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

Zhou Ke'er coughed and said in a deep voice, "Let's go outside and see... what the situation is like now."

Long Aotian took the lead and pushed open the door of the council hall. The strong sunlight shone in, so dazzling that it was hard to open one's eyes, but there was no warmth at all, only coolness.

The green plants outside, especially mosses or vines, appear lush and verdant under the sunlight, as if they are trying their best to absorb some kind of energy from the sunlight to promote their rapid growth.

Originally, everyone had a lot to ask, but now, for some reason, they found it hard to muster the will to speak, and simply followed Zhou Ke'er out into the outside world in a daze.

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616. Showing no mercy

The palace was completely silent. The group walked from the council hall to the palace gate without seeing a single patrolling guard, which was simply impossible—there were none lying on the ground, unconscious, or even turned into monsters.

As they walked out of the palace gates, Zhou Ke'er paused slightly and reminded them, "Later, if you see anyone who has been corrupted by evil and turned into a monster—no matter who they are, whether they are commoners or nobles, acquaintances or strangers—don't hold back. That stuff is contagious. If you don't want to become like that yourself, be swift and decisive."

The others were stunned by what they heard, seemingly unable to react for a moment, but Red Crane unhesitatingly drew the Grim Reaper's Scythe and held it in her hand.

To be honest, for a moment just now, regarding the main quest's requirement to kill 100,000 ordinary infected, Zhou Ke'er had a ruthless and cruel plan in her mind—to capture ordinary NPCs, gather them in batches, use her evil powers to directly infect them into the minimum level of infected, and then harvest them all together, replacing one batch with the next... In this way, as long as there are enough people, the progress can be completed in one or two days.

But after thinking about it, she decided against it. It wasn't that Zhou Ke'er was soft-hearted, but mainly... First, the people in the capital had probably already been infected in that situation, and there weren't many normal people for Zhou Ke'er to exploit. Second, once such a chaotic evil technique was used, it would probably make her enemies with most of the other friendly NPCs, and it wouldn't be good to use their power in this way.

Outside the palace, all was still silent.

If Honghe hadn't clearly heard Zhou Ke'er's words, reacted, and made a sound, Zhou Ke'er would have thought he had gone deaf.

We walked in silence for a while, until we reached the once bustling streets, but we still didn't see a single person stop there.

However... Zhou Ke'er took a closer look and noticed some noteworthy traces: the carts or other facilities that were originally placed on both sides of the road were all showing a very regular directional twist. It was hard to describe this trace well. If she had to, it would be like: many people were moving in a certain direction, but instead of choosing to go around the obstacles in front of them, they inexplicably bumped into them, forcibly pushed them aside, and turned to the direction that was suitable for them to walk.

In other words... during the time Zhou Ke'er and the others were resisting the arrival of the evil spirit in the council hall, all the exposed NPC residents were heading towards a certain location under some unknown influence?

Zhou Ke'er and the others exchanged glances.

After all, those who were summoned were all top experts in the capital. Although they seemed out of sorts at first due to the influence of the evil spirits, they quickly adjusted after a period of time and then noticed the situation on the street.

The group remained silent and hurried quickly in the direction the traces indicated.

As expected, he didn't see a single person along the way. Not only on this road, but Long Aotian transformed into a bat and flew into the sky to look down. He found that other streets in all directions also had the same traces, all pointing in the same direction.

Zhou Ke'er narrowed her eyes, sensing something was wrong: if he wasn't mistaken, it was obvious that a special entity had appeared in the city, and the ordinary infected people had all been summoned there, either organized into teams or directly devoured by that special entity.

If they were organized into groups, it would be fine; although it's a bit troublesome, at least you could still improve your kill progress on regular infected. But if they were devoured... then it means not only wasted progress, but also an epic boost to a special individual.

But how could a special individual appear in the royal capital out of nowhere? Shouldn't we be encountering a mini-boss at the very beginning of this module?

and many more...

Zhou Ke'er's eyes narrowed, and she immediately whispered to Long Aotian, "That Duke Timius...you haven't caught him yet? Is he still hiding in the capital?"

Caught off guard by the question, Long Aotian paused for a moment, then nodded instinctively, not quite understanding why Zhou Ke'er had suddenly asked. He quickly realized what was going on, his eyes widening in shock: "You mean... that guy is...?"

Zhou Ke'er nodded: "It should be the case. Based on our current intelligence, the ability to make ordinary infected people gather in that direction in an orderly manner can only be attributed to a special individual. And you've already cleared out the capital, haven't you? It's impossible for a special individual to suddenly appear. At most, the ones being produced in large numbers right now are stronger ordinary infected people... So, it's the only one that could be a special individual."

The others didn't understand what Zhou Ke'er and Long Aotian were saying, but no one was foolish enough to ask at this moment. They simply listened quietly to their conversation and tried their best to understand.

"That's really bad..."

Long Aotian frowned and said, "We were already no match for that guy, and now we're even less likely to win..."

As he spoke, Long Aotian turned to look at Zhou Ke'er.

Zhou Ke'er pouted: "Don't look at me, I can't beat it either. If that guy hadn't been out of his mind and insisted on fighting me with the evil spirits, and hadn't been so cowardly for some reason, running away after getting his head chopped off... we would have been wiped out by it right there."

Dio, who had been idling and not playing, heard Zhou Ke'er and Long Aotian's conversation and immediately sensed something was wrong. He quickly asked, "Wait, do you mean that there used to be a monster in this capital that was stronger than all of you? If you hadn't used some trickery, you wouldn't have survived until now... and now that monster has been buffed?"

Zhou Ke'er nodded: "That's a very accurate summary. That's pretty much it."

Dio's eyes widened instantly, his blond hair bristling: "So we're going to it now?!"

Zhou Ke'er nodded again as if it were a matter of course: "Yes, if our guess is correct and the monster over there is indeed it, then it is as you said."

"You're still going to go?! Are you crazy?!"

Dior couldn't help but get angry, his whole body radiating resistance.

Red Crane glanced at Dio with dead fish eyes and said in a monotone tone, "Although I don't quite understand what happened, from the conversation just now, we can deduce that the monster was very strong, but it was scared away by Z... cough cough, Memoride and the others once, which means that no matter what the reason was, they still had a bit of fear of them."

Although the monster has been strengthened, this fear will not subside so quickly, and there is still a chance to win if used properly.

Furthermore, the fact that monster summoned so many ordinary infected individuals suggests it might be planning to strengthen itself further. In other words, arriving sooner can actually prevent it from growing stronger; if we delay, not only will we be less prepared, but we'll also be facing an even more powerful monster.

"Then just run! If you can't win, why not run? A gentleman takes revenge even after ten years!"

Dior said this with a straight face.

“If we could have escaped outside, I wouldn’t have brought you back in the first place.”

Zhou Ke'er casually replied, "Without a base, it would only be more dangerous in the wild."

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617. Chaotic Battle

Just then, Elon, who had been silent all along as if he had some kind of guess in his mind, finally couldn't help but speak up: "The location these marks point to... is very likely the church."

It has to be said that the direction and path of these traces are too consistent with the route of their church's preaching tour before this disaster occurred, causing him to have a stronger sense of déjà vu the further he went.

"The church?...What's Timius doing at the church?"

Long Aotian was taken aback upon hearing this, then frowned slightly and murmured in a low voice.

Zhou Ke'er felt as if she had overlooked or missed some information, but she couldn't figure out what the problem was for the time being.

However, now that we know where the final destination is, there's no need to follow the trails anymore. We just need to be careful when turning corners to make sure we haven't gone the wrong way.

So everyone quickened their pace and hurried toward the church.

Soon after, the group arrived at the vicinity of the church and witnessed an unexpected and shocking scene.

Countless commoners and nobles bowed their heads in devout prayer in front of the church, forming neat rows that completely filled the large open space in front of the church.

Every now and then, people who appeared to be delirious, as if being guided or called, would step out of the line, looking dazed but walking firmly toward the church door, never to come out again.

Strangely, although it is unknown how many people the church can accommodate, if the people outside the door plus the people inside the church make up the entire population of the capital, then the church certainly cannot accommodate them all.

Zhou Ke'er even spotted Isaac and Nosha among the group, but they were at the back of the group and wouldn't be summoned into the church so soon.

Behind the pulpit at the church entrance stood a figure dressed in a filthy red robe with a ferocious face. Large patches of flesh and blood extended from the bottom of the robe, as if rooted to the ground, spreading like a carpet to the church entrance and even into the interior.

The man had a gruesome scar on his neck, as if his head had been chopped off and then shoved back in. His body was visibly riddled with holes, his red robe, stained with blood and dust, was tattered, and there were several penetrating wounds near his heart on his chest, as if he had been stabbed multiple times after being stabbed through the heart.

Zhou Ke'er narrowed her eyes slightly—her guess during the journey was wrong. He had said he had overlooked some information.

Elon stared in horror, his eyes wide: "B-Bishop?! How is this possible?"

Edwards's face turned grim, and he said in a deep voice, "My knights and I have absolutely killed him—we cut off his head, churned his heart into a pulp, and tore his limbs apart. There's no way he could still be alive!"

"Yes, of course... he must have actually been dead before."

Zhou Ke'er frowned and whispered, "A being that has merely been tainted by evil will certainly die if it suffers a fatal injury, unless it possesses the ability to be immortal. In other words, this bishop has indeed been killed once. However, with the massive influx of evil just now, the bishop's corpse, which is rich in evil, has clearly resonated with those evil beings."

In other words, the guy in front of us is not "an existence infected by evil," but "existing as evil."

These malevolent entities reconstructed a new existence on the bodies of the dead.

However, although this is somewhat unexpected, it may not necessarily be a bad thing.

At least facing this thing is easier than facing an old monster named Timius who has lived for hundreds of years—if that guy doesn't suddenly appear and reap the benefits when Zhou Ke'er and the others are fighting.

After all, in Zhou Ke'er's perception, although the amount of evil energy on the bishop in front of her was increasing continuously as the people below entered the church, it was still far less than that of Duke Timius.

If we disregard the effects of the evil infection and its influence on mental state, this guy's overall strength is only slightly stronger than Zhou Ke'er's, not even close to Xi Ang's level. If Xi Ang were still alive, he could probably take down this monster all by himself.

This means that, given the strength of Zhou Ke'er and her group, their chances of winning against this guy are quite high, at least higher than facing Duke Timius.

Zhou Ke'er glanced at Elon secretly, hoping that this guy wouldn't drag her down later.

"I can feel this guy's strength increasing little by little. Stop dawdling and let's make our move."

Long Aotian looked at that guy for a while, then turned to the crowd and said.

Elon instinctively wanted to say something, but quickly realized his mistake, hesitated for a moment, and ultimately said nothing.

Zhou Ke'er nodded and said, "Of course, the sooner the better, but before that..."

As she spoke, black wings appeared on Zhou Ke'er's back, and she floated into the air, snapping her fingers at the people lined up below. Immediately, a black dome made of malevolent energy enveloped them all.

Although this move consumed a lot of energy, it was nothing for Zhou Ke'er, who was constantly regenerating mana.

"Now, let's make our move. That guy should have noticed us by now."

Zhou Ke'er looked at the bishop and said in a deep voice—the bishop raised his head and looked at him with eyes that had no pupils, only a turbid and dirty white.

Without hesitation, Zhou Ke'er raised her right hand toward the bishop, and an evil aura instantly condensed in her hand: "Magic Energy Piercing Cannon!"

The surrounding evil forces seemed to be being wildly pulled and dragged, frantically gathering, solidifying, collapsing, and expanding in Zhou Ke'er's palm.

Because the amount of evil energy involved was so enormous, this series of actions was indeed... a bit too slow.

In a normal battle, a skill with such a long cast time would be impossible to cast.

But now... it's obvious that the bishop can only stay in that position when absorbing evil energy, and other companions are responsible for dealing with attacks that try to stop Zhou Ke'er's actions. Zhou Ke'er only needs to focus on being a turret and dealing damage.

As expected, after failing to use mental attacks and evil influences on Zhou Ke'er, the bishop had no choice but to resort to physical attacks, sending several sharp spikes made of flesh and blood swiftly towards Zhou Ke'er.

However, he was cut off halfway by Long Aotian's Blood Sword and Honghe's Death Scythe, and was unable to go any further.

Edwards and another court swordsman did not rush to take action. Instead, like Long Aotian and Honghe, they stayed near Zhou Ke'er to provide cover. The attack that Zhou Ke'er was currently chanting was obviously a powerful long-range attack. If they rashly went forward to fight the monster in close combat, they might not be able to escape in time.

The remaining two mages reacted quickly, casting several debuffs on the bishop, such as slow, petrify, and immobilize, to prevent him from suddenly escaping Zhou Ke'er's attack range.

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618. As expected

Seeing that his attack had no effect, the bishop immediately sensed the approaching danger. So the flesh beneath his red robe writhed and tore apart without hesitation, severing its connection with the flesh and blood of the church.

It then suddenly flew into the air, and the broken limbs below twisted and transformed into the shape of two legs.

Blood wings immediately appeared on Long Aotian's back, and he took a few steps to float into the air, blocking the direction the bishop wanted to escape to, and thrust his sword straight at it.

However, the bishop did not dodge or flinch, but instead crashed directly into Long Aotian's sword. His body then split open along the blade, revealing countless sharp spikes that resembled teeth, as if he had opened a gaping maw and was about to bite at Long Aotian.

Fortunately, the red crane who followed immediately acted decisively, grabbing Long Aotian by the back of his collar and pulling him backward, narrowly avoiding the bishop's bite.

Seeing that his plan had failed, the bishop couldn't help but roar and glare hatefully at the people present. He then suddenly increased his speed, as if he was preparing to escape.

Zhou Ke'er narrowed her eyes, seemingly waiting for something. She watched the fleeing bishop, and the Death Fang silently appeared in her other hand, which she held tightly, but she still did not make a move.