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

Thinking this through, Zhou Ke'er stroked her chin, completely convinced of her own decision. She decided that finding teammates was a matter of fate; if the time was right, she'd probably run into them around the next street corner.

Will you suddenly appear at the coffee shop on the street corner?

Zhou Ke'er sang with her unique Scottish wild donkey-style singing as she slowly walked to the street corner and turned the corner—oh ho, isn't this a coincidence?

A woman in a trench coat was standing under a street lamp at the street corner, her hands in her pockets, her back to Zhou Ke'er, and she appeared to be wearing a hat and a mask.

"Oh, beautiful young lady~ Did you drop this golden axe, or this brand new Nokia phone?"

Zhou Ke'er immediately stepped forward and struck up a conversation in a very flippant tone.

The woman was taken aback, completely unprepared for someone to come up from behind. She was stunned for a moment before she came to her senses, then coughed twice to clear her throat and turned to look at Zhou Ke'er: "Am I... beautiful?"

"???"

Zhou Ke'er touched her chin. The women in this mod world seem a bit unrestrained, huh? No, no, I can't say that, otherwise my hands will be shaking and cold in this hot summer. I should say... has this respected lady suffered some emotional setback? Could it be that she was dumped and is therefore seeking a romantic encounter on the street?

The timing is also off... Is it wrong to seek an encounter on a dark and stormy street corner?

"Mmm...beautiful!"

Zhou Ke'er pretended to examine the other person carefully—although the lower half of the other person's face was completely covered by a mask and could not be seen clearly—in any case, Zhou Ke'er came to this conclusion after pretending that she had appreciated it.

Then, just as he was about to finish his sentence, "But unfortunately, not as pretty as me~", the other person suddenly ripped off her mask, revealing a hideous face. Her mouth had been cut open by some sharp object, leaving a long gash that made it look as if her perfectly good face had been split open from the mouth.

"Oh, oh, oh, this is!"

Zhou Ke'er was stunned when she saw this scene—that's right! Why did he forget about this? Aha! Aha! An idea suddenly struck her!

"...Am I still beautiful now?"

Seeing Zhou Ke'er's shocked expression, the woman opposite her first breathed a sigh of relief, then smiled as if she had succeeded. Then... when she realized that no shock points had been credited, she was puzzled for a moment, but didn't think too much about it, assuming that there might be a delay in the settlement. So, she took out a sharp pair of scissors from her trench coat pocket and grinned, saying, "I can make you as beautiful as me!"

"Oh, thank you so much! I was just thinking about that! I was wondering where to find a pair of scissors, and I didn't expect you to be so kind!"

Seeing this, Zhou Ke'er looked very grateful and took the scissors from the woman's hand as a matter of course. Then she held them up to her mouth a couple of times, frowned, and asked the woman, "Oh, I can't see clearly like this. Do you have a small mirror?"

"???"

The woman stared blankly at her suddenly empty hands, not quite understanding what was going on. Upon hearing Zhou Ke'er's question, she instinctively pulled out her usual small mirror from her pocket and handed it to Zhou Ke'er.

After Zhou Ke'er took the mirror, the woman realized: Huh? What's going on? Why is he holding my scissors? Why does he need the mirror?

Zhou Ke'er held scissors in one hand and a mirror in the other, but no matter how she held them, it felt awkward. Besides, the light from the streetlights didn't reach her; it was pitch black and she couldn't see anything...

"Ahem, um, could you do me a favor..."

Zhou Ke'er looked up at the woman and spoke.

"Huh? Me...me? What kind of help?"

The woman pointed to herself, looking completely bewildered, and asked, "I feel like things are starting to go in a strange direction!"

"Hold this mirror for me, then stand here... a little to the left, yes, this is perfect, tilt the mirror up a bit... okay, just like that, don't move... thanks!"

Zhou Ke'er helped the woman find a good position, then faced the mirror with a serious expression, held the scissors in front of the mirror a couple of times, and then put one blade into her mouth, "snip snip snip" cutting open one corner of her mouth. Then, ignoring the unstoppable flow of blood, she changed the direction of the scissors and quickly cut open the other corner of her mouth as well.

"...!!!"

Upon seeing this scene, the Slit-Mouthed Woman's mind went completely blank for a moment, and she couldn't help but start thinking wildly: [What...what's going on? / Could it be that I've developed some new ability that allows people to cut their own mouths? / No way, could this be considered malicious assault? Is this a violation of the rules? Will I be punished? / No way, no way, he's bleeding so much, he won't die, will he? It looks so painful! Does having your mouth cut open look this painful? / Will I be arrested for this? / No! My demon life has only just begun, I haven't even had a relationship yet!]

"Hmm...it looks pretty good, kind of like the Joker. I'll just need to get some makeup and tinker with it a bit, and I'll be all set!"

Zhou Ke'er glanced at the status bar and found that her stamina had dropped by less than 15%. Although she had a bleeding debuff, it was not a big deal, so she ignored it and carefully examined her current appearance, nodding with great satisfaction.

"Who the hell are you?! No, what the hell are you?! Are you here to cause trouble?!"

The Slit-Mouthed Woman finally realized what was happening (though she hadn't actually), and immediately asked, trembling and blustering, "What do you mean?"

"Me? Ha... Listen carefully! I am..."

Zhou Ke'er chuckled softly, her slashed lips widening with her smile, blood gushing down, appearing both bloody and fanatical. "A fool who does not belong to this world, a mysterious ruler above the gray fog, the Yellow and Black King who controls good fortune!"

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198. Strange and Weird Things (Part 7)

"Lucky...what the heck?"

The Slit-Mouthed Woman stared in astonishment at Zhou Ke'er, who had suddenly arrived and was now talking non-stop with enthusiasm. For a moment, she didn't remember the long string of words Zhou Ke'er had just said, and couldn't help but blurt out a question.

"Tsk..."

Seeing this, Zhou Ke'er couldn't help but secretly purse her lips. The most boring thing is when no one takes the joke. On the second day of missing Red Crane, she missed her—hey! Isn't she in this module too? I'll go find her later—Zhou Ke'er waved her hand listlessly, feeling a little uninterested, "Never mind, just call me Joker."

"Okay...okay, Jo...Joker."

Seeing Zhou Ke'er's utterly disappointed expression, the Slit-Mouthed Woman felt a strange pang of apology and instinctively replied, before realizing what she'd said. "Wait, what are you trying to do? Are you a human or a ghost?!"

"It's Joker, not Jojoker!"

Zhou Ke'er immediately frowned and corrected him, saying, "Speaking of which... it's really strange that the Slit-Mouthed Woman asked him, a perfectly normal human, whether he's a human or a demon... Is she crying wolf?"

"What do I want to do? Hehe, it's okay to tell you~ My goal is, without the parasites... oops, I mean... I want you to take me to your ghosts'... uh, hideout, lair? How should I put it, or... company or something? Does such a place exist? It should, right?"

Zhou Ke'er then considered her words carefully, but found that there was really no suitable description, so she could only let the other party understand and continued to ask.

"Yes, there is... but why ask this... don't you know this? Aren't you a ghost? No, humans should know this too... Could it be that you're not from this city?!"

The Slit-Mouthed Woman, realizing she had discovered the truth, narrowed her eyes, grinned with a slightly terrifying expression, and deliberately spoke in a sinister tone: "So that's how it is. Since you're not human from this city, that means you're not protected by the 'Don't Harm Humans' rule. Although I don't know how you got in,... since you dared to toy with me just now, you'll have to pay the price..."

As she spoke, she made a gesture as if she was about to attack Zhou Ke'er.

"Ugh..."

Zhou Ke'er was taken aback by the sight, then couldn't help but sigh. He really hadn't considered this situation. After all, he should have made it quite obvious to the strange man that he wasn't a native of this city, but the strange man hadn't mentioned it at all, so he hadn't expected this at all...

"Hmph! Scared now! I'll show you mercy since you cut your own lip..."

Seeing Zhou Ke'er sigh, the Slit-Mouthed Woman felt as if the sky had cleared and the rain had stopped, and she was back to normal. She immediately spoke in a sinister tone, but before she could finish speaking, Zhou Ke'er slapped her across the face and forced her head to smash it against a lamppost several times. The Slit-Mouthed Woman was stunned and didn't realize what was happening.

Zhou Ke'er then released her hand from the slit-mouthed woman's face, quickly walked forward, went around behind the slit-mouthed woman, reached one hand from behind the lamppost and put it around the slit-mouthed woman's neck, while holding scissors in her other hand, she gently touched the tip of the blade to the slit-mouthed woman's face.

After gathering her emotions, Zhou Ke'er said in a cold tone, "It seems you still don't understand the situation... You actually dared to show hostility towards me... Tell me~ how should I punish you? Should I open your mouth even wider, or should I also open up your eyes and nose? From a slit-mouthed woman to a slit-faced woman, doesn't that sound pretty good? Free plastic surgery, you don't have to pay a penny~ Isn't that a good deal?"

"I'm...I'm sorry! Please forgive me, I was just trying to make a joke!"

The slit-mouthed woman was stunned by the sudden turn of events. It took her a while to feel the pain in the back of her head from where she had bumped into the lamppost. She mumbled and begged for mercy, "Actually, I can't hurt humans. I just wanted to scare you. I meant no harm! Please, please let me go!"

"Hey, what a coincidence!"

Zhou Ke'er moved the scissors to the side and then placed them across the slit-mouthed woman's neck. She then leaned in close, resting her chin on the woman's shoulder, her face showing a playful grin, which was reflected in the mirror in the slit-mouthed woman's hand.

In stark contrast, his tone was chilling: "I was just joking with you, wasn't it funny? After all, I'm just a joker who likes to tell jokes, aren't I? Don't be scared, why so serious?"

As Zhou Ke'er spoke, the wound at the corner of her mouth was aggravated, causing blood to flow uncontrollably and trickle down onto the slit-mouthed woman's shoulder, staining it a dark red.

"Yes, yes, it's so interesting..."

The slit-mouthed woman's smile was more like a grimace, and she quickly nodded slightly in agreement.

"Judging from her frightened expression, even these physical ghosts can be in mortal danger after suffering a fatal wound. That strange person before also suffocated after being strangled. But... I wonder what would happen if they weren't physical..."

Seeing this, Zhou Ke'er subconsciously thought for a moment, then released her grip on the slit-mouthed woman and smiled kindly at her cut mouth, saying, "See, isn't that right? Isn't it interesting! I really made a good joke~ What do you think?"

"Yes, yes..."

The slit-mouthed woman cupped her face and nodded repeatedly, rubbing her split lips with her hand. Then, incredibly, her split lips closed up without leaving a trace, and she looked quite good-looking.

Seeing this, Zhou Ke'er couldn't help but raise her eyebrows. Wow... this function is quite useful!

Imagine if the Slit-Mouthed Woman (Kujira-onna) were to act in an adult film, and her mouth suddenly split open halfway through, the viewers would probably be terrified and their mouths would split open too...

Not only will you earn a huge amount of scare points, but you might even become an urban legend – killing two birds with one stone!

It's a pity that such a great idea couldn't be shared with the Slit-Mouthed Woman. After all, Zhou Ke'er had to maintain her image; she'd never been a vicious killer chasing someone while telling dirty jokes before. That kind of style was too bizarre, completely unimaginable...

Besides, the system would definitely ban me from saying such things... after all, it's R18.

"Alright, since that's the case, as payment for telling you this joke, hurry up and take me to your ghost company~"

Bringing her thoughts back, Zhou Ke'er snapped her fingers at the trembling, slit-mouthed woman standing beside her and said, "I'll let you go once we get there. I mean what I say~ Nobody understands honesty better than me~ However, if you deliberately lead me to another place, or try to deceive me, I'll have to teach you a lesson about honesty~"

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199. Strange and Weird Things (Part 8)

Meanwhile, at this moment, Zhijian Sha stood alone in front of a ghostly building. The building was dark and seemed to be empty, presumably because everyone had gone home, or rather... well, started "working"—the building's entrance bore the six large characters "Ghost Power Company".

As soon as Finger Sand entered the module, she bumped into a strange-looking guy with face paint and dark circles under his eyes like a panda. He was charging at her aggressively with a spoon, which scared her so much that she thought she had run into some kind of inexplicable death flag at the beginning of the game, and she immediately ran away.

As it turned out, that thing was incredibly elusive. Just when she had finally shaken him off, it would suddenly reappear from who-knows-where and continue chasing her.

Finally, unable to run any further and extremely frustrated, Zhijiansha simply slapped the spoon out of the guy's hand and snapped it in two.

The thing paused for a moment upon seeing this, then pulled out another spoon from inside its coat and tilted its head to look at the sand between its fingers.

The guy was so angry he laughed. Instead of being angry, he gritted his teeth and snatched the newly taken-out spoon away. Under the guy's bewildered yet fearless gaze, he brandished the spoon with a ferocious expression, beating the guy until he was running for his life, crying and screaming. He chased and beat him all the way, but finally lost him—after all, the guy suddenly turned into a dead end and disappeared.

Fingers Sand, trying to find that ghostly thing again, wandered aimlessly until they arrived here. Looking at the name of this building, Fingers Sand was absolutely certain that they had found the right place. The dead man with the spoon had definitely escaped into this place, or at least it was related to this place!

"What? I was pretty good at catching them!"

Sand between her fingers muttered to herself, gripping the slightly bent spoon in her hand tightly, and cautiously entered this so-called "ghostly power company"—seriously, they didn't even lock the door after get off work? Or was she wrong, not off work, but just starting work? And that's why she didn't lock the door?

Many guesses flashed through her mind in an instant, but she still cautiously walked in. Upon entering, she found herself in a large hall, but it was pitch black, and she couldn't see anything clearly. Only a small area near the door was dimly lit by the streetlights and moonlight outside, and she could barely make out what was there with her eyes.

Not daring to turn on the light, Zhijiansha tiptoed to a small table by the door, which looked like an information desk or something similar.

One foot slowly stepped onto the platform, the sound of the shading between the fingers was quiet, and slowly and silently flipped over the round platform, landing on the ground in the middle of the platform. Then, he squatted down and stared intently at the ground beneath the platform.

Wow, sure enough, there's a drawer on the side facing the door, and as is typical of horror games, there's bound to be a flashlight in that drawer at the start.

If it's nuclear-powered, that's fine, but if you need to find batteries... then that's troublesome.

With absolute certainty, she slowly pulled the drawer open a little, reached inside, and carefully rummaged around for a while. She didn't find a flashlight, but instead found... uh... a cell phone?

It looks like someone accidentally left it here.

Finger Sand had encountered this thing many times in previous modules, and since she also used a mobile phone for a period of time when she was a child, before communication bracelets were common, she was quite familiar with using this thing.

I pressed the power button, turned on the screen, and a faint light flickered. Hmm... it even has a combination lock. Looks like I can only use it as a flashlight...

And it seems like there's not much battery left. At least you can change the battery in a flashlight, but what about a phone...? I can't just go find a charger and wait for it to charge, can I?

The uncouth Zhijiansha, who had been rummaging through other people's things, started picking and choosing with a look of disgust.

But there's no better way, so even if it's inconvenient, we can only use it for now and deal with it later.