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

Ming Mengjing's pupils constricted sharply, and she immediately flipped backward and jumped. "You actually made your move here?! You're asking for trouble. The other exorcists are arriving soon, and they'll discover your true identity..."

"pat"

With a soft sound, Ming Mengjing's communication bracelet fell to the ground and broke after a series of cracks.

Zhou Ke'er's target was her communication bracelet.

Dispelling the malevolent aura clinging to the Tang sword, Zhou Ke'er said with a grin, "You seem so irritable, but you're actually quite shrewd. You turned on the recording function on your communication bracelet from the start, just waiting for me to confess, right? But wasn't your prompting a little too obvious?"

"...Hmph, who said I was recording? Actually, I had a voice call on. What you said was already heard by the organization. Even if you destroy the bracelet now, it won't help!"

Ming Mengjing revealed a confident expression.

"Did you really answer any phone calls from other people?"

Zhou Ke'er couldn't help but adopt the expression of an old man on the subway looking at his phone, as if to say, "How come you understand human communication devices even less than me, a ghost?" "When the communication bracelet connects to a call, the surface of the bracelet will flash a faint green light... I'm not blind, how can you lie with your eyes open?"

449. A long-awaited workday

One day after the incident at Xu Qingming's home.

"ha..."

Zhou Ke'er lay on her desk and sighed listlessly.

Why must people work? Why can't they just be freeloaders who laze around and wait to die? Although he is indeed a freeloader now, why can't he be a more complete freeloader and simply not come to work at all?

Lately, absolutely no patients have come to our clinic! Given the current situation, most businesses have already closed for holidays, so why is the mental hospital still open?! Is my own family the unscrupulous business behind this?

When Zhou Ke'er returned from Xu Qingming's place, she originally planned to call home to ask what she was hiding from him, but then she thought about it...

If his family knows he's joined the Exorcists but doesn't tell him the inside story, it means they won't answer him even if he asks. If his family doesn't know he's joined the Exorcists, then he can gather information within the organization himself. He can always subtly ask Mu Yang and the others; he'll eventually get the information.

So Zhou Ke'er, having found an excuse and overcome her laziness, happily chose to give up.

"boom!"

The door was pushed open forcefully, and a figure rushed in instantly.

Before Zhou Ke'er could even see who it was, a voice rang out: "Oh no, oh no, oh no! Young Master Zhou, I just heard that our mental hospital is going to close down in a few days? Will we still get paid? Help! I'm broke this month, and if we don't get paid, I'll starve to death at home! No, I can't even pay the rent, I'll starve to death on the streets!"

Alright, there's no need to guess anymore, it must be Walnut.

Looking at the tearful Hu Tao, Zhou Ke'er replied matter-of-factly, "What's the use of asking me this? Do you think I look like someone who would know about this kind of thing? But, I can give you a rational analysis. Just look at the dismal income and expenditure statements of our mental hospital these days, and you'll find that... even if we don't force it to close down, it's probably not far from bankruptcy. And you still want paid leave? You might as well dream about it."

"Damn it, look at your ugly capitalist face! Every pore on your body is dripping with filth!"

Walnut, utterly despondent, collapsed onto her desk, complaining with a sense of hopelessness.

"Good grief, what does this have to do with me? I'm just a working-class person like you."

Zhou Ke'er retorted matter-of-factly.

"How can you say something like that without batting an eye? If you took off your coat right now, I could sell it secondhand and it would be enough to feed me for half a month, or even a month if I just washed it clean, okay? If this is what you call being a working person, I'd like to switch places with you, you bastard!"

Hu Tao was so envious and jealous that tears streamed down her face.

"Here's a way for you. Just go and get infected with the latest epidemic, and you'll be sent to a public mental hospital for free with food and lodging provided."

Zhou Ke'er suggested earnestly, "How about this? That way you won't have to sleep on the streets anymore, and you can stay as long as you want."

"Zhou Ke'er, you've changed! You used to say things like, 'Then I'll take care of you!'"

Hu Tao couldn't help but complain.

"But you always refuse, don't you?"

Zhou Ke'er shrugged.

"Then maybe I'll agree right now!"

Hu Tao argued her case forcefully.

"Sorry, I have too many people to support right now, I'm out of money."

Zhou Ke'er expressed her deep emotion but declined.

"Huh? Who else could you possibly support? With your personality, aside from a few of us who know you, which stranger wouldn't be unable to tolerate you after just one meeting?"

Hu Tao looked at Zhou Ke'er with an extremely suspicious gaze.

Just then, there was a loud "crack" sound, followed by the sound of glass falling to the ground.

A figure suddenly jumped in through the window and said in a very annoyed tone, "Let's go. Today is your first mission... Damn, why are there other people here? Is this how you keep secrets? I'm going to get you fired!"

Before Zhou Ke'er could say anything, Ming Mengjing rattled off a whole string of words.

"???"

Hu Tao stared blankly at Ming Mengjing entering through the window, completely dumbfounded. For a moment, she even began to wonder if she had fallen asleep at work and was hallucinating. Maybe she was still dreaming.

“Let’s analyze this rationally. I was sitting here peacefully, and you didn’t even tell me you were coming, so I had no idea you were coming. You, on the other hand, clearly knew you were coming to see me and that you should keep it a secret, yet you completely ignored my surroundings and just barged in. This is obviously your problem.”

Zhou Ke'er glanced at Ming Mengjing, pointed to a pile of broken glass on the ground, and said, "Moreover... most importantly, you deliberately damaged the property of our mental hospital. I seriously suspect that you want to go to the police station with me?"

"They dare to arrest me? They can arrest me?"

Ming Mengjing, with righteous indignation and a strong sense of justice, began to make a ridiculous argument.

"If I were to report it to the police, they would dare to do it."

Zhou Ke'er replied just as seriously, "If they can't catch them, then I'll have to report this to the organization. If they still can't resolve it, then I'll have to talk to them about compensation for the car. I think that should solve the problem, right? What do you think?"

"grass!"

Ming Mengjing, completely lacking in decorum, began to hurl profanities, glaring fiercely at Zhou Ke'er before abruptly changing the subject: "What are you still standing there for? Let's go, we're going on a mission. Do you expect me to carry you there?"

"Since you've put it that way, I have no choice but to reluctantly comply. Come on, I'll grant you the honor of carrying me on my back."

Zhou Ke'er nodded confidently and waved to Ming Mengjing.

"Wait, wait, wait! So what's going on? And who is this? This is the third floor! How could they possibly get in through the window?! Am I still dreaming?"

Only then did Hu Tao finally realize what was happening. She slammed her hand on the desk, which made her hand go numb and caused her to grimace in pain.

"Sigh, I've kept this a secret for so long, but you've still found out. Yes, actually..."

Zhou Ke'er's expression was extremely serious. She interlaced her fingers, resting them on her chin, and her eyes gleamed with an inexplicable light. She said in a deep voice, "Actually... I am a member of the legendary Dragon Group! I secretly protect the lives of ordinary people! I fight against those evil monsters. Yes, I am that great!"

"Heh, so I guess I was still sleeping, huh? Actually, Zhou Ke'er didn't come to work at all today. I was just hallucinating because I was so poor..."

Hu Tao's eyes were lifeless. She let out a chilling laugh that sounded like self-doubt, and then walked out the door, looking utterly dejected.

"...Look! It's all your fault! Look what you've done!"

Zhou Ke'er immediately began to criticize Ming Mengjing.

"You, a mere ghost, dare to claim you're fighting against evil monsters? You're fighting against yourself, aren't you? I'll give you that chance right now, okay? We're going to deal with the ghost right now. Let's go, keep up."

Ming Mengjing ignored Zhou Ke'er and jumped out of the window again.

"..."

Zhou Ke'er glanced at the window, and then... resolutely chose to take the stairs.

450. Harmonious relationship between teachers and students (?)

"drive?"

No, walking.

Ming Mengjing glanced at Zhou Ke'er, her lips twitched almost imperceptibly, and answered firmly.

Just kidding, what if another car broke down now...? Even though Zhou Ke'er is now considered a member of the exorcists, theoretically the organization wouldn't have to pay for it if the car broke down too. But what if he gets angry and brings up the previous compensation again...?

So it's best to avoid taking a car.

"How can this be? How long would it take us to walk there? By the time we get there, the people Gui wanted to kill will already be gone, right?"

Zhou Ke'er couldn't help but reveal an expression that said, "How can this organization treat human life so lightly?"

Ming Mengjing looked at Zhou Ke'er, who was "pretending to be a clueless newbie exorcist," and her brows twitched. She then explained in a very gentle tone, "Exorcists of the Azure Rank and above, as well as Great Exorcists, can freely enter or bring others into the illusion. The terrain within the illusion is identical to reality unless deliberately altered. And where you exit the illusion will appear in the corresponding location in reality. Therefore, we can use the illusion to avoid being discovered by ordinary people and thus reach our target location at full speed."

"Wow, that's so advanced! There's even such a sophisticated technique. How do we implement it?"

Zhou Ke'er looked as if she had just realized something, nodding repeatedly and pressing for an answer. Although she didn't say one more thing: "It seems that exorcists eventually become no different from exorcists themselves, doesn't it?"

Ming Mengjing's temple throbbed with a bulge. A great ghost, or even a being beyond the great ghost, was now acting like "Wow, how amazing!" in front of her, just because of this common knowledge that everyone knew... It was like an elementary school student telling a graduate student studying mathematics that 1+1=2, and then the graduate student would have an exaggerated expression of "Wow, that's amazing, I've really learned something new," clapping and saying, "I see, that's too profound."

He deserves a beating.

Ming Mengjing forced a smile, her face stiff: "It's... very simple. Just use the evil within your body to communicate with space, and construct a passage between the illusion and reality that can accommodate passage."

"Oh~ So, in that case, the illusion isn't unique to each ghost or exorcist? In fact, all ghosts and exorcists share the same illusion? Then who does this illusion belong to? It can't possibly exist naturally, right? And not only is it naturally existing, but it also happens to be shared by everyone... Isn't that too strange?"

Zhou Ke'er looked as if she had just realized something, but she was also a little confused. She started to follow the steps that Ming Mengjing had told her to do, and asked questions at the same time.

Perhaps it was because she frequently used the Godhood of Time and Space in the game, or perhaps Zhou Ke'er was naturally gifted and easily used the Evil Transformation to connect with the Illusionary Realm and open a passage.

Of course, this so-called passage is not visible to the naked eye; it can only be vaguely sensed.

Speaking of which... Zhou Ke'er's frequent encounters with strange events might actually be due to this principle! Because Zhou Ke'er had absorbed a large amount of evil energy during this period, it was very likely that it would overflow from her body. And this overflowing evil energy just happened to connect with the illusion, sending Zhou Ke'er into the illusion without her noticing.

It's also possible that he sensed something was wrong, but didn't know why, and didn't even consider that possibility.

As Ming Mengjing watched Zhou Ke'er open the illusionary passage with a curious expression and practiced ease (?), she became even more certain that this guy was undoubtedly the Great Ghost.

"..."

Ming Mengjing waved her hand and opened a portal to an illusion, saying, "Follow me this way."

After saying that, she quickly slipped inside and disappeared into thin air.

That's right, she was very obviously worried that there might be some big problems with Zhou Ke'er's illusion passage. She might be trapped as soon as she went in, so she opened a passage herself without any attempt to hide it.

Zhou Ke'er scratched her head, wondering why Mingmengjing would go through all this trouble, so she simply withdrew her evil aura, closed the passage, and then crawled into Mingmengjing's hole. (?)

"But even if we're inside the illusion and can't be seen by other ordinary people, won't we still be very slow when we walk there? We still won't make it in time, right?"

After Zhou Ke'er went in, she looked around the scene in the illusion. It was indeed no different from reality, except that there was no one there.

"...Have you forgotten how I found you? The shortest distance between two points is a straight line, you know that, right? So we can just go straight there, there's no need to take a detour if we drive."

Ming Mengjing sighed, helpless against Zhou Ke'er's "pretending to know nothing," and too lazy to expose him. She could only helplessly explain, as if genuinely guiding a newcomer—as for why she was suddenly being so kind, it was because the exorcist organization was incredibly modern; now, they recorded the first time they guided a newcomer, using it to evaluate the senior exorcists' skill level. Most importantly... it directly affected their salaries.