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

However, at that moment, the black mist surrounding the girl suddenly paused without warning. She then took a few steps back, narrowly avoiding Zhou Ke'er's hand. For some reason, she showed a shocked expression, staring intently at Zhou Ke'er, then at her own hand, and said in disbelief, "This... how is this possible? You were actually able to dissipate this power! Although it was only a very insignificant amount, you really did it! How is this possible?"

"You lowly monster, I command you to try that move again! This is truly unbelievable..."

As she spoke, she revealed an urgent and hopeful expression. She spoke rapidly while looking at Zhou Ke'er, and the black mist around her even stabilized and dissipated.

"Little friend, this isn't how you ask for a favor!"

Zhou Ke'er had been prepared to die suddenly, but unexpectedly, things took a turn for the better. She immediately perked up and, without any will to live, subconsciously replied.

"What?! You lowly demon, you filthy succubus, what are you saying? You actually want me, the princess of the empire, to beg you?"

The girl immediately retorted angrily, but she seemed all bark and no bite, and no more black mist emanated from her body.

"You need to understand, you're the one who needs my help, and... you've lost the advantage of launching a surprise attack. Now it's hard to say who has the better chance of winning! Besides, judging from your appearance, what you're asking for... only I can do it, right?"

So think this through. I'll ask you one more time: you're planning to make peace with us, right?!

Zhou Ke'er was now much more confident, and she used a combination of soft and hard tactics—now that his Nether Claw's cooldown was over, even if the opponent used her ultimate again, he could still strike her from behind, since she didn't have a shield when she used her ultimate! So he wasn't afraid at all!

It's starting! Zhou Ke'er is about to have some fun!

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176. The Great Rescue of the Heroes (Part 12)

"I...you filthy...no, I...I beg you, please help me! Is that alright?!"

Upon hearing this, the girl's expression changed several times. As expected, it was Zhou Ke'er who was demanding what she wanted. She had no choice but to soften her stance and say, "I promise! As long as you help me remove the curse from my body, I will never harm the hero and will even help you protect him! I swear in my name: Cynthia Dragon!"

A curse? Wow, no doubt about it, this is definitely a hidden plot! I never expected to survive in such a desperate situation, it feels a little unreal... Could it be another trick?

No, that's not right either. Things have come to this point; there's no need to resort to any more tricks. That would be completely unnecessary, a pointless exercise. It's probably true, but... it might not be entirely true either.

Thinking this, Zhou Ke'er breathed a slight sigh of relief, her lips curling up into a smile that looked like that of a villainous supporting character about to plot some kind of scheme: "That's good. However, you should know that the kind of method I just used cannot be used without any restrictions. To achieve the same effect as just now, it would take at least two hours of preparation."

And the most important thing right now is to catch up with my teammates as quickly as possible and shake off the pursuers. Oh, speaking of pursuit... do you have some way of locking onto us or tracking the hero? As the first condition for granting your request, tell me this method first, and make it impossible for them to find us, isn't that reasonable?"

Zhou Ke'er deliberately made the preparation time seem longer; in reality, it only takes an hour for the two points of spiritual energy she just consumed to be automatically generated.

"Alright, since you put it that way, I'll believe you for now. But what if I find out later that you're lying to me..."

Cynthia's eyes flashed with ruthlessness as she instinctively threatened.

"Huh? Are you mistaken? You're the one begging me now! Threatening me? Are you serious? This isn't the attitude of someone asking for a favor. If I'm unhappy, I might not be able to help you~"

Although Zhou Ke'er said it in a very irritating way, she was actually a little anxious. She glanced at the tablet without making a sound. They were almost at the water inlet and outlet. If Leng Chi Tu and the others went too far, it would be troublesome if Zhou Ke'er couldn't find them!

Although he wanted to ask Cynthia about the background of this curse, he couldn't afford to waste time. He had to threaten her first and then regroup with the others.

"Damn it... I... I beg you, please! We tracked down the hero because of my bloodline, which allows us to sense him. After they left me, they can't find you unless they track down a trace! Is that alright?"

Cynthia had clearly never encountered someone like Zhou Ke'er before. She was slightly indignant, but also afraid that Zhou Ke'er would really ignore her. After all... she knew that she had lost her initiative, and Zhou Ke'er had already realized what was happening and was wary of her. Even if she wanted to threaten her with her ultimate move, it would be useless. Besides, her weakness of having no protection when she activated her ultimate move was already exposed to Zhou Ke'er.

"Ahem, well... I didn't mean to eavesdrop on your seduction of girls... but I have to tell you, we're still here! I have to remind you, more than three years, you know!"

Just then, a head of Cold Rabbit peeked out from around the corner ahead, coughed awkwardly twice, and said righteously.

Seeing that Zhou Ke'er and the others were looking over, she continued, "It's all Long Aotian's fault! It wasn't that I wanted to see how you died! And I definitely didn't imagine eighty-one ways you would die or the scene of him mocking you after the module ended! Really, I'm not lying to you!"

Hey...didn't you just say it all out loud?

However! Saint Seiya will not repeat the same comment twice, nor will they repeat comments that others have already made!

Zhou Ke'er pushed up her non-existent glasses, squinted, and said coldly, "Ha, the wisdom of mortals. I knew you were waiting there! It's as obvious as the only boxer briefs among a pile of briefs hanging on a clothes rack!"

"What a weird metaphor!"

Cold-cooked rabbit couldn't help but blurt out its name.

"You made a complaint! You lost! Hmph, you little god of the mortal realm, you did your best!"

When Zhou Ke'er saw that Lengchitu had complained, she tilted her head slightly, looked at Lengchitu with disdain, and said arrogantly.

"This person suddenly fell ill, what should we do? Should we just leave him behind and go?"

Cold-cooked Rabbit, completely ignoring that Zhou Ke'er had suddenly acted foolishly, turned to Long Aotian behind him and asked.

"Onset of illness? What illness?"

Long Aotian was very supportive and asked curiously.

"Um..."

Cold-cooked Rabbit tilted its head and thought for a moment, then said with great certainty, "The medical term for this disease is intermittent sudden intellectual disability, which means that the brain will suddenly malfunction from time to time. It's very scary, we'd better stay away from it for now."

"Ah, you've changed, Dog! You weren't like this before! You used to only spout low-level nonsense! Mom doesn't remember raising you into this kind of person!"

Zhou Ke'er wore a shocked expression and rebuked him in a wronged tone, as if Leng Chi Tu was a scumbag who started a relationship and then abandoned the woman.

"Hey! So whose fault is this?! And also, no male mothers! No male mothers! No male mothers!"

Cold-Eat Rabbit couldn't help but roll its eyes at Zhou Ke'er's dramatic expression.

"You're getting impatient! You're getting impatient!"

Zhou Ke'er immediately pressed her advantage.

"Well, let's hurry up and go. They're very likely chasing after us, and if we delay any longer, we might get caught. Let's not waste any more time here, shall we?"

Long Aotian finally showed his face and couldn't help but speak.

Cynthia stood silently to the side, not in a hurry. Anyway, her target was only Zhou Ke'er. Whether they were caught or not made no difference. Besides... Zhou Ke'er had ruined her mindset, so she didn't really want to talk to Zhou Ke'er anymore, unless necessary. Humph!

As for Coffee, he was just following along, already lost in his own thoughts, completely unnoticed. He was another strange player, much like someone who's lethargic in spring and autumn, and it's unclear why he even bothered playing the game.

"Alright, since our Perfect Dragon Pride Lord has said so, how dare I disobey?"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Ke'er chuckled, nodded, and teased him before walking forward.

Seeing this, Cynthia and Coffee naturally had no choice but to follow.

Zhou Ke'er took the lead and walked ahead, her smile fading as she pondered: "Activating the character template so early doesn't seem to do any good. I wonder what the leveling-up mechanism is. If it's just about leveling up by fighting monsters, that's fine, but if it's about cultivation... that's a complete trap!"

Because he doesn't practice any cultivation techniques at all! The cultivation speed shown on the template is completely misleading. Zhou Ke'er can't even breathe fire, let alone cultivate any techniques or skills. The only thing she can do is mobilize a pitifully small amount of spiritual energy around her. What's the use of that? Is it just to be used as a pollutant?

Furthermore, Zhou Ke'er only remembered the general outlines of the techniques she had seen in that module before. Even with a good memory, she couldn't possibly remember everything she saw! Besides, even if she did remember them, she wouldn't dare to practice those messy techniques casually! She'd go crazy!

Speaking of which... I think I saw something called "Main World Job Change Center" in the notes for the character template opening license before. I don't think I have to go there to learn martial arts or something.

He didn't even know where that place was... He really got tricked by that dark-skinned man! Oh well, next time I'll go to the Eastern Divine Department of the Divine Academy and see if I can get a few advanced cultivation techniques. After all, the purpose of cultivating immortality is to become an immortal, and aren't those students already candidates for divine office?

Hmm, that looks promising!

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177. The Great Rescue of the Heroes (Part Thirteen)

Thinking this through, Zhou Ke'er confirmed that the location marked on the tablet was indeed here before kicking open the dilapidated small door on the right side of the passage and quickly leading the way inside.

Having already prepared herself mentally, Zhou Ke'er immediately pinched her nose and tried to think about other things to distract herself, lest she be unable to bear the smell of this place any longer.

Upon careful consideration, Zhou Ke'er realized that she really had no means of dealing with the enemy, whether it was attacking or defending. In short, she had nothing, except for being able to switch places with others as if by magic.

That [Trickster's Madness] skill is indeed useful, but the problem is Zhou Ke'er doesn't have any equipment on hand to use it...

Moreover, even if Zhou Ke'er wanted to get some ordinary quality equipment to use as consumables, there really wasn't any way to obtain equipment at this stage. The module rewards only gave sanity points, not equipment, and sanity points could only be used to buy costumes now, which were trash without any "bling bling" effects, and were completely useless!

Unless you go out into the main world and wander around to see if you can find a bargain, it's clear that with the current level of self-preservation skills, players are lucky if they don't die and lose all their equipment, let alone find a bargain.

Zhou Ke'er was secretly planning to find another opportunity to destroy the world and see if she could swindle some equipment from that damned dark-skinned man to make up for it.

Well, thinking about it this way... they should be releasing a new mode or opening up other game modules soon, right? At the very least, they should be holding some kind of event, right? Otherwise, players' skill levels will reach a plateau.

(No, actually not. Most of them haven't even finished the Nightmare mod yet, they haven't even reached the Overworld.)

Zhou Ke'er thought she had gained an advantage, but in fact she hadn't. She was definitely tricked!

"Cough, cough, cough!"

Just then, a violent coughing sound rang out, interrupting Zhou'er's thoughts. When she turned around, she saw that Long Aotian was coughing so hard that tears were almost coming out of his eyes. She guessed that he had overestimated himself and tried to speak in this godforsaken place, but he ended up being choked by the smell so bad that his nose was about to rot.

It was truly awful. Zhou Ke'er had anticipated this, and immediately covered her nose upon entering, barely managing to endure it. Cold-cooked Rabbit, however, had randomly been assigned to the undead race and had no sense of smell, so it wasn't afraid at all. And Coffee, being an undead, couldn't smell the stench either...

Huh? Zhou Ke'er then noticed that the hardworking Coffee was carrying the river, which was so stinky that its limbs were weak, and Cynthia was sitting on its shoulders, looking completely at ease.

Hmm... this... Junior Brother Sha?!

Zhou Ke'er almost instinctively wanted to say to Long Aotian, "Bajie, stop fooling around!"

But seeing Long Aotian's fate, he decisively abandoned the idea of ​​speaking. That was practically courting death...

That's actually a good thing. Even if the guards do find the traces they didn't have time to properly conceal and discover that they changed their route from here, they'll probably back down, right? Or perhaps they'll charge in with a fearless spirit, only to be shot dead by the police chasing after them while they're enduring this eerie smell?

Sigh, I really should plan what to do after I get out of the drain. Whether I run into the worst-case scenario of actually running into the police waiting at the drain, or I manage to escape smoothly, I need to prepare a plan for the next step. After all... judging from how close Long Aotian is to death, I probably can't count on him.

Wait a minute, Zhou Ke'er suddenly remembered... Cynthia is supposed to be a princess, right? Although she doesn't know why she seems to be cursed, she's still a noblewoman, isn't she? It's impossible for the human alliance to send her to her death, is it?

That means she definitely has emergency measures in place if she encounters danger. Besides, if their mission to kill the hero succeeds, they can't just leave her here, can they?

Combining these two situations, it can be inferred that...she must have a way to return to the other world!

Exactly! Speaking of which, the Human Alliance needs to kill the hero in the present world to "summon" him to the other world. But what if they just "take" the hero to the other world? Even if the hero is still killed, it won't be in the present world, which wouldn't meet their requirements, right?

Indeed, when Cynthia and her group first found the hero, they didn't directly use methods to take him to another world and kill him—that would have been much more efficient and would have avoided Zhou Ke'er and her group's interference. But they didn't do that, which confirms Zhou Ke'er's guess!

That's right, Zhou Ke'er discovered the key point!

After walking for a while, just before they were about to drown in the river, the group reached the end of the outlet. Otherwise, he might have become the first hero to die from the stench.

Hey, speaking of which... if the other side insists on killing the hero using a specific method to meet the summoning conditions, then wouldn't Zhou Ke'er and the others be able to stop them by killing the hero beforehand?

Zhou Ke'er scratched her head, interrupting her overly divergent thoughts, after all, how could this be possible!

Moreover, the main quest is to protect the hero, not to stop the human alliance. If the quest was simply to stop the human alliance from summoning the hero without mentioning protecting the hero, Zhou Ke'er might have considered the possibility that it was a "blind spot" deliberately set up by the system. But in the current situation, it is obviously unlikely.

Besides, even if that were the case, killing the hero would stop the human alliance, but Zhou Ke'er and the others' mission was still to protect the hero, not to stop the human alliance, so there was no difference.

However, speaking of this... Zhou Ke'er felt something was wrong. The gap in intelligence between the two sides was too big. The enemy not only sent royal members who could sense the location of the hero, but also managed to bypass the limitations on strength caused by crossing worlds through some means, allowing a character like Cynthia, who could unleash strength far exceeding that of the first wave, to come over. Not to mention, they also had information about the hero.

On the other hand, Zhou Ke'er and her group were lacking in manpower, strength, and intelligence. Weren't they just sending themselves to their deaths? Did the Demon King's army intend to kill them quickly so they could send stronger monsters? But that didn't make sense. After all, it was the Demon King's army that needed to gain the upper hand. Losing a wave of enemies might seem like summoning stronger ones, but wasn't that just handing over the heroes to the enemy without even trying to seize them? It was a gamble they were destined to lose. It made absolutely no sense.

This is absurd. It makes no sense that the starting odds are so lopsided, unless... someone among them actually knew the information but concealed it for some unknown reason, leading to the current situation...

Hey, why is it turning into a secret group again? Don't let your teammates start backstabbing each other again... Zhou Ke'er is afraid that if she gets too carried away, she might even drag her serious teammates down with her...

That would be extremely bad!

Wait a minute... but...