Chapter 8 Mysterious Lantern

"Wow! Girl, you're like a cow flying a plane, soaring high!"

First, there's the three Black Iron Level blueprints, now she can casually pull out a Silver Level Power Core for trade?

Li Zheng was amazed.

Why are there so many big shots in this channel?

Two hours ago, Phoenix Mountain had already cleared ten rooms.

Now there's another Zhan Zhouzhou who can casually produce a Silver Level Power Core.

"Could it be that the difficulty of the Matrix Game isn't actually that high?"

This thought arose in Li Zheng's mind, but he forgot that just an hour ago, over thirty people had died.

"Should I try exploring a danger room?"

When Li Zheng was dismantling the machine from the wall just now, he noticed that in his next choices, there were two red danger rooms on the sides, and an orange-red danger room above.

The remaining two were a green one and an empty one, with the empty one on the ground.

"Huh? Why did the color of the room doors change?"

Li Zheng looked at the metal doors and found that the two red danger rooms had turned orange-red.

And the orange-red danger room had turned blue.

Even though it still displayed the word 'danger,' Li Zheng felt that the presence in this room shouldn't pose much harm to him now.

"Is it because I just got a weapon, so the danger level of the room has relatively decreased?"

Li Zheng pulled out the Desert Eagle, pondering.

"Too bad this door is on the ceiling; otherwise, I could go in and try it out."

Currently, Li Zheng had explored two rooms, one large and one small, but both with absurdly high ceilings.

Without climbing equipment or the ability for players to fly, even if there were a Divine Artifact in the room above, you could only look at it wistfully.

"I'll have to wait until I go to the next room to see; for now, the most important thing is to trade the Flame Flower first."

At this moment, Zhan Zhouzhou replied to his private message: "Deal! See you at the trade hall. Contact me first if you have more good stuff."

Just like the previous trade in the chat hall, very straightforward and decisive.

By comparison, a certain man with the surname Feng was much worse.

Soon, the trade was completed, and the Flame Flower in Li Zheng's hand turned into a ball the size of a baby's fist, glowing with pure white light.

[Power Core Type III (Silver Level) Material

Contains massive energy and exceptional stability, it can be used as a power system for various gadgets, very versatile in use.]

"Power Core Get! Now I just need two hundred grams of B25 grade Manganese Steel, and the detector upgrade is within reach, just need to dismantle two more fridges."

Li Zheng was full of anticipation, selecting the green safety door, decisively swiping his card, bidding farewell to the room where he had spent almost two hours.

Walking through the membrane, the light suddenly dimmed, and Li Zheng's retinas still retained the bright spots and shadows from the intense light of the previous room.

He closed his eyes for a moment, waiting for them to adjust to the darkness before opening them again.

The brightness in front of him was about half of the first room, and visibility was very poor for an average person.

"Thankfully, this is a safety room; otherwise, even with a weapon by my side, if attacked, it would be risky."

Li Zheng was alert, knowing that the environment in each room within the Matrix is different.

The first three were safety rooms with only slight changes in lighting and space.

In the future, to get more resources, he will definitely need to explore the danger rooms.

By then, it won't just be a change in lighting.

Temperature, air, humidity could all become dangerous factors.

"Hmm? This doesn't have a sci-fi vibe?"

Once adjusted to the brightness, Li Zheng found the third room's style was remarkably different from the previous two, built with large blocks of stone.

A few oil lamps hung on the walls, their faint flames gently swaying with an unknown breeze.

"No wonder it's so dim here, looks a bit like a medieval castle, let's explore first."

The third room was astonishingly large, and Li Zheng didn't immediately spot the metal door to the next room.

Or rather, where he was standing seemed to be inside a passage, with darkness at the end of the passage, obscuring his view.

Walking along the passage, his footsteps echoed off the stone walls.

The dim environment, silent atmosphere, and echo made Li Zheng feel the illusion of someone following behind.

"It's unbelievable, designing a safety room like this, if a player without a detector comes, just dealing with the mental stress would be tough..."

Li Zheng kept turning back, relieved each time he confirmed no one was following him.

To distract himself, he started looking at the oil lamps that appeared every few steps.

[Everlasting Oil Lamp, modified with black technology, with an inexhaustible supply of oil, Matrix decoration piece.]

"This lamp is nice..."

Li Zheng measured his height, finding that the "Meteor Hammer" just about reached it.

"Hehehe..."

The Meteor Hammer reappeared, leaving a fleeting afterimage in the air as it smashed against the oil lamp's base.

Bang!

The oil lamp remained unmoved, not even spilling a single drop of oil inside.

"No way? Is it that sturdy?"

Li Zheng refused to give up, putting all his strength into it for five minutes straight, finally packing up the iron ingot and moving on calmly.

"Damn Matrix, targeting me!"

Li Zheng was indignant. Why wouldn't it let me smash it when I came up with the method by myself?

It's really...

Too much!

After leaving the oil lamp, Li Zheng started counting the stone cracks: "One, two, three... thirty-five..."

Counting each stone crack until he finally discovered an upward stairway, with a plain lantern hanging on the wall before the stairs.

[Mysterious Lantern (Black Iron)

Just an ordinary, plain lantern, similar to the oil lamp enhanced with black technology, linked to an oil field inside, theoretically possesses endless oil.

It's also a key to some area.]

The lantern wasn't hung high, Li Zheng could reach it easily.

As soon as he held it, the lantern automatically lit up, illuminating the area around Li Zheng.

Its brightness was actually a bit higher than the oil lamp on the wall.

Li Zheng: "...Not bad."

Apparently, the five minutes spent smashing the oil lamp were for nothing, and there was a better lighting tool directly at the end of the passage.

With the lantern in hand, Li Zheng stepped up the stairs.

The stairway wasn't long, and before long, a wooden door appeared before Li Zheng.

With a gentle push, the wooden door opened.

"Looks like the lantern isn't used here."

Behind the door was still medieval castle style, two floors, roughly similar in size to the previous room, connected by a fancy wooden staircase.

At this moment, Li Zheng was in the first floor's lobby, where there was a metal door on the floor, obviously leading to the next room, and the detector showed the space behind the door was deep red dangerous.

Looking up, Li Zheng also spotted a door on the second floor's ceiling, unsurprisingly, still suspended. However, the detector indicated this was a blue safe door.

Besides that, there were no other metal doors on the first floor walls.

"Seems like there are three doors on the second floor, but since there are two floors here, maybe there's something good on the first floor too."

Scanning the first floor lobby, there was a set of classy English-style furniture; cabinets, sofas, coffee tables, clothes stands, a delicate cup set on the coffee table, etc.

The whole set exuded a noble air.

Those things made Li Zheng's eyes hungry; if the capsule residence weren't so small, and already filled with materials and plants, he would've taken everything.

"Let's search the first floor first, then check out the second floor."

Li Zheng began rummaging through the lobby.

Opening a cabinet, he found inside...

A stick of Snickers...

"..."

Li Zheng nearly burst into curses seeing this.

Why always use so much space for such a tiny thing?

"But even mosquito legs, however small, are still meat, so I'll take it."

Throwing the item into the capsule residence, Li Zheng eyed the cabinet with mischief.

"Speaking of which, using this to store food, does it count as a refrigerator?"

But after eyeing the cabinet's wooden structure, Li Zheng chuckled and shook his head: "Really going mad for materials; no matter what, things made of wood can't be decomposed into metal, right?"

...

Bang!

The iron ingot had unknowingly appeared in Li Zheng's hand, and with one strike, he smashed the cabinet.

"Decompose!"

Li Zheng tried to decompose, but the system ruthlessly notified:

[Worthless item, cannot decompose.]

"Okay, got it."

Seizing the iron ingot tightly, Li Zheng ransacked the first floor in a bandit-like manner.

Finally, amidst the chaos, he secured a set of cups.

The gray-quality cup set on the coffee table could actually be stored directly in the capsule residence.

Looking at the already smashed cup on the ground, Li Zheng felt his heart bleeding.

Even as gray quality, it's still a container!

"Damn it, big loss!"