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

"Huh? Is this a haunted house? There's no sign outside?"

Upon hearing this, Cold-Eat Rabbit couldn't help but ask in confusion.

"Is that the main point?"

Chen Tian suppressed the urge to complain. No, she had been corrupted by Chen Tian. Every day, he would keep complaining in her mind. If this continued, her image would be ruined!

"Oh, I see..."

Junxiong pondered for a moment, then dragged a piece of wood out of nowhere, bit his hand, smeared some ink on the wood, and handed it to Lengchitu, saying, "Here it is."

"!! Demons can bleed?!"

Chen Tian was shocked again.

Cold-cooked Rabbit didn't react immediately. He reached out and took the wooden board, only to see the words scrawled on it: "Kayako's Warm... (crossed out) Haunted House".

After reading these words, Cold-Eating Rabbit immediately slammed the wooden board to the ground and blurted out, "That's not how it works at all! And you can't even write the character '馨' in 'warm and cozy'?!"

"Please, your standards are really high!"

Upon hearing this, Junxiong frowned impatiently.

"Hey! How dare you talk like that, you brat? Where's your manners? Don't you know you need to respect your elders? Believe me, I'll file a complaint against you!"

Upon hearing Junxiong's impatient tone, Lengchitu said unhappily.

"Go ahead and file a complaint. Oh, and by the way, we're operating without a license, so remember to report us then!"

The brat, Toshio, had a terrible attitude. "Besides, I'm much older than you! You brat! Don't you know how to respect your elders?!"

"But...aren't you...ghosts?"

Before Cold-Eating Rabbit could explode in anger, forgetting that the weapon's special effects were sealed, Chen Tian hurriedly said this before he could pull out the Giant Anchor and fire at the brat.

"Yeah, so what? Can't a haunted house be run by ghosts? Is that a problem? Is that racial discrimination?"

"Toshio, you brat, replied again in your usual bad temper."

"Oh ho, my temper is on fire!"

Cold-cooked rabbit was furious with him and immediately planned to pull out his big treasure to teach this brat what it meant to be beaten up by adults.

Just then, Sadako finished her dance on TV. A man walked over, handed her a piece of paper, and whispered a few words. Sadako then held the paper up to the screen—on it was written the word "teach".

After a moment of hesitation, Xiao Zhenzi timidly spoke up: "Dear viewers, if you think Xiao Zhenzi's performance was good, you can give her a tip as encouragement~ Xiao Zhenzi will be ranked according to the amount of tips, and the results will be posted here~"

In addition, Xiao Zhenzi also offers song requests, dance requests, chat services, and even one-on-one private services. All services are clearly priced, so please support her!

Next up is the Q&A session! Feel free to post anything you'd like to say here, and I'll pick a few to answer. However, I won't be answering any questions about personal matters.

"By the way, paying more will increase your chances of being selected."

The man who had just appeared poked his head out again to remind them.

"Tsk tsk tsk... Little Sadako is going to make a fortune this time! I really envy these good-looking ghosts... tsk..."

Kayako, slumped on the sofa with lifeless eyes, looked utterly dejected and whispered enviously and jealously.

As for Chen Tian and Leng Chi Tu, they exchanged a bewildered and shocked glance—the man who had just appeared... wasn't that Zhou Ke'er?!

----------------

Meanwhile, Zhang He was running away with Hong He and Chun Kan Qiu Fei, both looking indignant. A cat that looked injured was perched on his shoulder, while a group of fierce-looking... uh, little brats were chasing after them.

The group of kids were even chasing after Zhang He and his group, while laughing and throwing all sorts of strange trash at them.

"Damn it! The world is going to the dogs! How could these kids do such a thing! What ugly souls they have! It makes me want to vomit!"

Zhang He dodged a pair of smelly socks thrown at him by some brat, and couldn't help but show an extremely angry expression as he roared.

"Tsk, who told you to meddle in other people's business!"

Spring drowsiness and autumn fatigue led the way, yawning and saying helplessly, "These brats are such troublemakers, you can't hit them, and if you hit the little ones, the big ones will come. If their parents show up and bring the police, then we're in real trouble..."

Besides, look at that talking cat on your shoulder. It's clearly not your average urban simulation. What if those demanding parents who come aren't just strong, but also unreasonable, and instead of uttering a word, they just slap us to dust?

"But abusing cats is going too far!"

Zhang He raised his voice and emphasized indignantly.

"That's right! Zhang He is right, cat abuse is despicable!!"

The red crane, staring with dead fish eyes, tried its best to put on an indignant look and said, "Also, I have really never seen a brat who has been caught doing something shameful dare to chase after an adult and beat them up... What kind of people are these!"

"Exactly! This kind of guy's heart is completely rotten! It's so ugly, so incredibly ugly! Just looking at him makes me feel like my beautiful eyes are being defiled!"

Zhang He rarely used such vulgar language as "this kind of guy," which clearly showed that he was quite angry about the situation.

------------

196. Strange and Weird Things (Part 5)

"Well, they probably mistook you for monsters like me, which is why they acted so boldly..."

The cat perched on Zhang He's shoulder, upon hearing Honghe's question, weakly interjected.

"Why is this? Could it be... these brats... are they some kind of Taoist priests who exorcise demons and protect the righteous path?"

Zhang He frowned and asked, "Could it be that he judged a monster by its appearance? Didn't he realize that this seemingly harmless cat was actually a heinous demon?"

"No, they're just ordinary people... Aren't Taoist priests and such just fictional characters from bedtime stories?"

Upon hearing this, the cat immediately shook its head and explained.

"Then why should we be afraid of them? No... I should say, why aren't they afraid of monsters? It's really strange that ordinary people aren't afraid of monsters!"

While jogging and dozing off, feeling drowsy and tired, he mumbled a question in a half-asleep, half-awake state.

"Because monsters are forbidden from harming humans..."

The cat glanced at Spring Sleepiness and Autumn Fatigue with a strange look, as if wondering why she wouldn't know this, and answered as if it were perfectly natural.

"What kind of ridiculous rule is this? Monsters can't harm people, but people can harm monsters? Is this racial discrimination? It's politically incorrect!"

Upon hearing this, Honghe couldn't help but squint and retort. As she was speaking, she suddenly seemed to have thought of something, and immediately slowed down her pace. She turned around and glanced at the brats chasing after her. "Wait, wait... According to you, they are not afraid of us and dare to chase after us to fight. It's not because they have a powerful background, but because they are not afraid of monsters. And you don't fight back because monsters can't attack humans, not because they are very powerful?"

"So... what are we afraid of? There's no rule saying we can't beat them up, right? We're human, not monsters. There's no rule forbidding humans from hitting each other, is there?"

As he spoke, the flamingo stopped in his tracks with ill intent, squinting as he turned to look at the approaching, unruly children.

What if the police are called?

Feeling sleepy and tired, I rubbed my bleary eyes and, seeing that the flamingo had stopped, I had no choice but to stop as well and ask.

"There are no security cameras here, and it's the dead of night. It's a dark and stormy night for murder, and a time for arson. We'll beat them up and leave. How could the police possibly find us?"

Honghe had already tilted her head, eagerly rubbing her hands together, ready to give those unruly kids a lesson in adult love (or rather, a beating), in short: a lesson in love.

"Flamingo is right! We are... punishing evil and promoting good! We must teach these mischievous kids who have gone astray a good lesson!"

Zhang He nodded in agreement with a serious expression.

"...Alright, since you've all put it that way, what else can I do?"

Spring drowsiness and autumn fatigue—seeing such a plausible excuse, she could only nod in agreement—after all, she really wanted to give those brats a good beating for daring to disturb her sleep!

"Hmph, kids are always causing trouble, mostly because they're spoiled. A good beating will fix that!"

Flamingo stared with dead fish eyes at the unruly children who were completely unaware of their impending fate. For once, she broke her perpetually expressionless face and couldn't help but reveal a ferocious smile.

"If one beating isn't enough, then give us several! Remember, even beautiful justice needs violence to maintain it! This is an eternal truth!"

Zhang He nodded in agreement after hearing Honghe's words.

The unsuspecting kids, completely unaware of all this, unwittingly stumbled into Zhang He and his group's encirclement...

Well, the following content is too gory (quick and violent), so approximately 100,000 words of description have been omitted... "Shocking, it seems like hitting children shouldn't be written?!"

In short, before long, those brats all had bruises under their eyes, faces swollen like pigs' heads, and bottoms that were almost beaten to a pulp. They ran away crying, saying things like they would definitely report them and make those damn monsters die without a burial place.

"Oh ho... you still dare to make threats? Haven't you realized your mistake yet? It seems your strength wasn't enough?"

Honghe used her arm, which was aching from slapping the brat, to say in a cold, squinting voice, "It seems these kids still haven't learned what it means to be cared for (beaten) by an adult. Their understanding isn't quite there yet..."

"Forget it, forget it, this is making me sleepy..."

Upon hearing this, Spring Sleepiness and Autumn Fatigue quickly pulled back Red Crane, who was rubbing her hands together, ready to chase after them, and yawned repeatedly, advising, "If we keep chasing after them, the fight will never end!"

"Huh? You have the nerve to say that? When are you ever not sleepy?"

Zhang He couldn't help but mutter a complaint about the phrase "spring drowsiness and autumn fatigue," then turned to the cat and asked, "Where is your den... oh no, where is your home? Let's take you back now. Be careful next time, don't let these naughty kids catch you. Without our help, things could get really bad, who knows what they might do."

"Thank you...but..."

Upon hearing Zhang He's words, the cat immediately wiped away its tears with its paw and replied with a slightly choked voice, "I...I have no home anymore. They took me from my home. Before that, I don't know where my parents were taken by them. I haven't seen them since...My brothers and sisters scattered and ran away to escape their clutches..."

Waaaaah, I miss so much the times when Mom and Dad would tell us bedtime stories and lull us to sleep! Waaaaah...

The cat lowered its tail and rested on Zhang He's shoulder, sobbing as it spoke.

"What?! Such a thing actually happened!! This is outrageous! Just beating them up is too lenient on them!"

Upon hearing this, Zhang He flew into a rage. He couldn't stand such ugly acts of bullying the weak, and immediately shouted, "As human beings, how can their hearts be so ugly?! They are simply devils! Don't they have any compassion at all?!"

This is outrageous! This kind of person...unforgivable! Such a vile creature shouldn't exist in this world! There's an old saying from the ancient times: "Man is born upright; those who are dishonest are lucky to escape punishment!" It's time to let them know what that means!

However, compared to the indignant Zhang He, Hong He stared at the cat for a while with a blank expression, calmed down and thought about it for a bit. She seemed to feel that there was a problem, but in the end she didn't say anything - well, it's never wrong to discipline a naughty kid!

As for which of the cat's statements were true and which were false... and what its true purpose was... let's deal with such troublesome and boring matters later~

------------

197. Strange and Weird Things (Part Six)

Let's turn our attention back to Zhou Ke'er.

Zhou Ke'er, having declined Xiao Zhenzi's offer to split the profits 50/50, managed to... no, I mean, use her personal charm to get the weirdo to "voluntarily" find a store that was still open in the middle of the night and buy her a cell phone. After exchanging contact information with them, Zhou Ke'er left quite casually.

Well, he doesn't really need the money. If he wants to buy something... there are always more interesting ways to get it than just paying for it, right?

Anyway, the mission objectives for this event haven't been announced yet, so Zhou Ke'er can play however she wants right now.

Humming a tune she didn't recognize, something like Lost River, Zhou Ke'er strolled leisurely down the street, thinking about what to do next.

First of all, whether or not to look for teammates who got separated at the start is indeed a problem. After all, Zhou Ke'er started all alone. If all players start in a random arena, wouldn't it be incredibly troublesome to find teammates? Besides, the mission objectives haven't been released yet, so looking for teammates is pointless.

It just means that without a few more sarcastic characters around, it's not as fun to act recklessly, it's not a big deal.