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

Damn it... what is it...?

Zhou Ke'er suddenly felt the control she was under loosen, and the violently trembling shadow behind her quickly returned to normal.

You have killed the character "Death" and obtained the story item "Death's Diary II".

As the system notification sound faded, a small notebook with an exquisite cover, seemingly well-preserved, appeared before Zhou Ke'er's eyes and slowly fell to the ground.

So it seems... Descartes is indeed dead, completely dead. After all, even the system has confirmed it.

Zhou Ke'er picked up the booklet, slowly stood up, and turned to look at Zhijiansha and the others.

The moment she turned her face towards them, Zhou Ke'er suddenly put on a smiling face, scratching her head sheepishly, "Oh dear, I'm so sorry...did I scare you? I just thought this would make me look more imposing, after all, normal people are afraid of mentally ill people!"

Upon seeing this, Jin Yi and Shi Shi, regardless of whether Zhou Ke'er's words were true or false, breathed a sigh of relief.

Finger Sand pointed to the small notebook in Zhou Ke'er's hand, "That's...something that just suddenly appeared? What is it?"

"Oh, you killed a monster and got some items."

Zhou Ke'er casually explained, "It seems that in this module, killing a character will grant you an item related to that character... something like that. This is one of Dais's diaries. The system description also seems to have some kind of ancient script... I can't quite remember it right now, but it should be something I recognize. I'll think about it later."

As Zhou Ke'er answered, she opened her diary and flipped through it.

Seriously... who keeps a diary?! And this is just diary number two, are there many more?!

While thinking this to herself, Zhou Ke'er waved to Zhijiansha and the others to come and watch together.

February 28, 1863, cloudy

Another new diary! I really should write the year at the beginning, so it looks like I'm recording some major event!

However, something quite significant happened today. My father adopted a child who is only about five or six years old, seemingly because of some things from the past... but I'm not entirely sure.

My father renamed him Gray, and I don't think it's a very good name... But I think I'll be a good older brother."

March 15th, cloudy

Ah! I finally found you! It would have been such a shame to throw it away after only writing the first page. Luckily, I found the maid who cleans the room.

A lot has happened lately, but thankfully, everything is moving in a positive direction. However, I still feel something's off about Gray... although he's very polite and well-behaved, I really can't find a single fault with him...

My father said I was jealous, well... I admit, maybe a little bit... but, a five or six-year-old child..."

March 16th, cloudy

Oh no! This is terrible! I forgot to put my diary away after writing it last night, and it's just lying on the table!

Gray saw me this morning when he came in to wake me up... Oh no! Even though he didn't say anything or tell my father... but I just feel... Ugh, how could this happen! This is awful!

"March 20 is sunny

I've talked to Gray these past few days. Although he's still a child, he's definitely a good person. I previously mistakenly thought he had something wrong with him...

I heard he's going to be sent to a boarding school in a few days, and I guess I won't see him again... I feel a little sad about it.

After all, if he leaves, I'll have to go play with my little brother again... Honestly, I'm so old, why do I still have to play with little kids? Thanks to Gray, I've had some peace and quiet lately...

Oh, and he told me that before he was adopted by his father, his name was Grassis.

Aside from these few entries, the rest are records of Dess's own life. In addition, the notebook wasn't very big to begin with, so there were only about ten pages left at the end.

The later records might be useful for players with relevant tasks, but for Zhou Ke'er, the only useful information is in the first few pages.

[Information: Grassis's Past - Part 1 - Collected]

[Completion Progress: 20%/100%]

The system notification sounded immediately afterwards.

After Zhou Ke'er and the others finished reading the rest of the diary, they asked, "So, did you figure anything out? Did you find any useful information?"

"Um..."

Jin Yi looked up at Zhou Ke'er with a slightly annoyed expression, hesitated for a moment, and then replied, "The system notified me that a hidden mission has been triggered... which is to investigate Dai Si's true identity, and ideally, to do an exclusive interview with him... By the way, my background profession is a reporter and private investigator."

"Oh, a hidden quest! That's great, isn't it?"

Zhou Ke'er glanced at Jin Yi in surprise. She hadn't expected Jin Yi to trigger something... It seemed like everyone in this module had a corresponding hidden quest...

"That's good... but you've already killed Daisy..."

Jin Yi looked at Zhou Ke'er's "Oh, isn't this great? Congratulations!" expression and said helplessly.

Shi patted Jin Yi's shoulder sympathetically and comforted him, "Don't be sad. At least... you can still investigate Dai Si's true colors and such, so you can still complete half of your goal. Relax."

"Hmm... since it's just the few of us here, I suggest... we share our backgrounds and discuss our missions... if we can complete something together, we'll help each other; if we're at odds, we'll abandon it..."

Sand Between Fingers then spoke up: "After all, our goal this time is just to get through this module, so as long as we complete the main quest I and survive to the end... Dais is dead, so this should be quite simple. As for the others... if we can complete them, we'll consider it a bonus; if we can't... well, it's not a loss either."

"You're ruining other people's gaming experience..."

Zhou Ke'er said weakly.

"..."

Zhijiansha glanced at Zhou Ke'er with a complicated look in her eyes. "You've been deceiving other players from the very beginning, and then you even smashed their heads in the end. How dare you talk about the game experience... Besides, we were already in a team and we were still matched with this module, which means the game system approves of this kind of behavior. Look, wasn't Dais's team also in a team?"

"Hmm...that's true..."

Zhou Ke'er turned her head away guiltily.

"Alright... then, let's start with me."

Zhijiansha coughed twice and walked forward. "Let's talk as we walk. It just feels a bit strange to chat next to a burning room."

"Then why are we going in? What if the fire spreads and burns down the whole manor? What if we can't escape from inside?"

Jin Yi couldn't help but complain, "Couldn't we have said it outside the manor? Wouldn't it have been easier to survive that way?"

"Oh! That makes sense! It seems you're not just a lazy bum; you do offer some useful advice occasionally, Jin Yi!"

Zhou Ke'er patted Jin Yi's shoulder approvingly.

"...Should I say I'm happy or...?"

Jin Yi sighed, feeling powerless to even complain.

------------

39. Shadowy Castle (XI)

The edge of the dim crescent moon was outlined with a scarlet hue, and wisps of disgust rose from the side of the castle. Faint orange flames peeked out, gradually turning the dark sky red.

The night breeze wasn't biting cold; instead, it felt warm and carried a scent of ashes.

"My role is that of a lawyer, and my specific mission is to 'investigate why Daisy withdrew the case without cause.' Alas, because of Zhou Ke'er, this mission can't be completed again..."

Zhijiansha glanced at Zhou Ke'er, who looked completely at ease, sighed, looked around, and said briefly, "It's like this. In the background setting, I once served as Dais' lawyer in a case, but Dais withdrew the case before the trial began."

Although I've never met him, I wanted to find out why he did this, and then I happened to receive this invitation... Incidentally, the other party in that trial was Grassis.

"Oh?"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Ke'er became interested and quickly asked, "What kind of case is it? What's the reason?"

"Don't you already know? It's about the time you killed Daisy's brother and then tried to seize the family fortune."

Sand between the fingers answered.

"What do you mean 'by me'?! I'm not Grassis..."

Zhou Ke'er shook her head helplessly.

"Huh? Aren't you? I always thought you were just saying you weren't Grassis to fool Dais."

Upon hearing this, Zhijiansha couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.

"..."

Zhou Ke'er had no choice but to explain, "Then let me tell you about my background. I'm a detective sent by the police to investigate the 'past disappearances that happened at Days Manor.' The invitation I used to come here was obtained from a middle-class gentleman, Grassis... I reckon the police don't even know that Grassis has done so much."

And...by the way, I just triggered a hidden quest, "Investigate Grassis's Past." If you have any information about him, please let me know.

"Oh, I do know a little about that."

Jin Yi scratched his head upon hearing this, "Didn't I mention before that my background is as a journalist and private investigator? So I've collected information on some well-known cases. One of them is about Grassis... but it was an incident from over ten years ago."

In a boarding school, over a dozen students mysteriously disappeared overnight, leaving only a little boy named Gray in one of the rooms... Didn't that diary just say that Grassis was named Gray and also sent to the boarding school...? Investigating this is my assigned task, so I think..."

"It must be Grassis, right?"

Zhou Ke'er stroked her chin, but didn't hear the system notification sound... Did that mean the system didn't acknowledge the authenticity of this information? Was it because it didn't explicitly point to Grassis, or because there was no evidence...?

What Dess said earlier can serve as evidence, since he was one of the parties involved, so his words can be considered valid information... And the diary also belonged to Dess, not only because it was written by a party involved, but also because it was a paper record... so it can also be considered valid information.

While what the Imperial Guards said might be true, it was merely hearsay, and there was no evidence to prove its accuracy...

That's probably how the system makes that determination.

Huh? Wait a minute...

Thinking about this, Zhou Ke'er suddenly realized something and became puzzled: she had just forgotten or overlooked something... Dais and Grassis must know each other, right? If they do know each other... then they should have been able to tell from the beginning that Zhou Ke'er was not Grassis, but an imposter.

But... judging from the previous situation, Daisy didn't show any sign that anything was wrong.

Could it be because the background shown at the beginning of the game loading didn't mention what Grassis looked like?

That's the only explanation, right?

"So, I'm the last one left, right?"

Seeing that no one else spoke, Shi pointed to herself and said, "My identity is that of a cultist. My organization came to Daisy's manor because they learned that 'Daisy possesses some kind of ritual that can summon evil spirits,' so they stole the invitation from someone who received it and sent me here."

"Haha, summoning evil spirits? How is that possible? If he could summon evil spirits, would he have been beaten to death by Zhou Ke'er just now?"

Jin Yi couldn't help but laugh out loud.

Do you think... the game will give us impossible tasks?

Zhou Ke'er glanced at Jin Yi.

Jin Yi was stunned for a moment, and before she could say anything, she heard the sound of glass shattering from the side of the manor.

"Ok?"

Zhou Ke'er and Zhijiansha exchanged a glance, nodded, and waved for Shi Shi and Jin Yi to follow. Then they quickly and quietly headed towards the source of the sound.

Fortunately, the place where the accident happened was not far away. The group quickly arrived at a spot not far from there and saw broken glass scattered on the ground outside the manor.