money to take care of it every month. It's hard for me to agree to your deal for just a meat skewer."

"Tell the important point!"

"We need to pay more!" Li Zheng revealed his true colors, speaking with an air of righteous indignation.

“No problem, I can give you five of the same meat skewers!” Zhan Zhouzhou stretched out a hand and gestured.

That hand was slender and beautiful, with a fair complexion, and it was cleaned very well, even in the matrix where water resources were relatively scarce.

Li Zheng thought it over and said, "Deal!"

"Haha!" Zhan Zhouzhou stepped forward and handed both meat skewers to Li Zheng, clearly in a better mood: "Here, take these two as a deposit, and I'll grill the rest for you on the spot later."

"Okay." Li Zheng took the meat skewers, his feelings complicated.

If it weren't for the fact that there were still six more explorations to do today, and that they might all be dangerous rooms, he wouldn't have agreed to this deal.

Okay, Li Zheng admitted that the main reason was that his injuries were hurting badly, and he wanted to relieve the pain with these meat skewers.

"Come with me. You'd better put that gun away. Do you think I can't see it just because you're hiding it behind your back?" Zhan Zhouzhou waved for him to follow, then turned and walked away, seemingly unafraid of Li Zheng's sneak attack from behind.

"One should always be wary of others." Li Zhengcan put away his Desert Eagle; he dared not attack Zhan Zhouzhou from behind.

Because as soon as he had the thought of attacking the other party, the detector in front of him would start flashing red light, and the two big words "Danger" would be alarming.

Li Zheng found it hard to understand why the detector was so certain that he was no match for her, given that she only had one melee weapon, and kept reminding him not to have any ulterior motives.

Could it be that there really are super masters in this world who can fight firearms with melee weapons?

This is way too surreal...

Following Zhan Zhouzhou to the capsule residence, Li Zheng sat down on the ground outside as instructed and ate a meat skewer. Zhan Zhouzhou's grilling skills were absolutely terrible; the skewers not only had no flavor, but were also dry and tough.

If it weren't for the few small pieces of mushroom sandwiched in the middle of the grilled meat, even if the meat skewers had a healing effect, he wouldn't have been able to swallow them.

After struggling to finish a skewer of grilled meat, the blunt trauma to my back was somewhat relieved, and the pain was not as intense as before.

Presumably, the meat skewers' mild healing effects are starting to take effect.

At this moment, Zhan Zhouzhou came out of his residence, carrying three skewers of fresh meat and an electric prop that Li Zheng recognized very well.

Electric hair clippers for use in barbershops!
"What the hell... you even have this thing?" Li Zheng was shocked. How rich and powerful must this girl be to have something like this?
"Don't misunderstand, I just bought this charging phone in the trading hall, specifically for cutting your hair." Zhan Zhouzhou explained briefly, placing the meat skewers upside down beside her, and taking out a folded plastic sheet from her pocket.

"Since we couldn't find anything professional, we'll just use this as a substitute." She cut a hole in the plastic sheet and put it around Li Zheng's neck.

"Isn't this a tablecloth?" Li Zheng closed his eyes, thinking that for the sake of roasted meat that could heal his wounds, he might as well shave it off...

ten minutes later……

Two shiny bald heads sat facing each other around a lit campfire.

Li Zheng kept brushing the stray hairs off his clothes and complained, "Your grilling skills are terrible! Haven't you ever watched TV dramas? You can't grill meat over an open flame!"

"Huh? As long as it's edible, that's fine, right?" Zhan Zhouzhou seemed indifferent. Judging from her expression, she really didn't know how to grill meat.

Li Zheng said helplessly, "You might as well give me the barbecue, I'll just grill it myself."

"Oh, here."

Li Zheng took the meat skewers, placed them about ten centimeters away from the fire, and asked casually, "When I came in just now, I saw you practicing your sword?"

"Hmm, just practicing for fun." Zhan Zhouzhou became alert, her beautiful eyes glaring at Li Zheng.

Li Zheng, seemingly lacking emotional intelligence, said to himself, "Practicing blindly? Your moves sound pretty professional to me."

"That's! Home... uh..." Zhan Zhouzhou let it slip and quickly stopped herself.

"Family?" Li Zheng noticed the word and said half-jokingly, "You don't mean it's a family tradition, do you? In this society, are there still people practicing such useless things?"

A hint of annoyance flashed in Zhan Zhouzhou's eyes: "What do you mean by useless stuff?"

"Oh, don't misunderstand!" Li Zheng quickly apologized, "What I meant was, with your abilities, getting your hands on all sorts of firearms and weapons in the Matrix shouldn't be a problem, right? Why are you practicing a martial art that's relatively... not very safe?"

"..." Zhan Zhouzhou fell silent for a while before saying, "You wouldn't understand even if I told you."

"Since we're just killing time, let's talk." Li Zheng fiddled with the skewers to ensure they were heated evenly, and the aroma of the meat gradually wafted out. A little peeked out of his pocket, and Xiao Ying poked her head out, sniffed, and swallowed hard.

Zhan Zhouzhou saw it and asked curiously, "What's that? A pet?"

Li Zheng said in a serious tone, "No, this is a toilet."

"You're so unserious." Zhan Zhouzhou rolled her eyes with a charming expression, sat down next to him, and teased the little guy.

"Wow, what kind of species is this? It looks like a bat, kind of ugly-cute."

The little guy immediately became unhappy when he heard someone say it was ugly, and protested, "Waaah!"

Zhan Zhouzhou laughed heartily: "Still a whiny little thing!"

"Ugh!" Sakura ignored her and turned back to look at the meat skewers, swallowing her saliva, her mouth watering.

Seeing this, Zhan Zhouzhou went back to his residence and got two more skewers of grilled meat: "I'll give you another one for the little guy."

"One string?" Li Zheng looked at her beautiful hands. Was he incapable of counting? There were clearly two strings!

Zhan Zhouzhou smiled shyly: "I think your grilling skills are better than mine. You don't mind if I take advantage of your skills, do you?"

"Do I look like a generous person to you?" Li Zheng rolled his eyes, took the meat skewers, and grilled a piece.

"Hehe." Zhan Zhouzhou sat down next to her, took Xiaoying out of her pocket, and teased her in her palm, acting as if she were one of them.

"Your grilling skills are pretty good. What did you do before?"

"chef."

"Chef? What cuisine?"

"A barbecue restaurant!"

"Tch, if you don't want to talk about it, then forget it."

"And what about you? I just asked you about sword practice, and you avoided answering, didn't you?"

"Such a petty man!"

"You said I was stingy, but you really forgot about what you told me to get lost last night? I was wondering what was going on then, but now I know, you were already bald back then, weren't you?"

"I was still angry back then, so I'll unblock you now."

"Oh, so I should thank you for not holding a grudge?"

"We're even, okay?"

"Do you think I care?"

"Alright, alright, I'll just tell you, okay? Let me introduce myself. My name is Zhan Zhouzhou, I'm from Hangzhou, Zhejiang, and I come from a family of swordsmen."

"Believe it or not."

"Really! I've participated in the National Kendo Tournament three times and won three championships!"

"Yo~ Three-time champion of the Kendo Tournament? I've heard so much about you."

"You've heard so much about me? Your expression doesn't suggest you've never heard of me before!"

"I've never heard of that conference. How many people attend?"

"Not many, just three people."

"??ha??"

"What do you mean? The other two are both sword masters!"

"Wow, that's amazing! Who are they?"

"My dad and my grandpa!"

"So, are you three just exploiting a bug here?"

"Don't you believe me? I beat them with my own strength!"

"Filial piety leads to death..."

"It's true! My dad and the others all say I'm a once-in-a-millennium swordsmanship genius!"

"That genius, could you show me your swordsmanship?"

"no problem!"

Zhan Zhouzhou said proudly, turning around and drawing his longsword: "Would you like to experience it for yourself?"

A subtle, triumphant smile flashed in Li Zheng's eyes: "Then let's do it."

As he spoke, he took out the Desert Eagle and aimed it at the ground in front of Zhan Zhouzhou.

"Watch closely." Zhan Zhouzhou brandished her sword, her entire aura changing dramatically, becoming incredibly fierce, as if a cold wind had swept around her.

Li Zheng's heart skipped a beat, and he instinctively felt that something was wrong. A cold wind rushed into his neck, and he shivered involuntarily.

Subconsciously, he raised the muzzle of the gun a few inches, as if only in this way could he feel a little safe.

"There's a saying I don't know if you've heard before," Zhan Zhouzhou said coldly, completely unconcerned about the gun aimed at him.

"What did you say?" Li Zheng was on edge, the word "danger" on the detector turning a deep purple.

"Seven paces away, the gun is fast."

"A gun that's both fast and accurate within seven steps?"

"No!" Zhan Zhouzhou suddenly leaned forward. Li Zheng didn't see the other party's movement clearly. He only felt that Zhan Zhouzhou just swayed his body. A flash of cold light passed in front of his eyes, and his hand was subjected to an irresistible force.

Ding!
Snapped!
As the Desert Eagle landed, Li Zheng stared blankly down at it, unable to believe it.

At this moment, Zhan Zhouzhou said, "Within seven steps, the sword is fast!"

"Holy crap!" Li Zheng realized what was happening, jumped back a step, still shaken: "Incredible!"

Zhan Zhouzhou sheathed her sword and stood up, her cold aura fading, as if she were a different person: "See, I didn't lie to you, did I?"

"I believe it now!" Li Zheng picked up the Desert Eagle and put it away, only to find an indelible white spot on the gun barrel, the spot where Zhan Zhouzhou had just hit him.

He now understood that Zhan Zhouzhou dared to turn her back to him because she was truly confident.

“That…genius.” Li Zheng looked at her intently. “Do you think I have a talent for swordsmanship?”

I had no idea I knew about something so amazing before!
Wouldn't it be awesome if I learned that?
Zhan Zhouzhou looked him up and down carefully: "Hehe..."

hehe?

Li Zheng's face darkened. If you're not qualified, just say so. What's the point of insulting people like this?
Suddenly losing his appetite for conversation, Li Zheng sat down to continue grilling meat, intending to finish eating before leaving.

Half an hour later, the two parted ways.

Li Zheng and Xiao Ying left, their mouths greasy.

(End of this chapter)