CHAPTER 271: CHAPTER 231: REMEMBER, NEVER BECOME A RED NAME!

Li Zheng shook his fists, blocking the large stone slab collapsing from above. Ignoring the raging flames around him, he quickly touched the remains of the monster before him: "Decompose!"

[Player Li Zheng decomposed the "Guardian Statue of the Desert of Exhaustion" and obtained: Iron Ingot +350, Copper Ingot +129, Components +88, Advanced Components +67, Advanced Modules +41, Intermediate Modules +34, Tiberium Alloy 1564g, Power Gear +17, Power Core Type V +1]

"Power Gear?"

Glancing casually at the decomposition notification, without taking a closer look, Li Zheng raised his fist and shattered the stone slab pressing on him from above, activated his Flying Device, and soared upwards. His fists continuously swung, shattering all the slabs pressing down until he saw daylight again.

"Phew~ It’s over."

He exhaled, deactivating the Power Demon Incarnation state, just about to take a closer look at the Power Gear he had obtained, when he looked down and saw Wang Chaoran and the others rushing over.

At the front was the fastest flyer, Little Sakura, with Pink Poli hanging on its leg, swaying in the wind.

"Ah?"

Little Sakura flew beside Li Zheng, circling around to inspect him. Once it confirmed that its master was uninjured, it relaxed completely and went off to play with Pink Poli.

Seeing Wang Chaoran and the other four unharmed, Li Zheng didn’t worry about Little Sakura, and landed at the edge of the deep pit created by the explosion, taking out the Power Gear to examine it.

[Power Gear

Tier: None

Type: Part

Description: Durable and sturdy part, usable for crafting certain equipment.]

"Not bad," Li Zheng thought to himself, "Turns out I guessed right, this kind of material really needs to be obtained from dungeons. I’ll discuss with Wang Chaoran and the team later, trade for some Power Gears, and get the sewing machine made."

The exploration of the Desert of Exhaustion had reached maximum value after resolving the last BOSS.

Theoretically, Li Zheng could now just take his loot and, with Little Sakura, draw a prize and leave.

However, due to the existence of the Power Gears, he still needed to wait for others to come over and discuss trading the Power Gears.

Walking away from the edge of the pit, Li Zheng found a spot, and dumped all his collected items onto the ground.

Just the three hundred or so neatly stacked Iron Ingots formed a small mountain; the total number of items was quite considerable.

"This BOSS was really tricky, actually playing the self-destruct card in the end, reducing the decomposition yield significantly." Li Zheng silently grumbled to himself.

It was the first time he’d encountered a monster that could self-destruct.

Goodness, it blew away about half its own corpse, causing Li Zheng to not get the full yield during decomposition.

"But the power of this self-destruct was average. Although the shockwave flipped the whole pyramid, it caused no harm to the Power Demon Incarnation." Li Zheng carefully recalled the final scene.

Blue-white flames filled his vision; if he hadn’t maintained Extreme Isolation to resist the high-temperature environment, he might have been burned.

"Even if the Power Demon Incarnation could temporarily resist the high temperatures of those blue-white flames, my clothes would have been a goner."

Li Zheng inspected himself from top to bottom, ensuring his appearance was intact, before patiently waiting for Wang Chaoran and the others to arrive.

The distance from here to the entrance was quite far; it took Li Zheng two to three minutes flying at full speed. Among those present, only Little Sakura was faster than him.

He waited about five minutes before Wang Chaoran and the others arrived one after another.

Standing in front of Li Zheng, Wang Chaoran’s reaction was exactly like Little Sakura’s: checking him over by circling around to see that he was unharmed, finally relieved.

"Glad you’re okay," Wang Chaoran said, patting his own chest.

That scene had terrified him, fearing something might have happened to Li Zheng in the earlier explosion.

If Li Zheng had been harmed while guiding them through the dungeon, he wouldn’t know how long he’d feel guilty.

A friend patted his shoulder hard: "What did I say? There’s no way anything would happen to our big boss, being so amazing?"

Zhang Yue covered her mouth, laughing: "That’s not what someone said earlier."

Liu Li pursed her lips, looking like she was about to cry, anxiously shouting: "Boss, boss, you mustn’t get hurt!"

Zhang Yue laughed loudly: "Yes, yes, someone was just like that earlier!"

The friend was furious with embarrassment: "Nonsense, I wasn’t!"

"Still denying..." Zhang Yue teased, deliberately mimicking Liu Li’s earlier tone: "Boss, boohoo... Boss..."

"You wicked woman, you’re asking for it!" The friend raged, lunging to tear at her mouth, but she dodged nimbly.

"Alright, alright, it’s too hot here, let’s move away and talk," Wang Chaoran stepped in to mediate.

Only then did Li Zheng realize that, in the brief time they had been there, they already showed signs of dehydration, with cracked lips.

Wang Chaoran’s hair even appeared slightly curly.

Looking back at the deep pit not far away, Li Zheng had an epiphany.

He hadn’t walked far, yet for Wang Chaoran and the others, the unbearable heat was likely caused by the blue-white flames from the BOSS’s self-destruction.

Now, the sand by the pit had already started to crystallize slightly, showing how terrifying the residual heat of the blue-white flames was.

He himself had maintained Extreme Isolation all along, unable to sense how extreme the surrounding temperature was, but had neglected the others’ experience.

"I didn’t consider this well enough; move a bit farther away, I’ll pack up the supplies and join you," Li Zheng said apologetically, asking the others to move first while he collected the materials he’d just laid out.

Wang Chaoran and the others walked nearly a hundred meters before stopping, each with a bottle of water, sipping slowly.

After joining them, Li Zheng spread the materials out again: "Everything’s here, the BOSS this time wasn’t very high-tier, its strength should be at the very bottom of the Platinum Level, so there’s not much high-level material. But for you guys, it should be enough. After leaving, prioritize trading for some useful weapons to boost your strength."

Wang Chaoran exchanged glances with the others, and the four nodded in understanding.

As the discoverers of the dungeon, Wang Chaoran led the conversation: "Boss, you should split these materials with us. We’d feel uneasy if you took nothing."

"That’s right," the friend chimed in, "Although we invited you mainly for getting carried through the dungeon, we now experienced its difficulty; without you, the four of us wouldn’t have managed it alone."

"True," Zhang Yue said, sitting on the sand, unwrapping the dirty bandages from her feet to check her injury, seeing it had almost healed, she put her shoes back on.

"Actually, Liu Li and I joined this dungeon run mainly to make an impression in front of the boss; gaining a little more or less doesn’t make much difference to us."

Liu Li didn’t speak, just nodded in agreement.

She had met Zhang Yue in the Matrix; they had crossed paths in a room, teaming up to kill a Silver Level creature.

Later, they frequently interacted and grew close.

Joining this dungeon run was Zhang Yue’s persuasion.

Simply put, they aimed to try and get closer to Li Zheng directly; if they could establish some connection and gain a firm ally, it would be ideal.

If not, they would aim to make a good impression; as long as Li Zheng later gave them some preference in potion making, this trip would be worthwhile.

Once they’d stated their cases, Li Zheng chuckled and said: "It’s good that you think this way. As for the items... I really need the Power Gears. If you insist I take something, then let me have all the gears, and you can split the rest; they aren’t much use to me."

"Ah? How can we agree to that?" Wang Chaoran exclaimed anxiously: "Take more..."

This time, Li Zheng stopped him before he could finish, firmly stating: "I said I’d carry for free, and that’s what it is; even if I’m taking Power Gears now, I don’t plan to take them for nothing. I’ll compensate you later."

With that, he packed up all the Power Gears and pulled up the prize draw interface to start the raffle.

"Oh, by the way."

While the wheel spun, Li Zheng told the four: "I suggest you form a team of four, with these materials you can boost your strength. Going through dungeons together afterwards isn’t out of the question."

After two draws ended, as he was pulled out of the dungeon, he left a final piece of advice: "Remember, never become a hostile player!"