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

Zhou Ke'er glanced at the sand between her fingers and replied perfunctorily, as if coaxing a child.

"..."

Zhijiansha almost laughed out of exasperation, but she had to maintain a forced smile. Ugh, so annoying! There was no other way; she could only ignore Zhou Ke'er's childish behavior and directly analyze, "We should first plan for the finally released module missions, although these missions are quite unexpected and have almost nothing to do with all the efforts we've made since the beginning of the module..."

"Well, all our efforts so far have been in vain."

Zhou Ke'er nodded seriously.

"No, at least you're still number one in contribution rankings... Although I don't know when you made it, this urban legend that looks so ridiculous really suits your style."

"Finger Sand" complained to Zhou Ke'er.

"No, I didn't expect it either... and I didn't put any effort into that at all."

Zhou Ke'er shrugged. "Oh right, before we make a plan, we need to clarify one thing... As you can see, although this module allows for team play, the final ranking is calculated on an individual basis."

So we have to decide whether our next steps should be... to ensure that all of us get a ranking on the leaderboard, at least to guarantee the minimum reward, or to all of us support one person and help them climb to the top—I bet that guy Long Aotian will have his entire guild help him farm points.”

"Long Aotian? Who's that?"

"Finger Sand asked in confusion."

"You're focusing on the wrong thing..."

Red Crane squinted and muttered a complaint in a low voice.

"Oh, oh, oh, I know that! It's the last module, the one I did with Zhou Ke'er, where one player betrayed us and almost killed Zhou Ke'er..."

Upon hearing this, Lengchitu felt he could finally speak up and immediately began to explain. However, before he could finish, he was interrupted by Zhou Ke'er, who had a dark expression on her face.

"Yakamashi! All you've got is a mouth that can talk!"

"..."

Having roughly understood what was going on, Zhijiansha's lips twitched. Wisely, she chose not to ask any further questions and quickly changed the subject, saying, "Uh... well... how should I put it? If everyone helps one person boost their score, then it is indeed very likely to get a better ranking. After all, you are currently in first place, so your advantage is quite significant... Personally, I have no objection, but we still need to consider the thoughts of others, right? After all, this involves the distribution of benefits, and if things go wrong, it can be quite troublesome."

"What's there to worry about? If you want to get on the leaderboard, just do it yourself. If you're willing to help, then help each other. It's not like we can't play games together or be in the same team after we separate this time."

The flamingo squinted as it answered.

"That's not how it works..."

Cold-Eat Rabbit, however, retorted with an air of experience: "Based on my extensive experience of currying favor with powerful teammates, some players are normally quite friendly and will do their best to help their companions if they can, but once their own interests are involved..."

"Then there's no need to be companions anymore. It's better to see each other's true colors sooner rather than later so we can part ways amicably."

The flamingo answered without hesitation.

"..."

Cold-cooked Rabbit glanced at Red Crane hesitantly, then hesitated for two seconds: "Um... although it's a bit offensive, but... Red Crane, do you... not have many friends in real life?"

"..."

For once, the flamingo showed a rare expression of having been shot by an arrow, and was speechless for a moment.

"That's true. It's not wrong to think about your own interests, after all, it doesn't bother anyone else. If you force someone to give up their own interests to help you, and think that's what makes a good friend... well, that's actually quite hypocritical."

Zhou Ke'er waved her hand and finally decided, "Then forget it. Let's aim for everyone to squeeze into the rankings and get a good position. Even if we don't get very high, at least it'll be fair. Arguing like this is really annoying..."

## Chapter 247, Section 242: Strange and Unusual (Fifty-One)

"Okay. Hmm... So, are we going to work on that urban legend next?"

Zhijiansha nodded, not dwelling on the topic any further, and then asked Zhou Ke'er.

"wrong."

The flamingo shook its head.

"Completely wrong!"

Zhou Ke'er waved her hand almost simultaneously with her and said in unison.

After a pause, glancing at Honghe and seeing that she didn't seem to intend to continue, Zhou Ke'er explained to the puzzled Zhijiansha and Lengchitu: "If it's to help one person get points, then we should consider this approach. But we want everyone to be on the leaderboard, so this method is just too slow."

A more suitable approach for us would be to... mass-produce urban legends. All we need to do is obtain the basic contribution points for providing the setting and getting it started to spread.

For example, in the only urban legend we have now, I only provided the setting and instigated a ghost to do so, and I can get 15% contribution points. We probably won't find any ghosts that will listen to us and do as we say. So although it will take longer, the contribution points should increase accordingly.

Let's assume the initial contribution is 20%. Even if the urban legend isn't completed, it's still 10%... By the way, with our method, most of it will be impossible to complete, so let's just calculate it as 10%.

"That's right, I think so too. Moreover, by quickly refreshing the list of urban legends, we can not only boost our own score, but also disrupt other players' plans."

Honghe squinted, resting her chin on her hand, looking listless, and added: "Apart from certain player groups, most players choose to help improve the completion of an existing urban legend. Therefore, when too many urban legends appear on the list, they will inevitably feel anxious and panicked."

Even if they suddenly realize what our intentions are and also want to use this method to boost their scores, they are already far behind us in progress and therefore cannot threaten us.

This way, we can exclude a large portion of players, greatly increasing our chances of making the list.

"..."

After listening to Zhou Ke'er and Honghe's words, Lengchitu had already shown a look of bewildered awe.

"However, if we choose this method, it will inevitably require us to come up with enough urban legend settings, and... because it is dangerous for us to spread these urban legends ourselves and make them recognized by the system... not to mention the most important issue is... speed."

After thinking for a while, Zhijiansha understood what Zhou Ke'er and Honghe meant, but at the same time raised a few questions: "Let's not talk about whether our way of scoring points is as fast as those players who honestly increase the perfection of their points. What if our settings clash with other players', and we happen to be a step behind them, allowing them to get the participation points for proposing settings first? Wouldn't that be a waste of a lot of time with little gain?"

"Oh, I see. You explained it so clearly. Now I understand it much better!"

Cold-Eating Rabbit looked at the eloquent Finger Sand, then glanced at Red Crane and Zhou Ke'er who were listening very attentively, blinked blankly, and then quickly nodded as if he had completely understood.

"Then let's come up with some interesting and unconventional settings that are easy to use and won't clash with others. You know, first of all, the setting in this module is that ghosts and monsters cannot harm humans, so if we spread those horror urban legends now, like the rumors about Sadako's horror videotapes, no one will believe them."

Furthermore, people are naturally inclined to believe, or even if they don't, they'll spread strange and bizarre rumors out of amusement—like this urban legend about the heart-wrenching monster.

With dead fish eyes, half her face pressed against the table, and lying on her side, Honghe muttered, "This fits the criteria perfectly. First, the ghosts and monsters in it won't harm humans, giving them a sense of reality. Second, the ghosts and monsters follow you all the way just to mock you, which is hilarious. They'll become interested and spread it as a joke."

"That's right! After all, it was my idea that came up with this concept!"

Upon hearing Honghe's words, Zhou Ke'er immediately adopted a boastful attitude, crossed her arms, raised her head, and said smugly, "Besides, I can come up with a whole bunch of settings of this level in an instant, how could there be not enough settings?"

"Huh? That's a whole bunch? Is it even feasible? Don't come up with any of those ridiculous settings that we can't possibly do..."

Finger Sand was slightly surprised. Although she didn't doubt that Zhou Ke'er could come up with the idea, the fact that he could come up with so many ideas so quickly was a bit too magical. What was he usually thinking about?

"You doubt me! Even my father never doubted me!"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Ke'er looked extremely sad.

"Yes, I never doubted you."

Honghe stood to the side, expressionless, and spoke in a serious tone.

Zhou Ke'er: "??? When I typed a greeting, it wasn't that I had a problem, it was that I thought you had a problem!"

"Alright, alright, stop fooling around... Zhou Ke'er, tell me what kind of settings you've come up with?"

Seeing the two of them start arguing again, Zhijiansha, feeling utterly exhausted, sighed and changed the subject once more.

"Ahem, listen up! First up, 'The Mad Demon Who Ticks People's Feet While They're Sleeping!'"

Zhou Ke'er cleared her throat and then said in a serious tone: "It's a ghost that sneaks into a house in the middle of the night when everyone is asleep, does nothing but scratch the soles of the sleeping residents' feet with its fingernails, and then flees the scene as soon as the residents wake up!"

The second one is "A helpful ghost who turns off the air conditioner and covers himself with a blanket in the middle of the night!"

It just so happens that the weather is quite hot right now, so in the middle of the night when everyone else is sound asleep, I very considerately turned off the air conditioner for them and covered them with blankets. What a helpful little devil!

The third one..…

"Okay, okay, I get it... I roughly know what kind of urban legends they are... No, actually you're a peddler, aren't you! How come you know them so well?!"

Seeing Zhou Ke'er getting happier and happier as she talked, Zhijiansha couldn't help but complain, "What kind of mentally ill person would come up with such a bottomless setting!"

"...Tch, you're making a fuss over nothing. I didn't even come up with those two myself."

Zhou Ke'er pouted, "These are all true stories! Don't you read the newspapers? These are things done by mental patients who escaped from our mental hospital... I remember it even made the front page..."

## Chapter 248, Section 243: Strange and Unusual (Fifty-two)

"What kind of mental hospital is that?! It's full of mentally ill criminals!"

Seeing Zhou Ke'er's matter-of-fact attitude, Zhijiansha couldn't help but complain.

"...Alright, alright, anything else you want to say? If not, go to sleep early. Come to think of it, I've never actually tried sleeping in a game before..."

Zhou Ke'er didn't seem to want to talk about this topic. She waved her hand casually and changed the subject, looking uninterested.

"Oh... okay then, we can talk about anything else tomorrow."

Seeing this, Zhijiansha had no choice but to nod in agreement.

"Okay, I'll go out for a bit and be back in a bit. You guys go to sleep first."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Ke'er stood up, stretched her neck, and before anyone else could say anything, pushed open the door and went out.

..........

In the early hours of the morning, in a dimly lit corner of the street, two faintly flickering lights shone intermittently. They were the faint light reflected from Zhou Ke'er's eyes.

"I thought you were going to run off somewhere."

The flamingo strolled leisurely from the street corner, speaking in a declarative tone as if uttering a question.

"...They're all asleep? You really have the leisure to come looking for me instead of sleeping."

Zhou Ke'er emerged from the shadows, pouted, and gathered her troublesome long hair behind her back—in order to temporarily reach a height of 1.7 meters, Zhou Ke'er naturally chose not to change her appearance back.

"They're all asleep."

Honghe answered casually, then stared at Zhou Ke'er with dead fish eyes, seemingly slightly displeased, and said, "What are you plotting? It's rare to find something interesting, and you want to hog it all by yourself? Why didn't you take me with you?"

She spoke with such certainty, as if she already knew what Zhou Ke'er was planning to do, and was quite certain of it.

"..."

Zhou Ke'er leaned against the wall inside the corridor and rubbed her temples. "It's still early. We haven't even started implementing it yet. We haven't even thought about it properly. What's the rush?"

"Then why are you in such a hurry to come out? If you haven't thought it through, then think it through properly before you come out."

The flamingo's dead fish eyes looked like carbon dioxide being passed through clear limewater, completely conveying disbelief.

"I'm afraid it will be too late by then."