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

Page 13

"Ok?"

Upon hearing this, everyone looked at him. Oh, he was already asleep... no, he was just dozing off from the spring drowsiness and autumn fatigue.

"The first option is the worst one: stop thinking about other extra objectives and focus on completing the main quest. If we just want to survive, as long as we can prepare our weapons and medicines later, whether we retreat while searching or find a place that is easy to defend and difficult to attack, the chances of success are very high."

Zhou Ke'er gently fanned herself with a fan—or rather, a fan of a piece of paper—and spoke eloquently: "After all, it's just a difficult module. Surviving isn't difficult at all. There are plenty of places in the city that are easy to defend and difficult to attack."

The second option is a middle-ground strategy: while ensuring our own survival, we try to complete the first side mission, which is to uncover the truth behind the virus outbreak. After all, if we want to live, we need to find a place to defend, and places related to this zombie virus... you've all seen the old-school movie "Resident Evil," right? Those places with clues should be easy to defend and difficult to attack, so we have a chance of encountering them.

However, this side quest has no clues whatsoever; we don't even know how to trigger it. The randomness is too high. Even if we explored the entire city for two days, we might not find anything. So, even though it offers the highest reward upon completion, I don't think it's the best objective.

"That's pretty much what I was thinking, but... is there another way? I didn't think of that... Could it be leaving the city? I rejected that from the start. The opening CG just now showed that the road out of the city was blocked and guarded by the army. Anyone who came later was not allowed to pass."

The flamingo opened its dead fish eyes, a hint of interest finally appearing in them. "But after thinking about it, this is the only target left. Do you have a better idea?"

"Of course!"

Zhou Ke'er crossed her arms arrogantly, "As long as we combine the extra mission with the second side quest, it'll be fine, right? Leaving the city doesn't require us to break out on our own or sneak out. That's too difficult, and the rewards are too low, so it's not worth it at all."

So this extra mission is just a hint at how to complete the side quest! We don't need to break through ourselves, we can leave it to the zombies! What we need to do is lure all the zombies in the city to that area.

Even if the number of zombies lured over is only a quarter of the original population, those people blocked outside and directly exposed to the zombies are perfect resources—a continuous production line! This way, once a breach is made, everyone inside will be infected at an extremely rapid pace, and then...it will be easy.

"Isn't this... a bit too outrageous?"

"God Realm Nine Tribulations hesitated for a moment before asking," Shenyu Jiujie asked.

"?"

Zhou Ke'er looked at him questioningly, "What do you mean?"

"Those people... even if they aren't real, they're still human, right?"

The Nine Tribulations of the Divine Realm didn't know how to phrase it.

"What... You're acting like a saint just because you're playing a game? No problem then, just do the main quest yourself and don't worry about anything else."

Zhou Ke'er pursed his lips. What he hated most was people who had to be a saint even when playing a game. Saintly bitches were especially despicable.

"No, what I mean is... those people blocking the army's way are a waste of time even if they get infected quickly, and many of them will be bitten to pieces. Even if they turn into zombies, they won't be able to fight. Why can't we just infect a large number of people directly?"

Divine Realm Nine Tribulations shook his head and replied, "Lowering one's own combat power is too outrageous."

"!"

Zhou Ke'er glanced at the Nine Tribulations of the Divine Realm in shock. "You, with your thick eyebrows and big eyes, have betrayed us too! I thought he was the only normal one among them, but now it seems Zhou Ke'er is the only normal one!"

"Yeah, instead of going through all the trouble of luring the zombies there, it's better to just let them get infected with the virus directly... But there's no good way to infect them directly, is there?"

Flamingo nodded, then said with little interest, "How did a perfectly good game turn into Plague Inc.? How boring."

"Plague Corporation?"

"Nine Tribulations of the Divine Realm asked in confusion."

"A game from the old era... I've only ever heard of it, do you actually have the resources?"

Zhou Ke'er asked in shock.

"Hmm...I guess so."

Flamingo nodded.

"Hey, wait a minute, let's get back to the main topic. You guys can add each other as friends and talk about this later."

"Nine Tribulations of the Divine Realm," Divine Realm Nine Tribulations quickly interrupted.

"Ha, alright, alright, I know you're just jealous... Who said it takes a lot of hardship to lure them over!"

Zhou Ke'er glanced at the Nine Tribulations of the Divine Realm, a glint of light flashing in her eyes. "A pair of bright eyes" has returned to the scene. He is the most mentally unstable one. No one can compare to him!

"Once we can determine whether this zombie is voice-controlled or smell-controlled, everything will be very simple!"

As he spoke, Zhou Ke'er quickly walked to the window, pushed it open, and leaned out at the scattered zombies on the street. He held out for a while, but there was no reaction. Then he gathered his strength in his dantian and shouted, "Explode Liu Jifen!"

The sound quickly attracted the attention of the zombies, who rushed toward the entrance downstairs after spotting Zhou Ke'er.

"What are you doing!"

Zhang He asked in surprise.

"Gather intelligence. Anyway, there are still ten minutes of safety time. If you're worried, just block the door with something."

Zhou Ke'er said nonchalantly, "Moreover, based on their behavior just now, we can deduce the following conclusions. First, these zombies have a poor sense of smell and can't smell my scent. Second, they are sensitive to sound, which can be used to lure them over. Third, they should still retain a small amount of residual intelligence, because after they saw me, they didn't try to climb up the wall from below, but instead went up through the main entrance of this building."

Everyone else fell silent, but a strange light flashed in Honghe's eyes. "Oh ho, this is interesting. It's still boring, but not as boring as it used to be."

"Oh, right, speaking of residual intelligence, I suddenly have a bold idea. Since there is still intelligence, it means that the brain has not been completely destroyed. So, if we take some drugs that can stimulate the mind and keep the brain active before infection, it may be able to delay the duration of infection or maintain consciousness for a period of time after infection."

Zhou Ke'er suddenly seemed to remember something and said seriously, "I had a patient with asthma before who had to take medication, so I know a little about it. High-dose steroids for treating asthma have a stimulating effect, um... much better than coffee."

"What is this? What's the point of it?"

Divine Realm Nine Tribulations didn't understand; this thing didn't seem to have anything to do with this module. Speaking of which, judging from Zhou Ke'er's tone, is he a doctor?

"A backup plan, a backup plan. If we are unfortunately infected before the module ends, then every extra minute of delay is very important."

Zhou Ke'er said matter-of-factly, "However, this still needs to be tested in clinical trials. We'll find out when we catch a few people to try it out and see if it works, and if so, how effective it is."

"I see, that's interesting... Are you a doctor?"

Honghe asked Zhou Ke'er.

"Yes."

Zhou Ke'er answered calmly, but inwardly she was shocked: This guy saw right through me as a doctor! A Golden Core stage expert is terrifying!

"Fellow practitioner! I'm a psychologist, what about you?"

It was really incongruous for the flamingo to be speaking excitedly with its dead fish eyes.

"Oh, I'm mentally ill."

Zhou Ke'er answered as a matter of course.

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16. With a clapper clap like that...

"?"

Divine Realm Nine Tribulations was stunned for a moment, then exclaimed in shock, "Are you mentally ill? Mentally ill people can play this game now?"

"He's a psychiatrist!"

Zhou Ke'er emphasized with dissatisfaction, "He's a psychiatrist who can prescribe medication!"

"Ahem, Mr. Zhou, this psychiatrist you mentioned... he... oh no, I mean, is he amazing?"

Honghe squinted, propped her chin up, and asked in a very serious manner.

"It's not a matter of whether he's powerful or not, he's truly the kind of person who's very rare..."

Zhou Ke'er immediately picked up on the joke.

Wow, this flamingo seems to know quite a bit about the Old Era. Maybe we can add each other as friends, and then... hehehe...

"Stop, stop, stop! This isn't the time for memes!"

Although Shenyu Jiujie didn't know what Zhou Ke'er and the other person were talking about, he still quickly stopped them, saying, "Speaking of which, we don't even know where we are now, nor do we know how to get to the outskirts of the city."

"Hum hum."

Zhou Ke'er casually crumpled the paper she was using as a fan into a ball and tossed it to Shenyu Jiujie. Then, she clapped her hands and said to Honghe, "With a clap of the bamboo clappers like that, we won't praise anything else!"

"Just give me some praise, this honest man is a ninth-level God Realm expert!"

Red Crane instantly understood, staring with dead fish eyes as she started clapping, "This Nine Tribulations of the Divine Realm, what's so good about him?"

"He has a small brain, a big head, and many folds; he's just a little slow-witted!"

Zhou Ke'er clapped her hands, bringing the event to a perfect close.

"Isn't it going too far to ridicule others like this? Such wanton mockery is such a despicable act! We despise it!"

Zhang He finally used cabinets, beds, and other things to completely block the door from behind. When he returned, he heard Zhou Ke'er and Honghe telling a crosstalk story, and he couldn't help but frown.

"Is this a map?"

However, the Nine Tribulations of the Divine Realm was good-natured and didn't say anything. He focused his attention on unfolding the tattered paper that Zhou Ke'er had thrown over. "A map of the whole city... Strange, why is there a map here?"

"Hey sir, I'd like to apologize to everyone. I'm just a comedian, sorry about that."

Seeing that Zhang He was unhappy, Zhou Ke'er quickly cupped her hands in a witty and smooth manner.

"Oh, that's for sure!"

Honghe spontaneously joined in to play the straight man.

"Speaking of performing crosstalk, it's really hard work!"

"Oh? What do you mean?"

One day, someone asked us, "Which mountain has the most winding roads?"

"Hmm? Good question."

I replied that it was a philosophical statement.

"Good guy!"

"I reckon I'm not wrong, it's like a philosophical mountain road with eighteen bends?"

"That's absolutely right!"