Matrix Survival: One random treasure chest per day

Chapter 38 Desert Fire Scorpion
The light faded, and a scorching wind, carrying fine sand and gravel, swept over Li Zheng, covering his head and face.

"Bah bah bah!"

Caught off guard, Li Zheng swallowed a mouthful of sand and spat it out repeatedly.

"Waaah! Tuituitui!"

Sakura lay on the edge of the pocket, calling out and spitting out the sand from her mouth.

Li Zheng pulled it out, put it inside his chest, and comforted it, saying, "You stay in the pocket inside for now, and we'll let you out in the next room."

"Hey."

Sakura nestled quietly into the small lining pocket, remaining obediently still.

After settling Xiaoying in, Li Zheng looked up at the room, holding the Desert Eagle he had taken out when he entered.

After two days of exploration, Li Zheng was no longer the naive man he once was; he understood the importance of always having weapons at hand.

Even if it only takes a moment to retrieve an item from the capsule dwelling.

"Another non-metallic room... Is this... a desert?"

Golden sand covered the ground, and a hot wind, seemingly from nowhere, swept through, stirring up dust everywhere.

Looking up, through the hazy sand and dust, one can vaguely see the azure sky, with a blazing sun hanging high in the sky.

"Is this the real sky? Or is it simulated using some kind of technology?" Li Zheng asked, puzzled.

It's a pity the gravity shoes are now ruined, otherwise he could have gone up and investigated.

The desert room was vast and expansive; as far as the eye could see, there was nothing but sand and soil, not even a single cactus, the kind of plant that can survive in the desert.

Li Zheng gripped the Desert Eagle tightly, narrowed his eyes, and scanned his surroundings: "Preys' Eye indicates there is a bronze-level creature here, but it hasn't made a sound since we came in. It must be hiding somewhere, waiting to deliver a fatal blow. We can't be careless."

With sand and dust obscuring his vision, Li Zheng could not see very far and had to walk into the depths of the desert.

With his ears perked up and focused intently, Li Zheng dared not miss the slightest sound, his gaze constantly scanning his surroundings.

"The sand underfoot feels soft yet firm, which means there is a thick layer of sand in this room."

Looking down at his feet, Li Zheng, wearing the casual shoes he had worn when entering the matrix, dug a couple of times with his feet, but no metal surface was visible. "That bronze-level creature should be relatively small, able to burrow underground. There's a high probability it will be ambushed along the way."

Li Zheng was pondering when suddenly an idea struck him.

"I wonder if the Eye of Preys can see through the dangers beneath the sand?"

Just try and you will find out.

Li Zheng looked up, enduring the discomfort of sand flying into his eyes, and tried to look ahead.

Sure enough, the Eye of Preys displayed a message:

Walk in this direction, and in fifteen minutes you will see the door to the next room.

"There's a show!"

Li Zheng was overjoyed. Although there was no specific information about the next room, at least he could proceed in this direction with peace of mind.

Look to the left:

Walk in this direction, and in eighteen minutes you will see the door to the next room.

right:

[Congratulations! After selecting the wrong answer twice, you've finally found the right path. Head this way, and you'll be attacked in five minutes.]

"???"

Li Zheng was confused. Ever since he explored the golden treasure chest, the Eye of Preys seemed to have broken down, and sometimes the prompts it gave had a tone of... silly netizens.

"Could a piece of technological equipment really develop consciousness?"

The thought flashed through Li Zheng's mind, and he immediately found it amusing. "Isn't that a plot device from a science fiction movie? Will it get infected by a virus later on, transform into the final villain, and steal the female lead from me?"

Shake your head and banish that thought from your mind.

I must have watched too many Bollywood movies to have such thoughts.

"Let's go see what kind of monster it is. Instead of taking the initiative, we're just staying at home waiting for it to come to us."

I stepped to the right, and soon after, the Eye of Preys gave me another hint:
[A lazy creature is hiding under the mound ahead. You can choose to go around it, or shoot now.]

"Bump?"

Li Zheng looked in that direction and, at the edge of his line of sight, could barely make out a raised area the size of a millstone on the flat sand.

The bulge wasn't very pronounced; if it weren't for the Eye of Preys providing a clue, Li Zheng might not have even noticed it.

"Was the word 'lazy' put in quotation marks?"

Li Zheng pondered it carefully and realized that the so-called laziness was not laziness at all, but rather there was another hidden reason.

"Preys' Eye provided the timely warning; in this environment, the current distance is the limit of my effective firing range."

Raise your gun, aim, and fire!

The swift, fluid movement was followed by a deafening burst of gunfire.

It was just a simple shot; the energy blast pierced through the hazy air and struck the sandy protrusion in the blink of an eye. "Hiss!!!"

The shot seemed to enrage the creature; after a bloodcurdling scream, the sand suddenly rose, and a millstone-sized creature emerged from it.

"Illustrated Guide!"

The scan function is enabled; lock onto the target.

beep.

Desert Fire Scorpion

Bronze

A creature covered in thick armor, solitary in nature, it moves with ease across desert terrain.

When not hunting, they like to hide inside the sand.

Abilities: Sand, Deadly Poison

Weaknesses: Mouthparts, weak to ice.

Li Zheng glanced at the interface and took in all the information about the Desert Fire Scorpion. "No wonder the Eye of Preys warned of a low threat level. It's another weakness that I've managed to overcome."

"Hiss~ Crack!"

The desert fire scorpion had spotted Li Zheng. It roared and swung its limbs, moving in a crisscross pattern as it charged across the sand at a speed comparable to that of an electric scooter!

Beneath its grayish-yellow carapace, two insect eyes gleamed with a cold light, fixed intently on Li Zheng, who dared to provoke it.

In its eyes, such a frail body, without any shell covering it, could be easily cut in two by its giant claws once it caught it.

Just like the prey that was devoured not long ago.

"They were pretty fast, but unfortunately they ran into me..."

Li Zheng calmly watched the Desert Fire Scorpion charging towards him, slowly switching his Desert Eagle to special firing mode, and silently recited a phrase in his mind.

"Ice and Fire Attachment - Ice Type!"

shhhhhh!
The Desert Eagle fired, its snake needles, wrapped in icy blue aura and extremely cold, transforming into dazzling ice bullets that shot in a line towards the Desert Fire Scorpion.

After switching to the special firing mode, the Desert Eagle's recoil was almost non-existent, and Li Zheng was not worried at all that his continuous and rapid firing would affect his shooting accuracy.

"Ok?"

Li Zheng raised an eyebrow slightly. "This shooting feel... I think I can be even more accurate with it!"

His hand holding the gun was as steady as a rock, and he made very subtle adjustments every time he fired.

Shot after shot, one snake needle after another was fired.

Snapped!
A bullet of ice was dodged by the desert fire scorpion. The bullet, which was originally aimed at the weak point of the mouthpiece, hit its carapace and shattered along with the ice needle.

"Hiss~~!"

The desert fire scorpion roared in pain, followed by several more icy bullets striking its body. The intense pain was transmitted to its brain and received by its nerves.

It then realized that the seemingly fragile bullet, after shattering, had easily riddled its hard shell with holes.

A large amount of yellowish-brown mucus oozed from the wound. Driven by instinct, the desert fire scorpion was immediately filled with fear, its limbs twisting and changing direction, as if it wanted to escape.

Its not-so-bright brain just couldn't understand how this seemingly weak creature could hurt itself.

In fact, if he didn't run away quickly, the other party was fully capable of killing him!

escape!
Anyway, I have more than one territory, so I can just run away!
The desert fire scorpion, disregarding everything, turned at an even faster speed, trying to escape.

It was already terrified before it even got within ten meters of Li Zheng.

"Want to go?"

Li Zheng sneered, turned the gun, aimed at the Desert Fire Scorpion's joints, and continued firing.

Shhhhhh.

clap clap clap!
Even with its increased speed, the Desert Fire Scorpion still couldn't escape being hit by every shot, resulting in severed limbs.

"I didn't expect that the improved neural reaction speed would also have a positive impact on shooting."

Li Zheng calmly filled the magazine with snake needles as he watched the desert fire scorpion, its limbs severed and struggling on the ground.

"Although the Desert Eagle's special firing mode has very little recoil, there are still subtle effects."

Li Zheng reset the magazine, didn't get close, and directly raised his gun to fire, as if he were shooting at a stationary target at a shooting range, firing shot after shot.

"But since I drank the Black Iron-level gene serum just now, this effect is negligible to me."

"This is true accuracy, hitting the bullseye every time!"

shhhhhh!
After another twenty snake needles were fired, the desert fire scorpion finally stopped struggling. A large area of ​​the sand around it was soaked in yellowish-brown slime, emitting a foul stench.

"Hmm, two magazines, we've pretty much got the current reaction speed under control."

Li Zheng nodded in satisfaction. Only after confirming through Preys' Eye that the Desert Fire Scorpion was completely dead did he approach.

(End of this chapter)