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

It looked like something had been thrown out from inside, smashing the window.

Zhou Ke'er quickly scanned the ground there, but didn't find anything.

Just then, a series of clanging sounds came from inside the manor, as if something had been smashed to the ground, and then a figure jumped out from the broken window.

"Cough cough..."

The man coughed awkwardly twice and stood up from the ground.

Zhou Ke'er and the others hid in the shadows and secretly watched over there, discovering that the guy was Pride, who had escaped earlier.

However, her clothes now had many strangely shaped scratches, making them look tattered. There were also several wounds that looked quite serious, and blood was still gushing out.

Zhou Ke'er and Zhijiansha exchanged a subtle glance, then wondered in surprise, "What's going on... Could there be other players in this manor? And very strong ones at that? How did they manage to beat Priti like this... What happened?"

Black mist emanated from the broken window frame, swirling in the air and solidifying into a shape resembling a giant claw.

Immediately, a mass of darkness, seemingly writhing, spread out from the window, surrounded by countless rising black wisps of mist.

The moment Zhou Ke'er saw this thing, her sanity began to drop at a visible rate. Fortunately, the rate of decline slowed down when her sanity dropped below about 70%.

I imagine the Embroidered Uniform Guard and their men are in a similar situation.

Just then, Pretti quickly took off the small cross necklace that she had been wearing around her neck, held it in front of her, aimed it at the black mist, and chanted loudly at a speed beyond human limits: "In the name and power of our Lord Jesus Christ, I banish you, every unclean evil god, every dark force, every attack of hell's opponents!"

Jesus prophesied that this power could never overcome Him, for Jesus would be with Him forever, until the end of this age. The sign of the Holy Cross commands you, the power of all the mysteries of the Christian faith commands you, and the radiant Virgin Mary, Mother of God, commands you!

Be afraid! Retreat!

The long string of words ended when the black mist had only taken three steps closer to Priti.

At the same time, a faint pure white light emanated from the cross, enveloping Preti and forming a thin, barrier-like shield of light.

The part of the dark shadow illuminated by the white light seemed to be scorched, making a hissing sound and sending up smoke.

"Holy crap... what the hell is this thing?"

Zhou Ke'er was stunned for a moment upon seeing this. "If I remember correctly... is it some kind of Western sect from the old era? Catholicism? Or Christianity? Just the cross alone isn't enough to tell... but it actually managed to damage that black mist..."

Is it an ability granted by her title, or something temporarily bestowed upon her by the background of this module?

Because Priti spoke so quickly, Zhou Ke'er didn't hear it clearly at all, so she couldn't use those technical terms to understand it.

"Stab!"

The black mist suddenly lunged at Priti, crashing into the light shield with a loud scorching sound, and the light shield was shaken precariously by the impact.

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

40. Shadowy Castle (12)

Do you know... why we invited you to this so-called banquet?

A hoarse voice came from inside the broken window. Although it was somewhat distorted, it was still clear that it belonged to Tasia, the little girl who had escaped earlier.

"Priest... really... just give me a little more time, and my mission would be complete! I was so close, why did you come back at such a crucial moment!"

Pride clutched the wound on her lower abdomen and complained helplessly, "Besides... according to the information I have, you should have killed someone as a sacrifice before you could summon this monster..."

"It was indeed a sacrifice, but I didn't kill anyone. To be precise, it should be said that you were the ones who did it."

Tasia slowly climbed out of the window, not in a hurry at all, as if she had everything under control. She said unhurriedly, "Remember the man you threw into the burning hall? When I got there, he was already dead. In fact, he was completely charred, so we just used him as a sacrifice."

"!"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Ke'er turned around and glanced at Shi Shi.

"Hmm...hehehe?"

Mr. Shi scratched his head sheepishly.

Speaking of which... when Tasia escaped, the fire in the hall should have been quite large, yet she was still able to go in, find Steon's body unharmed, and complete the ritual... It just doesn't seem right...

"Hey, what are you guys doing here? Did something happen up ahead?"

Just then, a voice suddenly came from behind Zhou Ke'er and the others, and it was completely loud, so that Pridi could hear it too.

"???"

Zhou Ke'er and the others subconsciously turned their heads away.

It's that guy who was scared away by Zhou Ke'er before.

He actually dared to come?!

Are you getting cocky, or has Zhou Ke'er lost her grip on the stick?

Zhou Ke'er subconsciously raised her cane. The bloodstains on the tip of the cane from beating Dai Si had not yet been wiped clean, and the faint moonlight, shining through the bloodstains, appeared dim and gloomy under the refraction of the ruby.

"Who goes there!"

Upon hearing the noise coming from Zhou Ke'er's side, Priti asked without hesitation.

"..."

Zhou Ke'er stared at the guy who suddenly appeared, and couldn't help herself. She pounced on him and kicked him to the ground.

The guy never expected Zhou Ke'er to make a move out of the blue, and before he could react, he was kicked to the ground.

"Are you still going to cause trouble? Are you still going to give it to me? Are you trying to make a mess of things? Do you want to die? Do you?"

Zhou Ke'er straddled the guy, waving her cane wildly and slapping it across his face, muttering, "It's you again! It's you again! You're all talk and no action. Why don't you go find a quiet corner and grow mushrooms instead of making a scene here?"

"Stop hitting me! Stop hitting me! I'm going to die if you keep hitting me!"

Zhijiansha paused for a few seconds, then quickly stepped in to mediate the fight.

"...It's you!"

Tasia naturally noticed the situation here. Seeing Zhou Ke'er beating that guy up, she immediately thought of the tragic scene of Dais being beaten to death.

"Damn it! You dare show your face in front of me again! You're dead!"

As the saying goes, enemies are especially hostile when they meet. Tasia immediately abandoned Priti, who was about to be killed, and commanded the summoned monster to rush towards Zhou Ke'er.

Although Zhou Ke'er was focused on beating that guy, she noticed Tasia's movements immediately. She rolled to the side without hesitation, grabbed the guy's collar, and pulled him in front of her.

"Come, come, sir, please introduce yourself to this monster friend. Oh, right... your background identity in this module. Maybe if this monster recognizes you, it will go easy on you."

Zhou Ke'er stood up, grabbed the guy's neck with one hand, and pressed the sharp tip of her cane against his carotid artery with the other. Looking at the monster charging towards her, she slowly spoke to the guy.

"I...my identity is..."

The man's face was covered in blood, and his eyes were swollen shut. He swallowed nervously, staring at the approaching monster, and stammered, "I am Grassis, I told you from the beginning! I didn't lie to you, I really am Grassis!"

"You're Grassis?!"

Zhou Ke'er was stunned upon hearing this. She quickly pulled the guy back and backed away to create distance from the monster, and gestured to Zhijiansha and the others to help block it. "Then why didn't you try to take my identity in the first place? Instead, you listened to me and left obediently?"

Upon hearing Grassis's words, Tasia actually managed to stop the monster, summoning it back to her side to protect her. She frowned, seemingly lost in thought.

Meanwhile, Priti, who had previously escaped death, made full use of her ability to minimize her presence. When no one was paying attention, she quietly crept up behind Tasia, looking like she was waiting for her chance to strike.

"I...I just think what you said makes a lot of sense! And since you're so confident that you can provide some detailed information to support your claim, while the background information I have doesn't include that, then I have no choice but to leave obediently!"

Grassis looked aggrieved—although his face was covered in blood and deformed from Zhou Ke'er's beating—but you could see the "grievance" in his eyes as he answered.

"...Then what do you know? Since you are Grassis, you can't possibly know nothing, right? Tell me what you know about Grassis's past, and I'll see if that's true."

Zhou Ke'er was speechless for a moment, and after a two-second silence, she continued to ask.

Although Zhou Ke'er was indeed too hasty, her intentions in those few words were too obvious. Any normal person could tell that Zhou Ke'er wanted to know information about this. If it were someone with a scheming mind, they would probably use this as leverage to try and save themselves.

Of course, if Zhou Ke'er encountered such a situation, she would take direct action. Since the other party wasn't cooperating, there was no need to argue further. If they weren't cooperating from the beginning when they were being forced, they wouldn't cooperate later, and might even cause trouble.

"Um...right! Grassis's purpose in coming here!"

However, the player playing Grassis, under Zhou Ke'er's coercion, was too frightened to pay attention to anything else and hurriedly replied:

"Some time ago, Grassis secretly told Dess about a sinister sacrificial ritual through some channel, and deceived him by saying that the ritual could resurrect the dead by sacrificing the living... But in fact, the real purpose of this ritual is to prolong the life of the sacrificed person!"

This ritual must be performed five times to transform the sacrificed person into an immortal being! Grassis has been involved in this ritual since he was very young, and he personally sacrificed his classmates from the same school building as human offerings!

Grassis came here this time to use Dess's help to complete the final sacrificial ritual and achieve the ultimate transformation!

[Information: Grassis's Past - Part 3 - Collected]

[Completion Progress: 30%/100%]

[Information: Grassis's Past - Part 9 - Collected]

[Completion Progress: 40%/100%]

As soon as Grassis finished speaking, a system notification sounded.

As expected, only information spoken by the person involved can be considered valid! The matter that Grassis just mentioned about using other students in a school building as sacrifices was also mentioned by Jin Yi before, and it should refer to the same thing.

Furthermore, based on the suffixes in this task... this information should be arranged chronologically. For example, the initial information about Grassis being adopted by the Dess family is indexed as 1, and what follows is what happened after he entered the boarding school, which is indexed as 3...

Following this line of reasoning, the most recent incident was the secret giving of this ritual to Des. However, this incident is indexed as 9, while based on the progress, there should be a total of ten pieces of information.

Grassis knew even the ninth one, so there's no reason he wouldn't know the tenth one...

But he didn't say, which means... it's obvious he's hiding something!

Zhou Ke'er's eyes narrowed. Since this guy wasn't being honest, pretending to cooperate while hiding something... then she had no choice but to...

"Pfft"

A soft sound.

Grassis's eyes widened, seemingly completely unprepared for this outcome, and blood kept spilling from his mouth.

It turned out that Zhou Ke'er had taken matters into her own hands, forcefully stabbing the sharp end of her cane into Grassis's side of the neck, almost severing his carotid artery. Warm blood splattered out, spraying continuously.

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

41. The Shadowy Castle (Thirteen)

"Uh uh...cough..."

Grassis clutched the wound on his neck with both hands, turning to look at Zhou Ke'er in disbelief, completely baffled as to why Zhou Ke'er had suddenly attacked.

Zhou Ke'er casually flicked the bloodstains off her cane—speaking of which, this cane is really useful! It's already secured a double kill; no wonder it cost so many sanity points to buy!

Although Grassis claims to have completed four sacrificial rituals and only one more is needed to become an immortal being... he still seems no different from an ordinary person; he would still die if his major artery was cut.

"Why...uh..."