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

Dio couldn't help but shudder—this girl was greedy and always looking for something better, a total scumbag! He immediately took two steps back, but then remembered that he was Dio, how could he be scared by such a little bread? So he put his hands on his hips, looking like he wasn't afraid of her, and took two more steps forward aggressively, his golden hair sticking up on his head.

Luo Yeer felt Zhou Ke'er pat her head, and couldn't help but blush slightly—after all, less than a day ago, she found Zhou Ke'er annoying and wanted her to get lost, but now her attitude had completely reversed, and she felt a little embarrassed.

So she quickly pulled her hand away, coughed awkwardly twice, and stepped back, glancing discreetly to the side as if discussing official business: "Ahem, there's no time for this now. Our current location is not safe; it's not a suitable place to camp. We need to move quickly."

"Ah, okay... But what's Dior doing here? Do you know him?"

Zhou Ke'er nodded, then pretended to be very puzzled and pointed to Dior, who was standing to the side with his hands on his hips.

Loyer paused for a moment, glanced at Dio, hesitated slightly, and then replied, "It's like this, this Miss Dio must be an old acquaintance of yours, right? She heard that you came to the Demon Realm on behalf of the human alliance with the intention of forming an alliance, but were hunted down and exiled to the Land of Exile. She also heard the news that we led our troops away from the Land of Exile, so she guessed that you might be here with us, and that's why she came here to find you."

If Zhou Ke'er hadn't been awake and listened to the whole thing, and hadn't known that the whole story was a lie, she might have actually believed it.

However, Loyer was probably worried that if Zhou Ke'er knew Dio's original purpose, it might cause a conflict, so he simply came up with a fake excuse.

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601. Enemies of the whole world

"What nonsense is this little bread spouting?"

Dio frowned, completely bewildered by Loyer's long speech. How could she be unaware of something she herself had experienced? He couldn't help but mentally say to Zhou Ke'er, "This is all nonsense! How come I didn't know I'd done something like this?"

Zhou Ke'er nodded to Luo Ye'er with a look of sudden realization, while simultaneously asking Dio, "That's not important—by the way, I remember you just said that the demons in the Demon Realm now have more than just magical energy in their bodies, right? Are you sure—that's all of them?"

Dio gave Zhou Ke'er a strange look, nodded, and answered in his mind: "Of course, it's not just magical energy that I can sense—but as for whether it's all of them, I can't be sure. At least, every demon I've seen in the past two days has been like that."

Zhou Ke'er clicked her tongue inwardly. Although she didn't know whether those demons had voluntarily or been forced to accept the evil's entry into their bodies, or whether they had been corrupted without their knowledge, none of that mattered anymore. The key point now was that, apart from Loyal's army, there shouldn't be any other allies in the Demon Realm.

Tsk, what can such a small number of demons do? They're utterly useless.

The only thing to do is quickly end this pointless journey and, after leaving the Demon Realm, try to find the legendary dragon's lair or the elven forest, or other habitats of legendary creatures. Although those creatures might not be willing to ally with humans, they should still take some action after learning about this.

Originally, I wanted to wait until half a month later, when it would be the easiest time to break out. In the meantime, I could send demons to the demon realm to persuade those who were still loyal to the former demon king to come and join me, thus strengthening my forces... But now it seems there is no need to delay any longer.

Just then, Loyer continued, "However, there's bad news... we've only been camping here a short time, and our location has already been exposed. We need to leave immediately and find another safe place."

Zhou Ke'er, however, appeared unusually serious, shaking her head and forcing a serious expression: "There is no safe place for us in the Demon Realm anymore. We encountered an ambush as soon as we left the Land of Exile, which made me suspicious. Now that you say our camp has been exposed—our camp must have a concealment array in effect, but it was still exposed, which can only be because there is a demon that this array cannot deal with—this makes me even more certain of one thing: it is very likely that all the demons in the Demon Realm, or at least a large part of them, have been corrupted by that evil energy."

Although Luo Ye'er was surprised by Zhou Ke'er's sudden seriousness, she remembered that Zhou Ke'er was, after all, an envoy sent by the Human Alliance, and it was only natural for her to have such insight at this critical moment. So she quickly recovered and tried to ask, "So you mean..."

"There's no time to wait any longer. Let's seize this opportunity and launch a surprise attack on the spatial rift. We should try to escape as many demons as possible to the Central Continent. Staying in the Demon Realm might result in our total annihilation."

Zhou Ke'er nodded firmly: "That small ambush force, far fewer in number than us, almost wiped us out. I can't pull off that again..."

Upon hearing this, Luo Ye'er nodded hurriedly. Zhou Ke'er almost died on the spot during her last visit. If she were forced to go through it again now, she would truly perish, body and soul. She dared not take that risk. Although Zhou Ke'er was awake now, Luo Ye'er was still very worried about her physical condition.

Dio, however, looked completely bewildered: "What do you mean? What do you mean? What's the Middle Continent... Wait, the Bounty Guild still owes me a mission reward, and I'm penniless right now. If I leave like this, I'll be sleeping on the streets! -- Wait a minute, you guys invited me to come with you, right? Right?"

Zhou Ke'er blinked innocently: "Huh? No."

Why did I invite you?

Dio's eyes widened upon hearing this, and his blond hair bristled with anger again: "What?! You damned little bread?! I rushed here to find you as soon as I heard about your situation!"

Zhou Ke'er almost burst out laughing. Dio was really getting into character, actually taking Loyer's ridiculous excuse seriously. He waved his hand and explained with a grin, "Hey, just kidding. We can't leave out our Lord Dio, can we?"

Dio crossed his arms, turned his head away, and huffed, "Hmph, at least you have some conscience. But—I, Lord Dio, am not some nobody who'll agree to just any invitation! You ill-mannered little bread, if you want to invite me, you should be begging in a gesture of utter worship..."

Zhou Ke'er squinted, her face displaying the classic flamingo-like expression: "Ah, never mind then..."

But before Zhou Ke'er could finish speaking, Dior immediately changed his tune, saying, "However! Since we're such good friends, I'll grant you, little bread, the right to invite me!"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Ke'er immediately changed her expression, putting on a grateful face and saying profusely, "Oh dear, thank you so much, Lord Dior, for giving us this face. It's an honor!"

For some reason, the smile on Loyer's face gradually froze.

She had originally wanted to talk to Zhou Ke'er about many things, besides the official business they had just discussed.

But... Zhou Ke'er waking up safe and sound should be a good thing, and she even ran into an old friend, and the two are chatting so happily now, which should be an even better thing...

Even though Luo Ye'er felt she should be happy for Zhou Ke'er, but...

Why do I always feel a sense of emptiness inside, as if something important has been taken away?

Watching Zhou Ke'er and Dior laughing and joking, Luo Ye'er suddenly felt as if she were suddenly very far away from them.

Loyer thought about it carefully, and then she seemed to understand something: only "Memoride" in the world regarded her as "Loyer" rather than Princess, but she was not the only one who had a close relationship with "Memoride".

Moreover, Memoride is an envoy from the Human Alliance of the Middle Continent, so she will surely have many more friends there...

When Loyer thought about this, she felt a tightness in her chest, and the thought involuntarily popped into her mind: "Isn't this too unfair? Although she has so many friends, she is not indispensable to those friends, is she?"

—But…to me, she's the only one! Then why can't they give her to me? No, not give her…she should be mine alone!

"She was the one who wanted to be friends with me, she was the one who barged into my world, right? She should take responsibility! Since I only have her, shouldn't she only have me too?!"

Zhou Ke'er shivered inexplicably, feeling a chill for some reason. She glanced around curiously—was someone plotting against her?

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602. Zhou Ke'er: Damn it! I'm just an ordinary person!

Just then, Oz hurriedly pushed open the tent again, casually unfolded a map that looked like parchment, pointed to a few places on it and said, "Your Highness, I have ordered them to pack up their tents immediately and prepare to move—we now have several backup camps left to us by the Demon King. I wonder which one Your Highness thinks would be better to choose?"

Luo Ye'er snapped out of his reverie, pondered for a moment with a cold expression, glanced at Zhou Ke'er beside him, and then made up his mind: "No, we won't go to any of these places. We'll take this opportunity to launch a surprise attack on the garrison at the spatial rift and head to the Central Continent to form an alliance with the human alliance."

Oz's expression changed upon hearing this. After a moment's thought, he frowned and replied, "The plan itself isn't too problematic, but Your Highness, have you considered that even if we manage to break through and reach the Middle Continent, our forces will be nearly depleted by then? What will we use to 'ally' with the Human Alliance instead of surrendering?"

Loyer stared blankly at Oz for a moment, then shook his head and said, "Why do you all value this title so much? You're not as good at assessing the situation as I am. Even if we don't suffer any casualties, with our small force, we can't really be considered an alliance. We'd be lucky to escape the Demon Realm alive right now, so why are you thinking about these unrealistic things?"

Zhou Ke'er was secretly quite surprised. Loyer's insight was quite clear. With this demon army of less than a thousand demons, at most a few high-ranking demons were worth recruiting, but that was all. She had never seen a force with only a few hundred soldiers that could form an alliance with the entire human coalition. If it were a few hundred demons of Oz's caliber, then there might be a tiny chance.

After all... Zhou Ke'er remembered very clearly that the hero Xion, who died before, had said that killing high-ranking demons, and even demon lords, was an easy thing for him.

While the Holy Sword certainly provides an advantage, and the heroes' strength far surpasses that of ordinary people, it also shows that the strength of a mere high-ranking demon is nothing in the eyes of the human alliance—there are a bunch of heroes there, and even if they are not as strong as Sion, they are not much different.

To be honest, Zhou Ke'er's purpose in coming to the Demon Realm to discuss an alliance had already failed. The small number of demons in Loyer's army was merely an add-on. Moreover, most of the demons in the entire Demon Realm had already been corrupted by evil, which was truly the worst-case scenario.

Moreover, the Demon Realm is likely not the only example. Those evil beings entered the game much earlier than Zhou Ke'er and her group. Even if Zhou Ke'er wanted to start a plan now, she wouldn't know where to begin—if only she had the planning and strategizing abilities of Colonel Chu.

If I had a Party Teacher Experience Card, that would be fine too.

Zhou Ke'er was once again convinced that she was just an ordinary person.

I wonder what's going on with Honghe now. Although that guy is a deadpan character and can't use memes as quickly as Zhou Ke'er, he is indeed a bit smarter than Zhou Ke'er.

As Zhou Ke'er was lost in thought, Dio suddenly crept up to her and whispered in her ear, "Hey, are you lying or not? Give me a heads-up first, I don't want to go with them and then be mistaken for a demon and captured by the human alliance—you're not planning something like that, are you?"

"You're overthinking it—in this situation, only someone with a brain idiot would still be thinking about internal strife, right? The odds of winning are already slim, and if we add more internal strife... isn't that just courting death? A few hundred soldiers are still soldiers, and a single spark can start a prairie fire, you know?"

Zhou Ke'er pursed her lips, didn't speak, but answered in her mind.

On the other side, after hearing Loyer's rather rebellious words, Oz instinctively wanted to refute them, but couldn't say anything. There was no way around it; what Loyer said was true, and their strength was indeed too weak.

To be honest, those few high-ranking demons in the army aren't even a match for Zhou Ke'er. He was worried his disguise might be discovered, so he exposed himself prematurely—but it seems that wasn't necessary at all.

There is no demon here whose strength is high enough to see through Zhou Ke'er's disguise.

Well, there's no point in talking about this now. At least it has its advantages—from then on, Zhou Ke'er only needed to wear a horn on her head as a token gesture, and she didn't need to disguise herself with goat hooves or anything like that, which was indeed much more convenient.

Looking at the speechless Oz, Loyer inexplicably felt a surge of power. He narrowed his eyes, glanced at Oz, and said coldly, "We only have two paths now: either go or die. Unless you can resurrect my father, I can't think of any other way—but this is my way of leadership: my wisdom is inferior to my father's, and I cannot come up with a more perfect plan, so I can only win by one thing, and that is decisiveness!"

After saying that, Loyer remained silent for a while. Seeing that no one responded, he added a short sentence: "Without decisiveness, the only result will be death!"

"Here!"

Oz seemed to see the former Demon King standing in front of him in a daze, and subconsciously straightened up and answered.

"Why aren't you going yet? It's a journey of about a day and a half from here to the spatial rift. If you don't set off soon, you might get stuck on the way."

Loyer immediately waved his hand and said.

Oz nodded quickly in agreement and left without the slightest hesitation.

Zhou Ke'er, standing to the side, was slightly curious—it only takes a day and a half to get from here to the spatial rift? Then what was the reason that the hero Swold said that the round trip would take nearly ten days just for travel time?

"How long is it from here to the Demon King's Castle? How long does it take to get from the Demon King's Castle to the spatial rift?"

Zhou Ke'er couldn't help but ask.

Loyer turned to look at Zhou Ke'er, his expression softening. He cleared his throat and replied gently, "It takes about five or six days to get here from the Demon King's City—three days if we march or fly with the entire army. And if we go to the spatial rift, it will take about three or four days."

Zhou Ke'er nodded in realization. It turned out that Swold had calculated the time it would take to travel from the spatial rift to the Demon King's Castle. She hadn't expected that this place was actually so close to the spatial rift.

Could it be that the spatial rift leading to the Central Continent and the spatial rift leading to the Land of Exile are somehow related, which is why they are relatively close?

However, after a day and a half, I guess the other players should be able to log into the game by now, right?

It's just unclear what help those players will provide—if there are players who can act as strategists, that would be fine, but in terms of strength... apart from those who were summoned into the game in advance, the other players will probably just be used as cannon fodder, and a large portion of them may not even be as strong as Izumi, a commoner in the capital.

In situations where there is a huge power imbalance, no matter how many ants gather, it will be of no use.

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603. Surprise attack! Surprise attack!

The rest of the journey was rather uneventful, with nothing particularly noteworthy happening.

Since they were on a forced march, and Zhou Ke'er herself wanted to leave the Demon Realm as soon as possible, they didn't cause any trouble that would slow down the march.

Moreover, the Demon King's army, which had almost instantly located Loyer's forces, for some reason made no attempt to stop them. In short, Loyer's forces made their way to the location of the spatial rift without any incident or hindrance.

However, Zhou Ke'er always felt that Luo Ye'er gave her a strange feeling, and she didn't know if it was just her imagination. It seemed that Luo Ye'er was targeting Dio, but not completely. In short, when Zhou Ke'er was not around, the atmosphere between them seemed to be quite harmonious. But as soon as Zhou Ke'er appeared, Luo Ye'er started trying to drive Dio away.

It's inexplicable.

Could it be that Loyer thinks Dio is a vampire and is worried that she might not be able to resist drinking Zhou Ke'er's blood when they're together? Ha, how could that be?

Zhou Ke'er didn't care too much.

Because he is now lying in bed—Loyer's bed—as if it were perfectly natural.

After traveling all day, we were still some distance from the spatial rift, so we naturally had to set up camp and rest for the night to recharge before making any further plans.

After setting up camp, there wasn't any extra space for Zhou Ke'er to sleep—last night he pretended to faint and managed to sleep in Luo Ye'er's bed all night, even Luo Ye'er herself didn't get to sleep in the bed—so isn't it only natural for him to continue sleeping here today?

So when it was time to sleep, Zhou Ke'er would very consciously pounce on the bed and roll around comfortably.

As for where Luo Ye'er sleeps... what does that have to do with him? Anyway, nothing can happen in this game, and even if something could happen... given Zhou Ke'er's current situation, does she expect her to go and make love with Luo Ye'er? Enough already.

Zhou Ke'er isn't that desperate—to use female transformation as an excuse to have lesbian relationships with other girls? Isn't she just a perverted man in disguise trying to hook up? Pah! Shameless!

Luo Ye'er sat on the edge of the bed, glancing at Zhou Ke'er with a strange glint in his eyes.

Seeing Zhou Ke'er's matter-of-fact attitude, and even after seeing her sit on the edge of the bed without any intention of moving, she couldn't help but swallow hard, thinking to herself, "Since Mei Moride lay down on my bed so naturally, that means she also wants to sleep with me, right?... I didn't force her to do this, she invited me... Yes, she invited me to do this!"

Just then, with a "whoosh," the curtains were suddenly flung open, and Dio strode in, hands on his hips, angrily saying, "You damned little bread! I, Lord Dio, have at least given you important information! And now you haven't even prepared a bed for me to sleep in! This is too much!"