Matrix Survival: One random treasure chest per day

Chapter 639 The Blacksmith Emerges from Seclusion, and the Lamp Bearer's Improvements Are Complete!
"Where do we go next?"

Stepping out of Dream Flower Pavilion, Miriel asked a question.

"Let's go to the black market in Block 7 first. We don't have enough stimulating gland fluid to make that much culture medium, so we need to buy some." Li Zheng turned his head and continued deeper into the factory area.

He had already located the black market a couple of days ago when he accompanied Miriel shopping, so he knew the way well now.

The Black Market in Block 7 is located at the deepest part of the factory area. It consists of three parallel narrow alleys, with crisscrossing paths and a complex terrain.

This was to allow black market merchants to escape when law enforcement teams came on missions.

On the way, Li Zheng took out two cloaks, one for himself and one for Miriel, to conceal their appearance.

These two cloaks were just bought a couple of days ago; they're not high-grade and have extremely poor defensive capabilities.

It has only one function: to conceal one's identity.

This cloak has an extremely powerful characteristic: no matter how large or small the user is, once they put on the cloak, they will have a uniform appearance, and even their voice will be processed.

After acquiring the cloak, Li Zheng finally understood how the gigantic races in the outer city operated. It turned out that the hoods used to forcibly hide each player's appearance during previous missions were based on a real-life model.
The fertilization gland fluid produced by leaf-biting ants isn't really a good thing in the outer city. After all, if the botanical garden dares to use this stuff, some precious plants will be taken away in one go.

If you squeeze all the potential out at once, it won't be able to flower and bear fruit anymore, and it might even lose all its leaves.

Only small botanical gardens that grow low-grade crops, have large yields, and have low raw plant prices will purchase this material in large quantities.

As for why we didn't buy culture medium?

The price of oxytocin fluid is less than one-tenth that of intermediate culture medium, but the short-term effects are almost the same, and the cost savings are considerable.

Of course, there must be advantages to having a more expensive culture medium.

It's not as simple as not fully utilizing the plant's potential.

On the contrary, the culture solution has the potential to cause mutations in the plant, making it even more effective.

However, this kind of mutation is somewhat dependent on luck. Despite working so hard for Li Zheng for so long, Chou Nong still hasn't managed to produce a single plant above the Star Glory level.

I went to a shop on the black market that dealt in raw materials, spent 100 red crystals, and took away a whole bunch of bottles and jars filled with fertility gland fluid.

After being placed inside the capsule, it filled the entire capsule, finally giving Li Zheng a sense of fullness.

Li Zheng estimated that by buying so many things at once, he had saved the shop owner warehouse space. After receiving the money and delivering the goods, the shop owner happily saw him and Miriel out of the black market, and only returned home after watching them walk away.

They were incredibly enthusiastic.

In the days that followed, Li Zheng immersed himself in the blacksmith's shop and busied himself with the orders for Meng Hua Ge. Making culture medium was different from other things, and Li Zheng explored and found a shortcut.

As long as the material ratio is correct, the production capacity can reach two liters per batch!

Theoretically, production could continue to increase, but Li Zheng wasn't in a hurry and just continued producing at his own pace.

In my spare time, I accompany Miriel out for a stroll to relax, and while we're at it, we head to Dreamflower Pavilion to hand over the culture medium we've prepared.

After eight days of work, all 200,000 culture media were successfully traded.

While Li Zheng was busy, the blacksmith apprentices who had gone out to collect materials also returned, all full of vigor and confidence in the test the blacksmith had given them.

Li Zheng originally wanted to watch and broaden his horizons.

As a result, they didn't give him a chance at all. After returning, they all went into seclusion behind the blacksmith's shop to work on their projects.

Zhan Zhouzhou came once to discuss the registration capital for opening the store. Since Li Zheng also needed to buy a house and a factory, the amount of red crystals he had was far from enough, so he had to settle for registering the store first.

When Le Jia was shopping with Miriel, he casually invited her over. She agreed without hesitation, but her legs were shaking like a leaf, clearly indicating that she was unwilling.

Time will tell. Li Zheng believed that after spending more time with Le Jia, she would understand what kind of person he was. He told her to go to Block 4 to find Zhan Zhouzhou and mention his name there, and then he ignored her.

On the day the blacksmith had promised to deliver the lamp to the bearer, he and Miriel got up early in the morning and waited in the blacksmith's shop.

Feeling utterly bored, he took stock of the condition of the three animal pens.

Two more pregnant female wolves have appeared here, bringing the total number of mutated wolves to four, in addition to the mutated alpha wolf from the beginning. One of them has emerald green fur all over its body, and leaf-like patterns appear around its paws as it walks.

This signifies the awakening of wood-type gene abilities.

Its fur is blue with a hint of green, and its body is agile and swift. When it flicks its tail, it creates a gentle breeze.

This is the awakening of wind-type gene abilities.

The last one didn't change in appearance; only when it opened its mouth could you see its mouthful of sharp, metallic teeth.

Li Zheng tried it out, and the forest wolf chewed ordinary iron blocks like it was tofu, tearing the iron ingot to shreds in just a few bites.

This is the awakening of the ability to strengthen certain organs.

If Li Zheng were to trade these few forest wolves and register them as pets, it would be a small but significant help to many new players.

Unfortunately, these wolves are too old and lack potential. For now, they can only be used as breeding wolves to raise offspring, hoping that some of their offspring will have higher potential.

As for the outlier in the wolf pack, that Mediterranean husky...

He's still the same as before, both mischievous and cowardly.

When Li Zheng ignored it, he kept a low profile among the wolves, only daring to stay in a corner and not daring to make any big movements.

But as soon as Li Zhengyi paid attention to them, it became arrogant, strutting around in front of the wolf king, snorting contemptuously and making all sorts of provocations.

Then, when Li Zheng stops paying attention to them, the wolf king will lead the way in giving them a beating.

These days, every time Li Zheng feeds them, this scene repeats itself in the wolf enclosure.

At first, Li Zheng tried to manage it, but later he found that the wolf king was very careful with its attacks, only hurting the husky but never actually injuring it, so Li Zheng stopped interfering.

The strange thing is that the Mediterranean husky looks very shrewd, and after being dealt with by the wolf king a few times, it should have learned to restrain itself.

It just won’t!
On the contrary, it seems to have become even more egregious.

Sometimes Li Zheng even wondered if it had some kind of peculiar fetish, like being beaten up by the wolf pack...

On the other hand, the Rongrong Rabbit group finally overtook the others and underwent a collective mutation.

I don't know if there's something wrong with these rabbits' constitution, but their mutations have taken a completely bizarre path compared to those of the wolves.

Delicious Banyan Rabbit
The mutant of the Rongrong rabbit is more likely to gain weight than the ordinary Rongrong rabbit, and its meat is delicious and juicy.

The lean meat is not dry, and the fatty meat is not greasy.

Rabbit heads are suitable for spicy and numbing flavors, while rabbit legs are suitable for braising.

To cater to your dinner table, they have also enhanced their reproductive capabilities, producing at least ten offspring per litter.

The overall impression can be summed up in two words—sensible!

All the Banyan Rabbits in the entire rabbit pen have mutated into Delicious Banyan Rabbits, and every female rabbit has entered her pregnancy period and will give birth in about half a month.

Therefore, Li Zheng specially bought some materials from Zi Yuan and created several animal pens inside the capsule, specifically for the future little rabbits.

Incidentally, he also separated the three pregnant female wolves and put them in a new enclosure to prevent them from bumping into each other and causing any accidents when the wolves were dealing with the husky.

Finally, the leaf-eating ants were captured at Kanger Botanical Garden. The first batch of ant eggs had already hatched, and the queen ant had the leaf-eating ants build a nest in the corner of the enclosure and stay there to focus on laying eggs.

They have no worries about food and water. Li Zheng provides them with the maximum amount of feed every day. After more than ten days, the number of ants has reached nearly four digits, and the amount of ant secretions has accumulated to nearly 100 liters.

The current production volume cannot keep up with Li Zheng's consumption.

However, once the leaf-biting ants continue to reproduce and their numbers reach a certain level, Li Zheng will no longer need to go out to purchase the fertilization gland fluid.

Li Zheng added some more feed to the animal pens, and finally the blacksmith opened the door and came out from the back.

The blacksmith holds a lantern in one of his large hands; it is the improved version of the lantern holder!
(End of this chapter)