Matrix Survival: One random treasure chest per day

"In short, the outer city appears to be much safer than the matrix, but in reality, the dangers are hidden in places that cannot be seen."

Li Zheng reminded the group, "The super-limit level gene serum has been banned by the terminal. I don't know if there are any left in the wilderness, but they are basically non-existent in the outer city market."

However, we should not let our guard down, as the future of technological development is extremely unpredictable, and who knows what kind of weird and outlandish things might appear in the future.

This is impossible to say.

You yourselves are researchers, so you should know more about this than I do.

Chu Xiao and the Ye siblings exchanged a glance, then smiled at Li Zheng and said, "They say that a scholar should be viewed with new eyes after three days of separation. We haven't seen each other for several months, and you are still the same as before, worrying about others."

Ye Kai said, "We're all adults, we can all tell the difference, don't worry."

Li Zheng gave him a deep look: "I hope so."

At this moment, Fengshan spoke up somewhat awkwardly, asking, "Um... cough... I... can I have a private chat with you for a few minutes?"

Li Zheng was slightly taken aback, then smiled knowingly: "You, you say nice things, but you still can't put your mind at ease."

He could guess what Fengshan wanted to ask: the progress of cloning Yan Guang.

When Li Zheng returned to the outer city from the matrix, Feng Shan sent him a private message, telling him not to mention Yan Guang to Feng Shan, even if he failed, he shouldn't tell him.

At the time, Li Zheng thought that Fengshan wanted to use this self-deceptive way to support him in living a good life.

In retrospect, he was a deeply affectionate person, and once he accepted Yan Guang, he was extremely loyal to his feelings.

"If you have any questions, you can ask the professor and Miriel. Fengshan and I will go over there and talk." After arranging things for Ye Kai and the others, Li Zheng led Fengshan out of the gravity chamber.

Fengshan followed closely behind Li Zheng, his expression particularly complex.

There was worry, panic, anticipation, and longing.

"Don't worry, things are progressing quite smoothly so far. Yan Guang is much luckier than others; the terminal found enough active cells in her body." Li Zheng spoke first, reassuring Feng, and then added, "However, even so, you still need to be prepared for the worst. Yan Guang's clone may not have her previous memories. Whether you two can still be together depends on your own efforts."

"I...I understand." Upon hearing that Yan Guang had been successfully cloned, Feng Shan couldn't suppress his excitement, his voice slightly choked with emotion: "Thank you, Lao Li, thank you so much...I owe you so much, I don't know how to repay you."

"Heh." Li Zheng chuckled, "Even without Yan Guang's affair, you still owe me a lot, okay?"

He hadn't forgotten how shamelessly Feng used to get money from him on credit, and some things were still unpaid.

"Ahem..." When Feng Shan heard this, his excitement subsided considerably, replaced by embarrassment: "Owing one favor is one favor, owing a hundred favors is still one favor. In short, from now on I will follow your lead. Whatever you ask me to do, I will do without hesitation!"

"Really?" Li Zheng raised an eyebrow. "You'd better not regret this."

A sense of foreboding arose in Feng Shan's heart, and he subtly covered his buttocks with both hands: "As long as it's not that kind of thing!"

"Damn it!" Li Zheng said with disgust, "Don't you dare disgust me. My Miriel is a stunning beauty, much more pleasing to the eye than you, isn't she?" "Hehehe..." Feng Shan scratched his head: "Then tell me, what do you want me to do?"

"We'll talk about this later." Li Zheng changed the subject and asked, "Have the Muddy Kingdom behaved themselves these past two months since I left?"

"Honest! That's far too honest!" Feng Shan said solemnly, "Honest to the point of being abnormal! Ever since you went on that killing spree, the people of Muscovy seem to have fallen into a collective silence, not saying a word on the world channel. This is clearly not normal!"

“Indeed.” Li Zheng nodded, feeling guilty. “I used to be too soft-hearted, thinking that people from that country shouldn’t be condemned all at once, which led to Zhang Yue and the others being harmed.”

Originally, Li Zheng wanted to clone the others as well, but after asking around, he learned that apart from Yan Guang's body being collected by Feng Shan, the bodies of the others were scattered throughout the matrix because the location of the deceased targets could not be determined. Even if Li Zheng had gone to find them one by one, he would have missed the best time to extract the active cells.

“Zhang Yue?” Feng Shan sighed. “I remember that girl. Xiao Chun was very close to her. After she died, Xiao Chun often mentioned her.”

"Xiao Chun?" Li Zheng thought of the well-behaved girl and asked, "How is she now? Was she unable to enter the outer city this time?"

“No,” Fengshan said, “but it will be soon. The spider she’s raising has already reached the limit of the King level, and there’s no room for improvement. With her ability to raise spiderlings, she can probably enter the outer city after accumulating some experience and contributions.”

This is easy to handle; it simply involves sending it to a gene research institute for further optimization and modification using gene chimerism.

However, Little Spider's foundation is relatively weak, so it's estimated that there won't be much room for improvement in the future.

"It's good that she's alright." Li Zheng nodded and said, "The silence of the entire Muddy Kingdom is too abnormal. I guess they might be harboring some evil intentions. If you don't have anything serious to do, go back to Block 4 and keep an eye on things. You can't kill people openly in the outer city, but Block 4 is my territory. I can contact the terminal to open a back door for you. Just be discreet."

“No problem. Oh, right.” Fengshan remembered something and said, “Misaka Tsuchimon’s sister always asks me about you. I haven’t paid much attention to her, but I feel like she’s quite… um… how should I put it? Quite concerned about you.”

"Huh???" Li Zheng was taken aback: "Why does she care about me? I'm not even familiar with her."

"I don't know about that. I just suddenly remembered and wanted to let you know." Feng Shan shrugged and said, "If there's nothing else, I'll go back to Block 4 and keep watch. Do you have any money? Can you give me some funds? I had to borrow money from Lu Li for my travel expenses when I came here. You probably don't know, but Lu Li's brain problem is cured. He's so damn reliable now. I was a little uncomfortable when I first met him."

"I cured his illness." Li Zheng looked at Feng Shan with an expression of utter admiration, took out an inscription card and transferred two hundred red crystal coins to him, then warned, "Don't spend it recklessly. If I find out you're squandering it lavishly, don't even think about owing me anything in the future!"

"Alright, I just arrived in the outer city and I'm a little short on cash right now," Feng Shan said casually. "I heard you can earn this stuff in the Sin Domain, I'll go get some and pay you back later. Um, before I leave, let me ask you something, are you really not going to teach me that node condensation method?"

Li Zheng said disdainfully, "You keep saying you're a bad person? Zhan Zhouzhou learned how to condense spiritual energy nodes from Lu Li and the others, so why didn't they teach you?"

Fengshan shouted, "Who said they weren't going to teach me? It's just that I haven't learned it yet!"

Li Zheng scoffed: "You think you're right for not being able to learn it?"

"There are two sides to the story, whether it's reasonable or not." Feng Shan said confidently, "At least it proves that I'm a decent person!"

Li Zheng continued to look down on him: "You're not a bad person, yet you always borrow money from me and run up debts?"

Feng Shan raised his head: "If I were truly a bad person, would you lend me the money?"

"..." After hearing this, Li Zheng was silent for a few seconds, then nodded: "What you said makes some sense. Maybe I was really blind before."