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

"Mission? What mission? What... what do you mean? You knew from the beginning that detectives would be coming?"

Zhou Ke'er feigned—or rather, feigned—a look of utter shock, taking several steps back, but quickly regained her composure. "Could it be... that everything you just said about Grassis was fabricated by yourself? You went to such lengths to exaggerate Grassis's crimes just to make me, out of detective instinct, shift my attention to him and thus expose my identity?"

"No, I wasn't lying about that."

Dess shook his head. "Grasis did do those things. I didn't exaggerate."

[Information: Grassis's Past - Part 8 - Collected]

[Completion Progress: 10%/100%]

A system notification sounded.

Zhou Ke'er pursed her lips. Dai Si had clearly mentioned this information earlier, but it was only now being confirmed that it had been collected... Does that mean the information still needs to be verified? But how can it be verified, and what are the standards for verification?

Both times it was just Daisy's empty talk. Even if he said he wasn't lying the second time, would that be believable?

I don't understand...

Zhou Ke'er narrowed her eyes.

"Wait! You...you mean...you're a player?!"

Jin Yi finally had a chance to appear, and couldn't help but ask Dai Si with a shocked expression.

Although Zhijiansha understood, seeing that Zhou Ke'er seemed to be pretending to be an NPC, after hesitating for a while, she decided not to reveal her identity as a player for the time being.

Given the current situation, proving that you're a player is pointless, so it's better not to let your previous efforts go to waste.

"Yes, I've made it very clear, haven't I?"

Dais nodded, making no attempt to hide his feelings.

That's right, he was the one who revealed himself to be a player just now.

"Players? What do you mean? Are you saying this is a game?"

Zhou Ke'er's expression was calm, yet tinged with a hint of doubt. "Games? I seem to have heard that the aristocrats in high society sometimes plan these kinds of... games for their own amusement. Does that mean... we're just actors for them to play with?!"

"Huh? Are you kidding me... a nobleman?"

Daisy stared at Zhou Ke'er for a while, but couldn't find any flaws. "Forget it, you wouldn't understand even if I explained. After all, she's just a..."

"Wasn't this orchestrated by nobles? You still look down on nobles... Indeed, such supernatural power could not possibly be controlled by nobles."

Zhou Ke'er feigned deep thought and reasoned, "So that means there's an extraordinary... organization behind you? Missions... you complete missions for them, and they grant you this ability? And in their eyes, it's just a game, so you're one of the... players?"

"..."

Dais stared at Zhou Ke'er in silence for a moment, then suddenly spoke up: "Truly...extraordinarily perceptive! I never expected that a mere NPC could guess to this extent from just a few words...This game is really...interesting! But I'm wondering, what would you do if I told you...you're not a real person, but just a string of data?"

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36. The Shadowy Castle (Part 8)

"Hey! Desce, this isn't the time to be talking about this kind of thing!"

Finger Sand pursed her lips and quickly interrupted Daisy.

If Daisy suddenly had a brain fart and wanted to reveal the truth about the so-called real world and the game world to Zhou Ke'er, this "NPC"...

While browsing the official website, Zhijiansha glanced at a post about "the consequences of mentioning words like 'system' or 'NPC' to NPCs in the game." Although she didn't click to read it carefully, it seemed to have a special effect.

This means Zhou Ke'er is likely to be exposed. If the so-called "special reaction" is something that cannot be faked by a player, then everything Zhou Ke'er did before will have been in vain.

Of course, all of this assumes that Des also knows this information, but it's also possible that Des doesn't know either. However, Finger Sand thinks it's best not to place your hopes on others.

"I don't know what kind of player or what abilities you're talking about, but... isn't that the point right now? Shouldn't we be putting out the fire quickly? Otherwise, we'll all die here!"

Sand poured the water from the table onto the fire, but it was only a drop in the ocean. It might have been able to stop the fire when it was just starting to spread, but now the best time had passed.

"No, actually, there's absolutely no need for that."

Zhou Ke'er suddenly said.

"Zhou...Grasis, what do you mean by that?"

With a frown, Zhijiansha turned her head and asked. Because of the smoke, she couldn't help but cover her mouth and cough twice. A few tears, caused by physiological stimulation, glistened in the corners of her eyes.

"Ah, because my statement that 'Dess wouldn't be able to escape after closing the door to the corridor' is itself invalid."

Zhou Ke'er turned around, leaning on her cane, and slowly walked to the entrance door where everyone had first come in, and reached out to push it.

"That won't work! I already tried it before, didn't I? It was clearly locked..."

Upon seeing this, Shi hurriedly spoke, but before she could finish, Zhou Ke'er had already pushed open the door.

"How...is this possible?"

Shi stared wide-eyed, speechless.

"It's quite obvious. The reason we couldn't open the door at first was most likely because of Dess's... ability. Right? And then, Dess first had to divert his energy to control Stern, and now there's the fire. I guess you probably don't have the energy to maintain control of this door anymore, right?"

Zhou Ke'er slowly walked out of the burning hall and said without turning her head.

"...Yes, you're mostly right."

Dess paused for a few seconds, and seeing that everyone else had already hurriedly left through the door, he followed them toward the exit. "There was only one mistake, but... well, if you have to put it that way, it's not wrong. What I consumed when using my ability wasn't 'energy,' but 'reason.' That's my title ability."

As Dais spoke, he kept his eyes fixed on Zhou Ke'er's eyes.

"Title...Ability? Reason?"

Zhou Ke'er's eyes revealed just the right amount of doubt, "You said you've exhausted... your rationality, right? But I don't think you've gone crazy right now?"

"That's because... reason and reason value... ha... never mind, I can't explain it to you anyway."

Dais shook his head helplessly. He had deliberately mentioned the specific words "title ability" and "reason" to see what special reaction Zhou Ke'er would have, but it seemed that she didn't.

Is it because the game system has a biased understanding of the default settings for NPCs, or because the words he just used did not reach the level of being able to elicit a special reaction?

Dais was silently guessing, but couldn't figure it out.

"I really don't understand. But... the so-called ability you mentioned, that must be something given to you by that 'organization,' right? And in exchange, you became a so-called 'player,' here to carry out 'missions'... is that right?"

Zhou Ke'er squinted, tapping her cane lightly with her fingers, then turned to look at Shi Shi and Jin Yi. "This... Mr. Diprik, you just mentioned the word 'player'? Oh, and Mr. Jason, you don't seem surprised at all by what Mr. Dess just said? So... you're also... 'players'? Then why don't you use your 'abilities'?"

"Hey! You're getting too into character, you jerk! And stop trying to mock your teammates all the time!"

Jin Yi couldn't help but mentally complain, then sighed and rubbed his forehead in exasperation.

"Well, actually, it's because we lack the 'ability' to say it."

Ms. Shi explained very cooperatively. (Image of Ms. Shi being well-behaved.)

"Ha...it seems that only Miss Sandein and I here do not belong to your 'organization'...no, wait..."

Zhou Ke'er stopped mid-sentence, turning to look at the sand between her fingers, "You wouldn't be... too..."

“No, of course I’m not… Although you’re not Grassis, I have to tell you, your personality is just as awful as that guy’s.”

Sand between Fingers rolled its eyes.

After hearing the first half of Zhou Ke'er's sentence, I thought she was going to cover for her, but the next sentence was actually asking her a question. Well, it was a kind of cover-up, I guess.

"pat..."

After Dais came out, he closed the door behind him.

Huh? Daisy came out?

Zhou Ke'er's eyelids twitched involuntarily... Given his public image, it wouldn't be appropriate for him to lock Daisy in the burning room...

But why didn't the Shi family and the Embroidered Uniform Guard make a move?! They must be undercover agents! They just stood by and watched Dai Si walk out!

If Zhou Ke'er had kept that guy locked up, she might have been able to persuade, coerce, and entice him to get some information about Grassis out of him. It's a pity now.

However, he himself cannot take action. If he does, it would mean that his identity as a "detective" has broken ties with the forces on Dess's side, which would have a very negative impact on his subsequent missions.

never mind...

Zhou Ke'er sighed almost imperceptibly, and was about to say something when she heard footsteps coming from the passageway beside her.

"Tap...tap..."

It doesn't sound heavy at all; it even seems quite lighthearted.

Is she the girl who stopped Zhou Ke'er and the others at the door earlier?

"Tch... They said things like starting the operation outside would cause problems, letting them slip away, so I insisted on bringing them into the lobby, and even scolded me, and then..."

The girl's voice came from the shadows, growing louder as she approached. It sounded like a complaint and a mockery, "So you've managed to escape with them looking disheveled? Oh... it seems like two people are missing? You went through all that trouble to take down two?"

Two? Didn't only one, Priti, escape?

Zhou Ke'er was taken aback when she heard this, then suddenly realized... there was also a Stern who was frozen in place and unable to move!

Wait a minute, didn't Shi go to rescue that guy before?

Zhou Ke'er glanced at Shi Shi with a puzzled look.

"Oh dear, I forgot..."

Ms. Shi smiled sheepishly and stuck out her tongue, saying, "I slipped out as soon as I saw the door open and completely forgot about that guy."

"..."

Zhou Ke'er didn't know what to say.

Well, whatever, it doesn't really matter whether that guy is there or not.

"No, one ran away, and we left the other one there ourselves."

Shi coughed twice, turned to the girl and explained in a serious tone, "So, strictly speaking, Dais just tried his best... ah, he didn't even try his best, he just inexplicably wasted all his sanity points, and in the end he had to rely on us to escape, like this."

"What do you mean 'we'?! So what exactly did you do?!" Jin Yi thought to himself, completely forgetting that he was the one who actually did nothing and just coasted along the whole time.

"That doesn't mean I accomplished nothing. At least I managed to find out who the detective was."

Dais adjusted his hat with a slightly embarrassed expression and turned his head away.

"Tch... Someone with your skill level actually dares to say they'll carry me through the 'Dense Fog' difficulty dungeon... Even though we were randomly assigned to such an advantageous position, you still managed to mess it up like this..."

The girl pouted, showing no sign of panic even when facing Zhou Ke'er and her group of four, as if she were completely fearless. "Alright, then, which detective is it?"

"It is I."

Zhou Ke'er took off her hat and gave a slight bow.