Matrix Survival: One random treasure chest per day

Chapter 375 Those dungeons... they're so difficult!
"Haha, I still remember the time you got into a fight with someone because they called you a brat." Xiao Siyuan's expression softened.

"Oh? Why is that?" Li Zheng asked curiously from the side.

"Because 'little devil' and 'little devil' are only one character different," Gou Feng explained. "I never expected that Dr. Xiao would be so familiar with the renowned Dr. Li Zheng. My apologies!"

Meeting Xiao Siyuan seemed to be a happy thing for Gou Feng, and his mood visibly improved.

"What kind of expert am I?"

Li Zheng rarely showed a shameful expression: "In my eyes, Lao Xiao and you guys are the real heroes. One is the doctor who saved me, and the other is the soldier who protected us! You are the most worthy of respect."

"Don't say that, it's as if what we do is so noble." Xiao Siyuan's expression was very serious: "To be honest, our identity is just an ordinary profession. If we have to be respected for our duties, then this profession loses its meaning."

"That's right!"

Gou Feng also said, "Our squad leader used to tell us to treat guarding the border as a job, and just do our job well."

"But your profession involves much more hardship and is much more dangerous than others..."

"There are many dangerous professions. Aren't high-voltage electricians who work at heights dangerous? Aren't spider-men who clean the exterior walls of buildings dangerous? Why do we rarely see people admiring them?"

"Suffering? There are countless professions that are both tough and tiring: miners, nurses in hospital wards, IT professionals who work overtime until they go bald, and even food delivery riders who shuttle through every street in the city. Which of them doesn't suffer? Which of them isn't tired?"

Xiao Siyuan said calmly, "Those who deserve respect are the names written on the monument of merit. If one day our names are also engraved on it, then it's not too late for you to respect us."

"..." Li Zheng opened his mouth, wanting to say something more, but looking at Xiao Siyuan's unusually serious face, he suddenly felt at a loss for words.

He thought of a saying: Our country is always well protected by those who bear the burden. But few people know their names.

But when he thought about certain phenomena and comments on the internet before he entered the matrix, Li Zheng felt uneasy.

Some people go to great lengths to feed us, yet others, after eating and drinking their fill, use their keyboards as weapons to wantonly slander and attack the very person who fed them.

They poked the old man in the back with sickly smiles on their faces; they felt no shame, but rather pride.

There are also some people who, while waving the banner of equality, engage in despicable acts and seek personal gain!

Some people openly protect Mo, even though Mo committed murder and the evidence is conclusive. Instead of punishing the murderer, they frantically suppress related information just to maintain their social status.

Little did they know that the reason these people had the leisure to do all this nonsense was because some people were out there braving the wind, snow, and bitter cold, persevering through hardship.

It's hard to imagine whether the hearts of the descendants of these steadfast individuals would be as cold as the wind and snow if they were to encounter unfair treatment within the organization one day.

"Alright, you're here too, so you can go first." Xiao Siyuan put out the medical bed and personally carried Gou Feng onto it.

“Your case is rather complicated. We need to reopen the healed wound to perfectly reconnect the neurons when installing the prosthetic limb. This process is somewhat painful.”

Xiao Siyuan operated the medical bed, and several robotic arms twisted and turned, transforming into various different medical instruments, which were aimed at Gou Feng.

Old Xiao reached out to the leading soldier: "Give me the modification plans and materials."

"Okay, it's all here." The lead soldier handed everything to Xiao Siyuan, then asked with some concern, "For this kind of surgery, shouldn't we prepare a sterile room?"

"A sterile room?" Xiao Siyuan glanced at him. "When you Kunlun encountered the human modification platform during your exploration, did you also request the terminal to prepare a sterile room for you?"

"That...is not the case."

"Isn't that it?" Xiao Siyuan retorted, "There are plenty of antivirus and disinfectant products in the matrix, why are you worrying about this?"

"...I'm...I'm sorry..." The captain or squad leader scratched his head awkwardly and apologized repeatedly.

He was just concerned about his three comrades and didn't want any problems to arise during the surgery.

Xiao Siyuan glared at him for a moment, then said, "But what you said makes some sense. Xiao Lin, release your residence; the rest of the surgery will be performed there!"

"Okay, Dr. Xiao."

Lin Fengjiao responded, tossed out her capsule residence, granted Gou Feng access, and sent him inside, along with the medical bed. Li Zheng and Xiao Siyuan's residence contained many secrets and wasn't suitable for outsiders to see; even though Gou Feng and Lao Xiao knew each other before, Lao Xiao wouldn't make a precedent so easily.

Who knows if they'll report some "shady" goodies from Xiao Siyuan's residence to their superiors after they go back from the surgery?

Therefore, the best place for the surgery was arranged to be with Lin Fengjiao.

In the past, when people who weren't very familiar with Xiao Siyuan came for treatment, they would have their surgeries performed at Lin Fengjiao's residence, and the two of them had long been used to it.

Xiao Siyuan entered the residence, and the team leader also wanted to follow, but Lin Fengjiao raised her hand to stop him: "Dr. Xiao doesn't like to be disturbed when he is performing surgery, please understand."

This was actually just an excuse. Xiao Siyuan had initially planned to work outdoors, but now he was preventing the other party from going in to observe, which was clearly an expression of dissatisfaction with Gou Feng joining Kunlun and getting injured like this.

"Yes, yes, I understand, I understand." The captain took two steps back and nodded repeatedly.

Li Zheng thought for a moment, then stepped forward and pulled him away: "Waiting here is not going to do anything. Why don't you tell me how they got injured like this?"

Having been in the Matrix for so long, Li Zheng had seen quite a few players, but this was truly the first time he had ever seen someone survive such an injury.

Before this, the most seriously injured people he had ever seen were Yan Guang, Feng Shan, and himself.

"Sigh..." The captain was pulled to sit down by Li Zheng. He first sighed, then habitually reached into his pocket, only to give up when he found he had no cigarettes.

He felt somewhat uneasy, having gone without cigarettes for less than twenty days, but there was nothing he could do. He smacked his lips a couple of times before slowly saying, "Mr. Li should know that there's a special room in the Matrix that can only be explored by a five-person team, right..."

The conversation had barely begun when Li Zheng had already roughly figured out how these wounded soldiers ended up in this state.

Ultimately, the difficulty of various dungeons is relatively high, and even well-coordinated Kunlun members are not immune to casualties.

Li Zheng has experienced quite a few dungeons, and so far, apart from the [Biohazard Forbidden Zone], the areas he has fought in are all the most basic ones.

As his strength grew, the difficulty of these beginner areas naturally ceased to be a problem.

What Li Zheng didn't know was that even the beginner-level dungeons could be explored repeatedly by different players.

Moreover, the layout is different each time you enter.

It's like there's a dedicated dungeon designer who adjusts the dungeon map every time a dungeon is cleared.

Therefore, the role of "strategy guides" is greatly reduced.

As a result, some members of Kunlun, despite their considerable strength, often encounter setbacks due to their unfamiliarity with the "map," even with the guidance of an experienced player.

For example, Zhao Limin cleared the "Biohazard Zone" once. On his second attempt, the final boss suddenly appeared from the side and tore off his lower body and arms.

If it weren't for Ma Long and others in that team, Zhao Limin would probably have become just a name by now.

Wei Hai's injury was caused by a hermit crab's claws breaking off his arm on the Misty Island.

It was his first time participating in that instance, and ironically, he did something very similar to Li Zheng and the others: he leaned against the rock on the hermit crab's back.

However... he couldn't dodge the hermit crab's first attack when it appeared.

It can also be understood that he became part of the "plot kill".

Gou Feng's injury occurred in the arid desert. Due to a teammate's negligence, he was stung in the eye by a scorpion while trying to save the other person.

Later, after finally defeating the BOSS, I couldn't adapt because of my impaired eyesight. The BOSS seized my weakness and beat me mercilessly.

It took several other people risking their lives to save Gou Feng, but he was crippled.

"...These dungeons are so difficult?" Li Zheng asked incredulously.

Because when he played, he didn't really feel that it was very difficult; in fact, apart from the Biohazard Zone dungeon, the others seemed quite easy...

(End of this chapter)