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

As he spoke, he pushed open the door to the council hall. Since it was not the time for court audiences and no ministers had come to report, the hall was empty, which was just right for Zhou Ke'er and the others.

Upon hearing this, Honghe couldn't help but raise an eyebrow, glaring with her dead fish eyes, and said, "A plot to usurp the throne! Such an interesting thing and you didn't even include me? That's not very friendly of you!"

Zhou Ke'er spread her hands, looking completely innocent, and said, "You have to come first. By the way, I remember you said you were in the capital of the Duchy of Dragon a few days ago, right? Actually, I was going there too, but unfortunately, we were almost wiped out halfway there, and I was the only one who escaped death and came here."

A barely perceptible smile curved the corners of Honghe's lips. "I escaped from the capital unscathed, while you didn't even reach the capital before fleeing halfway? How pathetic!"

"So, you're pretty brave!"

Zhou Ke'er rolled her eyes: "If you're so capable, why don't you go and face Green Dragon head-on? If he spews a blast of poison gas at me, my whole team will be wiped out, okay?"

As Loyer watched Zhou Ke'er and Honghe bickering and chatting happily, something seemed to stir within him, but he still managed a forced smile and asked, "Mei Moride, did you know this young lady a long time ago?"

Zhou Ke'er didn't know why Luo Ye'er's expression was so strange. Maybe it was because he was not used to being alone in a human country?

He didn't pay too much attention, since his attention was mostly drawn to the ball of light in the sky. So he casually replied, pointing at Dio, "Yeah, I've known him longer than this guy and I. Red Crane and I have been through thick and thin together—though we basically died together."

Loyal didn't understand what "dying together" meant, so he interpreted it as supporting each other through many near-death experiences—this relationship was too deep to be trifled with!

Loyer's gaze towards the flamingo suddenly turned dangerous. Not only was her gaze dangerous, but the flamingo itself seemed to be a giant "Danger! Danger!" sign in her line of sight.

There was silence for a moment, and the atmosphere became inexplicably heavy.

Zhou Ke'er was too lazy to say anything more, and just stood by the window staring at the ball of light. It wasn't that she didn't want to crack a joke, but this thing was just too dangerous; if she wasn't careful, she could be gone in an instant.

Fortunately, Long Aotian was very quick to act, and soon he brought over a small team of people.

Judging by the time, from the appearance of the sphere of light in the sky to the gathering of everyone in the council hall, less than thirty minutes have passed, which can be described as extremely fast.

When Zhou Ke'er saw Long Aotian bring his men in, she subconsciously sized them up. She recognized most of them, such as Knight Captain Edwards, Church Priest Elon... and another very familiar one... Chris from the Hero Sion Squad!

She was the archer who escaped with Zhou Ke'er through the teleportation array in Sargus. However, she was not seen after being teleported to the capital. Unexpectedly, she appeared here.

Zhou Ke'er remembered that when he left, he told Long Aotian to try to find Chris. Unexpectedly, he actually found her. Zhou Ke'er herself thought that this guy should be dead. She didn't expect Long Aotian to be so efficient.

Chris looked up and saw Zhou Ke'er. She was surprised at first, but then felt relieved. She immediately rushed forward and hugged him, saying in a tearful voice, "Thank goodness, you're alive... After I was teleported here, I found no one around me and couldn't find you. I thought you had died there too! How could I explain that to Sion and the others!"

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614. Natural Disaster Strikes

When Chris hugged her, Zhou Ke'er was stunned for a moment. After all, in principle, their relationship wasn't that good. They had only traveled together for less than a day. If they hadn't escaped together, they would have been just strangers who met by chance.

However, Zhou Ke'er quickly realized that Chris probably couldn't see her when she was teleported over and assumed that Zhou Ke'er had also died there. Therefore, she felt guilty for not keeping her promise to protect Zhou Ke'er.

Thinking of this, Zhou Ke'er casually said a few words of comfort.

Chris's hug was brief, and she quickly let go.

When Elon first saw Zhou Ke'er appear unharmed, he wanted to go up and greet her, but when he saw that the demon Loyer was also there, he was stunned for a moment, and Chris beat him to it. Now he could only stand there awkwardly, looking at Zhou Ke'er with longing eyes.

Zhou Ke'er simply nodded to him as a greeting, then glanced at the "strongmen" she had brought with her.

Besides Edwards, whose injuries had not fully healed, Chris and Elon, there was also a middle-aged man who looked like a court swordsman, and two mages, a man and a woman, dressed in dark red and gold robes.

According to Zhou Ke'er's perception, the three people were probably not as strong as Chris and the others. They were probably just brought along with the idea that it wouldn't be a loss to protect a couple more.

The capital city is suffering from a severe shortage of talented individuals.

Zhou Ke'er blinked, then looked at the people who had been summoned, her expression serious. She said with unusual solemnity, "You may not have seen it with your own eyes, and it might be hard to believe, but in fact, the world is facing a massive catastrophe—just a short while ago, huge, jet-black pillars of light rose from various places, converging in the sky. I don't know when that sphere of light will explode, but I imagine it won't be long. Once that sphere explodes, the world will be in grave danger."

"So we need to find a way to deal with that orb of light, or protect the people in the capital?"

Seeing Zhou Ke'er pause, Chris subconsciously replied, "By the way, I can also see that ball of light—I don't know why when I asked other people just now, they all said they couldn't see it."

Zhou Ke'er gave Chris a strange look. Dealing with that ball of light... This guy's thinking is really too simple and idealistic. He's too confident in his own strength. Even if Sion were to be resurrected, he wouldn't be able to deal with this thing.

So Zhou Ke'er shook her head and said, "We can't do that, and there's no time left for us to do it. All we can do is protect ourselves and preserve our top-tier forces for later use."

As she spoke, Zhou Ke'er used her evil power to conjure a pattern resembling a magic circle in mid-air. Before anyone else could say anything, she continued, "I happen to have some minor details about that sphere of light, and I can barely create a magic circle to protect us. However, because I need to act as the energy core for this magic circle, I can only stand at the energy source and cannot move while inscribing the magic circle—the task of inscribing the magic circle will have to be left to you."

While waiting for Long Aotian to bring his people over, Zhou Ke'er finally managed to find some methods to resist the explosive invasion of evil from the knowledge about evil that she had obtained from Tavel at the beginning of the module. Although there are many other methods, this one is the most suitable for the current situation and is one of the few methods that can be done with difficulty.

The court swordsman and the two magicians, seeing how confidently Zhou Ke'er spoke, did begin to believe her – after all, people who have survived to their current level of strength are not usually reckless, and most would rather believe in danger than not, making ample preparations – they originally wanted to ask what to do with the other subjects, but when they heard Zhou Ke'er say that she was using herself as the energy core, they shut their mouths and remained silent.

They naturally know what it means to make themselves the core of the power supply. As beneficiaries, they want to force Zhou Ke'er to protect even more people... that's really going too far with their self-righteousness.

Zhou Ke'er's actions were indeed out of necessity. He didn't trust the evil forces from the outside world, but the combined evil forces on Dio, Red Crane, and Long Aotian were still less than the amount he had on himself.

Immediately, Zhou Ke'er released even more malevolent energy, which condensed in the air like a slowly flowing liquid, resembling thick black ink.

“Use this as the coating to inscribe the formation. I know you may have many questions for me, but there's no time to answer them all now. At least wait until this formation is completed, and then I will explain it in detail.”

Zhou Ke'er pointed to the strange creature floating in mid-air and said.

As Zhou Ke'er urged them on, the others gradually sensed a sense of urgency and nodded in agreement. Without saying anything more, they immediately began to inscribe the magic array pattern that Zhou Ke'er had displayed in mid-air in the council hall.

As the magic circle was gradually completed, Zhou Ke'er felt the evil energy within her body surging out like a floodgate opening, flowing continuously and without ceasing. At this rate of consumption, even if Long Aotian, who had the most evil energy among the remaining three players, tried, he would probably only be able to last for less than half an hour at most. And that would already be considered quite resilient.

Fortunately, the excessive power output was only during the inscription of the magic circle. After everyone finished inscribing the magic circle, the output power of the evil entity decreased and leveled off.

Unfortunately, the maximum range of the magic array that Zhou Ke'er could maintain was only less than half of this council hall, which was equivalent to setting up a tortoise-shell-like protective shield in this small area.

The sphere of light in the sky seemed to have deliberately given the players time to prepare; it didn't begin to vibrate violently until exactly one hour after it had coalesced into a sphere.

However, this time was not long. Even though Zhou Ke'er and the others tried their best to speed up, they only managed to complete the magic array shortly before the light sphere underwent an anomaly.

As the ball of light trembled and twisted violently, the entire mass of evil energy gradually lost its shape, as if it were about to explode like fireworks.

Zhou Ke'er's eyes narrowed—it's coming!

Immediately following was a violent roar, which could be heard even by those who could not see the sphere of light. A wave of sound, emanating from the shattered sphere of light, instantly spread throughout the entire central continent.

The magic circle that Zhou Ke'er was struggling to maintain was hit hard, and a loud cracking sound rang out. But in the end, with Zhou Ke'er increasing her evil output, she managed to protect everyone.

At the same time, system notification sounds began to play...

[Storyline milestone unlocked; module officially begins.]

[Players have joined the game...]

Main questline now available...

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615. Destroyed in an instant

Welcome to Dream of the Mist! Here's a little surprise from the game developers – look, a new mega-event has already launched!

However, dear players, please note that during this event, all visual data panels will be closed. You will not be able to exit the game before the event ends, and you will not revive or return to the login screen after death; you will simply lose consciousness—until the event is completed.

So... toy collectors, please do your best to complete the mission! Note! Please read the mission description carefully this time—the mission panel will be unavailable after the event officially begins.

Main Quest - Phase One

[Background: A conspiracy planned for centuries gradually unfolds. On that day, countless pillars of energy, not belonging to this world, shot into the sky, converging there. As energy fragments exploded and scattered, this energy from beyond the world finally merged with it, creating countless unique individuals mutated by resonating with the energy fragments. At the same time, various forces hidden within this world will begin their clandestine schemes...]

[Mission Description: Hunt down as many individuals infected by this energy as possible to slow down or even stop its escalating impact!]

Task Progress:

Infected individuals: 0100000

Special Individual: 0100

[Completing the mission will unlock the second phase of the main quest.]

[Note: Task progress is the only visible data panel; simply bring it up to view it.]

We wish all players a pleasant gaming experience!

As the system notification faded, Zhou Ke'er immediately frowned, pondering a very important matter that she hadn't noticed before—how many players had been forcibly pulled into the game?

To her shame, Zhou Ke'er only realized how important this was when she saw the long string of zeros in the task progress bar.

But the most important thing isn't the number of players who enter, but rather the number of players who can contribute combat power. Generally speaking, whether players enter the main world and arrive at the main city is used as a dividing line. And players who haven't completed the Fog difficulty mod... well, even if they're brought in, they probably won't survive a day... right?

Except for those who are particularly hardy or have exceptionally strong adaptability.

But it's not very useful; without acquiring certain special abilities in the main world, it won't play a significant role in this event.

One would need at least Izumi's level to contend with ordinary infected individuals—and Izumi wasn't even qualified to be brought into the council chamber for protection.

In fact, the vast majority of players are probably not as strong as Izumi.

So, aside from the countless cannon fodder players, Zhou Ke'er remembered that Long Aotian had counted how many players had entered the main city, and it seemed to be only a few thousand. This was because, firstly, a large portion of the players were casual players who just wanted to experience the mod, and secondly, even those who wanted to come to the main world were unable to pass the fog mod. Therefore, although the game seemed to have a large number of online players, the actual number of players who actually came to the main world was really just that small.

Do you think you can save the world with just a few thousand people?

Zhou Ke'er even considered taking a six-pointer.

In the first stage of the main quest alone, you have to kill 100,000 infected creatures. On average, each player has to kill between 10 and 100 of them.

Even the donkeys in the production team aren't this good at killing.

Why not just send a dump truck and crush them?

The roar gradually subsided.

The sunlight, though still streaming in from one side of the window, seemed to have lost its warmth, but it also seemed to have lost its vitality and life.

The council chamber did not collapse, and the carved beams and painted rafters on the dome remained exquisite. However, the images of the Father and the Son depicted on them no longer gave people a sense of holiness. The eyes, which were originally painted with liveliness, became even more "lively," as if they were spying on everyone with malice.

"This is troublesome."

As all the unusual activity ceased, Zhou Ke'er murmured softly as she slowly removed the evil force that had been maintaining the magic array.

Leaving aside the sunlight, the dome is also within the protection range of the magic array, so in theory it shouldn't undergo any changes. Besides, the murals are inanimate objects, so they shouldn't suddenly come to life.

But this impression still lingered in Zhou Ke'er's sight, so the only possible cause of the change was...

Once the magic array was removed, the evil forces surrounding it slowly surged over like a tide, but ultimately their numbers were not that great, and their speed and momentum were not that fierce.

Therefore, even though everyone is now exposed outside the magic circle, they will not be immediately infused with evil energy. They will only feel a certain degree of discomfort and nausea because of the strange energy around them.

But Zhou Ke'er was different... Zhou Ke'er felt as comfortable as if she had returned home. She had just consumed a large portion of her evil energy, and now, under the influence of her surroundings, she was rapidly replenishing it.

Sure enough, compared to normal people, Zhou Ke'er is more like an evil spirit.

This environment was perfect for him; the evil energy was constantly replenishing itself, so Zhou Ke'er no longer had to worry about it running out—although he had never really worried about it in the first place.

As for the rest of the people, apart from Dio, Red Crane, and Long Aotian, who had some resistance to evil and wouldn't feel uncomfortable because of such a small amount of evil, the rest of the people were affected to varying degrees.

Elon, in particular, seems to have been affected because the nature of this evil energy is contrary to the Holy Light that Elon believes in. Moreover, the evil energy is of a much higher rank than the Holy Light, thus generating a powerful suppression reaction.

However, the expected riotous cries and screams did not come from outside the palace; all was silent.

As Zhou Ke'er left the center of the magic circle, the contradictory feeling of being instantly exhausted yet quickly regaining energy caused him to stagger. Red Crane, who was beside him, reached out to support Zhou Ke'er as if he had foreseen this.