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

Wait... what's inside my body?

Zhou Ke'er frowned, suddenly remembering that when she met Renault not long ago, he gave her something and asked her to keep it, saying that someone would come to collect it when the time came—could it be corresponding to the current situation?

However, Zhou Ke'er still thought that the person Renault said "would come to get" should also be their companion. How come they are actually in Dragon Sleep Valley now?

Just as Zhou Ke'er was deep in thought, Renault was also observing this place from somewhere in the void. Standing beside him was the tall, thin, dark-skinned man—the "Dark One," another Nyarlathotep.

Strangely, they didn't start fighting, and Renault didn't show any sign of panic.

The tall, thin man's eyes seemed to gleam with a strange, captivating light. He didn't look at Renault, but simply said, "Just a friendly reminder, doing this will kill a lot of people—after all, the game is set up so that if the main quest isn't fully completed, players who die in the game are truly dead."

Renault, without turning around, his eyes flashing with a cold light, said in a chilling tone, "Then you'll die."

The tall, thin man, not expecting such a ruthless and blunt answer, raised an eyebrow in surprise and quipped, "Because it's a necessary sacrifice?"

"No, it's not that we can't save them. Adjusting the plan is easy..."

Renault turned to look at the tall, thin man, his face cold: "But there's no need—after all, they're not really 'human'."

“How heartless, Mr. Renault. But what if…” the tall, thin man chuckled, “I mean, what if there were real humans here who might also die?”

Renault's cold, furious gaze fell upon the tall, thin man. He waved his hand, and a screen of light appeared before him, displaying several players with their eyes closed as if in a deep sleep—and Sand Between Fingers was among them.

The tall, thin man said in a light voice, "Oh dear, luckily I had a trick up my sleeve from the beginning and managed to control these purebred humans. Guess where they are now? — The answer is simple."

Upon hearing this, Renault's anger faltered, as if he realized something, and his expression gradually became somewhat strange. He looked at the tall, thin man but remained silent.

Although the tall, thin man didn't know why Renault had changed his tone, he continued according to the original plan: "Obviously, I placed them where you were supposed to break the seal—you know, I didn't intend to kill all of humanity; I was just testing the trust between us. If, as you say, you want to awaken the Yellow Springs within the seal, then they'll naturally be fine. But if it's something else—then it's hard to guarantee their safety, isn't it?"

Reno immediately calmed down, but looked at the tall, thin man with a strange expression, and pointed his finger, saying, "First of all, I didn't tell you that; you overheard it yourself. Secondly—you're right to trust me. I'm not like Reyer; I never lie."

After saying that, Renault added in his mind: You're not human.

Besides, who said that if he didn't want to awaken Huang Quan, he would stuff some inexplicable dangerous things into it? That's overestimating the strength of the human side—where would they get the power to control such a so-called dangerous entity, especially when they're secretly rescuing Huang Quan's "spirit" and unnoticed stuffing that thing into the seal to replace it?

If he could do that, Renault would have already taken action and eliminated the guy next to him!

But it's obviously impossible.

"No, no, no~ What kind of relationship do we have? If you tell others, isn't that the same as telling me?" the tall, thin man replied with a smile.

Renault's lips twitched slightly: "My advice is—don't imitate Nyaruko's way of speaking. It doesn't fit your persona at all. It's kind of disgusting—I'm only telling you this because we're such good friends."

After saying that, Renault vanished without a trace before the tall, thin man could say anything more.

At the same time, Renault's voice suddenly rang in Zhou Ke'er's mind: "I am Renault. I haven't been able to connect with you for very long, so I'll keep it short. Because part of my plan was leaked, those beings captured some pure-blooded humans and put them in... uh, the seal of Dragon's Rest Valley. It seems that one of your friends is among them. I'll have to ask you to rescue them—it won't be too difficult, don't worry. It's just an extra layer of insurance."

Zhou Ke'er, who was deep in thought, suddenly shuddered. She didn't expect Renault to suddenly contact her at this moment, and from what he said... a pure human, and his good friend at that... Finger Sand was imprisoned in Dragon Sleep Valley?

Zhou Ke'er's assessment was: Useless!

They actually have to wait for him to rescue them; how pathetic, like sand slipping through their fingers.

Zhou Ke'er glanced at the others without making a sound, and began to think about how to break into the sealed area in Dragon Sleep Valley later.

Just then, another group emerged from the forest and came into view of Zhou Ke'er and her companions from a distance—unsurprisingly, it was Long Aotian and his group.

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686. Recovery

After meeting Long Aotian and the others, and confirming each other's identities, they exchanged information about their recent situations, but that's another story. To be honest, Long Aojiao wasn't as excited as she was when she saw Zhou Ke'er when she saw her brother.

In short, after resting for a while, the group continued their journey towards Dragon's Rest Valley.

The closer Zhou Ke'er got, the more she felt something throbbing within her, almost uncontrollably pulling her away from her, drawn by some unseen force. This further confirmed Zhou Ke'er's suspicion—the thing Renault had given her was meant to be delivered to the being sealed within this Valley of Dragon's Rest.

Since that was the case, Zhou Ke'er simply stopped suppressing herself. Finally, after getting close enough, a faint glow flew out from Zhou Ke'er's body. Originally it was the shape of a small bead, but as it flew into the canyon, it gradually lengthened and became something like a lightsaber—not a Chinese longsword, but a rapier.

Upon seeing this, Long Aotian was startled and quickly asked, "What happened?! What's going on?"

Zhou Ke'er shook her head: "It's all in the plan, it's not a bad thing. Just wait and see, you'll find out soon enough."

Although he said that, Zhou Ke'er was actually a little worried. After all, he didn't really trust Renault yet. What if he was a radical pure human? Putting aside the fact that most players were "pseudo-humans" mixed with evil, would Renault care about their lives? Furthermore... Zhou Ke'er himself was no longer a pure human after being modified by evil during the previous archaeological expedition. Although he was the same as Renault in this respect, he might still be treated as a tool.

As the rapier plunged into the black mist, soon after, a deafening roar like a landslide was heard, and a beam of light shot into the sky, in which a figure slowly rose.

She was a spirited woman, holding the rapier that had just flown into the air.

She quickly opened her eyes, instinctively scanning the area below, her mind racing: There's something sinister, and the source of it. She wanted to cleave it in two with a sword, but with her current strength, she couldn't; she'd put that aside for now. There were "pseudo-humans," unsure if they were friend or foe; she'd deal with them first… no, wait…

Her sluggish thinking cleared up slightly, and she fixed her gaze on Zhou Ke'er and Honghe: This form of existence... Renault? And the aura beside them... is it Huang Quan? It seems the previous rescue was successful, which means they are here to help me get out.

Thinking of this, the woman slowly loosened her grip on the rapier and gently fell from the sky.

She landed directly in front of Zhou Ke'er and Hong He, without even glancing at the others, and said, "Renault, Huang Quan, you're here to meet me, right? The environment here is completely different from when we came to rescue you, Huang Quan. Where is this? I have a feeling that some beings are watching what's going on here—how do we leave now?"

Zhou Ke'er blinked in confusion, then quickly cried out in her mind, "Renault! Come out and answer the question! I've become your substitute!"

Good heavens, what kind of bizarre stand-in literature is this? He and Red Crane have directly turned into Reno and Huang Quan? But if the other party knows Reno and Huang Quan, why doesn't he know Chen Tian?

Oh, so Chen Tian is now relying on other people?

Zhou Ke'er immediately called out Renault's name in her mind while turning to look at Chen Tian, ​​her eyes conveying the message: "Do you know this guy?"

Chen Tian looked puzzled and seemed to be recalling something. After hesitating for a moment, he asked, "Qiao Yixia? You are Qiao Yixia?"

The woman heard someone calling her name and looked in the direction of the voice, only to see Chen Tian wearing Chen Tian's appearance—but unfortunately, she didn't recognize him at all. She just stared at him for a while with a puzzled look before frowning and asking, "You are...?"

Before Chen Tian could reveal his identity, a system notification suddenly rang out without warning:

An anomaly has been detected; corresponding measures are being generated...

[The corresponding measures have been generated.]

[Main quests in the Central Continent have been changed.]

[Changed to: Kill the resurrected…]

[Sizzle... sizzle...]

The system has been compromised; corresponding measures are being initiated!

[Startup failed! Warning! Warning!]

[The central mainland region is out of control!]

[Sizzle... sizzle...]

The system notification abruptly ended.

Zhou Ke'er's expression changed slightly, and her pupils suddenly contracted—damn it, whether the main quest changes or not is not important, what is important is that if they don't complete the main quest, they can't leave the game, and people who die in the game are really dead!

Wait, Zhijiansha and the others are still in the canyon! Thinking of this, Zhou Ke'er rushed into Dragon Sleep Valley to try to rescue the people inside.

"Ok?"

Qiao Yixia looked at Chen Tian in confusion. He seemed to be about to answer, but then he seemed to be stopped for some reason. She didn't know what was going on. But she really didn't remember knowing any female "fake people".

Just then, a voice replaced the system notification sound.

It was Renault's voice.

Doing all this seemed very difficult because his words were very rapid and brief, as if he was rushing to finish speaking before being muted.

"The 'Gateway' to leave the game has been opened. It's located at the sealed anchor point in Dragon's Rest Valley and will remain open for one hour. Those who wish to survive should escape through it."

After the words were spoken, a distorted sound was heard, and then the system notification sound returned to normal.

[System has returned to normal! Warning, warning: Beware of third-party virus plugins, do not trust them!]

[Main Quest Update: The seal on Dragonslumber Valley has been breached by a virus plugin, giving rise to a powerful being surpassing even a Lord-level being. All players must work together to destroy it!]

[Friendly reminder: You will not receive the quest rewards if you leave the game before completing the main quest!]

Having found the unconscious Zhijiansha and the others in the black fog, Zhou Ke'er couldn't take so many people with her at once, so she had to carry Zhijiansha first and make her escape.

Other players might not understand what this means, but Zhou Ke'er understands it perfectly!

They were now faced with a choice: either those present would flee with Qiao Yixia, abandoning all the remaining players in the Central Continent, or they would stay and hope that those who obeyed the rules would kill Qiao Yixia, thus saving all the other players.

From a purely rational perspective, Zhou Ke'er, Hong He, and Long Aotian, the three chosen ones, are all here, and none of Zhou Ke'er's teammates have been missed either, so naturally, the safest course of action is to make a quick getaway—but the guild members of Bolius and Long Aotian haven't arrived yet!

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687. Situation

So Zhou Ke'er hesitated for a second—or perhaps not that long—before making her decision: to escape. She escaped immediately.

This was obviously something that required no further hesitation. Zhou Ke'er felt very sorry and regretful about the deaths of the remaining players, but it wasn't his fault, and he couldn't undo it. He just happened to know that he would die if he didn't complete the mission and leave the game.

Given the current situation, surely no one really sees themselves as some kind of protagonist who can turn the tide and save everyone?

Furthermore, this is also a matter of weighing the pros and cons—for those beings, as long as Zhou Ke'er doesn't do anything particularly outrageous, or more accurately, break the rules, they will turn a blind eye in order for the game to continue, and Zhou Ke'er, as the chosen one, can still be guaranteed to be safe.

But for Renault and his team, it was a different story. Zhou Ke'er still couldn't figure out her place in their evaluation system. Their actions were clearly aimed at rescuing the woman named Qiao Yixia, and if Zhou Ke'er tried to obstruct them… she might be eliminated as an obstacle by Renault and his team. They were far more ruthless than those other beings.

If there were other acquaintances, like Honghe and the others, who hadn't arrived yet, Zhou Ke'er would have tried to persuade Qiao Yixia to stay with them until the very last moment before the "exit" disappeared, as a backup. If they still couldn't reach her, then she would have had no choice but to leave. But now that everyone is here, what is there to hesitate about?

His advice was to leave immediately, as soon as possible!

"Ara ara..."

Just then, a figure suddenly appeared in front of everyone, blocking the way to Dragonsleep Valley—it was none other than the GM, the Swollen Woman.

She held a small black fan in her right hand, covering the lower half of her face. Her eyebrows revealed an expression that seemed to be smiling, but it was extremely sinister: "I can't just let you leave like this. I am the supervisor of this event. If such a big mess happens, I will lose face."

Although Qiao Yixia had just woken up, she acted very tough and was not afraid of the swollen woman's threats at all. She immediately raised her rapier and pointed it at the swollen woman: "Nyarlathotep's clone? Your strength has been suppressed, hasn't it? Get out of the way, or you'll die!"

Zhou Ke'er stared at Qiao Yixia in shock—was this guy really that strong? She hadn't realized! Could he directly confront those beings?! Then why had he been sealed in this place for so long?

"Ha...really, you think I can't do anything to you just because you know I'm restricted here and can't attack you directly?"

As the supervisor, the swollen daughter is forbidden from personally taking action. When she met Chen Tian alone before, she didn't do anything, only said a few words. But…: “However, for unexpected factors that forcibly intervene in the game beyond the plan—that is, bugs or viruses—I am still allowed to use some indirect methods to resolve them. For example…”

As the swollen woman finished speaking, the surrounding ground suddenly began to shake and crack, revealing fissures. Countless streams of black mist spewed out from the fissures, forming countless monsters. At the same time, monsters from the distant forests, cities, and plains seemed to have been summoned, surging towards this place in an overwhelming tide.

It blotted out the sky and blocked out the sun.

Zhou Ke'er and Honghe exchanged a glance, and without hesitation, they immediately took off, shouting at the same time, "Run!"

This shout startled the others who were stunned, and they quickly followed Zhou Ke'er and Honghe.

The swollen woman squinted at Zhou Ke'er, "Is this your choice? Are you sure? I can give you another chance."