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

The premise is that... the person standing in front of you is a real player named "Red Crane," not a virtual being from an illusion.

With a tragic expression of heroic sacrifice, Zhou Ke'er immediately extended her sinful right hand toward Honghe.

Then he was punished by the system with a bolt from the blue, and was also given a warning.

"It...it's actually true..."

Zhou Ke'er said, with smoke puffing out of her mouth.

Fortunately, his body was composed of evil beings, so being struck by lightning didn't cause him any real harm. The only thing to be careful about was this warning. If he accumulated three warnings, he would be kicked out of the game and the police would be notified. He wasn't afraid of the latter, but being kicked out of the game... being kicked out of the game in this module is different from usual; it's impossible to return to reality and leave.

Honghe was also startled by Zhou Ke'er's situation. She quickly took two steps back, even throwing the dead rabbit to the ground, and stared at Zhou Ke'er with dead fish eyes: "I thought you were just joking... You're crazy!"

"no..."

Zhou Ke'er exhaled smoke as she said, "I just wanted to see if you were real or fake... You might not believe it, but I'm not who I am now; I might be who I am in the future. But I can't be sure."

That's right, when she was just punished by the system, this thought popped into Zhou Ke'er's mind—if the flamingo was real, then it was very likely not an illusion—unless the illusion could even simulate the system prompts and warnings, but Zhou Ke'er couldn't just stubbornly try it three times, could she? What if it was real? That would be the end of her.

So Zhou Ke'er will assume for now that he was teleported back by that being—although she doesn't yet know why.

But if that guy can control space, it's only natural that he can control time, it makes perfect sense.

It's unclear whether rescuing the companions in the main quest refers to the Red Crane and the others who were affected by that entity and separated along with Zhou Ke'er, or whether the Red Crane in front of us now also counts.

"Oh, I see."

Upon hearing this, Honghe nodded, stroked her chin, and began to ponder.

Zhou Ke'er blinked: "You believe me so easily? What if I'm just kidding you?"

"Yes, I believe it."

Honghe nodded, then continued, "Tell me in detail what happened. How did you return from the future to the present, and what is your purpose?"

Zhou Ke'er naturally wouldn't do anything meaningless at this point, and immediately told Honghe what had happened.

"Is that so...? I think I'm starting to get a clue, could it be...?"

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649. A Damaged Timepiece

"No, let's analyze it carefully before making any guesses."

Flamingo pondered expressionlessly, "If what you say is true, then we need to confirm a few things now—first, whether 'I' am truly me; second, if you were simply reversed in time, could you avoid contact with that being and escape by changing your path and bypassing that city; third, after this time reversal, could you avoid contact with that being and escape by changing your path and bypassing that city; and fourth, are there any differences between this experience after the time reversal and what you experienced before?"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Ke'er stroked her chin and glanced at the mission panel. The second stage of the main mission was indeed still there, indicating that what had just happened was not his imagination.

But if time had truly reversed, this task shouldn't be on his task panel—because this task hasn't happened yet.

Thinking of this, Zhou Ke'er immediately said to Honghe, "Wait, I seem to have a guess... Take a look at your mission panel first."

"So, you mean we all triggered some kind of quest afterward? And you see the quest is still active now, so..."

As Honghe analyzed the situation, she opened the quest panel and began to check. "Wow... there really is one. Main quest stage two? But I don't remember ever having that..."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Ke'er snapped her fingers and nodded firmly—that's right. It wasn't just him who had been turned back in time, but everyone present had been similarly transported back in time.

Moreover, there is another crucial point—before returning here, Zhou Ke'er had inadvertently checked the task panel and memorized the progress of the first stage of the main quest. Now, when she checked it again, she found that the progress had not only not regressed, but had actually increased.

If Zhou Ke'er's guess is correct, then it means that, apart from Zhou Ke'er and her group, the time of all other players has not been reversed! In that case, the so-called time reversal in that city cannot possibly be the reversal of time for the entire mod world.

According to Zhou Ke'er's conjecture, it is likely that the entity divided this large area into an independent space, and thus continuously rewound time within this divided space.

Flamingo lost her memories of that period because of the time rewind, but since these events actually happened, and the rewind time was only within this space, not the time of the module world, the tasks on the task panel still exist.

This means that Zhou Ke'er and the others were pulled back to the timeline by that being after they triggered the mission, rather than triggering the mission within the time loop.

Thinking of this, Zhou Ke'er immediately set off, ran to the bushes on the side, and reached out to push the bushes aside—the person who left the broken watch should have been hiding here. Although she didn't know what his purpose was, according to Zhou Ke'er's previous deduction, even if he didn't want to be discovered by Zhou Ke'er, he should have left the watch behind.

But no. Nothing at all.

That's right, now everything makes sense—the person who left the clock wasn't pulled into this timeline. Because he wasn't brought into this space where the timeline is constantly being adjusted by that being.

A bolder conjecture—perhaps Zhou Ke'er's ability to retain her memories during the time reversal was thanks to that broken timepiece, and it's even possible that it was the reason she wasn't directly moved to a certain place in the city by that being in the wilderness at the beginning.

If that's the case, then the identity of the person who left this timepiece is quite intriguing—could it be that he had already predicted that Zhou Ke'er and the others would encounter that being, and that's why he left this timepiece here in advance?

Zhou Ke'er pondered to herself, her left hand tightly gripping the watch in her pocket, but she didn't take it out.

"What's wrong? Is there something there?"

Honghe looked at Zhou Ke'er, who had suddenly rushed over, with a puzzled expression.

Zhou Ke'er stood up, shook her head at Honghe, and said, "I suddenly felt like there was someone here, but after checking, I didn't find anything unusual."

Honghe nodded with some doubt, as if she wanted to say something more, but Zhou Ke'er continued, "However, I have a guess now—come with me."

With that, Zhou Ke'er took the lead and ran in the exact opposite direction from that city—if the spatial barrier at the end of this road, or if there was no end at all, then it would just confirm Zhou Ke'er's guess.

Honghe hurriedly followed Zhou Ke'er, "What guess... wait, aren't you going to invite Lengchitu and the others? Why are you leaving them here?"

"There's no need for that. If I go there, there's a good chance that time will be reversed again, and then explaining it to them again would just be a waste of time."

Zhou Ke'er casually explained, "So, if we don't get our time reversed after we go there, then we can come back and explain it to them."

Honghe squinted, following Zhou Ke'er's steps while pondering for a while before finally realizing, "I understand—you mean we're actually trapped in a finite space where time can rewind, right? So you want to try and see where the boundaries of this space are, and whether we'll be rewinding when we reach the boundaries, right?"

"That's right, that's exactly it."

Zhou Ke'er nodded. It was so comfortable talking to Honghe. She didn't need to explain too much of her inner thoughts. Honghe could figure it out on his own. It could only be said that their thought processes were quite similar.

Because both of them were putting in their best effort and moving at full speed, they soon reached the edge of the forest. What came into view was a familiar field, and at the end of the field was the city.

Zhou Ke'er was stunned in surprise at first glance, but quickly realized that it was impossible for him to have taken the wrong path and come back; he had indeed chosen the completely opposite route. So there was only one possibility: all the other boundaries of this space had overlapped to this location, and no matter which direction one went, as long as one passed through that overlapping point, one would arrive here.

Original origin...

However, this also confirms Zhou Ke'er's guess that this should indeed be an independent space.

Zhou Ke'er tentatively took two steps back into the forest, but instead of returning to the end of the original direction, she simply took a few steps back normally.

It seems that this overlapping spatial point is still unidirectional; one can only get here by passing through other boundaries, but cannot go to those places through here.

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650. How to break the deadlock?

"Did we succeed or fail?"

The flamingo looked up at the city in the distance, feeling a strange sense of familiarity, as if it had witnessed this scene not long ago.

Zhou Ke'er stepped forward and shrugged helplessly: "It doesn't seem like it can be considered a success."

Zhou Ke'er then told Honghe about her guess about the situation.

"I see. So no matter which way we go, we'll be forced to this city, right?"

Honghe narrowed her eyes and analyzed, "From a general rational point of view, since this is still a mission in a game, it should leave us room to break the deadlock. In this situation where even the game scene is limited to a small area, danger often accompanies the way out—it seems that if we want to get out of this situation, we still have to enter that city."

"Your words are truly more valuable than any other conversation."

Zhou Ke'er stared with dead fish eyes, "Does something as simple as a sentence really need such a long analysis? I could have come to this conclusion even if I thought about it with my toenails, okay?"

"Doesn't this make me appear to speak clearly and logically?"

Red Crane retorted in a serious tone.

Zhou Ke'er scoffed and immediately set off for that city, saying, "Really, don't try to make me laugh in such a critical situation."

"What are you saying! I just saw you had your brows furrowed and looked tense, so I was trying to ease your tension!"

Honghe squinted at Zhou Ke'er, making up a story—she had originally wanted to mention whether or not to go find Lengchitu and the others, but now it seemed that Zhou Ke'er had no such intention at all, so she was too lazy to ask again.

"Please don't."

Without turning her head, Zhou Ke'er replied quickly in a disgusting tone, "What are you doing? Are you pursuing me? Sorry, your intentions are too obvious, it makes me feel disgusted. I really can't accept it. You're a good person, we're not a good match."

But as she was talking, there was no response from behind. Zhou Ke'er immediately sensed something was wrong and quickly turned around to check if the red crane was still there.

When she found that the flamingo was still following behind her, she breathed a sigh of relief and couldn't help but say, "Why didn't you say a word? I thought you had lost me. You scared me."

Honghe stared with dead fish eyes, "So what do you want me to say? Do you want me to shout, 'Ke'er, how can I live without you! You must be happy even when I'm not by your side anymore!'"

Honghe's disgusting skills have become increasingly refined. I don't know if he's self-taught or learned it from that bastard, but Zhou Ke'er couldn't help but shudder when she heard this. "Stop! Don't talk like that, it's disgusting!"

But at that moment, without any warning, the flamingo vanished into thin air right before Zhou Ke'er's eyes, and the surrounding area, which was a field just a second ago, suddenly changed into a scene inside the city—no, it wasn't that the flamingo disappeared, it's possible that Zhou Ke'er herself was teleported in.

Or is time being reversed again, back to the point in time when he was in the city?

No, that's not right. According to Zhou Ke'er's deduction, she hadn't yet fallen into this time loop's independent space at that time. It must have been after encountering that group of deformed residents that Zhou Ke'er suddenly felt dizzy and fell into the independent space.

We need to figure out where we are now, what time it is, whether we are being rewound or simply teleported.

Regardless of whether there was a no-fly zone or not, Zhou Ke'er had black wings appear behind her, and she suddenly flapped them and flew into the air, looking down at the city below.

He was not very deep into the city, and it seemed that he was still quite close to the city gate that connected to the plains.

But before he could see it clearly, he suddenly felt a strange flow coming from the air.

Without hesitation, Zhou Ke'er dove straight down to the ground. Sure enough, within a few breaths of Zhou Ke'er taking off, the vortex that had been in the air not far away generated a huge suction force. If Zhou Ke'er hadn't had foresight, she would have already landed on the ground and crashed into a building to find cover. She would definitely have been sucked into that vortex by now.

Putting aside the vortex still releasing suction in mid-air for the moment, Zhou Ke'er subconsciously looked around—he had just smashed through a window and rushed into this house, so it was hard to guarantee that there wasn't any danger inside.

After scanning the room, Zhou Ke'er discovered that there were unexpected people in the house—although they all seemed to be unconscious. They appeared to be a family. Some were lying stiffly on the ground, some were sitting in chairs as if asleep, and some were slumped over the table unconscious.

The only thing they had in common was that everyone inside was in a state of near unconsciousness. Furthermore, Zhou Ke'er could clearly sense that some kind of substance... or energy was being slowly drawn from their bodies and transported to some unknown place outside—perhaps into that vortex.

The extracted energy was neither malevolent nor a higher form of energy. Zhou Ke'er didn't know what was going on, but it was clear that... this group of people were being used as an energy source for something.

Moreover, it is certainly impossible for just a few people to provide enough energy for that existence; there must be many more people who have fallen into this situation.

With this in mind, Zhou Ke'er immediately fired a small magic cannon at the wall, blasting a hole big enough for her to pass through. She went to the house next door and took a look. Sure enough, the residents there were in the same situation.

Good grief, does this entity treat everyone in this city like an ATM?

Zhou Ke'er's eyes flashed, and the Jade Trace Sword instantly appeared in her hand. Without hesitation, she stabbed at a resident lying on the ground.

Just as the sword was about to touch the person, the scene in front of Zhou Ke'er changed instantly, and she reappeared on the street outside the building, feeling a huge suction force coming from the vortex.

Fortunately, Zhou Ke'er was prepared. The moment she was transferred out, she activated teleportation and returned to the building.

Hmph, I didn't expect him to be right—since that being needs these unconscious residents as an energy source, it's impossible for it to let Zhou Ke'er attack them. However, what Zhou Ke'er didn't expect was that the being would be so impatient. He originally thought that the being would only intervene after killing a few more households, but he didn't expect that the being had already made its move before Zhou Ke'er had even killed a single person.

This move has completely exposed their weaknesses!

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