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

"...As for us, we naturally belong to the government's organization established after the great disaster, dedicated to restoring these abandoned cities, and are specially trained to exterminate the Void Beasts that exist in these cities."

Seeing that Kaoru didn't speak, Shimizu Ken interjected, explaining, "However... there's something really strange. Because, the Noble Phantasm mold I prepared was supposed to summon a Saber-class Servant... but instead, a Caster appeared. Where did things go wrong?"

"I see... Now I want to ask you something... you bastard."

Zhou Ke'er nodded thoughtfully and continued to ask Lancer, "Then how do you know about these things? How do you know about these so-called Void Beasts?"

"Generally speaking, the summoned heroic spirits will automatically know these things, although I don't know the exact principle behind it."

Lancer shook his head, seemingly unsure why he knew these things.

"So you clearly don't know why what happened to you, yet you cling to this conclusion and completely disregard the truthfulness of this information?"

Zhou Ke'er stared at Lancer in astonishment, utterly speechless. And it seemed that not a single Heroic Spirit had even considered this question. What was going on in this world?

"..."

"Now is not the time to talk about this. Standing on this rooftop is too conspicuous. If it attracts too many Void Beasts, it will be terrible."

Seeing that Lancer was speechless for a moment, Kaoru changed the subject and smoothed things over.

"What's wrong with you, friend? Weren't you here to wipe out the Void Beasts? Wouldn't it be more to your liking if the Void Beasts just delivered themselves to our doorstep for us to kill? Why are you running away?"

Zhou Ke'er asked suspiciously.

"Because... the Void Beasts aren't just the kind you just killed."

Ken Shimizu sighed and explained, "If that were all, why would we need to summon seven Servants? There are also powerful Void Beasts that even ordinary Servants can't handle alone; there have been instances of Servants being killed by them before. Until we understand the general situation of the Void Beasts in this city, we'd better be cautious..."

"Well said, but it's too late!"

Before Shimizu Ken could finish speaking, a muffled, almost reverberant sound, accompanied by the hissing of an old cassette tape, came from afar.

Everyone quickly turned to look in that direction, and saw a humanoid creature, completely black with many wriggling barbs extending from its body, walking through the air. The creature did have what could be called facial features, but they all looked extremely ferocious and terrifying, as if a thick layer of eerie black mist was covering the surface of a person's body.

In its hand it held a long sword that looked like it was formed from a pool of black mud. As it walked, black liquid kept dripping from it onto the ground, corroding small pits one after another.

"Humanoid, can speak, intelligent... This is a Void Beast of Danger Level A!"

Shimizu Ken immediately signaled everyone to retreat, "There's no way we can defeat a Void Beast of this level with just the few of us! Once, we gathered seven Servants and barely managed to defeat an A-rank Void Beast... Why would an A-rank Void Beast appear here?! It wasn't mentioned in the intelligence at all!"

"call out!"

Seeing this, Lancer also became serious. He stretched out his right hand, and the spear that had been thrown out flew back into his hand in an instant. "I can sense that this Void Beast... is very dangerous! We cannot fight it head-on!"

"Um, I have a question."

Just then, Zhou Ke'er suddenly asked, "If the master dies, what will happen to the corresponding servant?"

"?! You're already thinking about selling out your Master and running away?! What kind of weird Heroic Spirit are you?! Where's your backbone?!"

Upon hearing this, Lancer couldn't help but blurt out a sarcastic remark.

"It seems you don't take me seriously..."

Seeing that Zhou Ke'er and the others showed no sense of urgency and were making a ruckus, the Void Beast immediately reminded them that it was still there!

"Of course not! Do you think I'm that kind of person?! Is that how you see me? I'm so sad, waaaaah~"

Zhou Ke'er ignored the Void Beast again and sobbed in a very fake tone, "I clearly wanted to take you all with me and run away, but you still say this to me!"

"call out!"

Seeing that Zhou Ke'er still completely ignored it, the Void Beast became enraged and raised its hand to shoot a sword at her.

"【Secret Technique for Traversing Space: Angle-Space Transfer】!"

Zhou Ke'er had been observing that guy for a while. As soon as she saw him raise his hand, she suddenly released the skill from the magic book, which was the source of her confidence.

He grabbed Shimizu Ken with one hand and kicked Kaoru in the process, sending her flying towards the corner of the wall. He then dragged Shimizu Ken along with him, shouting, "Lancer, huh? You hold them off for now, then catch up later. If you can't keep up, there's nothing I can do. You're on your own!"

## Chapter 285 280. The Battle for Zhou Ke'er (Part 5)

"Huh? What does that mean?"

Lancer hadn't yet realized what Zhou Ke'er meant, but instinctively stepped in front of her, trying to block the attack from the Void Beast.

As for Zhou Ke'er and the other two... they miraculously passed directly into that corner and instantly disappeared from the rooftop without leaving a trace.

"!"

Lancer was shocked that he had actually been abandoned. He had not expected Zhou Ke'er to betray her teammate so easily. In his shock, he was inevitably hit by the sword thrown by the Void Beast.

However, it seemed that even if he parried, it would be of little use, because the sword pierced his body as easily as cutting through a block of tofu, as if it were something that naturally restrained him.

Although Lancer was caught off guard by the sword and was already seriously injured, he was fortunate enough not to be killed instantly. Before his opponent could retract the sword or continue to attack him, Lancer used all his strength to rush towards the corner where Zhou Ke'er and the others had disappeared.

then.

"boom!"

There was a loud bang, and he... crashed into the wall. He was badly injured.

Zhou Ke'er's skill ended automatically immediately after he completed it.

"What the hell?"

Lancer's eyes widened, and before he could even utter a curse, he was finished off by the Void Beast, who had realized what was happening, and turned into a wisp of spiritual particles that drifted away in the air.

"Spatial teleportation... Let me think, which poor heroic spirit was it..."

The Void Beast landed lightly on the rooftop, watching Zhou Ke'er and the others disappear from the corner, and seemed to be pondering something as it muttered to itself.

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

"...What happened? Why didn't Lancer come along?!"

Xun didn't mind that Zhou Ke'er had kicked her, but when she saw that Lancer, whom she had summoned, still hadn't come over even after the spatial rift disappeared, she finally couldn't help but frown and ask.

"Well, I'm sorry. There's no need to explain this situation. If he can't get here, it means he has already gloriously sacrificed himself."

Zhou Ke'er shrugged noncommittally, showing no remorse or guilt whatsoever, as if it were none of her business.

Because... he did it on purpose.

After all, the mission clearly stated that the other masters and servants had to be eliminated. If she hadn't abandoned Kaoru, it might have aroused Shimizu Ken's suspicion. Zhou Ke'er was too lazy to even kick her over.

No way, does anyone really think that Zhou Ke'er will obediently cooperate with them just because they say they want to? Didn't they just say that the Void Beast requires seven Servants to unite, like the Calabash Brothers saving their grandfather, to defeat it? So why should he get involved in this mess? Anyway, there's no mission involved. Just follow the mission and choose the simplest route—take out the other Servants one by one. Isn't that much easier?

Moreover, he did this to verify several of his conjectures.

Since the mission clearly states that the task is to kill other Servants, if Zhou Ke'er orchestrated their deaths, would that be considered her killing them? Furthermore, in the situation just now, could the system distinguish whether it was a planned death or simply a failure to rescue them in time?

Zhou Ke'er's disguise was very good. If you look at the sequence of events exactly, it's true that he didn't have time to save the person, but in fact, he deliberately didn't. I wonder if this difference between his behavior and his intentions can be discerned.

Unfortunately, after waiting for a while, Zhou Ke'er did not receive a system notification. She didn't know if the Lancer had escaped by chance or died at the hands of someone else, so it wasn't Zhou Ke'er who killed him.

"..."

Kaoru was silent for a moment, then suddenly frowned and said, "Lancer has been taken care of. I felt it; he was basically unable to resist and was instantly killed."

"You can feel that? If I stabbed myself, wouldn't you feel a lot of pain?"

Zhou Ke'er was a little curious and asked Shimizu Ken.

"...No, so please don't do that."

Ken Shimizu had absolutely no idea what this unreliable, wicked woman was thinking. Could it be that something went wrong when he summoned her, causing this woman to have a mental problem?

"Tsk, you don't know how?"

Zhou Ke'er pouted, "This is so boring. So what are you going to do now? One of the servants is already dead. Do you think there's still a chance to deal with that Void Beast? Should we meet up with the rest of you to discuss this, or should you request reinforcements right now?"

"Let's find the other team members first, in case they're unlucky enough to run into that Void Beast..."

Ken Shimizu thought for a moment and answered, then looked around and asked, "And...where is this?"

"I don't know."

Zhou Ke'er replied matter-of-factly, "Don't you have any positioning devices or anything like that? I'm being teleported randomly, and I don't know how far I can go. I might end up on the other side of the world."

"Earth? What's that?"

Upon hearing this, Shimizu Ken asked Zhou Ke'er with a puzzled look.

"???"

Zhou Ke'er choked, unsure how to explain for a moment, "It's just a ball. Never mind, I can't explain it to you. What I mean is, it's a very far place. We might not even be in the same city anymore."

"what?!"

Kaoru exclaimed in surprise, "Servants should be restricted to a certain area centered on the place where they are summoned... Once they leave that area, they will be unable to maintain their existence due to the loss of energy supply... This is clearly stated in the work rules!"

"Does your work rules state that Heroic Spirits forget who they are?"

Zhou Ke'er rolled her eyes and held out her hand: "Come on, let me see that work manual."

"I didn't bring it."

Kaoru shook her head.

"You're so..."

Just as Zhou Ke'er was about to say something, she heard a loud noise.

A few people who peeked out from a street corner toward the source of the sound saw... a guy holding a sword being pinned to the ground and hammered by another humanoid Void Beast covered in black, while a man next to him lay unconscious on the ground.

Judging from the looks of it... it must be a master and a servant pair. They're probably going to get wiped out in a one-on-two battle right now.

"Are you one of your team members?"

Zhou Ke'er quickly turned her head back and asked.

"...yes."

Kenjiro Shimizu shrank back, swallowed, and nodded.

"If I'm not mistaken, that Void Beast is also humanoid..."

Zhou Ke'er continued to add.

"...That's right, we don't know if they possess intelligence, but humanoid Void Beasts are at least at a B-level danger level..."

Xun explained in a low voice, "It seems we're still in this city, not too far away... However, the fact that there's an A-rank and at least a B-rank Void Beast in this city is... impossible. The intelligence clearly stated that there should only be one C-rank Void Beast at most... This is beyond our ability to handle. We must call for backup, or we'll all perish here."