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

22. Why don't you play by the rules!

"Who...who are you?! What do you want?"

Nina looked like she was about to cry, and couldn't help but back away step by step. She accidentally bumped into a pile of obstacles behind her, and a small jar unexpectedly fell out of her pocket.

"what!"

She instinctively gasped and bent down to pick up the small jar that was rolling away on the ground.

How could Zhou Ke'er let this opportunity slip by? Of course, she immediately pounced on it and knocked the gun out of Nina's hand. "Red Crane, quickly pick that thing up and see what it is."

"okay."

The flamingo managed to stand firm, staggered over, and then laboriously bent down to pick up the small jar.

"Ah! That's it!"

Nina couldn't help but gasp in surprise upon seeing this.

Honghe examined the jar in her hand and realized that it was not a normal drinking jar that could be opened by twisting the cap, but a storage jar that could be opened from the middle and pulled out to both sides.

"I bet that thing is either a virus reagent, or an antidote or antibody drug or something like that."

Zhou Ke'er guessed without even looking.

Upon hearing this, Honghe immediately opened the jar and found that it indeed contained several syringes and separately packaged medicines. Because it was tightly packed in shock-absorbing cotton, it was still intact even though it had just been dropped on the ground and rolled around a few times.

"No! That's it!"

Seeing this, Nina couldn't help but fight back and shouted loudly at the flamingo.

Why are you yelling so loudly?!

Before she could finish shouting, Zhou Ke'er yelled back even louder.

Zhou Ke'er's loud shout startled Nina so much that she swallowed her scream, and as a result... she couldn't help but hiccup.

"Waaaaah... Waaaaah!"

Under the watchful eyes of everyone, and feeling the unspoken gazes of Zhou Ke'er and Hong He, Nina blushed instantly and burst into tears.

"???"

Zhou Ke'er was immediately dumbfounded.

You can say you're angry and embarrassed, or you can say you're furious... but what's with this wailing and crying? Are you a child?

Ning is a policeman?

Waaaaah! You're all bullying me!

Nina kept crying and wiping away her tears, but no matter how much she wiped, they wouldn't stop; it was as if a waterfall was hanging over her eyes.

Fortunately, there didn't seem to be any other zombies in the police station; Nina's noise didn't attract a single one.

But even if they are attracted, it doesn't matter, since Zhou Ke'er and Hong He are probably not involved in the zombie horde anyway.

Hmm... if you're asking what it feels like for Zhou Ke'er to make a woman cry...

It feels as great as wearing new underwear to greet the New Year's morning!

cough cough...

Zhou Ke'er looked back at Honghe helplessly, "What do we do now?"

He's really not good at this kind of situation. Asking him to mock a crying little girl is just too... too much of a hassle, Zhou Ke'er certainly couldn't do it.

Honghe sighed and immediately understood that Zhou Ke'er wanted her to play the villain. After all, her current appearance was quite frightening, and it would probably have an added effect on intimidation in a Clash of Clans tabletop role-playing game.

Honghe slowly walked towards Zhou Ke'er with the jar in her hand, before she could even say a word.

Perhaps because the flamingo looked so terrifying, Nina couldn't help but fall to the ground when she saw it approaching. She tried to push herself up against the obstacle behind her, but her trembling legs couldn't support her, and she fell to the ground again and again.

"Don't come any closer!"

Nina finally gave up struggling, put her hands in front of her body, closed her eyes and screamed, "Don't come near me!"

"..."

Zhou Ke'er felt it was time; Nina was probably close to having a breakdown from fright. The level of fright should be just right; if she got too scared and became mentally unstable or even fainted, that wouldn't be good.

So Zhou Ke'er squatted down, first waving to Honghe to signal her not to move, then turning to Nina and asking, "Tell me first what's in that jar, and I won't let her near you."

"Really...really?"

Nina opened her eyes, her vision blurry with tears. Seeing that the flamingo hadn't moved any closer, she breathed a sigh of relief. But looking at Zhou Ke'er's terrifying (actually, her pupils were starting to dilate) gaze, she shuddered and immediately stammered, "It's the antidote! It's the antidote for this virus! Waaah, please don't let her eat me! I'm afraid of the pain!"

"Oh ho, I knew it."

Zhou Ke'er snapped her fingers unconsciously, but forgot that due to the virus, her joint flexibility was extremely poor. She accidentally dislocated her finger bones, though she didn't feel anything at all.

"Red Crane, try giving yourself a shot first and see if this stuff works. Speaking of which... although I expected this thing to be the antidote, it's still quite puzzling why it's on this guy."

"You...you want to use that antidote?"

Nina stammered, "But...you've all been infected for so long, and the infection is quite severe. This probably won't have any effect... Waaah, I was just saying, please don't be angry! Don't bite me, waaaah!"

"...I didn't mean to bite you...but since I'm going to die anyway, why not give it a try?"

Zhou Ke'er casually answered Nina's question, then reached out and pressed her hand on the obstacle behind Nina, squatted down and leaned closer to her, asking, "The question now is... who exactly are you? And why do you have this thing in your hand?"

"This...this..."

Nina's eyes flickered, and she hesitated to speak.

"Oh? You don't want to say? That's okay, of course it's okay! I'm not the kind of person who would force someone to do something they don't want to do, right? You think so too?"

Zhou Ke'er let go of her hand, stood up, and spread her hands in an exaggerated manner.

Before Nina could even catch her breath, Zhou Ke'er's expression suddenly changed, turning gloomy and making her look like a terrifying murderer. She continued in a low voice, "However, I'm not the kind of person who would be bored and have a burden or potential danger around... If someone is useless to me and doesn't obey, then that kind of person should just be thrown out to be eaten by zombies, don't you think?"

As she spoke, Zhou Ke'er's grin widened, and she slowly squatted down again, staring intently at Nina. "Oh, right... I think I'm about to become a zombie too. Rather than letting those zombies outside have it, why don't I eat it myself, okay?"

"Waaaaah!"

Nina instinctively covered her mouth, shook her head frantically, and tears of fear streamed down her face uncontrollably.

"Oh, tell me, how should I eat it? From the head, or the feet? Or... just make an incision in the lower abdomen? Oh dear, I have no experience with this, it's really frustrating."

Zhou Ke'er scratched her head, looking very troubled and deep in thought. "Oh right, I heard that people taste better when they're alive, right? So does that mean we have to keep the person being eaten alive first, and let her be tortured little by little...?"

"I'll talk! I'll talk! Please don't eat me! Waaaaah!"

Nina was so frightened that she couldn't hold back anymore and finally burst into tears again.

"Hey...this is...too disgusting! How could you do something so awful? Are you...?"

After preparing the injection, Honghe gave herself an injection. Her perpetually expressionless face actually furrowed, and she said to Zhou Ke'er with a hint of disgust.

"Well, it's very effective, isn't it?"

Zhou Ke'er shrugged and turned her head. "Look, right now she's about to tell me what I want to know, just like a student who's still frantically writing answers on the answer sheet even after the exam bell has rung?"

"..."

Honghe slightly moved her neck and other joints. Whether it was psychological or the antidote was working quickly, she didn't seem as stiff as before.

"Oh, and get me another one too. I know you want to study whether infected people who only took steroids or those who received the antidote lasted longer, but..."

Zhou Ke'er suddenly seemed to remember something and said to Honghe, "It's always better to take the antidote as soon as possible, otherwise you might not have to die."

"You bastard...apologize to Zhang He right now!"

Honghe's brow twitched slightly, and she could only helplessly help Zhou Ke'er prepare the medicine. It was something as simple as just putting the medicine into a syringe, but Zhou Ke'er didn't want to do it herself. This girl was incredibly lazy! And she was bossing others around, really...

"Okay, now you can tell us what you know and what you should tell us."

Zhou Ke'er was about to give Honghe a thumbs up as her movements became more nimble, but then she realized that she had accidentally broken her finger. So she pretended to be nonchalant and withdrew her hand, turned to Nina and said, "As long as you tell us everything honestly, we won't eat you, really."

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

23. You can't play games without having fun.

"Hmm...I see..."

Zhou Ke'er stroked her chin and quickly analyzed the information she had just gotten from Nina.

First of all, this guy is definitely not a cop. I knew it; what cop would be so easily frightened into tears...

According to her, she is the daughter of a senior researcher at an experimental base in the city. Just recently, when she went to visit her father at the experimental base, the virus was somehow leaked.

Her father, unable to leave immediately due to matters at the experimental base, provided her with bodyguards and a vial of an incomplete antidote. It was said to have undergone clinical trials, so its effectiveness was uncertain. However, given the urgency of the situation, self-protection was the priority.

As for why there is no one else around her now... it's because the bodyguards either got infected or died while protecting her, or they simply abandoned her and ran away. She has been hiding alone in the police station's armory for two whole days. What makes her even more desperate is that by last night, all the food left behind had been eaten.

In other words, she was already on the verge of collapse, and apart from the antidote and the gun in her hand, she had nothing left.

"Waaah...you guys, I've told you everything, can you please stop eating me? Please! I really don't taste good, I haven't showered for days, waaaah!"

Nina curled up in a ball, sobbing softly, and looked at Zhou Ke'er, who was deep in thought, with a hint of hope as she asked.

"Oh ho? Well, that depends on your performance."

Zhou Ke'er snapped out of her daze, squatted down, and looked at Nina. "Look, if this antidote works, we won't turn into zombies, and naturally we won't eat people. But... if it doesn't work, then it's beyond our control, don't you think?"

Actually... although that's what she said, Zhou Ke'er always felt that there were many suspicious points in Nina's words.

First of all... senior researchers can't leave to handle business? Excuse me? Are researchers just there to handle business? Where has the management all gone to eat shit?

Secondly, can researchers allow their family members to freely enter and exit the research base? And can they allow others to leave the experimental base at will in the event of a virus leak? The most absurd thing is that they can even provide bodyguards for others? Sending one person out quietly is possible, but providing bodyguards and allowing a group of people to swagger out is just ridiculous.

And... you just give away the antidote like that? Even if it's your own daughter, how can you just give away an antidote you haven't even finished researching? Shouldn't this thing be carefully preserved? A researcher just giving this thing away so casually...

This whole explanation was utter nonsense, so Zhou Ke'er didn't believe a single word of it. Seriously, if this explanation wasn't a lie, Zhou Ke'er would have swallowed the jar containing the antidote while standing upside down.

But... even if it's just nonsense, it still has to be based on some facts to build up the lie. After all, Zhou Ke'er didn't give Nina much time to fabricate a lie, and Nina didn't know she would encounter Zhou Ke'er and Honghe, so it's impossible for her to have started fabricating a lie completely detached from the truth much earlier.

Therefore, the only way she could have deceived Zhou Ke'er and Hong He was by distorting the facts based on existing evidence...

If that's the case, it's not impossible to deduce the true situation through reverse reasoning.

Zhou Ke'er pondered with a calm gaze.

"This kind of plot about a virus leak in an experimental base is really old-fashioned. I was hoping there would be some more interesting settings."

As Honghe watched her arm, which had turned a deep bluish-gray color, gradually return to its normal skin tone, she thought helplessly.

"Well, don't be disappointed. After all, scripts follow certain formulas, so whether a script is interesting or not is uncontrollable..."