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

After the ball hit the passenger, it didn't roll off as expected. Instead, it stuck to the passenger's body, creating a hole in the middle from which a puff of white mist shot out.

The fog gradually spread, and through it, Zhou Ke'er could vaguely see that the passengers seemed to be wrapped in some invisible, jet-black threads, which were vertically fixed to the roof of the vehicle, just like puppets being manipulated.

These jet-black threads hissed in the white mist, as if they were being worn away and dissolved.

"Wow...this is good stuff..."

Zhou Ke'er glanced at the cloud of white mist, and with the lofty ambition of sacrificing herself for the truth, she reached her hand into the spreading white mist to try it out.

There was no reaction.

Zhou Ke'er thought his hands would also be corroded by the "hissing" sound, but it seems this thing is probably useless to humans.

Perfect, this thing can be used as a talisman!

Thinking of this, Zhou Ke'er carefully walked over and reached out to take down the sphere floating in the air.

Then, with a pleasant hissing sound, Zhou Ke'er was enveloped in a continuous stream of white mist. Now, if those "passengers" wanted to attack Zhou Ke'er, they would at least be hindered by this thing for a while.

Thank you for the arrow, Prime Minister!

"What...how is this possible?! The spirit mist spray has absolutely no effect on him?! Could it be some kind of 'strange' entity?"

The young man was shocked to see Zhou Ke'er completely unharmed, even playing with the small ball in her hand. His already serious expression became even more solemn, and he couldn't help but mutter to himself in disbelief, "This shouldn't be happening. The description clearly says it's just a 'paranormal' event... Could it be that the higher-ups have detected something wrong?"

With her sharp ears, Zhou Ke'er naturally heard the guy's mutterings. Although she didn't understand what he meant, she really wanted to complain about his behavior of not thinking things through but instead saying them out loud, especially in front of others.

If this guy's organization—if such an organization really exists—is full of people like him, Zhou Ke'er seriously doubts how they've managed to survive until now without being wiped out.

In short, apart from Zhou Ke'er and the young man, the passengers who were harmed by the gradually spreading white mist all started to become restless, having initially been in a state of inaction and silence. It seemed that they might suddenly attack and hurt people in no time.

But in short... in Zhou Ke'er's opinion, if the only attack methods of this carload of ghostly things are physical attacks like snapping someone's neck, then...

He wasn't afraid at all.

He'd even take on ten of them!

They directly blocked all the chemical attacks.

After all, so far, these passengers have done nothing more than stare at people and have just made a move. The unknown is always something to be wary of, which is why Zhou Ke'er didn't act rashly.

"Damn it... I never expected to run into something so unlucky..."

The young man complained with a serious expression, glancing at Zhou Ke'er as if wary of her suddenly approaching, while crouching down to continue rummaging through his backpack. "Looks like I'll have to use this..."

To be honest... according to normal logic, Zhou Ke'er should explain the situation to the other party, stating that she is just a normal person who wandered in, and then wait for the other party to resolve the problem in the car before taking him out, instead of letting the other party waste time on something as meaningless as scaring herself.

After all, Zhou Ke'er didn't know how to get out of the car and had to rely on the other person.

but...

How could Zhou Ke'er possibly think with normal logic!

Soon, the young man took out a small black box from his bag, with several flashing lights on it.

Then he put the box on the ground and pressed something that looked like a switch.

"Holy crap?! Is it some kind of explosive device?! Is this some kind of ruthless suicide mission?!"

Zhou Ke'er was startled by this thing and was immediately shocked.

## Chapter 345, Question 340: I knew it wouldn't be that simple.

Fortunately, the young man wasn't as depraved as Zhou Ke'er had imagined; he wouldn't do something like shouting "Allahu Akbar" while exploding and taking Zhou Ke'er down with him.

The light on the small black box was flashing rapidly and making a constant buzzing sound, as if the signal was being interfered with.

Of course, for Zhou Ke'er, aside from it sounding a bit noisy, it didn't have any other impact. But for those "passengers"...

The jet-black lines connecting them, which had been gradually dissolving due to the white mist, quickly disintegrated under the influence of this small black box, even though the exact mechanism was unknown.

Once the "passengers" were freed from the pull of the black threads, they all slumped down, looking lifeless.

At the same time, after those black threads collapsed, they did not dissipate directly into the air. Instead, for some reason, they turned into wisps of black mist, which surged towards Zhou Ke'er from all directions and entered his eyes.

"How is this possible?!"

Let alone Zhou Ke'er, although he was slightly surprised, he could accept the situation. On the contrary, the young man immediately showed an expression of disbelief and couldn't help but exclaim, "Even this is useless, yet it can absorb all the scattered 'ghostly' energy... How could there be such a powerful existence here?!"

Zhou Ke'er had no time to pay attention to him or resolve his doubts, because... after his eyes absorbed the black mist to a certain limit, it seemed as if some automatic reaction mechanism was triggered, and that strange feeling from before surged back.

The scene in Zhou Ke'er's view changed in an instant.

He saw... the interior of the bus was not what he had just seen, but was covered with fragments of what looked like the limbs of some kind of creature, which were still wriggling and dripping with slime.

Following the writhing tracks of the flesh, Zhou Ke'er discovered that the source of the flesh was the driver sitting in the driver's seat. As for the so-called "passengers," in Zhou Ke'er's current view, each had an incision somewhere in their bodies, revealing that they were all empty shells, merely skin and bones. As for the flesh and organs inside... they were probably used as raw materials for these writhing flesh pieces inside the car.

Although the scene was indeed quite disgusting to be honest, it was nothing more than a slight frown for Zhou Ke'er; it wasn't a big deal.

As for the driver... he seemed to be so preoccupied with the ball thrown by the young man and the small black box that he had no time to pay attention to anything else. He was struggling silently in pain, his face contorted in a ferocious expression, his body making all sorts of bizarre postures that ordinary people could not do. Underneath his exposed skin, something seemed to be constantly moving around, causing his skin to appear to be constantly bulging and concave.

It seems... this guy isn't much of a threat anymore; he's probably just the weakest one in any abnormal situation.

However, even so, without this young man's unexpected intervention, Zhou Ke'er would indeed have had little ability to cope with this situation.

Thinking of this, Zhou Ke'er shifted her gaze to the young man.

A faint crimson aura swirled around the young man's right hand, and within it, the faint outline of a crimson claw could be discerned, though it was very blurry. Apart from that, there was nothing unusual about the rest of the man's body.

Then, Zhou Ke'er's gaze finally settled on the small mirror hanging above the very front of the bus.

He saw his own reflection.

But it was only for a moment, and I didn't even realize what I had seen—it was as if I saw an eye shrouded in black mist, but I couldn't remember it clearly. In just a moment, before I could feel anything, my eyes suddenly felt sore and dry. The feeling that was just there disappeared instantly, replaced by a feeling of emptiness, as if the energy stored inside had been instantly drained.

When Zhou Ke'er opened her eyes again, everything in front of her had returned to "normal".

"This ability is so useless! I can't control it, and it's depleted so quickly... What's the point of it?!"

Zhou Ke'er couldn't help but complain in her heart, "Look at those claws on his hands, at least they can grab people, but what's the use of his eyes? Does he glare at anyone and make them pregnant? He might as well call them the Eyes of a Saint?"

In short, while Zhou Ke'er was immersed in her own world, the young man saw that Zhou Ke'er hadn't made any moves and hadn't said anything. Apart from holding the ball in her hand, she had just stood there without moving. So he calmed down from his panic.

He took a few deep breaths, trying to communicate with Zhou Ke'er: "As a monster that is immune to attacks from low-level spirits and can maintain its human form, you should have regained some of your rationality and should be able to understand what I'm saying, right?"

"....Um?"

Zhou Ke'er narrowed her eyes, a look of confusion on her face—she really didn't understand what the other person meant. Since the young man said that, it meant that he had also encountered a strange situation similar to the one he described? And... the wording was also strange. Why did he say "recover" his sanity?

"What I mean is, now that you've regained your senses, you won't cause any great harm by being unable to control your desire to devour and destroy. In that case, there's really no need for us to have a conflict."

Seeing Zhou Ke'er's puzzled look, the other party quickly explained, "As long as you don't endanger social order or the safety of other people, we won't take any action against you, and you probably don't need to be hostile to us, right?"

Who are you?

Zhou Ke'er was too lazy to waste time arguing with the other party. If the most crucial point wasn't clarified, no amount of other nonsense would be of any use.

"My name is Mu Yang, and I specialize in dealing with strange occurrences or events that may pose a threat to society."

The young man quickly replied upon hearing this.

What is "strange"?

Zhou Ke'er continued to press for answers.

Although this question made him seem foolish, he had no choice but to ask. Besides... he had just asked about the other person's identity, but the other person only said what they did, without mentioning anything else, such as which organization they belonged to or what that organization was like. Clearly, they weren't going to tell Zhou Ke'er, so there was no need to keep asking.

"?"

Upon hearing Zhou Ke'er's question, Mu Yang looked utterly puzzled, as if asking, "Are you serious?" But he ultimately replied, "The 'strange' is an uncontrollable evil energy originating from within humanity itself... Under normal circumstances, a normal person will never be affected by the strange within them throughout their life, but occasionally, the strange within them will be activated and become active. In this case, their rationality will gradually be devoured by the strange, turning them into mindless, chaotic monsters that only know how to destroy, just like this bus we're on now."

## Chapter 346, page 341.

"!"

Zhou Ke'er was startled by his words. Mu Yang meant that... in fact, all humans are carriers of "the supernatural," and that "the supernatural" itself exists within the human body, the only difference being whether it has been activated...

Is this reasonable?

Could it be that the abnormality in Zhou Ke'er's eyes was not caused by some external force, but rather by the inducement of an external force that triggered some kind of abnormality that he already had?

"What do you mean by 'regaining your sanity'?"

Zhou Ke'er continued to press for answers.

"I don't know the exact principles behind this, but based on our speculation, it's like this..."

Mu Yang seemed to be cautiously observing Zhou Ke'er, on the one hand guarding against whether Zhou Ke'er would go mad because she couldn't accept "her own background," and on the other hand carefully choosing his words: "Humans whose internal anomalies are activated will be assimilated by those anomalies, and eventually transform into another species different from humans. When this species is weak—that is, when it has very few anomalies within it—it cannot maintain its rationality. But as the anomalies within it gradually accumulate, the individual becomes stronger and stronger, and when it reaches a certain threshold, it will regain the ability to think, that is, regain its rationality."

Mu Yang paused here, and seeing that Zhou Ke'er did not show any particularly unusual behavior, he continued, "When this kind of strange accumulation reaches a certain threshold, and the strangeness regains its rationality, we call it 'the weirdness'."

Why not be hostile?

After hearing this, Zhou Ke'er pondered for a moment, then pretended to have just regained her senses and asked a vague question—although the question seemed incoherent at first glance, he would naturally understand what Zhou Ke'er wanted to ask based on what the other party had just said.

Fortunately, Zhou Ke'er has always adhered to the principle of being concise with her words since she started speaking, so this doesn't seem to be any different from her previous performance.

"Because only those irrational monsters will harm innocent humans unconsciously, and that's what we need to deal with. But once the 'Ghosts' have regained their senses, there's no need for them to harm ordinary people anymore, because you... ah, because the way 'Ghosts' increase their power is by absorbing the energy of other monsters, not by slaughtering humans."

Mu Yang felt that Zhou Ke'er really didn't understand anything. She was probably just a newbie ghost who had just regained her senses and knew nothing about other situations. So he relaxed a lot for a moment, and his expression was no longer as solemn as before. "Just like when you absorbed the strange thing on this bus, this is how you grow. Since it won't harm ordinary people and can help us solve these uncontrollable strange things, it is naturally a friend, not an enemy."

Mu Yang had been wary and afraid because Zhou Ke'er remained silent. This made him wonder if she was a powerful monster that, while already very strong, hadn't yet regained its sanity—the kind of monster that was most destructive and threatening. So he only felt at ease when Zhou Ke'er started speaking and asking him questions.

Just then, a ringing sound came from Mu Yang's pocket.

Zhou Ke'er narrowed her eyes and glanced at the communication bracelet she was wearing. It was still showing no signal—was it a phone call or something? But... if even the communication bracelet had no signal, how could a relatively outdated phone call be connected here?

Wait a minute... speaking of communication bracelets... could it be that Mu Yang on the other side didn't notice that Zhou Ke'er was wearing a communication bracelet?! It's really strange that a so-called freshman "ghost" would wear something like that! Didn't he even suspect anything?

Or... have they actually already suspected it, but for some reason, they just haven't said it?

Regardless, Zhou Ke'er subtly pulled down her sleeve to cover the communication bracelet—after all, taking it off and putting it in her pocket was too obvious.

Upon hearing the ringtone, Mu Yang instinctively took out a communication device from his pocket—well, it looked similar to a cell phone, but seemed to have some external device that Zhou Ke'er couldn't recognize.

He looked up at Zhou Ke'er, opened his mouth as if to say something, but Zhou Ke'er couldn't read lips, so how could she know what he was saying? Anyway, he didn't wait for Zhou Ke'er's response before connecting the communication device.

"Is it still not over? It's just a 'supernatural' event, shouldn't throwing a couple of spirit orbs be enough to resolve it? Why are you taking so long? Don't tell me you don't know how to stop a bus?"

Before Mu Yang could speak, a long string of rapidly spoken questions popped up from the communication device.

Judging from her voice, she is a young woman.

Damn! Joining a supernatural organization, a domineering female boss, encountering terrifying events... This is got it! Is Mu Yang some kind of protagonist from an urban supernatural novel?!