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

As Honghe ran, she said, "As long as there's no obstruction after exiting the stairwell, just rush over and jump out the window—it should be fine, right?"

"Since you've already made a plan, there shouldn't be any problems. I trust your plan... Be careful!"

As Zhou Ke'er was casually answering, his peripheral vision, which had been constantly alert to his surroundings, seemed to detect a hint of danger. He didn't have time to say anything more, and the narrow terrain at the entrance to the stairwell also limited his ability to act—he couldn't directly pounce on or pull the flamingo away—so he could only reach out and block the flamingo from behind.

"Snapped!"

A slightly sticky sound rang out, and a puddle of "eggs" landed on the back of Zhou Ke'er's outstretched hand.

If Zhou Ke'er hadn't reached out and blocked it, this pile of "eggs" would probably have landed on the flamingo's back or the back of its neck, which would have been terrible.

She instinctively turned her head and saw that it was Shan Xiao, who was already covered by the "eggs". Although he looked like he was going to die, he didn't seem scared or angry at all. Instead, he looked overjoyed and laughed hysterically as he looked at Zhou Ke'er who had been hit by the "eggs": "Hahahaha! You're dead, you're dead! You dare to look down on me, you dare to ignore me! Hahahaha!"

"Tsk."

Zhou Ke'er clicked her tongue lightly, looking at the "eggs" that were spreading rapidly on the back of her hand. She decisively closed the door to the stairwell and said to the others, "Run downstairs first... Honghe, quick, help me get the wine and lighter out of my bag."

Honghe instantly understood Zhou Ke'er's meaning. Without any delay, he immediately unzipped his handbag, smashed open the bottle of wine, and poured it all over the back of Zhou Ke'er's hand. Then he picked up a lighter and asked, "Will you do it yourself or should I?"

Zhou Ke'er frowned and urged, "Don't waste time, hurry up!"

"click"

With the sound of a lighter being lit, flames instantly erupted on Zhou Ke'er's hand, which was covered in alcohol.

"Hiss..." Both Zhijiansha and Lengchitu couldn't help but gasp—Zhou Ke'er was too ruthless!

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743. Doomsday Escape (Seventeen)

The wine was spilled precisely, and Zhou Ke'er also slightly lowered her hand, so the flames did not immediately continue to spread upwards, but only burned fiercely below Zhou Ke'er's wrist.

A faint, acrid smell wafted through the air. Just looking at Zhou Ke'er's burning hand, Zhijiansha and Lengchitu felt an unbearable phantom pain.

"Stop standing around! We don't have any time to waste. Let's get moving!"

Zhou Ke'er endured the excruciating pain—thanks in large part to Xie Yi, who had long trained her to be resistant to pain, to the point that even with her entire palm burning, she could still manage to speak with clear logic—and gestured for Hong He to take her bag before taking the lead and running downstairs.

The other three reacted quickly upon seeing this, and without wasting any more time, they also started walking.

As he ran, Zhou Ke'er kept a close eye on the condition of the hand. To be honest, he wasn't sure if burning it with flames would stop the mutation; he was just guessing based on the fact that the monsters were afraid of flames. If the flames could indeed kill these "eggs," that would be fine. If not, Zhou Ke'er would have to try to find tools to amputate his hand on the spot.

So far, the results seem to be quite good. Judging from the rate of spread and mutation of those who were previously infected with the "eggs," Zhou Ke'er should have been covered by the "eggs" on her upper body, or at least her entire arm, by now. But in reality, there are no traces of the "eggs" spreading above her wrist.

"boom!"

Zhou Ke'er kicked open the door at the top of the stairs. Several monsters were wandering outside, but they were some distance away. Zhou Ke'er simply ignored them and rushed straight to the window without turning her head. She raised her burning left hand, and while she still had some feeling left, she clenched it into a fist and slammed it hard against the window. But the window did not break. Instead, Zhou Ke'er's hand, which had become somewhat charred and brittle, made a slight sound similar to cracking.

"Tsk..."

Zhou Ke'er frowned deeply—it really, really hurt!

"Over here!"

Just then, the flamingo, who had caught up quickly, darted to the glass window not far away, unlocked the window, swiftly pushed the window open, and gestured for the others to walk past her.

There happened to be a bus parked not far from the window. If I jumped onto the roof of that bus, even if I accidentally rolled and fell to the ground, I wouldn't be seriously injured unless I was headfirst.

None of the four hesitated, and the situation on the ground left them no time to hesitate. Honghe handed her bag to Zhijiansha, then took the lead and jumped out of the window, landing steadily on the roof of the bus. Zhijiansha threw her bag to Honghe through the window, then jumped out herself.

Soon, all four of them jumped out of the windows and landed safely on the roof of the bus outside.

Zhou Ke'er estimated that her hand was almost burned off, since her entire palm was faintly charred and shriveled compared to her arm. So she immediately put out the fire.

Although the flames had only burned below the wrist, it didn't mean that only those areas were injured. The forearm, which is closely connected to the wrist, was also severely burned. If burns of this severity weren't treated quickly, they would eventually lead to amputation—or even that wouldn't be enough. But Zhou Ke'er currently had neither the time nor the means to treat the injuries.

However, in the end, Zhou Ke'er didn't think that she could survive for long in this post-apocalyptic environment with the physical strength of an ordinary person. Of course, even if there were a safe way to ensure survival, Zhou Ke'er and her companions would not have chosen that method.

The reason they chose this somewhat radical exploration method was precisely to avoid being judged as "playing passively" or "intentionally sacrificing themselves." Therefore, how could Zhou Ke'er and her team, who were focused on quickly and reasonably typing "gg" without being judged as violating the rules, possibly have given this module any long-term consideration?

"Don't stop, keep running! Let's go back to where we parked and see if the car is still there."

After extinguishing the flames, Zhou Ke'er quickly scanned her surroundings, her expression still grave. Although most of the wandering monsters had been drawn into the train station by the earlier commotion, many remained outside. If Zhou Ke'er and the others wanted to return to the elevated railway, they would have to break through these swarming groups of monsters.

Zhou Ke'er regretted putting out the fire so quickly; otherwise, she might have been able to use it as a deterrent. But there was no time for regret now, as the monsters that had gathered at the window were already eager to jump out.

Without further hesitation, Zhou Ke'er jumped off the bus roof first, glanced at Honghe, and hurriedly said, "You guys go find the car, I'll go lure away these monsters blocking our way. Also—throw me a bottle of wine and a lighter."

As soon as she finished speaking, Zhou Ke'er took the wine and lighter that Honghe threw to her, and rushed forward, shouting to attract the monsters' attention while leading them in the opposite direction.

"Hey... I feel like Zhou Ke'er went a bit too far. After blocking the 'egg' with one hand, she immediately set her hand on fire without hesitation. She had just escaped from the train station and hadn't even had a chance to catch her breath before rushing forward to take on the task of attracting the monster..."

Finger Sand couldn't help but click his tongue and say, "Did he get a shock? Although this sudden appearance of a tough guy is indeed cool, and it fits our mission objective quite well... but didn't he go overboard with his efforts?!"

"Absolutely! I'm too scared to even speak!"

Cold-Eat Rabbit quickly chimed in, "I was just about to suggest using Flame Fist on him, but I felt it wouldn't be appropriate to make jokes at a time like this, so I didn't dare say a word!"

With a glint in his eye, he looked at the cold-cooked rabbit and said, "...You actually have the mind to think about this kind of thing? You're absolutely despicable!"

Honghe jumped steadily off the bus roof with a "whoosh" and said calmly, "This is not the time to chat happily here. If we don't leave soon, those monsters behind us will jump out of the windows and pounce on you. As for your doubts about Zhou Ke'er's behavior, you can just ask him yourself later."

Zhijiansha opened her mouth but didn't speak—she subconsciously wanted to ask if Zhou Ke'er, who was already seriously injured, could really escape alive after drawing away so many monsters. But looking at Honghe's expressionless face, which inexplicably conveyed "I believe him," Zhijiansha ultimately didn't say a word.

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744. Doomsday Escape (18)

While Zhou Ke'er was distracting the monster, the three of them, including Honghe, immediately set off for the overpass where they had first stopped their vehicles.

Fortunately, the elevated road where the car was parked was not the same as the road leading to the train station, so the "police officers" who had driven to the train station earlier did not encounter the car that was inexplicably parked there. When Honghe and the others hurriedly ran back to the location, the car was still parked there perfectly fine, without any damage.

Honghe glanced down at the cars parked on the elevated road below, then nodded to the others. Without hesitation, the group jumped down from the roadside railing, landing steadily beside the cars.

They quickly started the car and all three jumped in, slumping into their seats. After a long and non-stop escape, the adrenaline that was naturally released during the tense situation had taken effect. Now that they had finally calmed down, a wave of intense fatigue washed over them. Everyone started to feel sore backs and even felt like they didn't have the strength to move their hands. Of course, that was just a feeling; if something really happened, they would still be able to move.

"Zhou Ke'er, you're really brave."

Sand slipped between his fingers as he slumped in the car seat, sighing inexplicably.

Cold-cooked Rabbit slumped limply in the car seat like a slug, it was hard to tell if he was still thinking, he just casually chimed in, "So brave."

"However—if Zhou Ke'er doesn't arrive after a long time, I mean, if—in that situation, we give up our chance to escape and instead go back to check the situation and try to rescue her, would that count as…?"

After a moment of silence, it was Zhijiansha who spoke first. Although she didn't finish her sentence, everyone understood her meaning—"Does doing this violate the rule that you can't intentionally throw your life away?"

While they may have had reasonable motives, it is undeniable that they could not avoid the suspicion that they were deliberately trying to get themselves killed.

"I don't think it counts. There's no reason not to rescue a teammate in danger. If this isn't allowed, then it's obviously too extreme—by such a high standard, wouldn't it be a violation if we saw a monster at the train station entrance and insisted on going in instead of immediately turning around and running away? But that's obviously too outrageous."

Cold-cooked Rabbit muttered under his breath, "But to be honest, why did we insist on going in there in the first place... Wouldn't it have been more reasonable to just turn around and run away?"

"First of all, we were pulled into the game without any warning. Secondly, didn't you notice? This module doesn't even have a time limit. And now, it's hard to say whether something bad will happen in the real world while we're asleep. So we have to end this game quickly—in a way that doesn't violate the rules."

Honghe's indifferent voice came from the driver's seat: "But with that vast sea of ​​so-called rules, we simply can't remember all the violations. So we can only categorize them ourselves and make a general summary. Zhou Ke'er should have already made a summary and classification of various violations while trying to avoid violating the limits of the rules."

Cold-cooked Rabbit was stunned, as if it were listening to some profound mathematical knowledge, completely bewildered: "Wh...what does that mean?"

Honghe sighed, but still explained, "For example, at the beginning at the train station entrance, even though we knew it wasn't safe inside, we still tried to go in to test whether voluntarily putting ourselves in danger for the sake of exploration counts as a violation. After all, not all explorations need to yield results, and it's normal to get into danger because of a flawed exploration. If an exploration that is bound to yield no results cannot be called an exploration, then this rule might actually become our mission guide."

For example, even though it was clear that Shan Xiao was feigning weakness while actually being a criminal, the fact that the perpetrator remained silent was to test whether discovering potential danger meant failing to take immediate action. Whether this temporary reluctance to act or secretly plotting and waiting for the right moment constitutes a violation of the rules…

"I see, I understand now. But there's still one thing I'm wondering about..."

Finger Sand immediately understood Red Crane's meaning, but soon raised a new question: "When we were escaping just now, if Zhou Ke'er hadn't voluntarily lured away those monsters, and instead the rest of us had tried to escape directly, wouldn't that have been a more reasonable plan with a higher mortality rate? After all, you can't force someone in a team to bear most of the risks, can you?"

"That's because it's difficult for us to determine whether the criteria for this violation includes subjective elements. If we weren't a familiar team, but rather a group of strangers who didn't know or trust each other, and if there were fewer monsters blocking our path—at least fewer than enough to block the road—in that situation, it would be reasonable for everyone to scatter and run away together, and it shouldn't be considered a violation."

After thinking for a while, Honghe gave his answer: "But in fact, we are indeed a team that trusts each other, and there are many monsters blocking our way. If we rush straight in, it can't be called running away, it can only be called suicide. Zhou Ke'er is probably worried that we will be judged as violating the rules halfway through, and it will be too late to think of other ways then, so for the time being, we will try to avoid such a dangerous situation."

After Honghe finished speaking, the car fell silent. Everyone remained silent, probably unsure of what to say next, simply waiting in silence. Time passed second by second, and even a single second began to feel incredibly long.

I don't know how much time had passed—it might not have been long, but it felt like a very long time—until I finally heard a "bang".

Zhou Ke'er braced herself against the guardrail above the road with one hand, then jumped down and landed directly next to the car. She rolled several times on the ground before managing to dissipate the force and struggle to get up.

Fortunately, Honghe heard the noise and immediately leaned over to open the car door for him, and Zhou Ke'er then staggered into the passenger seat.

"Quickly, turn around—go to that so-called training camp location."

Zhou Ke'er, panting, managed to urge, "Those monsters are about to swarm over, turn around quickly!"

Upon hearing this, Honghe said nothing and immediately did as instructed without hesitation.

Cold-cooked Rabbit asked, puzzled, "Why?! Didn't you say before that place might be the origin of monsters, and even more dangerous?!"

"Wrong—it should be more dangerous in the city!"

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Please take one day off.

Final exams are coming up, and I really can't find the time to write today, so I have to take a day off... Damn it!

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745. Doomsday Escape (19)

"The city is more dangerous? Didn't they say before..."

Cold-cooked Rabbit was even more confused. "What's going on now? Did you discover something when you lured those monsters away?"

Zhou Ke'er shook her head and explained, "No, it's just a simple deduction based on the existing information. Our current speculation is that the more humans those monsters devour, the more anthropomorphic their appearance and the higher their rationality become. In comparison, the monsters on the highway are still in the form of cats and dogs, the monsters at the train station are just beginning to take on human form, while the police monsters that have arrived here are almost indistinguishable from real people. So it's obvious which one is more dangerous, right?"

At this point, Zhou Ke'er paused for a moment, but still added, "Although due to insufficient survey sample, we may only encounter extreme cases... but in theory, we shouldn't be that unlucky."

After Zhou Ke'er explained, Lengchitu understood the logic and realized that she didn't ask any more questions.

Flamingo drove off, shaking off a horde of monsters swooping down from above, and headed straight for the outskirts of the city.

The car fell silent for a moment.

As the tension and numbness gradually subsided, Zhou Ke'er felt an increasingly intense pain coming from her burned left hand.

Previously, Zhou Ke'er had been in a state of extreme excitement and tension. Although she could feel the pain, most of her attention was diverted elsewhere, so she could barely endure it for a while. But now that she had relaxed, the feeling of fatigue and pain surged up mercilessly.

Cold sweat gradually seeped from Zhou Ke'er's forehead—her entire hand was severely burned, and the damage affected more than just that one part; her entire body would be affected by this kind of injury—Zhou Ke'er tried her best to relax her body and lean back in the car seat, controlling her breathing to be steady while closing her eyes and clearing her mind.

After transforming her body into an evil entity, Zhou Ke'er hadn't felt pain for a while. She thought she had almost forgotten the feeling, but unexpectedly, she experienced it again so quickly.

In situations where emergency measures cannot be taken, all one can do is try to maintain a calm and even optimistic mindset.