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

As she spoke, Honghe took out her phone—she had just lost her own, so she was using Zhou Ke'er's—and showed the screen to Lengchitu, adding, "Your judgment and observation skills really need some work. Although that guy's jacket sleeves were long, if you looked closely, you could still tell what he was wearing on his hands—don't tell me you saw it but thought it was just a simple silver bracelet? It was obviously handcuffs with broken chains. So even though I didn't have much hope, I still asked anyway—and I didn't expect to actually get an answer."

The phone screen displayed a short message from a contact with the police. Honghe, citing the broken handcuffs on Shan Xiao's hands, began questioning him and secretly took photos, sending them to the police. The police quickly searched and compared information through the public security system's internal network, soon finding the man's information—sure enough, they hadn't been wrong. The man was not only a criminal, but he had also lied about his name.

The police stated that they would immediately dispatch officers to arrest him and advised Honghe to keep her distance to avoid any danger.

"However, in the end... compared to the fact that Shan Xiao is a criminal, what really seems more absurd to me is that the communication devices are still working and the police haven't noticed anything unusual here."

Sand between Fingers couldn't help but complain, "Logically speaking, shouldn't the communication equipment fail immediately under these circumstances? Could it be that the origin of this disaster just happens to be near this place, and it hasn't been going on for very long, so it hasn't spread to the city yet?"

"That should be right. I suspect that the origin of this monster is the same place we were supposed to go to for the training camp."

As Zhou Ke'er lay on the ground, trying to peek through the crack in the door to see what was happening, she casually replied, "Obviously, we were matched into the module together, so our backgrounds and identities should be connected. Just like how I, Zhijiansha, and Lengchitu are students, while Honghe is a teacher, even though we might have started in different places, we're bound to have a connection in terms of our identities. In that case, it's reasonable to speculate that Chunkunqiufa and Zhang He, who haven't met us yet, are probably teachers or students who have already arrived at the training camp, or they might be staff members there."

Since almost all of us are converging in this one place, and judging from the communication situation and police performance, nothing that could cause a riot has occurred in the city... then, given the danger posed to our module, the origin of this disaster is very likely in that place, right in our faces. And since we are currently heading in the opposite direction, we haven't encountered any particularly dangerous situations yet.

"So that means—we should hurry and escape to the city? The farther away from here, the safer we are?"

Cold-cooked rabbit immediately asked.

"There are no monsters behind the door, you can pass through."

After observing through the crack in the door for a while, Zhou Ke'er breathed a sigh of relief. She quietly pushed the door open, cautiously peeked out again to look around, and then, as she went out, she gestured for the person behind her to follow. She replied, "Hmm... based on the current intelligence, that should be the case. But I don't think it's that simple. If it were just a choice trap at the beginning, this module wouldn't be a nightmare. There must be some information that we haven't noticed or haven't yet discovered."

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734. Doomsday Escape (12)

As the group continued running forward, they suddenly heard the sound of police sirens getting closer and closer.

"Is it really that fast?!"

Zhou Ke'er and Hong He exchanged a glance, a hint of doubt in their eyes—it had only been less than ten minutes since Hong He had contacted the police, how could they have arrived so quickly? It couldn't be that there was a police station right next door, could it?

Thinking this, Zhou Ke'er and the others immediately stopped running forward and looked out through the glass wall on the outside of the corridor—the corridor was located directly above the main entrance of the train station, so they could see clearly when looking down.

In order to hear the sounds clearly, Zhou Ke'er quickly looked around and soon found a glass window that could be opened. She immediately reached out and pushed it open, and everyone held their breath and listened intently to the sounds outside.

Soon, several police cars stopped at the entrance of the train station. Several police officers got out of the cars and, seemingly noticing the "security personnel" at the station entrance, immediately showed their police IDs and asked, "Hello, I'm sorry to bother you, but could you please answer a few questions for us first? Thank you very much."

Having run a little further away, Zhijiansha could barely see the "security personnel" from that angle, so he broadcast a live report for Zhou Ke'er and the others: "Those monsters didn't speak, they just smiled and nodded!"

Seeing that the "security personnel" were very cooperative, the policeman continued, "Here's the thing, we received a call a while ago reporting a series of murders on the highway ahead. But the overpass leading there is somehow broken, and strangely enough, there isn't a single vehicle around here. We were thinking of asking someone nearby, but the nearest place with people is right here, quite a distance away... Do you know what happened here?"

Hearing this, Zhou Ke'er understood—this wasn't the call made at the train station, but rather the call made earlier when they first got on the elevated road.

But is it possible that even the police are unaware of the situation here? At the beginning, Zhou Ke'er found it very strange that there were no cars on the elevated road, not even one heading towards the city. She thought it was because of some reason—for example, that the police knew that part of the elevated road had collapsed, so they had closed the road at the very beginning.

Surprisingly, they didn't know the situation either—so why was that?

Finger Sand continued its live report with utmost dedication: "Those monsters still don't seem to be saying anything! They're still laughing, ah, their mouths are getting wider and wider, it's a really creepy laugh! They're just staring at those police officers like that, I feel like those police officers are in danger, should we warn them?"

Zhou Ke'er and Honghe exchanged a glance. After a moment's thought, Honghe was about to nod at the sand between her fingers when she suddenly saw Zhou Ke'er's expression change. She hurriedly reached out to stop everyone: "Wait! No! I feel like something's not right... wait..."

As if guided by a sixth sense, Zhou Ke'er felt something was amiss without any apparent reason. She couldn't help but stare intently at the police officers who had gotten out of the car, scrutinizing every single one of them.

After a long silence, Zhou Ke'er turned to the others and said, "Don't you guys think... the expressions on those police officers' faces are also strange? Although their smiles might seem perfectly normal to Zhijian Sha because of the monsters, from my perspective alone... I think their smiles are also quite creepy!"

"what do you mean……"

Honghe didn't finish her sentence, but the meaning was already clear. Everyone immediately understood Zhou Ke'er's intention.

"No, no way... Aren't those police officers supposed to speak fluently? And they don't keep repeating the same sentence like those monsters."

Cold-Eat Rabbit couldn't help but retort, "Besides, if those police officers are monsters too, why are they still confronting each other... Look, look, those police officers seem to have realized something's wrong, they've all drawn their guns! How could those monsters possibly use guns?"

“What you said makes a lot of sense. I don’t have any solid evidence to prove that, it’s just… a gut feeling.”

Zhou Ke'er nodded, confirming Lengchitu's statement: "Maybe I am being too sensitive, but... let's wait and see."

Cold-Eat Rabbit shrugged indifferently: "Fine, you're the leader, you call the shots. Hopefully those policemen are alright. I wonder if the guns can even harm those monsters."

Before Lengchitu could finish speaking, a loud gunshot rang out.

The police opened fire on the monsters! Then, the report from Finger Sand finally arrived: "Just now, those security personnel couldn't resist revealing their monster forms!"

No wonder he fired without hesitation.

However, if they fired at such close range, the "eggs" from those monsters might splatter onto the police officers!

Just then, something shocking happened—the “eggs” indeed splashed onto the police officers at the front, but they did not let out any screams or wails of terror. When the “eggs” touched them, it was like a drop of water falling into the ocean, without making any ripples, and they were completely dissolved.

At the same time, the police officers' other hands, which were not holding guns, softened like those monsters, becoming like some kind of viscous solid or a malleable material, and quickly splashed out, tightly wrapping the "security personnel" like a spider web.

Then came a series of nauseating sounds that made your teeth ache, as well as a dull thud like the stomach digesting food.

Cold-Eat Rabbit took two steps back in surprise and quickly covered his mouth with his hand—good heavens, Zhou Ke'er really has a jinx; she actually predicted it! These police officers... are monsters too!

I never imagined that monsters would devour each other!

"Oh? It seems there are still many survivors in this train station... Are they upstairs?"

The faint whispering of the police officers drifted up, and Zhou Ke'er's pupils contracted sharply. She immediately and quietly closed the window tightly, then hurriedly shouted to the crowd, "Run! Run! It's dangerous here!"

Before they could run even a few steps, a disgusting, sticky "splat" sound rang out—a policeman-looking fellow appeared out of the window without warning, clinging to the outside of the glass gun in a disgusting posture like a gecko or lizard, and gave Zhou Ke'er and the others inside a chilling smile: "Found it~"

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739. Doomsday Escape (Thirteen)

They only had time to glance back before immediately sprinting forward again—what a joke! That thing was just too disturbing, especially doing such a thing in a human form; it was even more terrifying than the monsters from before!

"Crunch crunch"

A disgusting sound came, and the policeman who jumped up was seen moving his limbs and crawling quickly on the outside of the glass wall. Logically speaking, running should be faster than crawling, but this guy's speed was unexpected, and he was faster than a normal person running. He quickly reached a position parallel to Zhou Ke'er and the others.

It appears to have gained its stickiness by partially "egg-like" appearance on the glass wall, thus supporting its crawling on the wall and leaving extremely long trails of slime and slight signs of corrosion—the "egg" clearly has a corrosive effect on other objects.

"Why are you running? We are police officers. Do you know where the person who called the police is? We are here to help you."

The guy relentlessly pursued them from the outside of the glass wall, wearing a creepy, disgusting smile, his voice faintly drifting over from outside.

Unfortunately, he was all alone—no, a monster—chattering away, and nobody paid any attention to him. None of Zhou Ke'er and her friends had the time to talk to him.

So the monster was ignored for a while, until it finally got angry. The smile on its face vanished instantly, and its expression changed as quickly as a two-faced fake friend spitting behind someone's back and then grinning when they turn around. In an instant, its eyebrows drooped, revealing a twisted and ferocious expression, and it angrily said, "Answer me! Why won't you answer me! I'm a police officer! You should answer me right now! You should be doing this!"

"should"?

This word is used in a very interesting way. It implies that it learned the common sense that "ordinary people should answer police questions" from somewhere, perhaps through some scattered memories gained after devouring and assimilating the bodies of these police officers, or perhaps by making judgments based on the actions of other people it encountered?

But regardless of whether it's the former or the latter, it all illustrates one point—these monsters possess an extremely strong learning ability. They can quickly accept and learn what their mimicked identity can do, and progress rapidly. From initially only being able to transform into cats and dogs, then an incomplete human form, later becoming able to repeat some simple words and phrases, appearing indistinguishable from normal people, and finally becoming what we see now—not only does it appear completely normal under normal circumstances, but it can also engage in a certain degree of normal communication.

If this continues to develop, it's highly possible, no, it's beyond doubt, that these monsters could easily blend into the human population without being detected.

"boom!"

Regardless of whether the noise would attract monsters or whether there were monsters behind the door, Zhou Ke'er did not slow down at all and pushed open the door at the end of the corridor.

However, this was already the end of the staff passage, which led to a waiting hall—so there was no doubt that it was filled with wandering monsters.

The sound of the door opening naturally attracted the attention of all the monsters. They paused for a second, then transformed into swarms of eggs and rushed towards the door.

Zhou Ke'er immediately closed the door, took two steps back, and waved to Honghe and the others to quickly check if the staff passage door on the inside of the corridor could be opened. After all, just like when Shan Xiao left earlier, the staff passage here didn't only have two exits at the beginning and end; there were also many side doors on the inside of the corridor leading to other places.

At the same time, Zhou Ke'er pursed her lips fiercely, then curled her lips into a somewhat eerie smile, walked to the glass wall, and pushed the window open.

"call out!"

Seeing that Zhou Ke'er had actually opened the window, almost simultaneously, the monster lying outside the window swung its already "egg-like" arm and attacked Zhou Ke'er.

But Zhou Ke'er didn't flinch. Instead, she smiled, squinted at the other person, and asked, "You're a police officer, right?"

The monster stopped moving, its arm tip halting less than a few centimeters from Zhou Ke'er. It answered matter-of-factly, yet with a hint of doubt, "Of course."

What should the police do?

Without hesitation, Zhou Ke'er continued to ask—the sounds of the monsters approaching were getting closer and closer, and they would probably reach the door in less than two seconds. The door didn't look particularly thick, and it was unknown how long it could hold them off.

Upon hearing Zhou Ke'er's question, the monster froze, then frowned in thought. "You should answer the police's questions—but what are the police supposed to do? What are the police supposed to do? I'm a police officer, what am I supposed to do? I can't remember, I don't know... You know! Tell me! Tell me now!"

"It couldn't be simpler—what the police are supposed to do is protect the public."

Zhou Ke'er still had that sly, narrowed look in her eyes. She pointed to herself and said in a matter-of-fact manner, "And we are the people, and we are in danger right now—so you should protect us."

The monster fell into deep thought, but quickly revealed an angry expression: "No! You're lying to me! If I'm supposed to protect you—then why are you afraid of me! Why do you run away the moment you see me?!"

Zhou Ke'er retorted confidently, "Where did you get that idea? When did we run away as soon as we saw you? When we were running, didn't we tell you—there are many monsters ahead, please help us—? Or did you not hear us and instead blame us?"

The monster was startled by Zhou Ke'er and quickly recalled what had just happened. "You...you lied to me! You couldn't have said anything, you clearly didn't say anything!"

Zhou Ke'er put her hands on her hips, looking exasperated: "What are you saying? How can the police doubt the people? Besides, if we really ran away because we were afraid of you, why would I dare to talk to you directly now? So isn't the answer obvious? You just didn't hear what we said, and that's why you're making your own assumptions!"

Now the monster finally believed it and immediately fell into self-doubt, "So, I should protect you?"

"That's right! You're right! So what are you waiting for? Get moving! I need your protection right now!"

Seeing that the other party was being fooled, Zhou Ke'er immediately urged them to hurry up, lest they overthink it and realize what was going on.

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740. Doomsday Escape (XIV)

"I see………"

The other person looked as if they had suddenly realized something, as if they really believed Zhou Ke'er's nonsense—but then, without warning, they suddenly jumped in through the window and pounced on Zhou Ke'er.

However, to its surprise, the moment it climbed through the window, Zhou Ke'er had already premeditatedly retreated a considerable distance and smoothly pulled off her coat, throwing it at it.

In the rush, most of the "eggs" that the creature had splattered towards Zhou Ke'er were caught by the suddenly thrown coat and smacked hard on its own face. Although this didn't cause it any harm, it effectively stopped the creature's actions.

"It's a real shame. If you hadn't listened to me and had attacked me directly, I would have been in real danger."

Zhou Ke'er's slightly sarcastic words floated down her lips.

That's right, Zhou Ke'er's original intention was never to try to influence or fool the other party with words—after all, that would be too absurd no matter how you look at it, wouldn't it? How could anyone actually believe such a situation?

His goal has always been to buy time!

"boom!"

Almost simultaneously, just as Zhou Ke'er had predicted, the door to the side was quickly breached by the monsters, who surged out like a tidal wave—or perhaps not quite a metaphor? The monsters truly transformed into a tide of "eggs"—and under the influence of inertia, they instantly engulfed the policeman monster whose face was covered and who could not see the situation.

Just as Zhou Ke'er was in the blind spot of the surging monsters, she bowed slightly to them without making a sound, silently expressing her gratitude in a mocking way. Then, she retreated into the side door that Honghe and the others had already opened, and quietly closed the side door without attracting the attention of any of the monsters.