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

Seeing that Zhou Ke'er seemed to be preparing to use him as an experiment, Long Aotian couldn't help but ask in surprise.

"Well... actually, it's like this, because... I'm actually playing games during work hours, so you know? I might log off at any time..."

In this way, if something goes wrong with your blood transfusion, and then I get disconnected for some reason, wouldn't that be terrible? So it's better for me to be the guinea pig. That way, even if something happens to me, there are still three of you, so there's no need to panic.

Oh, by the way, if something happens to me and you're worried about not having enough people to control the situation, just take her out. It'll save you the trouble.

Zhou Ke'er explained in a matter-of-fact manner, while pointing to Cynthia next to her.

"Hey! You bastard, at least don't say things like that to my face like that!"

Cynthia was startled again, and couldn't help but roar in her heart in horror.

Listen to this! Is Zhou Ke'er even speaking human language?! Oh right, she wasn't human to begin with; she's a succubus. Those damned succubi are all bitches!

Cynthia, still seething with resentment, once again made racist remarks against the succubus, but there was nothing she could do to retaliate. Zhou Ke'er had indeed been right from the start; she needed an array to successfully unleash her attack, but this place wasn't within the range of the array they had prepared beforehand...

In other words, she is indeed completely powerless right now. Apart from having slightly better physical abilities, she has nothing special about her; she's just an ordinary girl.

Even if the opponent is just a few cannon fodder from the Demon King's army, she still definitely can't beat them...

"Alright! Let's do it this way then, let's get started on the blood transfusion! Actually, I'm quite interested in hybridization and stuff!"

Zhou Ke'er coughed twice, then nodded and said with a hint of excitement.

"Hybrid...crossbreeding...is that alright..."

Even Long Aotian couldn't help but twitch slightly at the corner of his eye after hearing Zhou Ke'er's unusual explanation. "Leaving that aside, how are you planning to do the blood transfusion? There aren't any syringes or anything like that here. Are you planning to cut your wrists and then sew the wounds back together? That doesn't count as a blood transfusion..."

"What? Really? Nobody actually thinks that blood transfusions should be done using scientific methods in this kind of setting? No way? No way?"

Zhou Ke'er feigned a perfectly timed look of confusion and asked in an extremely sarcastic tone, "You're supposed to be a vampire, how dare you say such a thing? Do you have any respect for your race?"

"What does this have to do with me being a vampire... Oh... So you mean, I should manipulate your blood for exchange?"

Long Aotian didn't show any anger or resentment at being mocked. Instead, he asked a question in return, his expression somewhat subtle, as if he was confirming with Zhou Ke'er again.

"Isn't that obvious?! Otherwise, how do you think we can have a blood transfusion? A series of blood transfusions?"

Zhou Ke'er narrowed her eyes and answered in a very nonsensical way, but in fact she was thinking to herself without showing any emotion: Long Aotian actually agreed without any difficulty, which means that he does have the ability to manipulate blood.

If we count them up, from the initial blood condensation into a sword, blood tracking, to the newly formed wings for flight, and now the manipulation of blood, there are at least four skills... But Zhou Ke'er was only given three skills by the system at the start, and according to the system's prompts, all players should only have three skills...

Could the initial method of forming a sword from coagulated blood be considered a form of manipulating blood? It's possible, but it still seems rather suspicious. Let's be cautious...

"Alright, since you insist, then let me do it. Please put your hand out, the blood exchange is about to begin."

After hearing Zhou Ke'er's reply, Long Aotian didn't express any opinion, and just shrugged noncommittally.

Cynthia inwardly roared upon hearing this, "I refuse to exchange blood with a lowly demon! All I need to do is transfuse my blood into her body! Why do I have to exchange it?! What's wrong with you?! Can't vampires understand human language?!"

But she had no choice and dared not speak out, so she reluctantly extended her right hand to Long Aotian. Long Aotian gently made two thin, bloody cuts on Zhou Ke'er and Cynthia's wrists, then casually flicked his finger, and streams of blood were drawn from the wounds and flowed into the other thin cut on their wrists.

As a result... not long after it started, Zhou Ke'er felt unwell.

It wasn't the expected rejection reaction. In fact, you couldn't really feel it. The bad thing was that Cynthia's blood contained a huge amount of magical energy, which almost instantly replenished the magical energy that Zhou Ke'er had originally consumed.

This should have been a good thing, but the problem is... the amount of magical energy pouring in is far more than this!

The remaining magical energy had nowhere to go and gradually accumulated in Zhou Ke'er's body. However, it was clear that the upper limit of magical energy that Zhou Ke'er's body could store was only one hundred due to the system's temporary setting. If this continued, it would inevitably cause Zhou Ke'er's entire body to... explode!

It exploded like fireworks!

Oh no! Fireworks and firecrackers are banned in the city!

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182. The Great Rescue of the Heroes (19)

Sensing something was wrong, Zhou Ke'er subconsciously wove her extremely scarce spiritual energy into a filter-like form. Unlike the previous method of directly blasting spiritual energy into Cynthia's body, this method did not require consuming spiritual energy—after all, there was only so much to begin with, and any more consumption would be gone.

This method can gradually corrupt the magical energy that passes through the spiritual energy network multiple times. Although... the efficiency is not very high, it can be used continuously, even though it is only a drop in the ocean.

Realizing what had happened, Zhou Ke'er quickly finished what she had just done and was about to call for a stop when at the same time, a sensation suddenly came from Cynthia beside her and from somewhere in the distance. Under this sensation, the excess massive amount of magic energy in Zhou Ke'er's body seemed to be under command and actually began to have some kind of... effect on Zhou Ke'er's body.

Amazingly, as a large amount of magical energy poured in, Zhou Ke'er gradually fell into a very strange state, like the legendary "enlightenment" or "enlightenment". She seemed to have a kind of "sensory" connection with various substances in her surroundings, or even more subtle things, through magical energy.

This inexplicable intuition even unconsciously analyzed the skills Zhou Ke'er randomly acquired at the start of her module into something lower-level but more fundamental, something more understandable to Zhou Ke'er's existing knowledge...

For example, the "Flame Barrier" originally summoned the Hellfire in a way that Zhou Ke'er couldn't understand, thus forming a barrier. But the more fundamental, or more easily understood, use of mimicry is to increase the temperature of all matter in a small area by consuming magical energy, so that the temperature in that area reaches the ignition point of the combustibles therein, and with the help of oxygen, a natural combustion aid in the air, it is ignited, thus forming a flame.

As for the intensity of the flames, it can be altered by using magic to change the number of protons in the atoms of the surrounding environment that are used to form substances that Zhou Ke'er does not need. This changes the types of those atoms, creating more new oxygen. As the concentration of oxygen in the air within that range increases, the intensity of the flames will naturally increase.

Similarly, all other substances can be constructed in this way—so that's how it is. It's not hard to understand why the gods in mythology create things out of thin air. At least Zhou Ke'er can even construct matter through this method of using magical energy. However, the limitations of Zhou Ke'er's understanding of the method are naturally very large. First of all, the magical energy consumed is astronomical. Not to mention that Zhou Ke'er should only have a pitiful value of one hundred, even with the current amplification of a huge amount of magical energy, she may not be able to construct anything. This is truly a trick of the gods!

However, this precisely answers Zhou Ke'er's question about the workings of spiritual energy in the previous module, and also verifies her second guess. That is, the reason why this energy can generate matter out of thin air or cause changes in the state of matter is not because it suddenly arrives in some inexplicable way, or is directly obtained from the outside world in an incomprehensible way—that is, the so-called "spatial magic," which is outside Zhou Ke'er's cognitive scope—but because it works through the rational application of scientific theories.

This actually explains that these energies, whether magical, spiritual, or any other kind of energy, although they may seem mysterious and quite different from one another, are actually consistent with scientific principles and are essentially the same! — At least for now, based solely on Zhou Ke'er's understanding, that's how it is.

So it seems that the essence of the occult is actually science!

However, there are indeed many things that cannot be explained by this theory. For example, Zhou Ke'er can't think of any theory to explain mental magic, space-time magic, summoning magic, etc.

Perhaps... it's not that the nature of these energies is scientific, but rather that Zhou Ke'er stubbornly uses and explains these energies in a way that he can understand.

Moreover, not only that, but in terms of the energy that can be used, there is at least one exception—that is, the strange energy called "evil energy." Its inexplicable polluting properties and the fact that it can drive ordinary people insane and cause them to lose their minds just by looking at it are something Zhou Ke'er really doesn't know how to explain with scientific theories.

Just then, Zhou Ke'er, whose senses had become exceptionally sharp due to her perception of magical energy, suddenly felt a strong sense of crisis. Moreover, the input of magical energy seemed to suddenly stop for some reason. Coming back to her senses from the strange state she had just experienced, Zhou Ke'er subconsciously used the Flame Barrier.

When she opened her eyes again, she was surprised to find that Long Aotian, who seemed to have taken several steps back, had flames still burning on his sleeves. It was obvious that he was the one who had suddenly attacked Zhou Ke'er!

"What are you doing?! Are you crazy?! Are you a traitor?!"

Cold-Eat Rabbit was so startled that she dropped the handful of peeled sunflower seeds she was holding on the ground, and couldn't help but ask in shock. Coffee, who was standing next to her, looked at the dirty sunflower seeds that had fallen on the ground with great heartache, floated over and carefully picked up the ones that were not dirty.

"It's obvious he's trying to kill me! How can you not see that?"

Zhou Ke'er moved his body, his magical energy was excessively abundant—the magical energy value on the temporary panel provided by the system had become 2576/100, more than twenty-five times the original limit—then he said in a hoarse voice, and used magical energy to form a thin film to block the wound on his wrist. Although the wound was not big and would heal naturally in a while, there was no guarantee that Long Aotian would not drain his blood to death.

He had intended to use magical energy to construct some simple items suitable for healing wounds, but he discovered... just as he had theoretically deduced, there seemed to be some limitation preventing him from performing such delicate operations. As for the reason... it was probably because...

First, her level or rank in using magic power is insufficient. After all, Zhou Ke'er's identity in this module is just a cannon fodder type of monster, so naturally she cannot have a high rank.

Secondly, and also because Zhou Ke'er herself didn't understand the true structure of those items, or the actual atomic composition, etc. After all, it's obvious that with only a vague concept, it's impossible to create items out of thin air using magic energy—that would also contradict the theory Zhou Ke'er had just used to explain the uses of magic energy, and would become "creation" in the true sense...

Is it something like the "Primordial Matter" from the legends of the Old Era? Capable of creating things out of thin air that don't exist in the world? That kind of thing... well, with Zhou Ke'er's knowledge, it's clearly beyond scientific explanation.

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183. The Great Rescue of the Heroes (Part 20)

"It's simple: slay the dragon, then scrape out its heart."

Long Aotian wasn't too flustered when his sneak attack failed; in fact, this was exactly the outcome he had expected.

He casually extinguished the flames in his hand—those hellfires that he didn't know how they were summoned seemed to automatically weaken and gradually go out once they left Zhou Ke'er's range. No wonder they could only be used for defense. As for the exact principle behind it, Zhou Ke'er had no idea.

"To be honest, my purpose in downloading this module was not to complete any main quest. Those sanity points are meaningless to me."

My goal is to obtain the hearts of low-level elite monsters to complete a quest in the main world... Do you know what the main world is?

"Tsk, that's weird. Why am I telling you all this? You wouldn't understand anyway... Seriously, do you become more talkative once you become a villain?"

Instead of continuing his attack, Long Aotian inexplicably began to self-destruct—or rather, he started talking to himself as he answered questions.

"Slay a dragon? Are you out of your mind? If you want to slay a dragon, go kill Cynthia! What does this have to do with me?"

Zhou Ke'er couldn't help but blurt out a vulgar word, and secretly activated her magic power.

Cynthia's eyes widened in indignation upon hearing this. "What?! Why are you dragging me into your internal strife?! This is outrageous! Don't I have any dignity?! I'm a princess of a kingdom, you bastard!"

"You're right. When I first saw the dragon-shaped black shadow around her, I was indeed delighted, but unfortunately the mission indicated that it didn't meet the requirements."

As for you... there was no need to harm you normally, but your actions have brought me an unexpected surprise. I didn't expect that halfway through your blood transfusion, the system would determine that your current state meets my mission objectives...

Perhaps you were genuinely transformed into a species like a wyvern due to the blood transfusion, or perhaps the excess magical energy within you, combined with your original status as a succubus, temporarily elevates you to the standard of a "low-level elite monster." I'm not sure...

But none of that matters. What matters is... once I complete the last quest in this main world series, which is this one, I can successfully unlock the character template! I'll be the first player in this game to unlock a character template! You bunch of newbies who haven't even reached the main world probably don't even know what a character template is!

Long Aotian was probably too excited and really wanted to share his joy with others, so he started to ramble on and on, displaying the exact demeanor of a villain who was always looking for trouble. "Hmph, I was going to have to go through a lot of trouble to find a monster that met the requirements, and maybe even be teleported to another world in this module or something. But look what happened, you delivered yourself right to my doorstep! This must be fate!"

Just then, before Long Aotian could finish speaking, a black shadow so fast it was almost invisible to the naked eye crashed into him, accompanied by a belated roar: "Set sail!"

Immediately following was a loud bang. With a "bang," the unsuspecting Long Aotian was sent flying. Caught off guard, he had no time to react before crashing heavily to the ground. Due to inertia, he rolled uncontrollably on the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust. Almost half of his body was hanging off the edge of the land before he finally came to a stop, looking extremely miserable.

Everyone looked closely and were surprised to see that it was actually Lengchituan, wielding a gigantic anchor that was completely disproportionate to her size, standing where Long Aotian had originally stood. She was shaking her slightly dizzy head and loudly mocking, "You bastard, you talk too much! If you're going to be a villain, then you should have some self-awareness, you idiot!"

Wow, I almost forgot, when I randomly picked up equipment in the main world, Cold-Eating Rabbit got such a brutal weapon... Zhou Ke'er couldn't help but swallow hard when she saw it. This is too ruthless! And the timing of the attack... Cold-Eating Rabbit is not only brutal, but also very cunning! She's really good at taking sneaky shots!

"What's going on? Why are you suddenly fighting? Aren't you all on the same side?"

Taiga Aisaka was shocked to see this. She was already very upset because of the phone call she had just received, and now this unexpected turn of events made her unable to help but ask loudly.

Cynthia covered the small wound on her wrist that had almost healed. Although she wanted to speak, she could only look at Zhou Ke'er with curiosity and dared not say anything.

As for the coffee... well, as usual, he seemed oblivious to the situation, still snacking away as if he were watching a show, almost clapping along.

"This is... equipment?! And it's of pretty high quality! How is this possible?! I've never seen you in the Overworld! How could you possibly have equipment?! Mods below Nightmare difficulty don't drop equipment at all, and if you've cleared Nightmare difficulty mods, why aren't you in the Overworld?!"

Hanging motionless on the edge of the land, but still alive, Long Aotian recovered from the impact and couldn't help but show a very surprised expression, asking incredulously.

"Judging from your tone, does that mean all the players going to the main world go to the same place, and you've met every single one of them?"

Before Lengchitu could say anything, Zhou Ke'er frowned, as if she had noticed something was wrong, and immediately spoke up to ask.

"Of course! I'm the guild leader of the Aotian Guild. Every player entering the main city has been secretly registered by our guild members! It's impossible to miss anyone; there's only one entrance to the main city!"

Long Aotian was taken aback when he heard Zhou Ke'er's question, but then answered without hesitation. Although it was obvious at a glance that he was stalling for time, well... let him stall.

Zhou Ke'er didn't have time to complain about what a terrible guild name it was. Instead, she was surprised to find that other players entering the main world seemed to have entered a... town? Something like a starting village or main city in other games?

Furthermore, considering Long Aotian's previous words, the main city isn't just populated by players; it's also comprised of many NPCs, as evidenced by the fact that Long Aotian accepted that so-called "main world quest"...

No wonder, Zhou Ke'er was wondering before, how come they were the first to find the safe house when they were at least one or two days behind the top players on the forum... It turns out that after other players left the cabin, their starting location was in the city, while the safe house was only set up in the wild!

That means only Zhou Ke'er and a few others went to the wilderness as soon as they entered the main world.

Zhou Ke'er was just complaining about how big the gap in player strength was at this stage of the game, but... it turns out this is only targeting them!

Everyone else can just relax and focus on leveling up in the main city?!

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184. The Great Rescue of the Heroes (Part 21)

"Hey, hey, hey... It's one thing for him to talk a lot, but why are we arguing with him? Let's strike while the iron is hot and finish him off!"

Seeing Zhou Ke'er's unhurried demeanor, Leng Chi Tu immediately reminded her that if it weren't for the anchor in her hand being too heavy, and the fact that she had to lift the anchor up before smashing it down to activate the second damage reduction effect, she would have gone up and finished her off herself.