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

Just then, a loud noise suddenly came from in front of her, and then a cool sensation gradually enveloped the wound on her severed hand, stopping the blood from gushing out and even effectively relieving the pain.

Hu Tao subconsciously opened her eyes again, and what came into view was a figure with jet-black wings growing from its back, but whose figure looked extremely familiar.

Her severed arm was enveloped by a kind of pitch-black mist emanating from that figure. This seemingly illogical pitch-black mist actually managed to suppress the injury.

"Because you sensed my intrusion, you instantly sped up your actions, right? Very well..."

With his back to Hu Tao, Zhou Ke'er grinned. Hidden in the black mist, his sharp teeth reflected a chilling white light. His eyes were a murky black, as if harboring endless, surging malice. Although his face seemed to be smiling, there was no real smile; instead, it appeared extremely ferocious. "You've successfully made me a little angry. That's rare, so… as a reward, why don't you just die?"

Before he could finish speaking, the humanoid monster made of tentacles that he had just knocked back several steps was slammed to the ground again with a dull thud.

The monster's entire body was almost completely shattered by this blow, turning into fragments of tentacles that scattered on the ground and were reabsorbed.

Hu Tao heard a very familiar voice, and just as she was beginning to guess what was going on, she caught a glimpse of the figure's profile and immediately exclaimed, "Zhou Ke'er?! What are you doing here... no, why are you looking like this?"

Zhou Ke'er turned her head and walked towards Hu Tao with a light laugh: "You were the one who asked me for help, so I rushed over to save you immediately. What's wrong with that?"

"Wait! Are you really Zhou Ke'er or not? Quickly verify your identity..."

Hu Tao instinctively tried to back away, but ended up leaning against the wall behind her. She was already in a situation where she had nowhere to retreat, and she couldn't help but speak in a panic.

Before she could finish speaking, Zhou Ke'er walked up to her and gave her a sharp rap on the head. "Where does all this unwarranted wariness come from? If I were a monster, I wouldn't have needed to save you just now—do you think all the monsters are scrambling to eat you, so the monsters that come later have to kill the ones in front first to avoid sharing? You're overestimating yourself."

This speaking style is definitely Zhou Ke'er's.

Hu Tao finally breathed a sigh of relief. The pressure that had been building up for so long, and the fear of death, surged up like a tidal wave. All the composure she had been maintaining was shattered in an instant, and she couldn't help but burst into tears: "You, you're still laughing at me! I really thought I was going to die! Why did something like this happen to me, just an ordinary person like me!"

"Alright, alright, now's not the time to relax and cry. The anomalies in this godforsaken place haven't been resolved yet. It's not too late to cry after we're out of danger."

Zhou Ke'er reached out and grabbed Hu Tao's severed arm, using her evil influence to guide the evil organs that already existed within her body, manipulating them to transfer the evil within to the location of the severed arm—essentially giving the evil within her a new place to reside.

To be fair, if Hu Tao were a pure human like Zhijiansha, losing an arm would be a bit troublesome. Zhou Ke'er didn't have any immediate solutions, but fortunately, she was just an ordinary New Era "human" with evil spirits residing within her. As for her control over these evil spirits, Zhou Ke'er could now shamelessly claim that she was a master.

To Hu Tao's astonishment, a wisp of black smoke first emerged from her severed arm. Then, in a very unscientific way, the smoke spread and grew outwards along with the flesh and blood from the severed arm, eventually reshaping into the shape of a perfectly intact arm.

Hu Tao stared wide-eyed at Zhou Ke'er: "This... how did you do that! Zhou Ke'er, who exactly are you?!"

Zhou Ke'er winked at her, tilted her head, and chuckled softly, "You can consider me... a partner of justice? Hehe."

"What does 'heh' mean?"

Hu Tao couldn't help but complain, but quickly asked worriedly, "But how do we get out of here? I just couldn't find a way out no matter what I did—by the way, how did you get in here?!"

"Shh, don't ask so many questions, just keep a close eye on things."

Zhou Ke'er held up a finger in front of her mouth, then reached out and grabbed Hu Tao. Her wings suddenly spread out, and the black mist floating in the air instantly condensed into the shape of a sharp blade, shattering all the windows on the side of the corridor without any hindrance, as smoothly as cutting tofu.

Before Hu Tao could even react, she was already being pulled into mid-air outside the mental hospital by Zhou Ke'er.

"Found it, the core."

Zhou Ke'er scanned the entire floor, which was constructed of evil, and quickly discovered the core of the evil within it—perhaps it could be called the heart of this monster.

Within this small, fragmented, overlapping space, some kind of monster had devoured an entire floor, transforming itself into the shape of the floor itself. Such a colossal creature would be quite troublesome to deal with using ordinary methods.

Although Zhou Ke'er could kill it entirely, he just wanted to take a shortcut.

He simply waved his hand, condensing the evil into the shape of a sharp spear, and hurled it swiftly toward that location. With a whooshing sound, followed by a disgusting mix of sounds as walls were pierced and tentacles were torn apart.

Without any effort, Zhou Ke'er took out the core with a single shot.

With the destruction of the core, the entire floor began to wither and die. The tentacles dried up and broke, and the seemingly normal walls gradually lost their disguise, revealing disgusting tentacles.

This small space also became unstable, and many spatial cracks began to appear, falling and peeling away, revealing... a series of data streams behind the spatial cracks.

------------

705. Non-core modules

Behind the cracked space, there was a stream of flashing data flowing by.

Zhou Ke'er's pupils contracted slightly—meaning that the current situation was not a natural occurrence in the real world, but rather caused by the game invading the real world.

Just as Zhou Ke'er was pondering this, Hu Tao, who had also witnessed the scene, couldn't help but ask, "What's going on? Why are there data or something behind these cracks... Could it be... like in the movie The Matrix from the old era, that the world we're in now is actually a virtual world?"

At first glance, Zhou Ke'er thought Hu Tao's words were absurd, but upon closer reflection—wow, it wasn't entirely impossible! Given the perverse tastes of those great beings, it's not like they wouldn't do such a thing.

But probably not. If that were the case, it would conflict with some of the information he had previously learned, such as the fact that there are pure human descendants who have multiplied from the old era to the present day. It's impossible that at some point their location suddenly changed from reality to a virtual world.

Zhou Ke'er shook her head, not wanting to think about it any further. To be honest, whether the world she was in was real or virtual didn't make much difference to her.

Without thinking too much, Zhou Ke'er subconsciously reached out and widened the crack, peering inside to see what was going on.

But at that moment, an eye emerged from the torn crack. It looked as if it were constructed from data streams, but it was completely like a physical entity. It stared straight at Zhou Ke'er outside the crack, radiating a strong sense of malice.

Zhou Ke'er instantly felt a tremendous sense of crisis—the eyes opposite him, the being, were not something he could deal with!

Hu Tao, standing beside him, was even more outrageous. She was practically furious. After facing this being, the arm that Zhou Ke'er had just repaired began to twist and writhe, as if the evil on her arm had been given life. It swelled up like fermented dough, and with a series of "pop" sounds, cracks appeared on it, and pupils grew out.

Hu Tao stared in horror at her arm, but she had no control over it and could only watch helplessly as it spread toward her shoulder.

Without hesitation, Zhou Ke'er waved her hand, and the sharp, malevolent energy she had gathered instantly severed Hu Tao's right hand again, leaving only a twisted mass of flesh that fell from the sky to the ground with a "thud," almost smashing into a pile of mud. But it was still struggling and writhing on the ground, its countless pupils staring intently at Zhou Ke'er and Hu Tao in the sky.

The pupil in the crack blinked, its intention unclear.

Zhou Ke'er instinctively clenched her teeth, baring her teeth as if to provoke the other party.

But he did not choose to continue the confrontation. Instead, he immediately used his evil power to stop the blood gushing from Hu Tao's wound, then tore open the spatial rift leading to the present world again, grabbed Hu Tao, and crawled inside.

In the final moment before leaving this place, Zhou Ke'er suddenly sensed something flying towards this direction from the annihilated floor. He wasn't sure if it was the final attack, so to be on the safe side, he used his evil power to wrap the thing up and brought it into the present world.

"?!!"

A look of astonishment and anger flashed across its pupils as it stared incredulously at Zhou Ke'er as she left. It had clearly only retrieved the item after she had left to prevent any accidents, yet that guy had managed to intercept it!

Damn it, it's already memorized Zhou Ke'er's face! The next time they meet, it won't be as friendly as it was this time!

Zhou Ke'er, who hurriedly returned to the real world, naturally had no idea what had happened. She only glanced at the thing she had intercepted and brought back to the real world with her—it didn't look like something that would appear in reality. Instead, it looked a bit like some kind of data string combined and written into a module?

Was this really meant to be used to attack him in the end? It doesn't seem like it could cause any real harm.

However, Zhou Ke'er wasn't an expert in this area, and she wasn't even sure if it was as he suspected, so she naturally couldn't understand the underlying principles. But now wasn't the time to dwell on such things. Zhou Ke'er simply put it in her pocket, then quickly landed and folded the wings on her back.

Fortunately, the place where they came out was sheltered by buildings and they could land directly there, so no one should be able to see what was happening here—but even if they did, it wouldn't be a big deal, it's not a problem for Zhou Ke'er to worry about.

However, Zhou Ke'er frowned as she looked at Hu Tao, who had lost the power of the king again... no, I mean, who had lost her right hand again. This was equivalent to transferring all the evil energy in her body out in such a brutal way.

Why don't other exorcists who have evil spirits residing in their limbs use this method to remove them? On one hand, they need this to gain power. On the other hand, normally there are still scattered and rare evil spirits residing in other parts of the body, so even if the limbs are cut off, it is impossible to completely remove all the evil spirits.

But Hu Tao's situation is different now. Just now, in order to reshape her right hand, Zhou Ke'er had transferred all the evil in her body and poured it into the "model" of her right hand.

In other words, now that Walnut has lost its arm, there is truly no evil spirit left in its body.

What is this? A purebred human born later in life?

But putting everything else aside, this makes it very difficult for Zhou Ke'er to help her regenerate her limbs again.

Zhou Ke'er looked at Hu Tao's severed arm and was at a loss—luckily, no one usually came up to this rooftop, otherwise if others saw that Hu Tao had suddenly lost her arm, things would be a bit troublesome.

Hu Tao, her teeth chattering, couldn't help but ask, "What...what happened just now?! Why did my hand...my hand look like that?!"

"It's just that it's been eroded by the unconscious infection caused by a higher-ranking being."

Zhou Ke'er answered casually, but then frowned—no, stripping away all the evil didn't turn Hu Tao into a so-called pure human. There was something Zhou Ke'er had overlooked: over the long period from birth to now, Hu Tao's body, or rather her organs, had long since adapted to being inhabited by the evil, resulting in changes different from pure humans. Now, if all the evil within her disappeared, she might not feel any problems immediately, but as time passed, the discomfort would become increasingly intense.

Ultimately, they may even die from organ failure.

------------

706.Dream

"W-what's wrong?"

When Hu Tao saw Zhou Ke'er suddenly stop talking halfway through her sentence and her expression become slightly serious, she immediately had a bad feeling and couldn't help but ask.

She wasn't sure if it was just her imagination, but she felt a chill all over her body. It didn't seem to be caused by the cold outside, but rather as if her body was cooling itself down.

"One bad news, one good news."

Zhou Ke'er, too lazy to engage in Scottish drinking jokes with Hu Tao, immediately said, "The bad news is—due to some complicated circumstances, your health is currently in very bad shape, probably to the point where you might die soon. The good news is..."

Hu Tao instinctively replied, "Would it be better for me to die quickly, or would you happen to save my life?"

Zhou Ke'er shrugged, extended a hand to Hu Tao, and grinned, "You're right, I do have a way to save you. So..."

"Are you willing to place your faith in me and become my family?"

A voice, seemingly possessed by magic, slowly flowed into Hu Tao's ears. Zhou Ke'er, smiling gently, was backed by a completely darkened sky, as if the vast expanse of stars was setting off her presence.

At this moment, the stars are shining brightly, as if celebrating the birth of a new main star.

Hu Tao stared blankly at Zhou Ke'er, her eyes filled with a dazed and dazed look, as if she had seen something that made her lose her focus.

She instinctively grasped the hand Zhou Ke'er extended to her and nodded.

“From this day forward…”

Zhou Ke'er spoke softly, a slight smile playing on her lips. She took the initiative, grasping the hand that Hu Tao was holding and guiding it to his heart: "You'll put your faith...in me!"

Thus, the supreme truth was finally achieved, and a new path of faith was opened and constructed, spreading towards the newly born throne.

The moment he gained faith, the stars called out his name—a blessing, and a curse. A blessing that his name would possess ineffable divine power, a curse that his name would never again be uttered by ordinary people.

----------------

She was troubled by spring drowsiness and autumn fatigue because she was startled awake from a dream.

No, it's not waking up from a dream, but waking up from within a dream.

She saw a scene as if the sky were falling, as if the entire sky was being scorched and corroded by something pitch black, and countless people, countless beings, whether in the sky or on the ground, could not escape.

Under such pressure, she felt dizzy and unable to breathe, as if something invisible was choking her throat. The feeling of oxygen deprivation was very real, and everything in front of her gradually turned black.

After a dizzying sensation, she found that her perspective in the dream had changed.

For the first time, she saw the face of the person who had been possessing her in her dreams.

Although she had never seen him before, she had a feeling that the person in front of her was him, the one called Pompeii.

He didn't look particularly elegant at the moment; in fact, he looked rather disheveled.

He clearly suffered considerable injuries in the disaster that caused the sky to fall.

Amidst the dilapidated ruins, he leaned against a small section of broken wall, sitting on the muddy and dusty ground, one leg stretched out and the other bent, pressing against the ground.