Matrix Survival: One random treasure chest per day

Chapter 333 It was I who was truly damned!

"Go directly into the outer city?" Li Zheng was now completely tempted. That was the place where the method to leave the matrix was hidden. Going there would give him a chance to return to Earth.

"Intrigued?" The butcher suddenly turned his head, a strange smile appearing on his otherwise ordinary face: "The outer city is not as wonderful as you imagine. That is where the real test begins."

Li Zheng asked, "Is the outer city more dangerous than the matrix I'm currently in?"

"Danger? Hahahaha..." The butcher suddenly burst into laughter: "You haven't encountered the real danger yet. You'll miss this place when the time comes, because this is paradise."

The Butcher seems to have more authority than Roemand and can reveal a lot more information.

Such opportunities are rare, so Li Zheng continued, "After we go to the outer city, will we not be able to return here at will?"

“That’s right, unless you’ve received a mission like me, you can’t come back here.” The butcher raised his knife and drew dotted lines back and forth on the armored dragon turtle’s corpse.

Li Zheng took two steps closer and asked, "I heard there's a way to leave the matrix in the outer city, is that true?"

From the side, Li Zheng saw that the butcher's smile was becoming increasingly eerie, a smile that was both sarcastic and bitter.

"It's true, and it's not true."

The butcher seemed unwilling to discuss this topic: "You'll have to find out about this yourself once you get to the outer city. In short... things aren't as wonderful as you think."

Before Li Zheng could ask anything more, the butcher suddenly swung his cleaver, slashing out invisible marks in the air. The armored dragon turtle's corpse, which had been motionless, began to disintegrate layer by layer with these invisible marks.

A huge crack appeared at the junction of the upper and lower parts of the tortoise shell, revealing the grayish-brown flesh and internal organs. As the butcher swung his cleaver, pieces of fresh meat were peeled off, leaving behind the tortoise shell, internal organs, and bones.

The entire decomposition process lasted only thirty seconds, and the two armored dragon turtles were left standing in place with only their frames inside. Fresh internal organs were wrapped in the frames, and not a single piece of meat was left on the bones; they were completely cleaned.

With a wave of his hand, the butcher gathered up the meat and bones, then ripped open the turtle's shell, which had lost its skeletal support. He went inside and found the heart, gallbladder, and kidneys, leaving the rest behind without giving them a second glance.

Now Li Zheng understood why the butcher's clothes were so dirty.

Li Zheng asked curiously, "Isn't there a dedicated decomposition function? Why go through all this trouble to do it yourself?"

Without turning his head, the butcher walked towards the two armored dragon turtle heads and said, "Didn't you notice that the meat I took by hand was more and more intact than what was broken down?"

After hearing what he said, Li Zhengcai realized that every time the butcher swung his knife, he cut into the bone and muscle structure of the dragon turtle without damaging the appearance of the meat. Moreover, the materials obtained were at least three times more than those obtained by the decomposition function!
"You mean..." Li Zheng had some guesses about this, but he still had questions: "The terminal once gave a hint that the decomposed ingredients were safer, but the stuff you made..."

At this point, Li Zheng suddenly realized that the butcher standing in front of him was terrifyingly strong. He didn't care about the bacteria, viruses, or parasites inside a mere diamond-level creature.

The butcher split the dragon turtle's head open with two slashes, dug out the edible meat, brain, and other parts, then peeled off the skin, picked out two complete grayish-yellow crystal cores, and tossed them to Li Zheng: "You need to know that the terminal provides so many functions, it's definitely not free."

While the resulting products are safer to consume, most of them are taken away as processing fees.

"These two crystal cores are for you. Without you, I wouldn't have obtained these two ingredients that are about to break through to the extraordinary level."

Why wouldn't you accept something for free? Li Zheng put away the two crystal cores with a clear conscience; these were great items that could enhance Xiaoying's strength!
"Transaction fees? What do the terminals need these transaction fees for?"

The butcher took the skinned skull, which was good for making soup, leaving behind a pile of useless entrails and tortoise skin fragments: "Do you think any of the players who went to the outer city had any descendants?"

Upon hearing this, Li Zheng understood.

The matrix provides a decomposition function, but when all players decompose corpses, a lot of food is taken away to supply the outer city's consumption.

"Aren't there any other food sources outside the city?" Li Zheng felt there was something unreasonable about this.

There are countless players in the outer city, but has no one ever brought in something like a cultivation dish or edible crops?
“Yes, but it’s far from enough!” the butcher explained. “The rules in the outer city are different from here. The growth cycle of each crop is much longer, unlike here, where a harvest can be completed in two or three days at most.”

“In the past, some people took advantage of the convenience of doing tasks to plant crops in this area, but when they came back next time, they couldn’t find the coordinates.”

Crops grown without permission...

Could it be a petri dish found during the exploration?
Li Zheng was sweating profusely. On the day he entered the matrix, he discovered several culture dishes, and at that time, the crops were not yet mature.

Doesn't that mean that the person who planted the crop was actually gone for less than twenty hours?
The butcher said dejectedly, "Actually, I secretly brought some things in not long ago. I wanted to grow some vegetables and fruits to change things up, and also help a friend cultivate some poisonous plants for research."

Unfortunately, the seeds weren't mature enough when you came in, resulting in the loss of the seeds and you didn't even have time to take the culture dishes with you.

Vegetables, fruits, and poisonous plants.

Gan!
It can't be such a coincidence, right?

A few beads of cold sweat appeared on Li Zheng's forehead: "So when you came back this time, you didn't go looking for the things you planted back then?"

"I searched, and I was lucky enough to find the room where I planted the crops in less than half a day." The butcher gritted his teeth in anger: "There were only four culture dishes left, and everything that was planted in them was gone! You players have no morals at all! I brought in a culture medium storage tank to speed up the crop growth time, and that damned guy broke it!"

Grass!
This is confirmed! That damned person was me!
Li Zheng wiped away his cold sweat and thought to himself, "I don't know whether to call the butcher's luck good or bad."

If he finds out that the person who took his crops and smashed the storage tanks was the same person who was the target of his mission this time, I wonder what he will think.

After venting his frustrations, the butcher's expression shifted, as if he had received some instructions. He said to Li Zheng, "The mission is complete. I should head back to the outer city now. Before I leave, I'll give you some advice: once you get the ticket to enter the outer city, don't rush over. Wait until the time is right."

Is the time ripe?

What time?
Just as Li Zheng was about to ask further questions, the butcher turned into a phantom and disappeared from sight.

Unexpected, right? A sudden update!

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(End of this chapter)