Matrix Survival: One random treasure chest per day

Chapter 647 Life is a Closed-Book Exam
"hiss!!!"

The dog sat up, which aggravated the numerous tiny wounds on its body, causing it to gasp in pain.

Looking down, he instantly recognized the source of his wounds and cursed, "Plague Cat, what's wrong with you? You're actually going to do this to me?"

He looked up and froze: "What's going on? Who are you?"

"Don't you remember what just happened?" Li Zheng asked. "Try to think back carefully?"

"Just now..." The dog frowned, feeling a splitting headache. "We...we were attacked by a group of twisted creatures at the Red Magic Crystal level. But that's impossible. How could mere Red Magic Crystal level twisted creatures have injured us like this?"

“Not a twisted creature.” Crane took out a jar of pale blue ointment, scooped out a piece and applied it to the wound, hissing as she said, “My injury was clearly caused by Old Bull, your injury was caused by Cat, Old Bull’s injury was caused by you, Rat’s injury was caused by me, as for Cat…”

Crane glanced at the only unconscious Wind Demon Cat and sighed, "Just how unpopular is this guy? All four of us have actually laid a hand on him."

"I don't remember this happening!" the mouse cried weakly. "I'm so close to the cat, we could share a pair of pants. How could I possibly lay a hand on him?"

"Hmm... So even dogs dislike me, second only to cats?" Old Niu said sullenly. "And I treated you like a brother. When you were broke and couldn't afford to go to brothels, I was the one who lent you the money... By the way, when are you going to pay back the 10,000 red crystals you borrowed from me last time? Wait a minute! You beat me up like this, are you thinking of killing me so you don't have to pay me back?"

"How could that be?" The dog chuckled dryly and silently took out medicine to treat his injuries.

The rat struggled to crawl around on the ground, finally finding its two severed legs. It cleaned the wounds and reattached them to itself: "Crane, you should deal with the mess you made. You have the best medical skills here."

Crane tossed him a bottle filled with silvery-white powder: "I'm barely holding on myself. If you're worried about accepting the wrong one, just use a nanobot to deal with it."

"Okay." The mouse opened the bottle and poured the powder onto the wound.

Then the dust began to move, slowly seeping into the cut surface of his severed leg, reconnecting the severed blood vessels, tendons, bones, and other structures.

The cow cried out, "Crane, give me a bottle of nanobots too. I feel like some of my bones were smashed too badly by the dog, and bone spurs are stuck in my flesh. It hurts so much."

Crane gave him a copy as well, and then began to review the missing parts of his memory: "How much of what just happened do you remember?"

"I don't remember anything anyway," the dog said to itself.

Niu also said, "Me too, I don't remember anything."

The rat pointed at Li Zheng and said, "Isn't this a perfect bystander? Just ask him what we were doing when we got here, and you'll understand."

Then the group remembered there was one more person and all looked at Li Zheng.

“When I arrived, you were all locked in a fierce battle, the kind that’s going to kill each other.” Li Zheng described the scene he saw: “But there was one thing in common, you were all shouting things like ‘The Red Magic Crystal is all mine, if you dare to take it, I’ll kill you!’”

After listening carefully to the story, the dog asked suspiciously, "Really? It's just a little over a hundred red magic crystals. Even if we cut them up, we'll only get a few thousand red crystal coins at most. Is it really worth risking our lives for such a small amount of money?"

“We wouldn’t go that far, but you might not,” the rat said quietly. “You still owe money to others. If you kill your creditors, you won’t have to pay back the money and you can even make a small profit. I think you have a good motive for doing this.”

"I second that! I also think dogs are different from us; he did it on purpose!" Old Niu raised his hand but couldn't get it, so he could only move his shoulder.

The group chatted amongst themselves, changing the subject and never mentioning that a red magic crystal with abundant energy was worth countless times more than a blank red magic crystal.

The dog said that more than a hundred red magic crystals could only be cut into a few thousand red crystal coins, and that's true.

But a red magic crystal with abundant energy can be worth at least a thousand times more!
After all, the most valuable part of the Twisted Magic Crystal is not the crystal itself, but the energy inside that can be used to enhance mental power.

Li Zheng could easily see what they were thinking; they were simply beating around the bush to avoid giving him the opportunity to ask for payment, especially a portion of the Red Magic Crystals.

He shook his head: "Gentlemen, there's no need for pretense. If I were greedy for the Red Magic Crystals, I wouldn't have saved you at all. I would have let you kill each other to make a living, and then I could have taken those Red Magic Crystals without any guilt."

Upon hearing this, the four of them felt embarrassed and speechless, their faces burning with shame.

He chuckled dryly, "Our benefactor is so magnanimous; it is we who are stingy."

The dog said shamelessly, "I told you they saved us, so we should repay their kindness..."

The mouse immediately exposed their deception: "You were the one who led the way in fooling them just now; we were just cooperating with you."

"Exactly, exactly!" Old Niu nodded vigorously. "I'm ashamed to be associated with you!"

Li Zheng stared at them speechlessly. It turned out that the Evil Mercenary Group had such shameless members. They were truly better off not meeting them than hearing about them.

“Let’s not waste time with idle talk,” Li Zheng said. “Just now, I sensed an evil aura nearby that was different from the Fourth Sin Domain. The reason you were killing each other must be because you were influenced by that evil aura.”

“I guessed it too.” Crane said seriously, “Based on our benefactor’s description just now, our crazy behavior is very much in line with the greedy behavior in the Second Sin Domain.”

Because the Fourth Sin Domain is primarily driven by lust, all our energy is focused on resisting the corrupting influence of this environment. As a result, we failed to detect the emergence of greed and evil in time, allowing it to take advantage of our vulnerability.

"Greedy evil energy?" Li Zheng frowned. "How could a twisted creature from the Second Sin Domain end up in the Fourth Sin Domain?"

Could it be that the seven realms of sin are actually connected?

Also, why do the shadows controlling the five people look so much like the things that flashed behind the two infected we killed before?

Aida said that the infected were suspected to be man-made. So, could it be that someone is behind the appearance of these twisted creatures, who should have been in the Second Sin Domain, in the Fourth Sin Domain?

“Spatial turbulence occasionally occurs within the Seven Deadly Sins Domains. If a twisted creature happens to pass through the area affected by the spatial turbulence, there is a chance it will be carried to another place.” After pondering for a moment, Crane said, “Perhaps this is the kind we encountered.”

Spatial turbulence?

“I explored the Fourth Sin Domain for several hours and only encountered one Red Demon Crystal-level Twisted Creature, but the Second Sin Domain was able to send over hundreds of Twisted Creatures at once?” Li Zheng shook his head and said, “This doesn’t make sense.”

He and the others did not respond, but silently looked at each other, clearly knowing something.

Li Zheng's eyes flickered slightly, and he wisely refrained from asking further questions. Instead, he brought up another matter: "I'm in a hurry, and I came to you to buy some supplies. What do you think..."

"Yes!" Crane waved her hand and released a small mountain of frozen meat beside her: "We just need to go back to recover from our injuries, so we'll give these supplies to our benefactor as a token of our gratitude."

"I can't bring that many." Li Zheng went over and picked out a few pieces that looked better. "Do you have any seasonings?"

"Have!"

This time, the rat released a bunch of miscellaneous seasonings for Li Zheng to choose from.

"Do you have a container?" "Yes!"

Niu took out two clean lunch boxes and handed them to Li Zheng.

"..."

"Have!"

"what do you have?"

"Uh..." the dog scratched its head: "Would you like a drink, my benefactor?"

"Let me take a look." Li Zheng did not refuse.

The dog took out two one-liter bottles of dark green, bubbly beverage. Li Zheng took them, opened the caps, and sniffed them. There was a complex fruity aroma and a faint smell of alcohol.

"This is a mixed fruit wine. It has a low alcohol content and a slightly sweet and refreshing taste. In the outer city, a bottle would sell for one red crystal coin," the dog explained. "I only have these two bottles left, and I'll give them all to my benefactor."

Upon closer inspection, it did indeed match what the dog said, and all of them were unopened, so there was no problem.

Li Zheng took off his coat, which he was using as a cloth bag, put the frozen meat into the lunchbox, and then put the rest of the food, along with a dozen or so magic crystals, into the coat and carried it on his back.

"Doesn't my benefactor have any storage space?" Tsuru noticed this and said, "If my benefactor needs it, he can go to shop number three in block one, find the shop manager there, and mention my name to buy a decent storage item at cost price."

Li Zheng raised an eyebrow: "Okay, I'll go."

After saying goodbye to the four, he embarked on his journey to a deeper part of the world.

After he left, the four of them suddenly let out a sigh of relief, collapsed to the ground, some groaning and others panting.

"The Heavenly Will Organization is getting bolder and bolder, daring to provoke even our Evil Mercenary Group." Dog said hatefully, "Once I recover from my injuries, I must ask the leader for permission to go to the Heavenly Will Organization's lair and deliver some return gifts!"

"The leader won't agree." Old Niu shook his head silently. The Heavenly Will Organization is unfathomable, and the number of experts is completely unknown. Ordinary people can't afford to provoke them.

"We can settle this privately!" Rat gritted his teeth. "I'm not going to swallow this!"

"This...isn't that a bad idea?" Old Niu hesitated. As far as he was concerned, he was still alive, and there was no need to risk going into danger just to vent his anger.

"What's wrong with that?" the dog barked angrily. "Are you really that spineless? You let people bully you, and you still want to swallow your anger?"

“This is not about swallowing our anger.” Old Niu said hesitantly, “The commander often says that taking a step back opens up a vast sky, telling us not to dwell on personal grudges, but to look at the big picture. Emotional storms are our real target.”

"Bullshit!" Rat snarled. "The Heavenly Will Organization's mission is to blend into the emotional storm, you can't be unaware of that, can you? To us, the Heavenly Will Organization is nothing but traitors, they might just jump out and stab us in the back at any moment!"

The old ox murmured a few times, then asked the crane, "Crane, what do you say?"

Crane was lost in thought when he called her back to reality, and she said, "Anything is fine with me."

The other three sensed something was wrong and asked what was going on.

He then said, "We overlooked something."

"what's up?"

"We were bewitched by evil thoughts. Although we didn't become infected, it's not easy to deal with those evil thoughts that are bewitching our minds. But that person just now seemed to have no trouble at all."

After he said that, the three of them realized that something was wrong.

The rat pondered for a long time: "Do you think... he might be the person mentioned in the prophecy?"

"How is that possible?" Dog scoffed. "When he came over to get the fruit wine just now, I could clearly sense that he wasn't very strong. If he went all out, I could cripple him with one punch."

If it's the guy mentioned in the prophecy, how could he be so weak?

I suspect it's some race with unique spiritual abilities, like the Optimistic Clan, who can resist evil influences.

"Perhaps that's just a daring and carefree member of the Sinful Realm who's ventured deep into the realm of sin?"

"Whether he's the guy mentioned in the prophecy or not, it's none of our business." Old Niu flexed his right arm, which was already partially injured, and pointed to the Wind Demon Cat lying there motionless: "Isn't anyone going to take care of him? I think if his injuries aren't treated soon, our team will be eating a feast when we get back."

"Him?" the dog said, pursing his lips. "I sit at the kids' table."

Despite his words, he still struggled to get up, turned the Wind Demon Cat over, and took out some ointment to apply to it: "Tsk, Old Niu, the cat has broken more bones than you, and you must hate him so much. You poked four holes in his body, and it's a bloody mess. Two more than the crane."

Old Niu said in a muffled voice, "This only proves that the cat is all bark and no bite, and is no match for me."

“Not necessarily,” Crane corrected. “He has marks on his body from all of us attacking him, which means he faced the combined attack of the four of us for a period of time. The fact that he survived actually shows that the cat is stronger than we thought.”

"Its strength has its limits," the mouse muttered, checking the healing of the wound on its leg.

……

Li Zheng flew a distance before landing back on the ground. He took out a lunchbox from his coat, took out the frozen meat inside, used fire to cook it, sprinkled on some seasoning, and slowly ate it with some fruit wine.

“The symptoms of those people are very similar to my previous state of being parasitized by anger.” Li Zheng ate as he walked, still thinking about what had just happened: “It’s just that the degree of parasitism is different. At first, I was able to maintain my self-control, but I was gradually influenced by anger and became irritable.”

"And the greed they encountered was like an amplified effect, causing them to lose themselves in a short period of time."

"Fortunately, it didn't take long, and I was able to save them, but they were left with some aftereffects."

When greed is weakened, it manifests as stinginess. The fact that the four people couldn't be generous to their savior shows that they were clearly affected by greed to some extent. They need to rest for a while and slowly adjust back to normalcy.

"What exactly is that eerie shadow? And how does the person behind it control the twisted creature?" Li Zheng asked Old Pu in a low voice, but the other party did not answer.

Either Putin failed to detect any useful information in a short period of time, or he believed that he had to find out the answer himself.

Life is a closed-book exam.

But Li Zheng wanted to open the book and copy the answers directly.

(End of this chapter)