Matrix Survival: One random treasure chest per day

Chapter 458 Singles' Day is almost here, have you all done your online shopping? (5K)

"950, 835, 902, 413, 112?"

Fengshan looked at the four scroll-like props he took out of the key box and read out the information on each scroll one by one.

Yes, all the explicit information on these tickets, apart from the numbers, contains not a single superfluous word.

Even punctuation marks!

"What is this?" Feng Shan asked, completely bewildered. "Old Li, you were chatting so enthusiastically with Zi Shu just now, didn't you even think to ask what these numbers meant?"

Li Zheng was also completely bewildered: "How the hell was I supposed to know that the outer city tickets would be like this?"

Honestly, there's no way you can be this lazy, right?

Couldn't you provide more hints besides numbers?

For example, what do these numbers represent?
"Zishu just mentioned 'street,' could these numbers be street numbers?" Zhan Zhouzhou guessed. "Or... a place like a newbie reception point?"

"possible."

Li Zheng thought for a moment, then handed the '835' scroll to Lin Fengjiao, and then gave the '950' scroll to Zhan Zhouzhou. After putting away the other three scrolls, he said, "In any case, areas with similar numbers should be relatively close in distance. I'll use scroll 902 to go to the outer city, and we'll meet at the Gravity Research Institute?"

When you run into someone, it's like getting lost while traveling; it's best to find a landmark building as a reference point.

Nobody knows how big a block in the outer city is. What if the two of them choose to meet at '950', but it turns out that area is as big as the entire Dragon Kingdom?

Although they had gathered a lot of information about the outer city through various channels, everything there remained unknown to them until they went there in person.

"Just in case, we'd better have a backup plan."

Li Zheng thought for a moment and said, "Let's set a ten-day limit. If one of us can't reach the gravity research institute within ten days, then the other person won't have to wait there like an idiot. How about that?"

Zhan Zhouzhou was silent for a moment, then said quietly, "Have you already decided to use this excuse to deliberately avoid going to the Gravity Research Institute?"

"..."

Li Zheng was startled. Damn it, he'd been seen through!
He really thought that just now...

"If you don't trust me, we can sign an agreement," Li Zheng said, forcing himself to speak. "With an agreement in place, you should be able to trust me, right?"
Zhan Zhouzhou thought for a moment and nodded vigorously: "Okay! But the deadline has to be changed, from ten days to fifteen days."

"no problem!"

Li Zheng agreed on the spot.

Then, in front of Fengshan and the others, the two finalized the terms of the agreement.

During this time, Fengshan reminded them to add a clause: 'The two of them, except for force majeure, cannot stay in one place for more than four hours on their way to the gravity research institute.'

This means that Li Zheng and his team cannot sleep for more than four hours at a time, otherwise the terminal will wake them up by force.

After giving his suggestion, Feng Shan, under Li Zheng's murderous glare, hurriedly led Yan Guang and fled the awards hall.

Fortunately, this agreement applies to both parties. Zhan Zhouzhou took the initiative to suggest that this clause could be added, but the time limit should be extended to eight hours.

Next, the agreement was revised and modified, and both parties signed it before submitting it to the terminal for notarization.

then……

It didn't work...

The reason is that this protocol function only works within the matrix area; it is not available outside the outer city.

"Oh well, all that work for nothing." Li Zheng shrugged and helplessly returned the collar to Zhan Zhouzhou.

Since the agreement couldn't be signed, he felt embarrassed to keep the prop, so he simply returned it.

It's a pity, this item has quite high potential. If we can find a way to upgrade it, it can at least catch up to the Star Glory level.

"I have a question, but I'm not sure if I should say it," Lin Fengjiao said timidly, raising her hand.

“Since Brother Li Zheng wants this collar, Sister Zhou can simply wait until he finds you in the outer city before giving it to him.”

"Wouldn't that be the best of both worlds?"

Upon hearing this, Li Zheng and Zhan Zhouzhou exchanged a glance and fell silent.

tsk...

It's true what they say, those involved are often blinded by their own interests. The two of them spent so much time studying the terms of the agreement, while Lin Fengjiao, who had been observing for a while, saw things much more clearly than they did.

"What if she doesn't give it to me then?" Li Zheng pointed at Zhan Zhouzhou, forcing an excuse.

"...Sister Zhou doesn't mind giving you the things in advance, so she shouldn't go back on her word, right?" Lin Fengjiao didn't realize that Li Zheng was just trying to make up for it with this excuse, and she thought about it seriously before saying, "Even if she doesn't give them to you later, Brother Li Zheng, you won't lose out. Sister Zhou is so beautiful, isn't it good to have a beautiful lady accompanying you in the outer city?"

Isn't Zhan Zhouzhou beautiful?
beautiful!

Especially her figure, which perfectly captured the hearts of men; no one could find a single flaw in her.

But when it comes to beauty...

Li Zheng glanced at Miriel, who was standing beside him in a daze. Compared to the little succubus, Zhan Zhouzhou was slightly inferior.

However, Zhan Zhouzhou's appearance has a very natural beauty; the kind that makes you think, "Hmm, she's a beauty that could possibly grow up on Earth," the moment you see her.

Miriel, on the other hand, inherited the characteristics of the succubus race, and her beauty was so striking that it seemed almost unreal.

"Am I that kind of shallow person?" Li Zheng wanted to say that Miriel was much more pleasing to the eye than Zhan Zhouzhou and that he didn't care at all, but when he met Zhan Zhouzhou's narrowed eyes, which flashed with a cold light, he felt a tremor in his heart and immediately changed his words: "You're right, I am that kind of shallow person!"

"It's settled then. I'll get the collar when we meet in the outer city."

After saying this, Li Zheng immediately left the awards hall and returned to the room where Xiao Siyuan was.

Not long after he returned, Lin Fengjiao's figure appeared in the distance.

Li Zheng didn't say much about what had just happened, but simply told her and Xiao Siyuan not to use the scroll to go to the outer city rashly, and to wait until he had explored the outer city thoroughly before making any decisions.

With their assurances, Li Zhengcai confidently used the return function and returned to his room on the grassland.

His sudden appearance startled the rabbits, and after a moment of chaos, they all scurried back into their burrows to hide.

By this time, it was completely dark, almost pitch black.

Li Zheng conjured a lantern, found a direction, and prepared to use up the remaining exploration opportunities.

In fact, given his current physical condition, he could see in the dark even without a lantern. The reason he took out the lantern for illumination was more out of habit.

With his abilities, ordinary daily exploration would be no challenge at all.

The power of a King-level Demon Blade is so great that it's like cutting through butter in the Transcendent and Star-level tiers. (Today isn't over yet, and Li Zheng's combat strength is still based on the level before the Demon Blade was upgraded, so the exploration difficulty is relatively lower.)
Li Zheng did not choose a room casually because he was in a hurry. He would check all the metal doors in each place before making a decision.

So in his subsequent daily explorations, he chose non-combat rooms and obtained some common materials and special metals.

Fortunately, they received some of the rare diamond-grade metal 'vibranium', totaling over 500 grams.

The extraordinary special metal is called 'Loham Force Alloy', a material that is superior to vibranium in terms of hardness, toughness, and ductility.

However, the quantity is extremely small. After exploring for several days, Li Zheng has only managed to accumulate about 800 grams.

Of these 800 grams, 500 grams came from the last time I opened a super-level treasure chest...

Aside from some materials obtained from treasure chests, Li Zheng has yet to see any blueprints corresponding to 'parts' and 'modules'.

Currently, the highest level of technology used in the entire matrix is ​​still the 'high-level module'.

On the contrary, Li Zheng obtained a super-powerful core during his exploration tonight.

Hidden among those useless machines on the wall, he might have overlooked them if it weren't for Old Pu's reminder.

The rest are materials obtained by dismantling equipment such as 'refrigerators', with the highest value being gold, which is not very valuable.

If it weren't for materials like 'vibranium', Li Zheng would have preferred to spend the entire time in the combat room killing monsters.

At least these rooms can provide a considerable amount of meat and blood...

There were also two gold-grade blueprints for ordinary weapons, one for a firearm and the other for another. They were useless to Li Zheng, so he simply put them in the legion's warehouse as a perk for the legion members.

……

Bang!
As the capsule accommodation unfolded, Li Zheng stretched and said to Miriel, "Let's rest here tonight. Should we cook the meals?"

"I'll take care of it, you get some rest." Miriel took the initiative to do some chores, since she could hardly get involved in battles and didn't want to appear like a freeloader.

"Okay, I'll trouble you then."

Li Zheng nodded, opened the door and headed straight for the planting area. He first ate all the newly formed Flame Flowers, finally maxing out his explosive power.

There were two extra flowers left, and Li Zheng, too lazy to use the world channel, simply gave them away in a lottery within the legion. This kind of 'freebie' benefit made all the members of the Qidian Legion shout, "Go for it!"

With its explosive power maxed out, the Flame Branch crop became useless. Li Zheng immediately ordered the Ugly Farmer to stop cultivating it and dig up all the Flame Branches to prevent the seeds from spreading.

Even if you take this silver-grade item to the outer city, it probably won't be of much value, so there's no need to go to the trouble of cultivating it.

After all, growing this stuff...

Wasting culture medium!
Intermediate culture medium is platinum grade!
Seeds for producing silver-grade crops?

Anyone with a sound mind wouldn't do something so stupid...

However, even though Li Zheng frequently took out and ate the newly formed Flame Flowers these days, he inevitably missed the optimal time to eat some of them.

At first, a few were wasted. Later, when the Flame Flower matured, Ugly Farmer would remind Li Zheng. If he was busy and did not reply in time, Ugly Farmer would take the initiative to wait half an hour and convert it into seeds.

At this moment, Li Zheng had a moment to take a look.

Good guy!
More than 180 seeds!
There's not much to say about that. Li Zheng kept twenty pills as spares and stuffed the rest into the legion's warehouse.

He also casually placed forty culture dishes inside.

The materials used to make these petri dishes were extracted directly from the Legion's warehouse on a one-to-one basis. He himself didn't use much of it.

If it weren't for the fact that the materials contributed by the group members in the warehouse were insufficient, he would have liked to make more culture dishes.

This kind of equipment is related to the foundation of the entire legion, so of course the more the better.

In the past two days, Li Zheng has occasionally paid attention to the trading hall. He has noticed that some people already have similar equipment, and its performance is not much worse than the one that Li Zheng made.

Even previously ignored devices like "sun lamps" have seen a surge in sales.

But even if those people had petri dishes, they couldn't compete with Li Zheng in terms of production efficiency.

Do not ask.

When asked, intermediate culture medium is the eternal god!

The growth rate is 2.5 times faster than the culture medium obtained during exploration!

Most importantly, the quantity is huge!

Calculated by the ton!
Besides the petri dish-like equipment, even the levitation propulsion system that Li Zheng previously monopolized has now been taken down.

Several players with identical blueprints appeared in the trading hall, driving down prices and dumping the hovercraft in droves.

Li Zheng had compared the blueprints with his own and realized that these people could only make a profit of one-tenth of the cost of selling a single air-lifting propulsion device.

However, thanks to the large number of players, these sellers can make a considerable amount of money each day by adopting a strategy of low profit margins and high sales volume.

Li Zheng had considered using all his free time to craft and sell props, but then he realized... he was already incredibly busy, so he figured he might as well rest a bit more.

Besides, they were just some top-tier gold materials; at the time, I didn't think it was necessary to go through all that trouble to get them.

Who would have thought that adjusting the difficulty behind the scenes would result in high-level players obtaining far fewer low-level materials during their explorations?
By the time they wanted to make a fortune using these props, it was too late...

If he tries to sell off his air-lift thrusters at the last minute, let alone how many he can produce in a day, he probably won't be able to withstand the price war when everyone is scrambling to drive down the price.

The buyers aren't stupid, are they?
Seeing that you sellers are trying to lower the price, I'll definitely choose to wait and see, and then make a purchase once the price stabilizes.

So, you don't actually make much money.

After removing all the flame branches, a large area of ​​the planting area was cleared. Li Zheng instructed Chou Nong to allocate the empty petri dishes to other crops according to the proportions.

The breeding method of Arctic Ibaraki has been developed by the Ugly Farmers, and now there are five petri dishes for this platinum-level crop.

It's not that we can't grow more, but the main problem is that Li Zheng has to manually inject low-temperature cold air into the culture dishes.

I'm so busy every day, how can I have so much time to guard these Arctic Ibaraki trees and keep injecting them with low-temperature cold air?
To put it bluntly, he's just lazy...

Most of the other crops were vegetables and ingredients like ginseng flowers, which Li Zheng had collected during his exploration and while browsing the trading hall. There were as many as thirteen kinds, each with a different taste.

In addition, the special effects of the culture medium allow you to occasionally harvest some mutated ingredients that taste much better than the original.

Unfortunately, all crops mutated through the culture medium cannot be replanted, even fruits and vegetables, which have specific seeds but cannot be grown.

Li Zheng estimates that it may be related to changes at the 'genetic' level.

He didn't like eating honey fruit, so he didn't plant many. He only planted a few at the beginning. Currently, among all the plants, only the petri dishes used to grow honey fruit do not have intermediate nutrient solution added.

When it will bear fruit, and how much fruit it will yield, is all up to fate.

Li Zheng doesn't eat the fruit that grows. He used to throw it into the trading hall, but now that he has a legion, he stuffs it all into the legion's warehouse.

The price is very low; you can exchange almost two iron ingots for one honey fruit.

Because it's a dessert, it's very popular among the guild members, and it always causes a frenzy whenever it's put into the guild warehouse.

No matter how much Li Zheng released, it was all gone in an instant.

Li Zheng hadn't considered adding more varieties.

It's meant to be a benefit, but if you give too much, people won't appreciate it anymore.

After inspecting the planting area, Li Zheng took another look at the medicine preparation station.

As players' strength increases, the quality of the potions they produce ranges from Iron to Gold, with occasional orders for Platinum-grade potions.

As for diamond-grade, they are extremely rare, let alone extraordinary grade.

The reason is simple: the materials are just too hard to gather!

Li Zheng himself hasn't managed to scrape together much money yet.

It's embarrassing now.

Relying on Li Zheng's own exploration and collection, he might not even be able to obtain a single material in a whole day. (Not all blood can be used as material for gene-based drugs; this has been mentioned before.)
Go to the trading hall and search?

Who doesn't know that blood samples can be used to make medicine these days?
Whether you need it or not, everyone is stockpiling it unless absolutely necessary.

Moreover, solo players produce very little extraordinary blood; only established large legions have sufficient quantity and variety.

Li Zheng did try to purchase from Liu Qishao and others.

But these people seemed to have pre-arranged their statements.

You want to buy it?
you can!

Let's discuss the terms.

We're not greedy; no matter how much medicine you produce in a day, we'll take it in proportion!

The percentage isn't high either; 30% or 40% is enough.

Will Li Zheng agree to these conditions?

That's absolutely impossible!

Whether it's the Qidian Legion or the players from the original Channel 879, who isn't waiting for these potions to boost their stats?
If we give you a share of production, won't the development speed of these cronies be slowed down?
After much deliberation, Li Zheng realized that if he agreed, he could at most raise his physique to the extraordinary 5+ limit before going to the outer city, which would only have a limited impact on his combat power.

It would be better to make a small sacrifice and preserve the current production model.

After quickly finishing his tour, Li Zheng checked the status of several intelligent humanoid robots, confirmed that there were no problems, and then turned around and went to the animal pen.

In the small animal pen, the husky had recovered and was huddled in a corner, looking aggrieved.

Upon seeing Li Zheng appear, it barely moved before the female forest wolf bared its teeth and snapped back. The dog's face contorted with human-like terror as it scurried into a corner, as if to say: "I was wrong, big brother, please calm down."

This cowardly behavior amused Li Zheng; the husky's bullying and cowardly nature was perfectly displayed by the Mediterranean-looking dog.

"Alright, come out now, we'll get you two back to a bigger space."

The pen was opened, and the female wolf obediently got up and came out of the small pen.

The husky buried its head under its front paws, pretending not to hear, and stayed in its enclosure, refusing to come out.

In the past, when other forest wolves didn't like it, it could use its energy to run a little further and entertain itself.

Now that the wolf pack has been subdued by Li Zheng, there's not much space left in the animal pen, so there's nowhere to hide.

The Timberwolves could easily deal with it.

You should know that during this period, the wolves in the forest have suffered quite a bit because of it. Almost every wolf has a lot of complaints about this husky that has mixed into the pack.

(End of this chapter)