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

The swollen woman stood up, silently sized up Zhou Ke'er, and finally narrowed her eyes: "You really know how to cause me trouble—I still have a lot of things to do."

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690. Back to Reality

"!"

Zhou Ke'er woke up with a start, actually sitting up in her own bed. Looking around, it was as if the days she had experienced in the game were all a dream—but the very real strangeness she felt told her that it wasn't.

It wasn't that the body in the game directly replaced the real body; rather, it seemed to have achieved some kind of fusion. After all, Zhou Ke'er hadn't completely lost his mortal body like in the game; his body still truly existed, only with a few extra things inside—divinity, spiritual power, a core of pollution, and so on.

Moreover, due to the significant increase in the amount of evil energy within her body, and its ridiculously high density, Zhou Ke'er now gives off a crazy and gloomy vibe from the outside, looking exactly like a mentally ill boss from some kind of horror movie.

If it weren't for the swollen woman doing Zhou Ke'er a small favor by sealing off the evil within him and preventing it from dissipating, Zhou Ke'er would now look like an indescribable lump of something.

That's it, it looks more like a monster now.

Before Zhou Ke'er could regain her senses, a sudden distortion occurred in the corner of the room, and a figure appeared.

They were people I'd never seen before, but I could sense that some part of their body harbored something sinister—clearly, they were exorcists.

Zhou Ke'er tilted her head at him, expressionless: "Exorcist? What are you doing here? I haven't given you permission to enter my room yet."

"To make a long story short—all forces are closely monitoring many places, and this place is one of them. I temporarily blocked other forces from monitoring this place and rushed here as soon as I saw you return to reality. My purpose is to confirm whether your identity is really as you said to us in the communication bracelet, that you are serving under those great beings just like us."

The elderly man, whose hair appeared to be gray but who was still very energetic and had hardly any wrinkles, explained to Zhou Ke'er meticulously.

"Doubt me? You think you're worthy?"

Zhou Ke'er slowly got off the bed, speaking in a soft voice with highly offensive words. The sinister look in her eyes made it impossible for the other person to understand what she was thinking. They could only feel the restlessness and madness conveyed by the sinister look.

A look of horror flashed in the eyes of the exorcist—this level of evil was even more intimidating than some of the beings they had interacted with… Rather than saying that Zhou Ke'er was a lackey of those beings like them, it would be more accurate to say that he had essentially come close to those beings!

The exorcist bowed without hesitation: "I'm sorry, we were being presumptuous. Please don't blame us. I'll leave now."

After speaking, he slightly raised his head to look at Zhou Ke'er, as if seeking her approval—he seemed he wouldn't dare leave directly without her consent.

Zhou Ke'er nodded slightly, and then the exorcist disappeared from the spot.

Unable to resist, Zhou Ke'er muttered to herself, "They're really used to being treated like dogs."

Picking up her communication bracelet from the bedside table, Zhou Ke'er checked it and realized that while she had spent so many days in the game, in reality, it had only been less than two days. Perhaps if someone else were missing for such a long time, their loved ones would notice and call the police, but for someone like Zhou Ke'er, who lived alone and frequently skipped work, disappearing for a day or two would hardly attract attention. Except for the several calls Hu Tao made a day ago.

"boom"

Zhou Ke'er fell backward, landing on the bed, and muttered to herself as she stared at the ceiling, "This is troublesome, this is troublesome."

As she spoke, Zhou Ke'er called back Hu Tao's missed call.

The call was answered instantly. Hu Tao's voice came through immediately. After confirming that it was indeed Zhou Ke'er who answered, a barrage of questions followed. Zhou Ke'er understood the gist: she had heard yesterday that many people who played that game had mysteriously disappeared. Remembering that Zhou Ke'er seemed to be playing the game and hadn't come to work, she hurriedly called, but no one answered. She went to Zhou Ke'er's house, but no one answered the door. She even considered reporting it missing, but there wasn't enough time to file a case. Luckily, Zhou Ke'er had called her now, otherwise she would have had to rush to the police station.

Zhou Ke'er had no choice but to explain that she had important things to do these past two days, and the places she went to had little signal, so she hadn't had time to check her communication bracelet or anything like that. She reassured Hu Tao before hanging up the phone.

After hanging up the phone, Zhou Ke'er silently looked at the door: "This uninvited guy, after listening for so long, why didn't he just show up in front of me?"

"squeak"

With a soft sound, the door was gently pulled open from the outside, and a young woman in a smart suit appeared in front of Zhou Ke'er. She seemed to have a smile on her lips, but her eyes were cold: "I think I came at the wrong time. I accidentally heard some things I shouldn't have heard."

Zhou Ke'er frowned and sized up the other person. There was no evil aura about him, so he should be a pure human who possessed some other power system. "...Renault sent you here?"

"Renault...who is he?"

The young woman looked slightly puzzled, then introduced herself: "My name is Qiao Lunuo, and I'm currently a supervisor in the secret department. I've been ordered to come find you."

Zhou Ke'er raised an eyebrow slightly and twitched her lips: "A secret department?"

Didn't we already have an exorcist department? Why is there another so-called secret department? This is really confusing.

"It's not a secret department. Our department is called the 'Secret Department,' and it was established entirely by the pure-blooded descendants of humans who survived the old era. It's a department specifically designed to deal with any incidents that may endanger human safety."

Qiao Lunuo explained coldly, "For example, the disappearance of multiple players due to that game, even within our Qiao family, there's been a situation—I remember she should know you, but that's not important—anyway, I've been staking out your place for almost a day because of this. I didn't expect to hear some unexpected things—I mean, considering the good relationship between our two families, could you spare my life? I won't tell anyone about your affairs."

"Spare you?"

Zhou Ke'er raised an eyebrow, slowly walked up to Qiao Lunuo, and reached out to brush a strand of hair behind her ear: "How do you want me to forgive you?"

“For example… don’t kill me?” Giorno argued.

"That's worse than death?"

"It's best not to..."

Zhou Ke'er smiled, leaned close to Qiao Lunuo's ear, and whispered, "Ah, I've thought of a good idea—look, I've already planted a sinister mark on you. If you ever try to do anything to harm me, you'll probably become the target of your own department's annihilation. —It's just a small safeguard, you don't mind, do you?"

Qiao Lunuo stared wide-eyed at Zhou Ke'er, gritting her teeth and declaring righteously, "I don't mind! I don't mind at all!"

Tsk, he looks even more like a villain now...

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691. Since I'm going to be the villain, I might as well go all the way.

"Now I understand why the Zhou family has maintained both overt and covert ties with the Exorcist Organization... They have the confidence to hedge their bets."

Qiao Lunuo stared intently at Zhou Ke'er and asked in a deep voice, "I really don't understand... is it possible to abandon one's human identity for the sake of power?"

Taking a small step back, Zhou Ke'er raised an eyebrow: "Oh, so you're a racist... Then let me ask you a question: During the final battle of the Old Era, angels, demons, vampires, and all sorts of other races also participated in the defense war. Do you think they were allies?"

Qiao Lunuo's eyes flickered: "Of course...it is."

"Isn't that it? As long as the goal is the same, what does it have to do with race? I really don't know where your inexplicable obsession with pure-blooded humans comes from."

Zhou Ke'er scoffed. Although he was a pure human from the Zhou family, he had never felt that Hu Tao, Leng Chi Tu, or Hong He were anything "unhuman." "Or do you think that only you would dedicate your lives to the so-called 'human revival'?"

Qiao Lunuo opened her mouth, seemingly wanting to argue—they had held this belief for a long time, how could they be so easily defeated or persuaded by Zhou Ke'er? So Zhou Ke'er interrupted her before she could even explain: "Besides... even among so-called pure humans, aren't there traitors like me? Hmm?"

As she spoke, Zhou Ke'er took a step closer, almost touching Qiao Lunuo's face, and stood on tiptoe to look down at her: "Or rather—if I turned you into someone like me, what would you do? Continue to hold onto your original beliefs, or simply turn around and throw yourself into our arms?"

Without hesitation, Qiao Lunuo replied, "Of course, we should continue..."

Before she could finish speaking, Zhou Ke'er, having heard the answer she wanted, pressed on, "But you're no longer a pure human."

"!"

Qiao Lunuo's pupils dilated instantly.

Zhou Ke'er lowered her head, reached out and pinched Qiao Lunuo's chin, forcing her head up, and whispered almost nose to nose, "So, do you understand now?"

"Understand...understand what?" Qiao Lunuo was forced to look directly into Zhou Ke'er's eyes, and felt an uncontrollable dizziness. She asked subconsciously.

Zhou Ke'er suddenly released her grip, took a step back, and the sinister expression on her face vanished, replaced by a warm smile: "Now you should understand... I was just joking with you. Hey, don't take it so seriously! Your perspective is determined by your position. I'm still a member of the Zhou family, how could I possibly side with the exorcists? My interactions with those exorcists are always on a mission—the Zhou family's top spies, do you understand the value of that?"

Qiao Lunuo was caught off guard by the sudden change and stared blankly at Zhou Ke'er, not knowing what to say for a moment. She subconsciously said, "You...you just told me such confidential information so easily? Aren't you afraid I'll leak it?"

"Of course I'm not afraid—I was just joking with you, I didn't say anything..."

Zhou Ke'er's smile remained warm, but her words were chilling: "I never said the evil spirit planted on you was fake. It just so happens that the guy I met with earlier ran into some trouble, and you just delivered yourself to my doorstep—what a coincidence, isn't it?"

Now, Zhou Ke'er is a master of mixing lies with truth, truth with lies, or making the truth sound like a lie and the lie sound like the truth. With the addition of coercion and enticement to lower the other party's guard, achieving her goal is incredibly easy.

"you……"

Qiao Lunuo was originally ordered to check on Zhou Ke'er's situation, but she didn't expect to be led by the nose from the very beginning and now she can't say a word.

"drop"

Zhou Ke'er didn't care what Qiao Lunuo was going to say. She just took the communication bracelet, opened the contact interface, and touched the communication bracelet on Qiao Lunuo's wrist: "Okay, I've added your contact information. From now on, you'll be my contact person. Remember to keep in touch! Oh, and by the way, don't die too early, otherwise it'll be quite troublesome to find the next contact person."

Qiao Lunuo stared blankly at Zhou Ke'er, but fortunately, she was a very professional department head. Although she had been outmaneuvered from the start, she wasn't so speechless as to stammer out "Aba aba" all the time. She quickly recovered from her shock, cleared her throat, and changed the subject, trying to regain the initiative: "I know about this... We can talk about anything else later. I came to you with a task, and I suggest you help me complete it first, after all—you don't want too many people to know about your situation, right?"

"Of course, please."

Seeing that she had achieved her goal, Zhou Ke'er naturally wouldn't pursue the matter any further. So, she calmly lowered her tiptoes, crossed her arms, nodded, and said...

Seeing that Zhou Ke'er was cooperating, Qiao Lunuo breathed a slight sigh of relief and cleared her throat, saying, "All pure-blooded humans involved in this game-related incident must be taken to a secret location for questioning and observation to prevent any problems from arising. According to procedure, you should also be required to go there, but given your current state of being filled with evil energy, once you go there you will be..."

It seemed that Qiao Lunuo didn't want Zhou Ke'er to go over, lest it cause some trouble, so she prepared to rehearse his story here and find an excuse for him not to go.

However, before she could finish speaking, Zhou Ke'er snapped her fingers, and the eerie aura surrounding her vanished instantly, as if it had never existed. In its place was a pure spiritual energy.

Zhou Ke'er has now transformed from a great demon into a genuine cultivator.

Just now, Zhou Ke'er spent about five seconds searching her mind for the knowledge about evil that Tavel had left her. She had heard the swollen woman talk about it in such an alarming way, and thought that it would be a very difficult thing to gather and hide evil. But Zhou Ke'er learned it after just one glance, and not only did she learn it, she did it very smoothly all at once... That's it?

"Shh~ What do you mean by being all evil? I don't understand what you're talking about. I'm a genuine cultivator who has inherited the Zhou family's legacy."

Zhou Ke'er winked at Qiao Lunuo and said with a grin, "From this secret department and Qiao Lunuo's power system, it's clear that the Zhou family must have hidden strength behind the scenes, so it shouldn't be a big problem for him to borrow an identity."

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692. Times have changed, adults

"I'm starting to really believe you're an undercover agent from the Zhou family's organization that's trying to eliminate the 'Strange People'..."

Qiao Lunuo sensed the pure spiritual energy that had suddenly switched within Zhou Ke'er's body, and after a moment of stunned silence, she murmured.

Zhou Ke'er shrugged and didn't say anything more.

The two stepped out of the room and saw Porius slowly waking up on the living room sofa. Giorno was startled and almost instinctively launched an attack—this guy wasn't here when she was staking out the place!

Fortunately, Zhou Ke'er quickly stopped Qiao Lunuo. After giving a brief explanation, she also comforted the still somewhat unstable Bolius, who had just regained consciousness. After saying a few perfunctory words and telling Bolius to stay here for the time being and not to wander off, she dragged Qiao Lunuo away from the place.

At least Bolyus's awakening confirmed one thing for Zhou Ke'er—that the Swelling Woman's last words were true at least in one respect: she would send the other players back to reality through that spatial rift.

However… those beings never explicitly stated that if a player dies in that module, they will also die in reality, right? This information was given to Zhou Ke'er by that guy Renault. Who knows if his source is accurate or if he's deceiving Zhou Ke'er for some purpose?

Each with their own thoughts, Qiao Lunuo helped Zhou Ke'er into the department's vehicle and then drove quickly towards the containment location designated by the secret department.

The journey was silent. Zhou Ke'er leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, looking as if he were sleeping. In reality, he was immersed in his memory palace, quickly browsing through Tavel's knowledge. There was so much knowledge that Zhou Ke'er felt he might not be able to finish reading it even in decades. However, he didn't have that much time, so he could only hurry up and find some that he could use now to learn.

Before long, the two arrived at a very remote and desolate suburb. After parking the car, Qiao Lunuo bent down in a patch of weeds, reached out and lifted the cover hidden inside, and then scanned her department ID onto it.

With a soft "drip" and a faint rumbling sound, the wasteland next to the grass slowly cracked open in the middle and receded to both sides, revealing a downward staircase.

"Let's go."

Qiao Lunuo nodded to Zhou Ke'er, indicating that he should go downstairs with her.

Zhou Ke'er narrowed his eyes. The instant the passage opened, he seemed to sense an ominous aura, but it quickly vanished, as if it were just an illusion—though obviously, if someone said that, it couldn't be an illusion. Zhou Ke'er trusted his intuition quite a bit.

“I have a bad feeling—my advice is that we should proceed with caution.”