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

With these questions in mind, Zhou Ke'er rubbed her head and slowly sat up.

It really hurt when I fell, since I wasn't prepared at all.

All around was a pure white space, so white that it was impossible to see where the boundaries were—for example, even if there was a staircase leading down in front, it would be impossible to tell the difference from the ground with the naked eye.

A figure was floating in front of Zhou Ke'er—or perhaps it wasn't floating, but simply standing on the high platform, but that didn't matter.

The important point is that, although the person in front of her looks no different from a normal human being, his pitch-black eyes and the sinister aura surging within him that Zhou Ke'er could sense...

This guy is cunning.

"sly?"

Zhou Ke'er asked directly.

"No, it's a person."

The man shook his head matter-of-factly. "I'm just like you."

"That's as if I'm not human."

Zhou Ke'er narrowed her eyes and changed the subject, saying, "What's going on with this space? I didn't know that ghosts could create such a space?"

"It's not space, but a dream. It's just a small trick to enter a dream through a sinister resonance. Secondly..."

The man frowned and floated down from mid-air. "I've already said, I'm not some kind of 'ghost,' just like you. I thought you should know that—since you've already been to that ruin and obtained the memory stone left there."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Ke'er's eyes narrowed, and she gradually formed a guess in her mind, but she still pretended not to understand. "Riddler, get out of Gotham City! If you're going to say something, say it clearly. You've been here saying 'you should know, you should know' all this time. How am I supposed to know what I should know?"

At the same time, Zhou Ke'er was also secretly trying to sense the evil within her body—that's right, after all, evil is rooted in the soul and consciousness, and even if it really is in a dream, as long as Zhou Ke'er still has consciousness, she can still mobilize evil.

"...In that case, I'll explain it to you in detail."

The man wasn't angered by Zhou Ke'er's rudeness; instead, he nodded and said, "After all, what I originally wanted to do this time was..."

He paused for a moment, then changed the subject, saying, "The first and most important point is... in the old era, true humans did not contain 'evil' within their bodies, or rather... they did not have organs capable of containing 'evil'."

"What do you mean? Are you saying that people like us aren't human anymore?"

Zhou Ke'er frowned. Although he had vaguely guessed something similar before, he didn't expect it to actually be like this.

"You're right. What we call humans now aren't real humans at all. They're just creations of those who exist."

The man nodded without hesitation, directly acknowledging the statement. "You should be able to see that even the most ordinary 'people' in the New Era contain evil within them—do you think this is something essential for being human?"

“I’m not from the old era, how would I know if this is what humanity needs?”

Zhou Ke'er retorted, "So what's your purpose in telling me this? I'm one of those 'people' you're talking about. Even if you don't consider us human, as long as I believe I am, isn't that enough? Do I need your approval to be considered human?"

"No, you are not. Haven't you noticed? Why has your family never produced a so-called exorcist? Because there is no evil spirit within the people in your family."

The man shook his head. "You are the remnants of the old era."

"Huh? Does our family practice inbreeding?!"

Zhou Ke'er immediately grasped the key point and showed a look of great shock. Good heavens, no wonder he always felt that there was something wrong with his brain, so this is why!

"Wait a minute! You're kidding me! My mom's surname isn't Zhou!"

Suddenly, Zhou Ke'er snapped out of her shock and realized something was wrong. She immediately slapped her thigh and retorted.

"...The fact that your family doesn't possess any evil entities doesn't mean you're the only one in the world with this condition..."

The man's tone betrayed a hint of helplessness, "Of course, there are other families like yours. That way, it's not inbreeding."

"Oh! Oh, I see! You startled me..."

Zhou Ke'er patted her chest and breathed a sigh of relief. "So? What does this have to do with you suddenly contacting me?"

"You're very wary of me, but there's really no need for that. Perhaps, if I were to act differently..."

As she spoke, the man's face blurred for a moment, and then another face that Zhou Ke'er was somewhat familiar with appeared.

Isn't that the experimenter Reno we saw in the photo stone?

Good heavens, judging from the last image on the recording stone, wasn't this guy already dead in the old era?

And even if he didn't die in the old era, it's still absurd that he's still alive now!

"Renault?!"

Since the other party was already certain that Zhou Ke'er would recognize him in this state, Zhou Ke'er didn't hide it and immediately exclaimed in surprise.

"What a nostalgic name."

Renault's eyes flickered, as if he were reminiscing, but he quickly regained his composure. "In that case, I'll get straight to the point... I've come to ask you for a favor... It's about Chen Tian."

## Chapter 483, Question 478: What secret?

"You have something to do with Chen Tian? Then why don't you go find him directly? Why are you coming to me?"

Zhou Ke'er blinked; upon hearing Renault's words, he no longer wanted to listen.

To be honest, he had absolutely no interest in the so-called truth, nor did he care about whether the world would be destroyed, or what the relationship was between the people of the old and new eras. He just wanted to have some fun.

He's already made it so obvious, but these kinds of troubles keep coming his way. It's just too much.

"It's impossible. Or rather, it's not the right time yet."

Renault is at it again, talking like a riddle. Maybe the longer he lives, the more he enjoys talking like this. He seems to enjoy it when he talks, but to others, it makes them want to punch him in the face.

Judging from his demeanor, Zhou Ke'er figured he wouldn't answer even if she pressed him further. So, she simply stopped asking stupid questions like why it wasn't the right time yet and said directly, "You can't go directly to Chen Tian, ​​that's your own problem, it has nothing to do with me. I have no obligation to help you. Even if you offered me payment, I might not help you, let alone expecting to get something for nothing. So, the result is obvious... I refuse."

"An expected answer. But you overlooked one point, which is... if you're currently facing some intractable problem, and if you don't solve it, you'll suffer huge losses. Right now, I happen to be able to help you solve this problem. In return, it's not unreasonable for you to do me a small favor, is it? This isn't freeloading, it's a transaction."

Renault still had a squinty expression, his face not changing at all because of Zhou Ke'er's rejection, and he continued to explain.

"Then you have to tell me first what big trouble I've run into."

Zhou Ke'er raised her eyebrows.

“There are too many. If you want to hear them, I’ll just give you a few examples. First of all, you haven’t dealt with the situation with the Exorcist Organization at all, right? No, or rather, you haven’t dealt with it at all. Up until now, you haven’t even been to the Exorcist Organization’s headquarters once. Hasn’t that made you realize something? They didn’t trust you from the beginning—they may have even learned some information about you through some channels.”

Renault spoke eloquently: "Perhaps they will refrain from taking action against you for the time being because of your family, but as the evil within you continues to grow... your family may not be able to protect you. After all, the Zhou family is not even part of the decision-making body of the Exorcists organization."

"That seems to make sense... But so what if they want to attack me? I don't think they can necessarily beat me. Anyway, it seems that Blue-Rank Exorcists are nothing special after all."

Zhou Ke'er put on a very arrogant expression, shrugged and replied, but in fact she did begin to think about some countermeasures regarding this matter.

"Purple-rank exorcists are not the pinnacle. Otherwise, with their strength alone, they wouldn't be able to suppress so many strange events in the world."

Renault replied calmly, "You never know how many years some seemingly young exorcists have actually lived. Perhaps they themselves have become pure... what we call exorcists, who knows."

"Since they are so strong, it means I can't cause any trouble under their control, so they don't need to deal with me, right?"

Zhou Ke'er wasn't intimidated. Instead, she analyzed the situation with remarkable logic: "Those who can't beat me can't eliminate me no matter how much they want to. And those powerful beings you mentioned could deal with me far too easily. So as long as I don't do anything outrageous, they won't waste unnecessary energy crushing me. From this perspective, I'm actually quite safe, aren't I?"

“Normally, that should be the case, but from the moment you obtained the ‘Seven Secret Scriptures of the Mysterious Monarch’ or the ‘Seven Secret Teachings of the Earth’, as long as they know about this, they will still be happy to waste some energy to crush you.”

Renault waved his hand, conjured a chair for himself, sat down, and slowly said to Zhou Ke'er, "You may not know what this means yet, but I will tell you now. It means that you have become one of the pawns of those beings. But as far as I know, this was not originally prepared for you; the inheritance prepared for you should have been something else."

"You know all this? Are you one of them? Did you surrender and betray us?"

Zhou Ke'er blinked.

Upon hearing this, Renault gently shook his finger: "No, but I have an inside man. You should know him too—Rieker."

"You're just telling me this like that? Aren't you afraid I'll use this information to tell those beings as a pledge of allegiance?"

Zhou Ke'er crossed her arms and said, "Since those beings are so powerful, it's only natural for me to directly pledge allegiance to them, right?"

"First of all, they know about this. But they tacitly allow my existence—if only people from the same camp are playing around and killing each other on a chessboard, it lacks a sense of reality. Or rather, I am just one of the pieces on their chessboard."

Renault squinted, his emotions unreadable to Zhou Ke'er. "Secondly... if you want to pledge allegiance to those beings, it means you're giving up your identity as a 'pawn.' Then your only fate will be... being casually discarded, and then replaced by another interesting pawn."

"I understand. Then please continue. Besides the Exorcist Organization potentially causing me trouble, is there anything else?"

Zhou Ke'er nodded as if she understood, and continued to ask.

Since it's a willing exchange, and Renault answers whatever Zhou Ke'er asks, why shouldn't he ask? He doesn't have to pay for information.

"The second one... You shouldn't have missed such an obvious sign, you just didn't want to think about it. A large number of gamers in reality suddenly developed symptoms, and these symptoms are contagious... Actually, it's not a disease, it just triggered the evil that was already present in their bodies."

Renault answered without hesitation, without any pause: "But this is just the prelude. After they fall into a coma, their consciousness is retained in the so-called 'game.' The first major challenge that will greet you in the not-too-distant future, or rather, the first large-scale 'event' set up by those entities, is—an event that removes your option to exit the game, and uses the lives of all players in the game, including yourself, as the stakes."

"Ha, this tactic is too old-fashioned. Besides, this is only the first event. I don't think they'll wipe us out in the first round. That would be no fun, would it?"

Zhou Ke'er shrugged, seemingly unfazed.

"Of course, you're right. I never doubted that you could pass the first test. But the problem is... you can't guarantee that you can protect everyone you're close to, or everyone you want to protect."

Renault's tone carried a hint of seduction, his already narrowed eyes narrowing even further. "By then, I believe you'll be more than happy to accept my help. What do you think?"

## Chapter 484, 479. I love saying "Okay!" to self-righteous people.

"Okay, I admit there's some truth to what you said... but can you just step in and take action?"

Zhou Ke'er shrugged and pressed on. Although Zhou Ke'er often betrayed her teammates without any mercy, it didn't mean she was indifferent to emotions. Even a mentally ill person wouldn't think that the death of a friend was a trivial matter, let alone Zhou Ke'er, who wasn't actually mentally ill.

Furthermore, Zhou Ke'er is quite self-aware; she truly understands that she can't accomplish everything she wants on her own. At this point, both helpers and backup plans are equally indispensable.

However, the problem now is... Renault makes it sound good, but who knows if he'll actually make a move? What if he's just messing with Zhou Ke'er to get something for nothing?

"Of course I can. Because I'm not important. And I won't pose any threat to those beings. Even if I personally intervene, it won't disrupt their plans. At most, they'll just give me a warning."

Renault answered without hesitation, looking very confident, "The important thing is Chen Tian. Although I don't know exactly what methods he used, he did succeed to some extent—as long as he doesn't reveal too much, those beings shouldn't have discovered that he is still alive."

"I think he's already given himself away... He's revealed his identity directly in the game quite a few times. I suspect that those beings have already heard what he said."

Zhou Ke'er pointed out incisively.

"Is that so...? That is a rather tricky situation. But it's still somewhat within expectations."

Renault pondered for a moment after hearing this, seemingly without doubting the truth of Zhou Ke'er's words, before continuing, "That's just moving him from a hidden piece to the main board; he hasn't completely lost his value. After all, we don't need to overturn the board; achieving a certain objective is enough."

"Fine. Whatever your goals are, it's none of my business, and I don't care. In short..."

Zhou Ke'er stretched and said, "As long as you don't resort to any underhanded tactics or take the benefits without doing anything in return, I can help you. But before that, tell me what you need me to do for you."

"Hmm...we need to change the plan for now, no rush. Let's keep this request for now, I'll let you know when the time is right."

Renault waved his hand. "Just pretend nothing happened for now. I was just a kind person who delivered a bunch of information to you—of course, our deal is in effect from now on, but I'll tell you what I need you to do later."

"I have no objection. It would be best if you never told me."