Matrix Survival: One random treasure chest per day

Chapter 4 Uncle Nine's reputation is ruined
Ding!
Bang!
Wow!

Bang bang bang!
……

With nothing to do, Li was wandering around the room while waiting for the crops to ripen, occasionally taking out iron ingots and striking them against the machines on the wall.

After half an hour of effort, the entire room was completely destroyed, except for four petri dishes that remained intact.

Various wires and components were scattered all over the ground, occasionally emitting tiny sparks, as if protesting the rough treatment they had received.

"This doesn't make sense... Aren't all these things just steel and copper when you break them down? Why can't they be broken down?" After working on them for so long without any results, Li Zheng had lost interest in the decorations.

Li Zheng guessed that this was also to increase the difficulty of the game; otherwise, if players could just keep plundering everything, wouldn't everyone become a dragon?

There was nothing left to smash in the room except for the four culture dishes. With another hour to go before the crops matured, Li Zheng, feeling utterly bored, found a place to sit down and opened the chat lobby to see what other players were up to.

Matrix Channel: 0000879, Current Remaining Users: 965, Number of Megaphones: 1/1
As soon as the chat room opened, Li Zheng immediately noticed that the number of remaining users had changed again.

"Thirty-four more people died?"

Li Zheng clicked his tongue in amazement.

The mortality rate is so high!
Only two hours have passed since the game started, and thirty-five people have already died in their channel alone!

According to Li Zheng's personal experience, simply holding a stone in his hand lowered the danger level of the first room.

This means that even in dangerous rooms at the beginning of the game, as long as you make good use of all the items around you, you should still have a good chance of surviving.

These players who died were very likely newbies who couldn't effectively utilize resources.

Current number of remaining users: 964.

In such a short time, another one has died.

Li Chun: "Another person died. This game is way too difficult!"

Chen Xiao: "Nonsense, do you think this is Super Mario? Which survival game isn't difficult?"

Lin Fengjiao: "I wonder if those who were eliminated are really dead, or if they've just quit the game... By the way, is Xiao Xuan still online?"

Chen Xiao: "Shut up! Ask, ask, ask your mother! You've asked this over a hundred times in two hours!"

Lin Fengjiao: "Just ask, just ask, is Xiao Xuan here? Is Xiao Xuan here? Is Xiao Xuan here? Xiao Xuan..."

"..."

Li Zheng's lips twitched slightly as he watched Lin Fengjiao frantically posting on social media.

"That familiar name... Good heavens, Uncle Nine's reputation is being ruined!"

Clicking on Lin Fengjiao's profile picture reveals that she is indeed a girl with short hair and a somewhat tomboyish look.

In the chat lobby, each person who speaks will have their avatar displayed, and these are all real photos of themselves.

Therefore, in this game, it's almost impossible for a burly man to cross-dress as a cute girl.

Lin Fengjiao: "Is Xiao Xuan here? Is Xiao Xuan here?"

It's still flooding the screen.

Li Zheng decisively located the "block" icon next to the profile picture.

Select!
You have blocked player "Lin Fengjiao" and all of her messages have been muted. This action will not affect her ability to send chat messages.

After blocking, not only will Lin Fengjiao's previous posts be invisible, but even any information she sends in the future will not appear in Li Zheng's view.

Unless she broadcasts it over the loudspeaker.

Li Zheng: "Click on her profile picture, there's a block icon that can filter her information."

after awhile.

Chen Xiao: "Thanks, brother. It's quiet now."

Li Chun: "Thank... thank you, big brother!"

Passerby: "Thanks +1"

"+1"

"..."

A long string of "+1" messages followed, indicating that this player named Lin Fengjiao had indeed angered many people. In just a short while, at least a hundred people lined up to send "+1".

Fengshan: "What happened?"

Yan Guang: "I don't know, but +1 is definitely the right number!"

Lu Li: "You guys just noticed the blocking function?"

Li Chun: "...?"

Chen Xiao: "You know?"

Lu Li: "Lin Fengjiao, right? I blocked her an hour ago."

Zhan Zhouzhou: "[Tungsten Steel Dagger Crafting Blueprint] [Tungsten Steel Longsword Crafting Blueprint] [Tungsten Steel Shield Crafting Blueprint] are all Black Iron level learnable blueprints. Anyone need them? I'll trade them for 100g of tungsten steel!"

Chen Xiao: "If you knew it could be blocked, why didn't you say so sooner? By the way, do you exchange 100g of tungsten steel for three blueprints? @ZhanZhouzhou"

Zhan Zhouzhou: "Wishful thinking? @Chen Xiao"

Lu Li: "None of you have asked. I want the tungsten steel shield blueprints. [Tungsten steel 139g], see you in the trading hall."

Li Chun: "[Tungsten Steel 95g] is a little short. Sister Zhan, could you give me the longsword blueprint for a discount?"

Zhan Zhouzhou: "Okay, I'll name you in the trading hall. I also have a dagger blueprint. Wait five minutes; if no one wants it, I'll explore the next room."

Li Chun: "Thank you, Sister Zhan."

……

Lu Li: "Damn it! Little girl, don't change!"

……

Li Chun: "The transaction is already complete, what happened? @Lu Li"

Lu Li: "Never mind, see for yourself."

……

Li Chun: "Waaaaah, you need a research station to learn the crafting blueprint? And crafting requires 100g of tungsten steel?!" Chen Xiao: "Haha, don't you two know to open the blueprint to see the details? @Lu Li @Li Chun"

Lu Li: "...I forgot."

Li Chun: "I didn't notice either. I never used to play games."

Zhan Zhouzhou: "Payment is due, no refunds or exchanges. Does anyone still want the dagger blueprint? Wait three more minutes!"

Fengshan: "I'll take the dagger blueprint, consider it making friends. But one more question: which room are you in?"

Zhan Zhouzhou: "The seventh one, see you in the trading hall."

Chen Xiao: "Awesome! @ZhanZhouzhou"

Lu Li: "That's really impressive. I'm only the fifth one."

Fengshan: "@Zhanzhouzhou, your skills are alright. If we meet, would you be interested in teaming up? I'm already in the ninth room."

Zhan Zhouzhou: "I'm unfamiliar with this place and people, so I won't trust anyone for the time being, and I certainly won't entrust my back to strangers. Therefore, I have no interest in forming a team."

Fengshan: "What a pity. [Ion Lightsaber Crafting Blueprint] Silver-grade one-time use blueprint. If you need it, you can come to me with something to trade for it, as long as I like it."

Chen Xiao: "Hey boss, take me with you!"

Lu Li: "Boss, do you need any accessories to hang on your legs?"

Passerby: "Hey buddy, are you missing some leg hair?"

Passerby 2: "Does this big shot need any accessories to adorn his leg hair?"

Passerby A: "Is the big shot's accessory still missing leg hair?"

Fengshan: "I'll teach you a way to increase your chances of survival in the early game: make the most of all the resources around you, even a rock."

Once you get through the initial few dangerous moments, surviving the rest is actually quite simple.

Chen Xiao: "Thank you for the guidance, although I already know that."

Lu Li: "Thanks, boss... never mind, just add 1."

Chen Xiao: "Just a few crazy cats and stray dogs. I feel like as long as they're not spoiled, we can handle them, right?"

Fengshan: "Mad cats and wild dogs? The first monster I encountered was a gray wolf. I punched it in the nose three times and knocked it down. In the process, I made my first pot of gold, and I didn't have to worry about food for the next two days."

Zhan Zhouzhou: "Gray Wolf? What level is it? The first creature I encountered was a Black Iron level scraggly hare, which was quite big. If I hadn't been lucky enough to get a one-time longsword blueprint at the beginning and gathered all the materials to make the longsword in the first room, I might not have been able to defeat it."

Fengshan: "It's also at the Iron level. I can kill it with my bare hands, but I'll get injured."

Yan Guang: "Injured? You're really not afraid of getting infected, are you?"

Fengshan: "What are you afraid of? We got two bandages in the first room. They're 100% sterile for bandaging wounds. That's what gives us confidence, you know?"

Yan Guang: "Oh~ you're pretty fierce."

……

"According to them, the initial difficulty doesn't seem too high?" Li Zheng watched the lively chatter in the regional channel, focusing on the information that might be useful to him.

"That makes sense. Just now, picking up a rock reduced the danger level. There are probably some wild dogs or cats behind that door." Li Zheng thought that he might be able to try entering some less dangerous rooms.

But before that, he still needs to prepare some equipment; he can't really challenge it empty-handed, can he?

Didn't you see how many people died even with such a low difficulty level at the start?

As the saying goes: "It's not the experienced drivers on mountain roads that are scary, it's the vehicles that overturn in drainage ditches."

In fact, most of the players who are still alive have already started exploring and cleared one or two rooms in the early stages.

Of course, it cannot be ruled out that some people will continue to be freeloaders and "beg" in the regional channels.

There are quite a few of these people, and they're annoying to look at, much like the way black marketeers spam the chat lobby when playing games.

Seeing that there was no useful information to be found, Li Zheng lost interest in looking at any more information and instead started browsing the trading hall.

However, on the very first day, regardless of what materials or blueprints players obtained, and whether they could actually use them, they would try to hoard them and observe the market, fearing that they might accidentally sell the artifact.

Those who, like Zhan Zhouzhou, bring out three blueprints at once for a trade, tend to negotiate the price first in the chat lobby and then specify the trader.

As for the World Channel, it remains a large-scale family reunion program, and for the time being, no one will choose to send transaction information to the World Channel.

Therefore, there are currently no useful items in the trading hall.

Most people exchange gray-quality items such as "stones," "sticks," and "straw ropes" for food or water.

These are speculators who hope to fool some novices and make a small fortune.

Because no one can say for sure whether there will be blueprints that happen to require these materials.

"There are too many speculators. Even the worst blueprints are of the Iron grade. How could these gray-quality items be used directly as raw materials?"

In Li Zheng's view, gray-quality items are not necessarily useless, but they are certainly not very useful and their value is not high.

Instead of wasting time and energy on these trivial matters, it's more worthwhile to focus on exploration.

He even saw someone listing an empty soda can for sale, the target item being "basic concentrated nutrient solution".

Then look at the seller.

Oh, we know each other!

Channel 0000879, Lin Fengjiao.

"This B..."

I pursed my lips and stopped paying attention.

After closing the trading hall, Li Zheng rubbed his eyes.

This kind of idiotic behavior made even him, an onlooker, think, "I have no grudge against you, why are you treating me like a fool?"

Looking at the time, I realized I had unknowingly spent almost an hour playing in the chat lobby.

As I got up to check the maturity of the four crops, a notification popped up:

[0000879 Lin Fengjiao: Did you think you couldn't do anything just because you've blocked me? Is Xiao Xuan here? Is Xiao Xuan here? Is Xiao Xuan here?]

Li Zheng: "..."

(End of this chapter)