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

651. Not knowing where to start

Even so, it would be useless for Zhou Ke'er to know the weakness of this existence now—if he wanted to take action against these civilians who serve as energy sources, he would probably either be intercepted instantly like before, or have time reversed directly.

As long as they remain within the controllable range of this being, Zhou Ke'er cannot harm these residents. This is probably why this being directly placed the residents, who serve as energy sources, into an independent space. If time reversal cannot be resisted, the current situation can never be resolved.

Zhou Ke'er did not make any further rash moves. She simply held the Jade Trace Sword in her hand, her eyes slightly narrowed, and began to ponder.

To be honest, of the two mission options in the second phase of the main quest, Zhou Ke'er could only choose the first one, which was to rescue her companions. The second option, which was to learn the true name of this being, was impossible no matter how you looked at it. First, this being would not tell Zhou Ke'er directly, and second, Zhou Ke'er didn't even know the names of most of these beings.

In fact, based on the clues Zhou Ke'er has obtained so far, and the characteristics of this being that she knows, if she were given an encyclopedia or something similar that describes all the characteristics of this being, she probably would have been able to identify it long ago. But unfortunately, that's simply impossible.

They can control a small area of ​​time and space, and will keep humans as energy sources to absorb their energy. They will also generate many vortexes in the territory they rule, and the humans they enslave will suffer methods such as amputation or growing malignant tumors on their bodies.

Zhou Ke'er silently noted down these key features that she considered important.

Zhou Ke'er stayed indoors for a short while before the enormous suction force caused by the vortex outside stopped. A series of "crashing" sounds came, indicating that the objects that had been floating in the air had fallen down after the suction force disappeared.

Huh? Could this mean that there's no connection to anything behind this vortex, so even if it sucks things in, it won't transport them anywhere?

If this vortex is not a spatial vortex, then what is the purpose of these vortices hanging in the sky? And where does their suction come from?

and many more...

For some reason, as if struck by a sudden inspiration, a thought flashed through Zhou Ke'er's mind—ever since he first stepped into this city, the "evil vision" in his right eye had never been closed... Was it possible that if he viewed it from an ordinary person's perspective...?

Thinking of this, Zhou Ke'er immediately closed her right eye, automatically shutting down her eerie vision, and then looked around.

Upon closer inspection, something was amiss. Unlike what had been seen through the eerie vision, the house, viewed from a normal perspective, was not as clean as it had appeared. Instead, it was covered in a thick layer of dust. Although there were no mosquitoes or flies, it exuded an atmosphere of decay and death.

At the same time, the vortexes in the sky were no longer visible, as if they did not exist at all.

For some reason, from this perspective, a pessimistic and depressed feeling arose from nowhere and began to linger in Zhou Ke'er's heart.

This can't go on any longer, or something bad will happen! Zhou Ke'er was startled and quickly restored her eerie vision. Everything around her returned to its original state, and the pessimistic mood slowly receded like a tide.

It seems that ordinary people, simply by opening their eyes and looking around, fall into a state of depression and negativity, having no power to fight back or think about how to solve the problem or escape from this place.

Even Honghe and the others should be the same. After all, even Zhou Ke'er would be affected if she closed her Evil Vision, let alone Honghe and the others who don't have Evil Vision.

Who knows, they might already be lying prostrate somewhere, becoming energy sustenance for this being.

Zhou Ke'er narrowed her eyes and swung her sword again at a resident who was lying on the ground beside her.

Sure enough, the next moment Zhou Ke'er felt dizzy and her surroundings changed instantly. When Zhou Ke'er came to her senses and looked closely, she found herself back in the cave where she had been before.

It's just unclear why that being didn't directly attack Zhou Ke'er and the others, but instead chose to torment them by reversing time and space.

What exactly is its purpose?

Zhou Ke'er couldn't figure it out yet.

But then, a strong sense of disorientation struck, as if something had been stripped from my mind. But after careful recollection, I couldn't recall what I had forgotten at all.

Zhou Ke'er looked at the cave suspiciously—for some reason, this cave felt... far too familiar to him. It was as if he had been here many times before. For example, he vaguely remembered a stalagmite hanging down not far above him on his right, and an inconspicuous depression in the ground a few steps ahead...

Damn it, how could he remember something like this? He never bothered to memorize such random details.

Suppressing a strange sense of disorientation and alienation, and ignoring the still-sleeping Cold-Cooked Rabbit and Porius, Zhou Ke'er hurriedly walked out of the cave. Fortunately, Red Crane was still standing outside, carrying the dead rabbit, just like last time.

However, she also looked dazed, with her eyes glazed over, seemingly lost in thought.

Zhou Ke'er quickly went over and patted Honghe on the shoulder, "Honghe..."

Before she could finish speaking, Honghe looked startled and instinctively said, "Oh dear! Zhou Ke'er...you scared me! Haven't I told you so many times not to suddenly come up and pat me? It's scary."

Zhou Ke'er was taken aback: "Said it many times? Really? Isn't this... the first time?"

Honghe was also taken aback upon hearing this, and hesitated before saying, "It seems... this should be the first time? But why did I say that subconsciously?"

Zhou Ke'er seemed to instantly realize that something was wrong.

The sense of déjà vu is too strong.

He quickly opened the quest panel and checked, and sure enough... just as Zhou Ke'er was swinging her sword at the resident, he specifically checked the progress of the first stage of the quest, which was to kill fifty-five special individuals, but now... it had actually become ninety-seven?!

It's impossible that he could have killed forty-two special individuals in less than a minute of time when he traveled back to this point.

Considering the inexplicable sense of déjà vu from before, and the flamingo's subconscious words...

Therefore, there is clearly only one answer—

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652. Dilemma

Then there's only one answer—that is, since Zhou Ke'er and Hong He have no memory of it, they have already gone through many time loops.

Zhou Ke'er frowned and quickly told Honghe about her discovery. At the same time, she was thinking to herself – logically speaking, this must not be the first time they have discovered that their memories have been erased and they have entered a loop.

The problem now is that Zhou Ke'er was originally able to escape unscathed and have her memories preserved. Under those circumstances, she might have been able to find a solution through repeated experiments. But now, even Zhou Ke'er can't retain her memories. This means that if that being could reverse time just when Zhou Ke'er is almost able to find a solution, then even Zhou Ke'er would be helpless.

But why would this happen? Could it be that in some time loop, he accidentally lost that broken watch?

Thinking of this, Zhou Ke'er subconsciously reached into her pocket, only to find that the watch was still there, not missing.

That's strange, why is that?

Upon hearing Zhou Ke'er's words, Honghe covered her forehead and swayed slightly, as if experiencing physical exhaustion. "So that's how it is... I knew it would be like this—it seems that with each passing time loop, our energy is continuously being absorbed. I'm even starting to feel weak and almost collapsed to the ground."

Zhou Ke'er immediately scanned Honghe with her evil gaze. Honghe was right. Her situation was the same as the residents who had fainted in the city houses that Zhou Ke'er had seen before. Some kind of energy had been absorbed from their bodies.

Even Zhou Ke'er himself discovered that a large portion of his evil energy had vanished when he used it. It was likely that he had temporarily used evil energy to replace that energy, which was then absorbed. Therefore, his current condition was not as severe as Hong He's.

If this continues, they'll really be trapped and die in this godforsaken place. Unless there's a way to resist time reversal, Zhou Ke'er and the others will definitely die here.

Zhou Ke'er shifted her gaze to her right wrist, to the God Academy bracelet that was now hidden as a tattoo—this thing was soul-bound, so it didn't matter if her body was destroyed.

He quickly brought up the wristwatch interface, intending to use it to teleport to the Academy of Gods. If successful, he would go to the old skeleton and ask for three or four wristwatches to bring Red Crane and the others out of this isolated space.

Unfortunately, reality disappointed him—how could he not have thought of this in the previous time loop? The wristwatch's coordinate transmission interface displayed a series of messages: "[Current coordinates incorrect, unable to determine holder's location, transmission failed]".

This is truly outrageous.

However, Zhou Ke'er discovered something else—without remembering what had happened, he had sent a distress message to Chen Tian through the friend system on his wristwatch, explaining their situation...

They sent over what had happened to them!

That's right! This is the perfect way to deal with the erasure of memories during time reversal, recording all the useful information through this! Ordinary paper and pen might disappear due to time reversal, but although the wristwatch cannot take Zhou Ke'er out of this space, the terminal that sends and stores information is not within this space, so it will not be affected by time reversal!

That means he could easily find out the true name of this being by asking Chen Tian! — Unless Chen Tian doesn't know either, but that shouldn't be the case... right?

Thinking of this, Zhou Ke'er quickly began to check the chat history.

Although Honghe didn't know what Zhou Ke'er was suddenly doing with such a startled expression, she understood that it must be something very urgent, so she obediently stood aside without making a sound to disturb her.

Sure enough, Zhou Ke'er had already thought of this idea in the previous few cycles, and had already described all the features she had compiled in detail to Chen Tian.

After receiving this information, Chen Tian seemed to quickly realize what kind of being Zhou Ke'er and the others had encountered, and immediately replied—but the part describing the being's true name was all garbled, making it impossible to transmit the true name through the academy wristwatch.

"Tsk."

Zhou Ke'er clicked her tongue lightly. Rather than feeling greatly disappointed, she felt more like she had expected it. After all, if she could reveal her real name, this time loop should have ended or the second stage of the main quest should have been completed when she first thought of asking Chen Tian.

Fortunately, although he couldn't tell her her real name directly, Chen Tian still described some other characteristics that Zhou Ke'er hadn't noticed or discovered.

First of all, what Zhou Ke'er encountered was not "this" being, but "these" being. Those "vortices" floating in mid-air were the true forms of these being—pure energy entities.

However, they are not limited to the vortex state. When faced with danger or when they deem it appropriate, they can transform into a form resembling a giant reptile. In this state, their control over "mind" and "space-time" is weakened, but in exchange, they gain powerful offensive capabilities.

Fortunately, not all of these beings can simultaneously become reptilian. Instead, several beings need to simultaneously infuse energy to maintain one being in this form. Most importantly, if this being is killed while in reptilian form, it is truly killed.

At the same time, they have the habit of living in groups. In theory, a single individual is not very strong and can not even pose a threat to humans. They can only secretly absorb the spiritual energy of humans at night, causing the person whose energy is absorbed to become listless and decadent.

But if a large number of them are gathered together, the effect can be extremely terrifying. Add to that the residents of an entire city as an energy source—even this kind of independent space can be constructed, and it can even continuously rewind time.

Moreover, these beings worship a more powerful being and serve that being as their master—fortunately, that being is not here, otherwise dealing with Zhou Ke'er and the others wouldn't have required so much trouble and endless time loops.

Zhou Ke'er put down her wristwatch, transforming it back into its emblem form. While recounting the information she had just learned to Red Crane, she secretly analyzed: If these beings were in their normal vortex state, time reversal would inevitably cause Zhou Ke'er and the others to lose their memories, and they wouldn't be able to kill them. They must be transformed into reptilian forms.

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Please take one day off.

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653. Reversal of Time

Meanwhile, while telling Honghe all this, Zhou Ke'er kept her wristwatch on and typed out the sentence, "Every move we make in the forest will be discovered by those beings." She then kept pressing the send button with her mind—so that as long as they were really turned back in time again, this message would be sent and recorded after Zhou Ke'er lost consciousness for a moment.

However, to Zhou Ke'er's surprise, the time reversal did not occur, even though he had already described all the characteristics and abilities of those beings one by one.

Are those beings simply unable to hear what Zhou Ke'er said in the forest, or even if they did hear it, do they not care at all? Do they feel that it doesn't matter to Zhou Ke'er and the others even if they know these things?

No, that shouldn't be the case. Zhou Ke'er felt that these beings wouldn't be so confident. After all, he had only swung his sword at the residents whose energy had been drained, and hadn't even hurt a single person, before those beings hurriedly activated time reversal.

Therefore, it is more reasonable to say that the conjecture that "those beings cannot perceive what is happening in the forest" is more reasonable. But then another question arises: if that is the case, how do they construct an independent space that even their own perception cannot reach?

Moreover, judging from Chen Tian's description, the strength of these beings is far from that of Nyarlathotep or Tavel. In fact, they are far inferior. Theoretically speaking, the strength of a single being is not even as great as that of Zhou Ke'er, let alone if there is no energy source to supply them with energy.

However, the energy that Zhou Ke'er sensed in the city before, which was of a level completely surpassing the evil and whose essence was the same as that of Nyarlathotep and could not be faked, could only mean that either there was a more powerful and higher being in charge of this city, or there was a relic or power bestowed by some higher being, which made the power that these beings now possessed much stronger than before.

Zhou Ke'er thought the first conjecture was unlikely, unless that being was also a pleasure monster like Nyarlathotep. Although it could kill Zhou Ke'er with a single slap, it would choose not to, but instead increase the power of its subordinates so that they could deal with Zhou Ke'er, while it would observe from the shadows, like playing The Sims.

But... surely not all great beings are as unreliable as Nyarlathotep, right? That would be too absurd. Even Zhou Ke'er thinks that just one Zhou Ke'er is enough!

Therefore, Zhou Ke'er is more inclined to believe that these beings in the city today are remnants or powers of some higher being.

Since they relied on external forces, it means that they could not accurately control these forces, and there must be loopholes to exploit—just as they could not perceive what was happening in the forest.

Similarly, Zhou Ke'er's previous fortunate experiences of time reversal without having her memories erased, and her recent recollection of past events due to multiple time reversals... all demonstrate that those beings lack sufficient control over time reversal.

Zhou Ke'er and Hong He were both deep in thought, and the atmosphere fell silent as time slowly passed.

After a while, Porius, who rushed out of the cave in a hurry, and Cold Rabbit, who was awakened by his commotion and walked out sleepily, appeared in front of Zhou Ke'er and Red Crane.

"What are you two doing? Staring at each other like that? Are you gazing at each other affectionately?"

Before Bolius could speak, Cold-Eat Rabbit yawned and asked with a pout.

Bolius wanted to say something, but as soon as he opened his mouth, a strange sense of familiarity lingered in his mind, as if he had said the same thing many times before. This puzzled him greatly, and he stood there stunned for a moment, trying to recall and figure out what was going on.

Zhou Ke'er glanced at the cold-cooked rabbit with a meaningful look, said nothing, but took the damaged watch out of her pocket, examined it carefully, and used the divine power of the Evil God and the God of Time and Space to sense it.

The flamingo also just squinted at the cold-cooked rabbit without saying a word. Although its eyes looked rotten and foul, the cold-cooked rabbit felt as if it were looking at someone with pity for being mentally challenged.

"What do you mean by that! Looking at me like that! Do you think I'm some disgusting maggot crawling on the ground? Don't look at me like I'm a cockroach!"