Matrix Survival: I Get A Random Chest Every Day

Chapter 1123 - 823

After the tentacle was burned away, the attraction Li Zheng felt from those devices vanished instantly.

"I see." Li Zheng realized: "These tentacles can infect, weakening the subconscious resistance to negative emotions through direct contact and unknowingly pulling the person into the same situation."

He scoffed coldly: "Such petty tricks can be easily cracked without effort!"

Even so, without Li Zheng’s formidable Spiritual Power, ordinary people would find it very difficult to escape once they’re caught, leading to a dire fate of eternal doom.

Among those at the edge of the Golden Light Zone, perhaps many fell victim in this way.

Xiahou Fei walked into the hall, casually seated himself in front of one of the entertainment machines, and, intuitively, inserted a chip to begin operating.

This was a gambling machine commonly known as a "slot machine." After inserting the chip, players choose a target to bet on, the machine automatically rotates, and stops on the target to return winnings multiplied accordingly.

Xiahou Fei pressed the highest multiplier casually, and the slot machine chimed with pleasant music, eventually halting on the very symbol Xiahou Fei betted on.

"Such good luck?" Li Zheng was momentarily taken aback by the sight, then quickly realized something was amiss: "This gives the target some initial success, stirring their greed, luring them gradually into a quagmire of addiction. If Xiahou Fei cannot maintain a calm mindset, he might slowly fall into depravity."

Li Zheng intended to warn him, but Xiahou Fei remained mentally clear and did not become irrationally ecstatic with his winnings.

Moreover, Xiahou Fei cashed in all the chips he had won along with those in his bag, and firmly pressed down the same high multiplier again.

"If I lose all my chips, I should be able to rid myself of this peculiar structure." Xiahou Fei exclaimed confidently: "I have already hit this option once; the probability of consecutive hits is minuscule, I don’t believe..."

The expression of confidence froze on his face as Xiahou Fei looked in disbelief at the machine, which had hit again!

"This... This is impossible!"

Xiahou Fei panicked slightly; with this hit, his chips multiplied over a hundredfold, totaling more than two thousand pieces!

Li Zheng’s heart sank as he stated: "Our speculation was wrong; these devices may not tempt the target to succumb through losing, but instead intensify through winning."

All those chips are the essence of negative emotions, and once the chips Xiahou Fei owns exceed his limit, the palace will return him to the Spiritual Realm where his Spiritual Body might instantly be destroyed!

Xiahou Fei stood bewildered before the entertainment machines, suddenly overwhelmed with a sense of powerlessness: "If winning is actually losing, then how can I truly lose all the chips I hold?"

All the facilities in the palace operate under ’win’ and ’lose’ modes, seemingly offering a fifty-fifty probability, but if winnings and losses can be manipulated, it turns into hundred percent versus zero percent.

Li Zheng observed the gambling machines for a while and suggested: "Try using one chip to bet on the lowest multiplier."

"Alright." Xiahou Fei tried it out, the lowest multiplier being double, turning one chip into two.

"Two chips, let’s bet on five times and two times respectively." Li Zheng proposed again.

Xiahou Fei complied, turning two chips into five.

"Huh?" Xiahou Fei seemingly noticed something, and before Li Zheng could speak, he tried it himself.

Three chips were bet, one on five times, and two on two times.

This time, he hit the five times one again, but invisibly, winning one less.

Xiahou Fei wanted to try further, but Li Zheng stopped him: "Don’t move! None of these multipliers are set up for a certain loss, no matter how you attempt it, no result will come."

These machines seem to automatically select the option that brings the most profit.

Even if Xiahou Fei tried to reduce profits by spreading his chips, it would only result in winning less without losing, and it’s guaranteed he won’t lose!

"Then... what do we do?" Xiahou Fei was completely flustered, devoid of the confidence he had earlier.

Originally believing he could lose all his chips to escape the palace in the Spiritual Realm, Xiahou Fei’s plan was shattered as he realized only winning but no losing was possible.

Li Zheng felt deeply troubled as well, encountering such oddities for the first time. Other casinos profit by infinitely amplifying the losing side through controls, while here it’s the winning side that’s magnified.

This situation...

Seems completely unsolvable!

"Try something else." Li Zheng remembered the arcade machines nearby, they can only accept coins with no option to retrieve them, it should work.

However, Li Zheng had oversimplified the matter.

Though arcade machines lack a coin retrieval option, once a chip is inserted, the player must continually play unless the character dies.

And the character controlled by the Player in the game is virtually invincible, standing there allowing minor monsters to attack without losing health, even reflecting damage back to kill them.

Xiahou Fei spent three hours playing this game to completion, with the character losing only a minimal amount of health during the final boss battle.

But the scene shifted, and the game restarted.

"No!!!!!!"

Xiahou Fei hopelessly slapped the machine: "Why isn’t there an end!? Why?!"

Despite having completed the game, why wasn’t the chip consumed, instead beginning the game again?

"Don’t panic." Li Zheng pointed at the character’s health: "Look here, he isn’t at full health!"

Although the game restarted, the character’s health was inherited.

This means if Xiahou Fei repeats the earlier process of completing the game, there will inevitably be a moment when the character is drained of life.

At that point, a chip will be consumed.

But...

One game lasts three hours, losing health at a rate of one percent each time, meaning it would take three hundred hours to drain the character completely!

Two thousand chips would demand over sixty thousand hours!

Xiahou Fei might not live until then, likely to starve halfway.

"Incorrect!" Li Zheng furrowed his brow: "Something’s wrong!"

"If chips are formed by consuming those tentacles, why would those people madly devour the tentacles?"

This statement likewise spurred Xiahou Fei to realize: "Yeah, why is that?"

Li Zheng questioned: "Think carefully, what’s the biggest difference between you and those people?"

"Biggest difference..." Xiahou Fei’s eyes lit up: "Because I don’t want to give up, I wasn’t influenced by the Sloth Sin Domain! The reason I wasn’t influenced... is because I’m within the Golden Light Zone!"

"Exactly!" Li Zheng affirmed: "Xiahou Fei, I can send your body back to the Sloth Domain, but doing so will put you in great danger. Your consciousness may be corrupted, you might feel intense cravings to win, and could consume those tentacles for chips. Can you maintain your current state of mind?

"I can!" Xiahou Fei declared firmly: "Because I control my own fate!"

"Good." Li Zheng said solemnly: "I will send you back, but I won’t offer further assistance once I do. If you fail to hold onto your core and succumb... I will kill you."