Matrix Survival: I Get A Random Chest Every Day

After entering, a fiery red scene unfolded in front of him. It was more like a sea of magma than a volcanic eruption.

Just like the avalanche room, there was also a small piece of empty ground at the entrance here, unaffected by the rolling magma, forming a safe little platform.

Standing on the small platform, Li Zheng observed the surroundings; there was nothing but magma, with thick black smoke floating overhead and fine dust falling from the sky.

"This scene isn't bad, has a sort of post-apocalyptic feel to it, let's take a photo for memory." Li Zheng used tough leather to tie the Air Purifier to his face and casually expanded the Extreme Isolation range to cover it, so that the only purifier wouldn't be scorched by the high temperatures.

After taking the photo, Li Zheng searched for traces of the Hot Worm with Old Pu's help. These small creatures lived in the magma and were extremely difficult to find.

Sweeping inch by inch over the magma, Old Pu soon gave a hint that a Hot Worm had passed by this place.

"It's a bit far." Li Zheng hesitated for a moment as he looked at a spot about two meters away from him, then jumped directly into the magma.

The magma was not deep, reaching only to his calves. Being in it felt like jumping into a muddy pit. It had resistance and was not very convenient for movement.

"It's okay, I initially thought I would have to swim in the magma, but it's only this deep."

After walking back and forth a few steps, Li Zheng quickly adapted to this resistance and began to focus on searching for the Hot Worm in the magma.

The one he found before disappeared as soon as he jumped down, and Old Pu hinted at two Hot Worms about ten meters away, showing signs of activity.

Li Zheng was about to go over when a figure suddenly darted past him, flapping wings like a dragonfly, and dropped into the magma.

"..."

After two seconds of silence, Li Zheng angrily drew out the Sheathed Sword and stabbed towards that location.

"Take that, showoff!"

Puff!

A bit of magma splashed up as the Sheathed Sword came out of the surface, bringing with it a fiery red beetle almost merging with the magma.

"Is this a Hot Worm?" Li Zheng scrutinized the impaled beetle.

The Hot Worm was only palm-sized, entirely fiery red without a speck of other color, faceless and eyeless, with only two thin, long antennae on its head.

It had no feet under its abdomen, but on the front chest, there were two boat-like pincers, and its tail was like a shrimp's, allowing it to dart and swim in the magma.

On its back were two pairs of wings, thin and blade-like, very similar to a dragonfly's wings.

Although they had wings, they couldn't really fly, but were used for gliding when their tails ejected them out of the magma.

"Small body, big energy, I didn't even notice when you swam nearby, you're really fast." Li Zheng took down the dead Hot Worm to decompose.

If he hadn't struck at the moment it just plunged into the magma, it would have been difficult to catch it even with Old Pu's assistance, given the Hot Worm's speed.

[Decomposing Hot Worm, obtained: Molten Fire Essence +1, Hot Worm Glandular Fluid 10ml, Hot Worm Abdomen and Tail Meat +1]

"Only ten milliliters?" Li Zheng frowned, knowing that to make a potion, at least fifty milliliters were needed, meaning he had to catch four more.

After carefully recalling, Li Zheng remembered that the materials for the previous nine potions indeed included many small ten-milliliter bottles.

At the time, he thought people were messing with him, deliberately trying to disgust him, but it turned out these materials themselves were of this specification.

"What's a Molten Fire Essence? The name sounds pretty grand." He rummaged in the capsule, took it out, and placed it in his palm.

It was the size of a grain of rice, and if it weren't for the faint glow it emitted, it would be easy to overlook without close observation.

[Molten Fire Essence

Tier: Silver

Type: Material

Function: Insulating material, holding one grain makes the coldest winter feel like warm spring.

Description: A pearl of rice size vying with the moon and matching the sun's warmth.

Note: Molten Fire Essence is volatile; without a sealed container, it evaporates completely in half an hour.]

"Will you evaporate? I'll toss you into the trading hall and see you evapor... vanishing."

Li Zheng didn't have a sealed container and wasn't about to search for one in the trading hall for such a useless Silver Material.

It wasn't worth it.

Having dealt with this Hot Worm, Li Zheng continued searching in the magma, trying to gather the remaining four.

Sadly, these little things hiding in the magma were really hard to discern and moved incredibly fast.

To catch four Hot Worms, Li Zheng spent a good half an hour, during which the Extreme Isolation was renewed dozens of times.

If the consumption of this Ability wasn't low, Li Zheng might have given up.

He was particularly curious now about how those who traded with him before managed to catch Hot Worms.

"Now the Silver Physique has reached its limit." Throwing the fifth Molten Fire Essence into the trading hall, just as half an hour had passed.

The system prompt indicated that the item "Molten Fire Essence" in the trading hall had evaporated completely.

"Even the trading hall can't prevent evaporation?" Li Zheng searched and found that the only player listing Molten Fire Essence was him.

"This is such a rip-off; a Silver Level item is just gone like that." Frustrated, he closed the trading hall and summoned the bored Little Sakura to fly toward the door leading to other rooms.

The Hot Worm was a neutral creature, and players didn't need to kill them to leave; the room's most dangerous aspect to players was the environment. The Hot Worms were just incidental.

Passing by a volcano that had stopped erupting, Li Zheng specifically flew up to admire it and then took a photo to commemorate it before leisurely leaving.

[Behind the door is a swamp environment, muddy pits everywhere, inhabited by hundreds of Silver Level Splitting Arrow Poison Frogs; they're not worth much and extremely disgusting.

Don't ask why they're disgusting, Zhan Zhouzhou hates frog-like creatures.]

"...So you got this information from Zhan Zhouzhou, huh." Li Zheng changed direction.

[Behind the door is a normal room with a storage tank, some food, and clean water.

You're not who you used to be, so let's skip this garbage between us.]

Li Zheng obediently changed direction: "Who would have thought that the food and water were incredibly precious at first, and now they've become garbage?"

[Behind the door is very safe, with some unclaimed materials waiting to be picked up. If you need... never mind, no more nonsense, swap, got it?]

"Got it."

[Behind the door is a deep-sea environment, and if you have thalassophobia, it's recommended to take a detour. If you don't... also take a detour. ]

"Got it!"

After checking out the door above him, Li Zheng was about to head to the last door when he suddenly froze mid-air.

"Damn it, the last door is in the magma, so I've been running around all this time for nothing."

Returning to the ground, Li Zheng followed Old Pu's hint to fly to the area with the metal door for exploration.

[Behind the door is a trap maze with a treasure hidden deep inside. You know with this kind of thing, Old Pu is never fazed.]

"Maze..." Li Zheng recalled the experience at the doctor's house entrance, which was utterly devoid of any game experience.

Where to go or not to go, Old Pu saw it all clearly. He didn't even need to use his brain, just followed the path Old Pu suggested.

Li Zheng generally wouldn't enter such rooms that lacked game experience.

However, upon detecting the presence of treasure, he had no choice but to take a walk.

Landing to search on the magma's surface, he found a card reader. Just as he was about to read the card, he received a private message.

"From Old Xiao? Could it be another quest you can take me on?" Speculating on Xiao Siyuan's purpose for contacting him, Li Zheng casually opened the message.

I picked up the job-change task in channel 879, with only one more time needed to clear the instance to complete it.