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

But just then...

Everything stopped instantly.

Even Zhou Ke'er stopped.

Above him, in the empty air, suddenly appeared a figure dressed in a magnificent robe, with an arrogant demeanor and an appearance resembling an Egyptian pharaoh. He possessed a haughty bearing and exuded a captivating allure.

A soft murmur, like the waters of the River of Oblivion, rose from the air above—fortunately, no one could hear His words at this moment, otherwise even the monsters below would have gone mad—He whispered, “This is bad… The Seven Secrets of the Earth is not meant for you… It shouldn’t be suitable, the things that guy prepared for you are not here… Sigh, drinking leads to trouble, drinking leads to trouble!”

Another pitch-black spatial rift appeared to the side, and a single ahoge (cowlick) instantly emerged.

It was none other than Nyaruko, the white-haired loli Zhou Ke'er had met before. Her face was flushed, and she was hiccuping, carrying a bottle of some unknown type of liquor. She staggered out of the spatial rift, put her hand on the Black Pharaoh's waist, and asked with a grin, "What's wrong? What happened? Oh, it's nothing, it's alright, keep drinking, keep drinking! This is my treasure! It would be a waste if we didn't finish it!"

"This is no small matter, it's a big problem... He intercepted the 'Seven Secrets of the Earth' that we had prepared... Now those guys in the Oversight Council will have another excuse to cause us trouble."

The Black Pharaoh couldn't help but sigh. "Especially Nordens, He's been wanting to cause us trouble for a long time. Wasn't it just because we tricked Him in the Dream Realm last time? And it wasn't even me who did it, it was clearly the Swelling Daughter..."

"Oh well, since we weren't in charge of this whole thing anyway, and they didn't know what we planned to give them, and this particular religious text got snatched away, we can just pick something that appears around the same time and place to fool them..."

Nyarko said with a grin, "I've got it! I remember winning a copy of the 'Snail Annihilation City Manual' from K-President last time we played rock-paper-scissors. I'll use this as a substitute. To be honest, K-President's alcohol tolerance is really low. He went out drunk and acted crazy, and even got sunk by a small fishing boat. How embarrassing! Let me find where I put it."

"Well, that's all we can do for now."

The Black Pharaoh sighed, then gently tapped his scepter towards Zhou Ke'er. The black mist surging around Zhou Ke'er's hand instantly subsided, then emerged from her body, gradually solidifying into the shape of a pupil. "However, this still needs to be concealed a bit, at least not too obviously..."

Immediately, the pupil was inserted directly into Zhou Ke'er's right eye.

435. Zhou Ke'er, Our Queen

The players who emerged from the high walls discovered something strange—even though it was time for the second wave of monsters to attack, the monsters outside the walls didn't launch an attack. Instead, they all gathered in one spot, guarding it as if there was something very important to them there.

But no one expected that the intensity of this monster wave would suddenly increase exponentially. Most players could only exchange blows with the outermost monsters. If those monsters hadn't been defensively stationed instead of attacking, probably not many players would have been able to save their own lives.

"Isn't the monster's strength... way too much of a leap?"

As usual, Cold-Eating Rabbit swung the sledgehammer around, only to find that it almost couldn't break through the defenses. Instead, his hands were numb from the impact, and he couldn't help but complain, "What if they just charge at us in a bit? What are we supposed to do with this hammer then?"

Chen Tian, ​​standing to the side, subtly twitched the corner of his mouth. Logically speaking, the range of monster strength wasn't that wide... For example, if we were to categorize them according to the cultivation system, the first wave of monsters would be at the low to mid-level of Qi Refining, while the second wave would only be at the high-level of Qi Refining, close to Foundation Establishment.

The main problem is that most players in this module are at a similar or even lower level, so they naturally feel that they can't beat the second wave, and that the difficulty is too outrageous.

However, in reality, the progression of the monsters' strength was exactly the same as the monster siege in Chen Tian's memory from the old era. They had held out for more than a dozen waves before finally collapsing when the enemy's "general" came out.

"Thankfully, they didn't attack first—but I've always wondered, if they didn't attack first, why did we go up to fight them?!"

Forced to stay awake and not doze off, Chunkunqiufei complained with a disgruntled expression, clearly in a fit of morning grumpiness: "Why don't we wait until all those stupid players next to us have died? They might not even kill many monsters anyway, and they might get a higher score than us if we survive this wave of monsters."

Upon hearing this, Lengchitu immediately showed a look of sudden realization, as if he had been enlightened. Even Zhijiansha and Chen Tian nodded in agreement, except for Zhang He. He felt that... everyone else was honestly contributing to the defense of the city, while they wanted to hide in the back for safety, even hoping that others would die quickly. Was this something a human being would do?

Zhang He was never one to do such things (it's unclear how he could tolerate these crooked practices in the team, especially Zhou Ke'er), so he awkwardly changed the subject, saying, "Uh... well, I wanted to ask... where did Honghe and Zhou Ke'er go? Didn't you say you agreed to meet them at that city gate?"

"Well, it's not surprising that the two of them get carried away and have a great time. Wouldn't it be better to give them some privacy?"

Zhijiansha pouted, with an expression that said, "Finally, I'm free. I'm overjoyed."

Leaving that aside for now, the situation on Red Crane's and Long Aotian's sides is equally tricky. Fortunately, with Red Crane's mask on and scythe activated, although she can't cut grass like before, at least she can slowly advance without major problems.

"To be honest, I'm starting to wonder if Zhou Ke'er is already dead."

Standing to the side, Long Aotian, holding the Blood Sword, said slightly out of breath, "We're already having a hard time dealing with just these outermost monsters. As for Zhou Ke'er, who went straight into the depths of the monster horde... I mean, she was clearly bewitched by some strange entity, lost consciousness, and was summoned in, right? I've encountered this situation before. Generally speaking... once you encounter this situation, you can be sure that person is dead."

“Zhou Ke’er is different. Besides, the team status bar doesn’t show that he’s dead.”

The flamingo answered with great certainty.

"Exactly, exactly. This guy single-handedly tricked you several times, how could he die so easily?"

Long Aojiao patted Long Aotian on the shoulder with a look of agreement, making his face twitch with anger.

"I have a feeling that... who knows... the one being protected by these monsters might be Zhou Ke'er."

Honghe squinted and said, "After all, being a double agent is indeed a profession he enjoys quite a lot. Maybe he just tricked us along with him."

"That's not impossible..."

Long Aojiao nodded thoughtfully, but before she could finish speaking, she suddenly saw a figure flash past in the distance and rush into the depths of the monster horde.

"Hey! Look at that guy! Is he crazy?!"

Upon seeing this, Long Aojiao quickly pointed at the figure and said.

To be honest, it's not impossible for them to charge straight into the heart of a monster horde. Take Long Aojiao, for example; she could simply cast all the speed-boosting buffs from her skills on herself and bypass the monsters to rush in. But the problem is... even if they get in, they might not be able to get out!

That's why they've chosen to proceed cautiously, advancing step by step—in other words, trying to gauge the strength of the monsters ahead. If it's within their tolerance, they'll try to charge in; if they can't, they'll simply retreat. After all, their score should already be quite high by now.

And that figure... was none other than Ming Mengjing, who had previously clashed with Zhou Ke'er.

She had finally managed to shake off Yi An and Yu Ke, those two troublesome guys, after the second wave of monsters began, but she soon sensed an immense, eerie aura that made her nauseous even from a distance. If it was a ghost, it would definitely be stronger than any ghost she had ever seen before, and by a significant margin.

Even so, out of professional ethics as an exorcist, even though it was just in a game, she had to go and see what was going on.

So without hesitation, she transformed her hands into claws, activating the mode she had used against Zhou Ke'er. In this mode, her physical attributes would be greatly enhanced, especially her speed; with this level of speed, she could barely manage to traverse a horde of monsters.

She hadn't really considered whether she could come back, or how she could come back—after all, she felt that if she went there, she would probably die there anyway, so what was there to consider afterward? She never left herself a way out.

When she finally broke through the layers of monsters surrounding her and reached the deepest part.

She saw an ancient throne engraved with strange and intricate patterns; just one glance at it almost shattered her reason.

But that wasn't what surprised her the most.

Seated on the throne was a person, none other than Zhou Ke'er, whom she had confronted not long ago.

He now appears to be resting with his eyes closed, but there seems to be a faint, sinister aura emanating from him.

"His eyes are closed, this is an opportunity!"

Ming Mengjing subconsciously took a step forward, but... as her foot landed, she saw Zhou Ke'er suddenly open her eyes.

Two pupils emerged from the completely black right eye, seemingly boiling with the deepest, most sinister energy.

The moment Mingmengjing saw that eye, it was as if her consciousness had been thrown into a shredder; everything went black, and she collapsed to the ground.

436. Why did Your Majesty plot a rebellion?

"Um...?"

As if suddenly emerging from a damp, cold pool, Zhou Ke'er's brain felt as if it had been pierced by countless cold needles, and she finally regained consciousness in a daze amidst a sharp pain.

Suddenly opening her eyes, Zhou Ke'er felt something was wrong with her right eye, but before she could think about it, she saw... a figure inexplicably collapse in front of her.

"A staged accident scam??"

Zhou Ke'er was shocked and suddenly came to her senses. She then realized that the person lying on the ground in front of her was Ming Mengjing, whom she had just exchanged a few blows with not long ago.

And he himself was surrounded by countless monsters, sitting in a position that... resembled a throne?

"Wow? I went to be a double agent and ended up becoming the boss?"

Zhou Ke'er was completely bewildered. He remembered that in the heat of the moment, when he wasn't thinking clearly, he somehow managed to perform a time reversal... But what was going on now? Had he accidentally reversed to some incredible timeline?

Thinking of this, Zhou Ke'er hurriedly stood up from the throne—and then her legs went weak, almost causing her to tumble off the high platform where the throne was located. If that happened, Zhou Ke'er's life as the Demon King (?) would be over, right? So she quickly made a loud noise to cover it up.

That's not right!

Zhou Ke'er quickly braced himself on his knees and caught his breath. He realized that his whole body ached terribly—but this wasn't because he was injured. Rather, it was because the evil energy in his body was still too abundant, causing him to feel strained. However, he no longer felt like he was about to explode.

What's strangest is that Zhou Ke'er glanced at the character template and found that, without her noticing, it had jumped directly from the fifth or sixth level of Qi Refining to the initial stage of Foundation Establishment? Good heavens, it's been completely filled with evil influences.

But... Zhou Ke'er clearly remembered that just now, the source of mutation within her body had been burst, leaving only a fragment of the spacetime godhead that could barely serve as the core of spiritual power. So... according to the system of his character template, he should only be able to advance to the Great Perfection of Qi Refining and then get stuck.

Zhou Ke'er, who couldn't figure it out no matter what, decided to put that matter aside for the time being. Anyway, his head was still throbbing badly, and this was not a good time to think.

After catching her breath, Zhou Ke'er sat back on the throne and then stretched out her hand towards Ming Mengjing.

Controlling a sword is the same as controlling a person; it's all the same principle, just requiring a bit more spiritual energy. And what Zhou Ke'er has in abundance right now is spiritual energy.

Immediately, Ming Mengjing, who had collapsed to the ground, slowly rose into the air and floated in front of Zhou Ke'er.

"Hmm? It doesn't look like he's seriously injured. There are no open wounds. Could it be internal injuries?"

After expending her excessive spiritual energy, Zhou Ke'er felt much better; at least her brain no longer ached like it was being pricked with needles when she thought.

Speaking of which... after what just happened, Zhou Ke'er wasn't forcibly disconnected from the game? Is that reasonable? Does the game system determine that Zhou Ke'er wouldn't suffer psychological damage under those circumstances?

After looking Mingmengjing up and down, Zhou Ke'er resisted the urge to slap her awake. She flipped through the common spells category in "Two or Three" and found a spell to wake up a person who had fainted. She then casually tossed it onto Mingmengjing.

It's unclear whether it was because Zhou Ke'er's output of spiritual power exceeded the spell's requirements, or because the amount of evil in his spiritual power was too high, causing an unexpected reaction. In any case, Ming Mengjing, who should have been slowly waking up, suddenly woke up as if he had been slapped hard in the face.

What a waste! Zhou Ke'er should have just slapped him directly; it wouldn't have made any difference and would have wasted his spiritual energy.

Ming Mengjing suddenly opened her eyes, only to find herself floating uncontrollably in mid-air, with Zhou Ke'er sitting lazily on the throne right in front of her.

He was sitting with his legs crossed, his left elbow resting on the armrest, his fist supporting his chin, and his right hand outstretched towards her. It was clear that he was the one controlling her as she floated in mid-air.

That eerie double pupil was still staring straight at her, radiating an unsettling aura.

Ming Mengjing could sense that the immense and bizarre nature contained within the being before her was now completely revealed without any concealment—far exceeding her expectations by many times!

Clearly, when he fought her in the city before, this guy was just playing around, watching her every move like she was a monkey being toyed with...

However, Zhou Ke'er had no idea what Ming Mengjing was thinking about him. She just curled up a greasy, wicked smile and asked in a flippant voice, "Hmm? How did you end up here? Looks like we need to strengthen our security."

Ming Mengjing gritted her teeth, staring at the human creature before her, her mind racing: "Why is this guy on the throne among these monsters? Is this module also divided into factions? No... there should indeed be only one common quest for all players. Even if there are factions, he shouldn't be the only one in an independent faction, right? Could it be because of his special identity (referring to her belief that Zhou Ke'er is the Ghost) that some hidden quest was triggered?"

"I'm asking you a question."

Zhou Ke'er beckoned her outstretched hand back, and Ming Mengjing was instantly pulled over, falling onto the flat surface in front of the throne on the high platform.

The main reason was that Zhou Ke'er didn't want to waste any more spiritual energy; she just wanted to use it up to a level that made her feel comfortable.

Zhou Ke'er leaned down at Ming Mengjing and said in an even more greasy tone, "Hmm? Is it because we're too far apart that you can't hear me? Well, now... you can hear me clearly, right? Or do you want me to lean right up to your ear to talk?"

Ming Mengjing felt disgusted and shuddered. Damn, what's with this old-fashioned, greasy style? It's like a renaissance of the domineering CEO genre!

This guy is definitely not as young as he looks. To be so obsessed with such an old-fashioned, greasy style, he must be an ancient monster who's lived for who knows how long! No wonder, otherwise how could he be such a powerful and mysterious figure?!

Just then, a faint, illusory character "壹" appeared on one of the pupils of Zhou Ke'er's right eye.

He had just discovered that he had inexplicably gained a new skill. However, this was to be expected, since even if the system did not recognize it as a skill, Zhou Ke'er still clearly remembered the contents of the "Seven Chapters of the Mysterious Monarch's Secret Scripture," as if it had been engraved in her mind.

[Name: "Xuanjun Seven Chapters Secret Scripture" and "Seven Secret Scriptures of the Earth"]

[Type: Skill]