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

So he simply imbued his hands with evil energy, grabbed the lower half of the long skirt, and tore it open, turning it into a short skirt.

At the same time, the monster reacted. With a few "poof" sounds, several holes were torn in the back of his clothes, and then several whip-like things with barbs shot out from his back and stabbed fiercely at Zhou Ke'er.

Sure enough, judging from the sheer amount of evil energy, this monster was only of this level; it would be something that Sion could kill with a single sword strike.

Therefore, rushing straight into the boss's lair at the start is not a good idea.

Zhou Ke'er neither dodged nor flinched, but continued to hold onto the guy's collar. Then, she turned around, swung her hand sharply, and pulled him by the collar, making him spin halfway through the air before slamming him hard to the ground.

In this way, the spikes from the long whips on his back pierced directly into his own body.

Zhou Ke'er stepped on the monster's head, immobilizing it for a moment, and waved to Nosa not far away, "Get a fire going, burn this thing. Don't leave the corpse, it'll spread the infection."

After saying that, he secretly absorbed the evil energy from the monster's body to avoid any subsequent trouble.

"Should we just burn it? Don't we need to interrogate him about how he ended up like this?"

Nosa walked over quickly, frowning slightly as she looked at the inhuman monster on the ground. Even though Zhou Ke'er had subdued it, its body was still undergoing constant changes under the influence of the evil.

This is why Zhou Ke'er took action to eliminate this guy before it was fully transformed. Otherwise, even if Zhou Ke'er could easily eliminate it after it had transformed, it would be hard to say whether it would affect others.

"There's no need. Someone infected to this extent is no longer able to communicate. You won't get any information out of them."

Zhou Ke'er shook her head, watching as Nuosha burned the monster to a crisp.

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654. The Evil Spreads

"call..."

Seeing the monster turn to charcoal, the man who had stood in front of the Lannisters, the eldest son of the Timius family, finally breathed a sigh of relief, heavily slamming his sword on the ground to support himself.

Lannister clutched his wound, glanced at his brother in front of him, and then at Zhou Ke'er, who was covered in blood and looked even more eerie. He seemed to want to say something, but ultimately did not speak.

Zhou Ke'er stared with her double pupils, coldly scanning everyone present, and frowned slightly as she said, "Anyone who had contact with this monster just now, if you don't want to end up like this, step forward now."

He couldn't sense any evil from these people in front of him, which was highly illogical. Even if they were lucky, there should have been some trace of evil emanating from them, but they were completely clean—the evil must have somehow managed to deceive Zhou Ke'er's eyes.

Before long, several people stepped forward tremblingly. However, they were all nobles of some standing, and even at this moment, they maintained their composure and did not show any signs of distress. They did not cling to Zhou Ke'er's leg and beg for her to save their lives. They just looked really bad.

Zhou Ke'er glanced at the group of people, but helplessly discovered that they really didn't have any evil presence—or rather, she couldn't detect any evil presence in them.

At this moment, one of the noblewomen pursed her lips and asked, "May I ask who you are? Viscount Zaire... no, what about this monster? You seem to know a lot about this situation."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Ke'er glanced at Nuosha beside her.

Nosa immediately understood, coughed twice, and answered for Zhou Ke'er: "Information about this situation is confidential, so please don't spread today's events. But don't worry, we have already begun to resolve this situation. Miss Memoride is the expert Duke Timius specially invited to solve this problem, and I believe that with her help, this situation will not happen again."

After Nosa finished speaking, Duke Timius also spoke in a deep voice: "I didn't expect such a thing to happen at the banquet. It was my oversight. It seems that today's banquet will have to be postponed. I sincerely apologize to everyone. However, I also hope that you will not mention this matter to others after you go back, otherwise it may cause unnecessary trouble."

Zhou Ke'er leaned close to Nosa's ear and whispered, "You're being too confident. I'm just a refugee who had to flee my country because of this situation. I don't have the confidence to guarantee that I can solve the problem here. I'm even ready to run away. It's not safe here anymore."

Norsha replied in a similarly low voice, as if it were a matter of course: "I didn't force you to do that. I'm just using your non-existent name to put their minds at ease for now."

Soon, with the help of the servants of the Timius manor, the banquet, which lasted for less than two hours, came to an abrupt end. At this time, only Duke Timius, the Lannister brothers, Lord Norza, Zhou Ke'er, and the charred corpse on the ground were left in the banquet hall. The other servants also avoided the place.

“Thank you for saving me, Miss Memoride. Let me reintroduce myself. My name is Isaac Timius, and I am the Lannister’s brother.”

Isaac had almost recovered by now. He had just been too nervous and exhausted, and had not actually suffered much damage.

Zhou Ke'er nodded to him indifferently, but then frowned and looked at the charred corpse on the ground—she hadn't noticed it during the fight, but thinking about it afterwards, there was indeed something fishy about it.

The amount of evil energy that this guy just revealed... was far too small, so small that it was even within the range of evil energy that a normal human body could contain. Logically speaking, even if there were some evil energy of that level in the body, it shouldn't cause any distortion.

"Is there anything else wrong with this body?"

Seeing Zhou Ke'er frowning, Nosa squatted down and carefully examined the charred corpse on the ground, but naturally he couldn't see anything.

Zhou Ke'er shook her head: "It's not that there's anything wrong with the corpse—it's just that this situation contradicts the conclusions I've drawn from my past experience."

"What conclusion?"

Nosa pressed for an answer.

Zhou Ke'er glanced at the others and, seeing that Duke Timius had also nodded, explained, "This kind of evil energy, which I call the 'evil energy,' will infect the person who comes into contact with it, but it will not immediately have any effect or change on the body."

It will primarily affect your mind, such as sudden negative emotions, constant whispers in your ear, or hallucinations you fall into without realizing it.

This method uses the negative emotions and dwindling sanity of the infected as nourishment to gradually grow stronger. Generally, while individual constitutions differ, mutations only occur when the level of malevolence reaches a certain threshold—and this guy's internal evil is far from reaching that level. I suspect there's a mastermind behind it all.

"Wait, you're saying that you can get infected just by touching them?"

Isaac instantly grasped another key point in the conversation, frowned, glanced at Lannister and himself, and couldn't help but ask, "But I just saw you directly touch this monster—do you have any means to prevent or stop the infection?"

Zhou Ke'er casually gathered her loose long hair with both hands and draped it over one shoulder, replying in a flat tone, "Who told you I wasn't infected? If you walk by the river often, you're bound to get your shoes wet. I come into contact with this stuff all the time, it would be strange if I didn't get infected—besides, only people with evil spirits in their bodies can sense other evil spirits."

Upon hearing this, everyone else subconsciously widened their eyes slightly. Although Nosa and Duke Timius had already anticipated this when they learned about the supernatural situation, they were still somewhat shocked to see Zhou Ke'er say it so calmly.

"Then how did you..."

Isaac instinctively wanted to ask more questions, but he realized halfway through and quickly stopped talking.

However, Zhou Ke'er didn't show anything. Instead, she said nonchalantly, "Then why haven't I turned into this kind of monster yet? It's very simple. The answer is in what I just said—as long as your will is strong enough and you don't give the evil in your body a chance to grow, you can delay the time of mutation as much as possible."

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655. The Spread of Evil (Part Two)

Although Zhou Ke'er doesn't consider herself a person with a strong will, the reason she was able to contain so many evil entities within her body without becoming distorted was simply due to a stroke of luck. However, it is true that a strong will can slightly delay the erosion by evil entities.

"The most urgent task is to find out exactly how this guy got infected with the evil. First, check if he has encountered anyone from the Duchy of Dragon recently... Oh, and by the way, check if anyone from the Duchy of Dragon has infiltrated the entire capital."

Zhou Ke'er changed the subject, then noticed the others' gazes and instantly understood what they meant. She rolled her eyes and said, "Don't look at me. The evil in my body won't spread for now—unless I also become deformed into this grotesque state, you can rest assured. Instead of worrying about that, you should worry about how to clean up this corpse. If you're not careful, the evil remaining on the corpse might also cause infection."

Duke Timius frowned and pondered for a moment before saying, "There's no time to lose, Lord Norza. Please help me with the affairs of the Timius residence. I'll go and report this to His Majesty now... As for Miss Memoride, I solemnly request that you temporarily serve as my sons' guards. As for the payment, we can discuss it."

“No problem—but in the worst-case scenario, if this place falls like the Duchy of Dragon, then money will be useless. I hope the reward isn’t money.”