A Psychiatrist's Bizarre Game Journey / Dream of the Mist

Cold-Eat Rabbit listened to Zhou Ke'er's words in disbelief, staring at her with wide eyes. Although she knew Zhou Ke'er was somewhat extreme, she really didn't expect her to be so...

"Hey, please! I'm not here to listen to your bickering! Don't waste my time! Please cooperate with my investigation, understand?"

The policeman finally couldn't hold back until Zhou Ke'er finished speaking, and then he spoke up, sounding very impatient.

Before he could make any further moves, the coffee quickly floated in front of him. Before the policeman could even react to something floating in front of him, the coffee made a strange movement, and then the policeman suddenly lost consciousness and collapsed to the ground.

"Let him sleep for a while; he's disturbing our coffee!"

Seeing the somewhat surprised expressions on everyone's faces—except for Zhou Ke'er, who was still staring intently at the tablet—Coffee lowered her head and explained to everyone in a soft, childish voice, as if she had done something wrong.

When Dahe heard what Coffee said, the smile on his face froze. Obsession is a terrible thing!

Long Aotian didn't say anything, but for some reason he was looking at Zhou Ke'er subtly, as if waiting for him to say something, but it wasn't obvious at all. Neither Lengchitu nor Zhou Ke'er noticed.

Cold-cooked Rabbit was still quite indignant, muttering, "Tch, acting like you're so good at deduction yourself, talking about Sherlock Holmes like that, how arrogant!"

"Ha, deduction... um? Wait... deduction? Deduction... no! Oh no! We've fallen for their trap!"

Zhou Ke'er had been listening to Leng Chi Tu's mutterings, but then suddenly seemed to realize something. She frowned, stood up abruptly, and stamped her foot in frustration, looking regretful. "Damn it! They tricked me! How awful!"

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170. The Great Rescue of the Heroes (Part Six)

"Fell into a trap? What do you mean? I don't understand."

Cold-cooked Rabbit was taken aback upon hearing this. Looking at Zhou Ke'er, whose expression had suddenly changed, he put aside the argument about Sherlock Holmes for a moment and asked with a puzzled frown.

"We didn't even realize it just now. It wasn't us stalling for time, it was them! We should have noticed when the police came... I initially planned to frame them and have the police harass them to buy time, but conversely... they had the police come to cause trouble for us for the same reason!"

Zhou Ke'er frowned, quickly walked to the policeman lying on the ground, and began searching him as she spoke.

"Why? Could it be that they want to use the police to deal with us? Or perhaps they want to launch a surprise attack while we're being harassed by the police?"

After hearing this, Cold-Cooked Rabbit thought for a moment and raised an objection.

"Wrong. According to you, this is completely unnecessary! First of all, using the police to deal with us makes no sense. Their goal is to kill the hero. Do you think we would be sentenced to death for damaging some public facilities? Besides, we didn't even do it."

Secondly, a surprise attack while we're being harassed by the police is even more absurd. They could have simply dealt with a few of us, or killed the hero while we were on guard. Instead, they'd not only be dealing with us, but also involving the world's security forces. We could even legitimately use this situation to ask the police for help...

"They can't possibly withstand gunfire with their bare hands, can they? That would just be asking for trouble... So they can't be that stupid..."

Zhou Ke'er immediately shook her head, pointing out the flaw in Leng Chi Tu's idea. At the same time, she didn't stop working. After finding the police officer's badge, she fiddled with the tablet for a while. Unfortunately, the police officer wasn't carrying a gun. "And... there's another very obvious flaw... I didn't even notice it at first!"

When those guys retreated... they said those things on purpose for us to hear! I was puzzled as to why they insisted on saying it, it was a bit strange, but I didn't think about it too much... Now that I think about it, I realize there really was something wrong!

The reasons they gave for retreating weren't even valid! Because no matter what, the most advantageous course of action for them was to forcefully attempt to kill the hero from the start. Delaying would only push them further into a corner, ultimately trapping them in an irrecoverable quagmire...

Therefore, there's only one explanation... Their reason for doing this is that, under the current circumstances, delaying time—or more precisely, delaying our time—is advantageous to them and disadvantageous to us!

"Oh? What do you mean?"

Long Aotian asked with a half-smile, but for some reason, he seemed relieved, as if he had finally gotten Zhou Ke'er to say what he wanted her to say.

"How could delaying them benefit? What would that mean?"

"Cold-cooked rabbit" frowned and pondered.

Taiga Aisaka, unable to get a word in edgewise, simply let Zhou Ke'er and the others discuss it amongst themselves. Meanwhile, she chatted with Coffee on the sidelines, as Coffee was already looking a little aggrieved since the other three hadn't touched their coffee.

"Think back to our initial situation... We didn't have the means to know where the hero was, or who the hero was, right? So what about the other side? To be precise, there are three possibilities."

First, like us, they don't know where the hero is either. But the possibility of that is almost zero. If we can't find the hero, can this module even continue?

Secondly, they knew where the hero was, and they found him from the start—that is, Taiga Aisaka right before our eyes. However... this argument contradicts our earlier conclusion that "delaying time is advantageous to them," so it can also be ruled out...

Third... they can find the hero, but it will take time. To prevent us from stopping them while they are searching for the hero, or from rescuing them immediately after they are found, therefore...

Zhou Ke'er raised her head, squinted at Lengchitu, and said, word by word, "They just randomly picked someone from the beginning, disguised him as a hero...and then put on a show for us, making us believe, at least temporarily, that he was a hero..."

After that, they dumped that person on us, making us protect the so-called "hero." If we found the hero, anyone with a brain would choose not to confront them directly, but instead stall for time, hide, and maneuver, wasting precious time. That would suit their purposes perfectly, allowing them to peacefully search for and kill the real hero…

"Huh? So that means... he's not the hero?"

Cold-cooked Rabbit pointed at Taiga Aisaka in great surprise and asked in shock.

"Huh?! Aren't I the hero?!"

Taiga Aisaka was also stunned, pointing at herself in surprise, "I'm just an unlucky person who was randomly chosen?"

"Who knows... It's not certain yet. Maybe they're out of their minds and are just trying to pull this 'the most dangerous place is the safest place' nonsense, deliberately making us make these assumptions to convince us that Taiga Aisaka isn't the hero... But actually he is... That possibility isn't out of the question."

Zhou Ke'er shook her head, but her previous serious and tense demeanor had inexplicably vanished, replaced by a relaxed air. She held her tablet up and down, looking at the unconscious policeman without a trace of urgency. "But... how should I put it, there's no use in us being anxious now, since we can't find them..."

"No, it can be found."

Long Aotian suddenly spoke, interrupting Zhou Ke'er.

"Ok?"

Zhou Ke'er was taken aback and immediately turned to look at Long Aotian.

"Blood Tracking, this skill of mine can track the location of the blood I leave behind. The blood sword I condensed earlier left undetectable bloodstains on the spear and armor of one of the guards."

Long Aotian confidently curled the corners of his mouth, pointed to himself with his thumb, and said, "I'm a perfect person! How could I not have thought of this situation? Of course, I had already prepared a backup plan!"

Even if they realized something was wrong and dropped the spears, they couldn't possibly be so meticulous as to check their entire armor and throw it away as well, could they?

"That's not bad..."

Zhou Ke'er remained silent for a while, staring at Long Aotian's confident (and somewhat foolish) expression, thinking to herself: This guy... was it just blind luck, or did he really anticipate this and deduce everything before I did? No, "before I did" isn't quite accurate; it's more like he figured out the other side's purpose the moment that guard deliberately explained it... and that's why he left a backup plan in advance...

But if that's the case, why didn't he just say so directly...?

This guy is interesting...

Zhou Ke'er turned her head away from the others, her eyes flickering slightly, a competitive spirit stirring within her.

Anyone with a faster thinking ability than him? Not even close. This is only the first round!

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171. The Great Rescue of the Heroes (Part 7)

"So what do we do now? Should we hurry and chase after them to stop them?"

Cold-cooked rabbit scratched its head and asked.

"And what about me? And what about me?"

Upon hearing this, Taiga Aisaka quickly pointed to herself, suddenly realizing that she wasn't the hero, but rather an unlucky guy. The psychological gap was quite large... But at least she was relieved, since she wouldn't be chased anymore.

"The coffee's getting cold..."

Coffee was whispering to herself nearby.

But nobody paid any attention to him.

"Hmm... there's really no need to rush. But pushing them a bit harder would definitely be more advantageous for us..."

Zhou Ke'er stood up, casually pocketing the tablet, seemingly with no intention of returning it to Dahe. "As for you, if you feel it's dangerous and don't want to come with us, that's understandable. However... you need to know that everything just now was merely my speculation, not 100% accurate. There's also the possibility that you are indeed a hero, and that leaving us might actually be more dangerous..."

My original plan was... well, since you and Coffee seem to get along quite well, I'd keep him around to protect you temporarily, as a backup plan. That way, if my predictions were wrong and they came to assassinate you, there would still be room to salvage the situation...

However, if you'd still like to come with us, that would be even better. Compared to relying on some so-called backup plan, where we can't predict whether we'll be able to catch up after a misjudgment, staying with us is a much more controllable option.

"Hmm... alright, then I'll stay with you guys!"

Taiga Aisaka hesitated for a moment, then quickly made up her mind, "After all... this kind of opportunity might only come once in a lifetime!"

"But you only live once."

Zhou Ke'er casually whispered something, and before Aisaka Taiga could say anything more, she turned to Long Aotian and asked, "By the way... when you said you could sense where they were, did you only provide direction or a sense of feeling, or could you provide specific locations?"

"Hmm...it's in this direction, about 3.4 kilometers away, but I don't know the exact location. This skill can only show the direction and distance."

Long Aotian blinked, pointed in a direction, and explained.

"Hmm...Is that so...? That's fine, it's better than not even knowing the distance."

Zhou Ke'er casually opened the navigation app on her tablet. "The direction is... um, this direction, about 3.4 kilometers away... Why is it in the sea? Wait... if I zoom in a bit... it's the coast, a little bit inside the coastline. Oh? It's right next to... they actually set it up by the sea..."

"Wait... Come to think of it... are they moving or stationary?"

Zhou Ke'er suddenly thought of this and looked up at Long Aotian to ask.

"Hmm... the distance hasn't changed, so it must be stationary. I've been paying attention; it only stopped a short while ago. It shouldn't have discovered the mark I left..."

Long Aotian stroked his chin and replied, "After all, that's a super-secret mark left by the perfect me!"

"Still... I see, I understand."

Zhou Ke'er nodded, but didn't say much—it would be pointless to say everything, and he wanted to see if Long Aotian was pretending to be stupid or genuinely stupid...

He then crouched down, checking on the police while asking the dejected Coffee, "Hey you, I'll call you Coffee, how long will this guy be unconscious?"

"Ten hours! I used a full 100 mana to make him sleep for ten hours! That way he won't bother us for a while."

Coffee looked up at the question and answered Zhou Ke'er very seriously.

"..."

Zhou Ke'er froze upon hearing this—100 magic points? Are you kidding me...? He only has 100 magic points in total, and coffee shouldn't have such a large difference, right? How could he have used them all up so easily, and on something so meaningless?

"100 mana? How much mana do you have in total? Over a thousand?!"

Cold-cooked rabbit was also very surprised to hear this, and immediately couldn't help but ask.

"It's a hundred in total, otherwise I could let him sleep a little longer."

Coffee shook his head and answered matter-of-factly.

"..."

The cold-cooked rabbit was dumbfounded and didn't know what to say.

"Alright, since we can keep him unconscious for ten hours, it should be fine. No need to bring him along, just find somewhere to hide him..."

Zhou Ke'er nodded, temporarily setting aside the suffocating actions of the coffee shop, and turned to look at Aisaka Taiga, "You definitely wouldn't want to hide him in your house, right? So, from this direction to the beach, is there any suitable place to kill someone and dispose of the body?"

"Uh... never mind, I guess it'll be fine to just hide it at my house..."

When Taiga Aisaka heard Zhou Ke'er say such terrifying things with an innocent expression, he was afraid that Zhou Ke'er would really kill him. He almost forgot that the person in front of him was not a human, but a demon who was an enemy of humans. Naturally, he would not have much pity for humans, let alone care about human lives. Naturally, he could not bear to see the policeman killed, so he could only make this suggestion.

As long as he's tied up, blindfolded, and gagged, it shouldn't matter if he wakes up in ten hours...

Taiga Aisaka wiped the cold sweat from her forehead and said with an awkward laugh.