Chapter 395: Chapter 337 Explosion
"Let’s get out of here first."
Once Li Zheng entered the state of developing Genetic Ability, he couldn’t maintain "Extreme Isolation" for Sakura and them. This room was obviously not suitable for developing Genetic Ability.
Putting away the Blast Flame Grass, Li Zheng looked around. Since Old Pu didn’t indicate the presence of anything valuable, he picked up the lantern and went to find the metal door.
The flame room was slightly larger than imagined, and it took Li Zheng ten minutes to explore the other doors.
"One Diamond, one Platinum, one empty and one material?" Li Zheng’s eyebrows twitched, "After the exploration difficulty increases, will the quality of materials in the material room also improve?"
Logically, the material room should not be dangerous, so an increase in exploration difficulty should not affect the Tier of materials obtainable there.
On the contrary, if survival difficulty increases, the Tier of the items there should be lowered.
"To be sure, let’s go in and take a look." Li Zheng swiped the card at the material room’s entrance. It’s better to understand such settings that affect future explorations sooner rather than later.
Even if it means wasting one or two exploration opportunities, it’s worth it.
The metal door opened, and Li Zheng and Sakura passed through the light curtain one after the other.
Passing through the light curtain, the air that hit the nostrils felt different. It was much more humid and more comfortable to breathe.
Greedily taking several deep breaths, Li Zheng reluctantly stopped.
"It’s the first time I’ve found normal air to be a bit sweet. The air in the flame room was too dry; my nasal mucosa was almost roasted dry."
In the Matrix, there is no perfect ability. There are always some drawbacks. Extreme Isolation is already considered one of the most perfect types. Even if there are flaws, they are minor.
However, players can find ways to acquire other abilities to offset shortcomings and minimize drawbacks.
This is what is called: Ability synergy.
Phoenix Mountain is a great example. His "Burst" ability, although only Silver Tier, is linked to his own strength. The greater his strength, the stronger the burst amplification.
Similarly, the pressure on him will become increasingly exaggerated as his strength grows.
So an ability like "Abyssal Bloodline," which is more defense-oriented, is the perfect synergy for Phoenix Mountain, effectively alleviating the strain caused by the "Burst" ability on himself.
Compared to Phoenix Mountain, Li Zheng’s abilities, though diverse and seemingly powerful, struggle to form a perfect ability synergy.
Perhaps it’s the Terminal being lazy; all rooms that store materials appear in the same basic sci-fi design.
The walls are filled with useless machines with ever-flashing indicator lights, and soft lights embedded overhead with only day and night settings.
In the center of the room are two shelves with items players can take away.
The shelves have two levels, and the number of items displayed is not many.
Li Zheng examined each one.
An irregular piece of Orichalcos, totaling 512g.
Two small boxes full of Advanced Components, totaling 24 units.
A box filled with Power Cores, one Platinum Level, the rest solid gold and silver, totaling six units.
And two light blue metal rods.
The first three types of materials were casually tossed into a capsule. Li Zheng looked at the unfamiliar metal rods and checked their attributes.
[Power Transmission Shaft
Tier: Diamond
Type: Material
Use: Can be used to create certain items.
LP: Don’t be fooled by their unimpressive appearance; these two DX are actually made of ZS-Level special metal ZJ. Together, they roughly equal 1000g ZJ and 200 units of TD.
ZRYZ, you Z big!
Going by the initial attributes was fine, but it was Old Pu’s addition that left Li Zheng perplexed.
"Did your damn program run amok and bug out? What’s messed up here?" Li Zheng wore a constipated expression.
[As per your request, learning from MYR.]
Learning from what?
The Riddler?
Damn it...
If the Riddler played it like you, Batman would definitely put his face under the Batmobile’s wheels and run it over back and forth for three thousand years, believe it or not?
"That’s not being the Riddler; that’s being mentally deficient... oh wait, mental deficiency doesn’t affect intelligence; that’s being a moron!" Li Zheng ranted insanely.
Before entering the Matrix, similar discourse initially spread rampantly on the so-called cesspool Weibo.
Then it spread across the entire net, and such inexplicable acronyms with elusive meanings appeared everywhere.
Li Zheng never thought even after entering the Matrix, he’d still not escape such mental pollution.
Old Pu seemed to find Li Zheng’s words reasonable and displayed a new hint:
[The Power Transmission Shaft, essentially, is made of Vibranium and Iron Ingot. If you have the blueprint, you can make it yourself.]
"Now that’s right, the simplest text is the most powerful. Don’t play with artsy or cesspool literature; just straightforwardly give the complete hint." Li Zheng nodded satisfyingly.
[Damn it!]
"See, three powerful words, striking straight at the heart."
Li Zheng clenched his fist and squeezed out a statement between his teeth, ultimately deciding not to hold a grudge against Old Pu.
"This time’s material room harvest is indeed higher than before." Li Zheng cleared out the items from the two shelves, "But this might also be an exception. More data is needed for validation."
Looking down at where the shelves connected to the floor, Li Zheng drew the Sheathed Sword and "dismantled" the shelves, moving them into his capsule residence.
The shelves were placed against the wall, and Li Zheng casually summoned some materials to try placing them on the shelves.
The result was that they weren’t stable, and it wasn’t very convenient either.
After all, in the residence, items could be retrieved with a mere thought, and the two shelves only slightly enriched the residence, serving no other function.
Directly demolishing and decomposing the shelves, he obtained twenty Iron Ingots, and Li Zheng smiled contentedly.
"Now, let’s develop a new Genetic Ability." With a wave, Li Zheng summoned the Blast Flame Grass into his hand.
[Consuming Blast Flame Grass carries certain risks. It is advised to improve your Physique at an appropriate time to mitigate the danger.]
"Appropriate time, improve Physique." Li Zheng immediately understood the implication, smiled slightly, and crushed the Blast Flame Grass into a ball, stuffing it into his mouth.
Crunch, crunch~
Li Zheng vehemently chewed. The Blast Flame Grass was ground between his teeth, releasing a juice with a spicy flavor.
"Hmm, like eating a hot chili pepper." A few beads of sweat appeared on Li Zheng’s forehead as he gulped it down quickly, swallowing it: "Exhilarating!"
The Blast Flame Grass transformed into a heat wave, spreading down his throat, reaching the stomach, then emitting throughout his body.
In the next moment, before Li Zheng could prepare, the heat wave erupted as if liquid dynamite had been injected into his body.
"Power Demon·Incarnation!"
Not daring to slack, Li Zheng immediately activated the only Genetic Ability that could enhance Physique, offsetting the first wave of impact.
The two-meter-tall petite giant’s body constantly emitted booming sounds, as if a fireworks factory inside had ignited, crackling with excitement.
Li Zheng endured the strange sensations in his body, not daring to relax, eyes glued to the progress bar before him.
Maybe because the Blast Flame Grass was special, the progress bar moved much faster than usual, with only ten increments.
With each internal boom, the progress bar decreased by one increment. In a mere thirty seconds, it boomed five times.
"Five more times." Li Zheng gritted his teeth, for even in this berserk Power Demon state, resisting the Blast Flame Grass’s effects wasn’t much bearable.
All he could feel were countless little people kicking his internal organs, steel needles piercing into his limbs, and even his body hair seemed to have its own ideas, forcibly detaching from the pores.
"I’m done for. I feel like I’ve tasted what Zhan Zhouzhou felt when she went bald back then..." Li Zheng grimaced, watching helplessly as the hair that had only grown back for less than ten days fell away from his cheeks.
Thanks to the Blast Flame Grass, he again obtained the hairstyle of the strong.
After such agony, the harvest was quite delightful in the end.
After the remaining five phenomena ended, Li Zheng’s body suddenly calmed down, the fiery sensation vanished as if it had never appeared.
But the swelling sensation left in his lower abdomen reminded Li Zheng that the Genetic Ability development was successful.
Dispersing Power Demon Incarnation, he quickly opened the ability panel to check, and the new ability’s attributes appeared before him.
"Explosion?"