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

"?"

The guy wearing the clown mask hadn't expected Zhou Ke'er to react this way, and for a moment he didn't know what to say.

"What a clumsy imitation! A mask! A mask?"

Zhou Ke'er dragged the axe slowly toward the other person, feeling deeply offended: "Don't hide your shameful, ugly face under this mask—it only disgusts me. If you don't want to take it off yourself, then I'll help you."

"..."

The man wearing the clown mask didn't say anything, but suddenly waved his hand at Zhou Ke'er, and the dagger instantly disappeared from his hand.

Zhou Ke'er tilted her head slightly, without making any significant body movements, and continued walking forward, thus dodging the dagger that swept past his face.

“Aiming for the head is a stupid thing to do—if you can’t guarantee a hit.”

Zhou Ke'er patiently explained, as if instructing a student: "Look, I only need to tilt my head slightly, and your attack is completely ineffective, not even slowing me down. Since you can't guarantee a hit, you should choose the torso as your target. That way, the opponent will have to dodge no matter what, at least buying you time to create distance, understand?"

The guy wearing the clown mask quickly retreated, and with a wave of his hand, another dagger appeared in his hand—although it seemed to appear out of thin air, it was actually just a bit faster and was actually taken from his belt—Zhou Ke'er saw it clearly.

Showing off your speed in front of Zhou Ke'er is like trying to teach a fish to swim.

Before it could even throw another dagger, the gleaming axe blade appeared before it.

The creature hurriedly dodged to the side, but Zhou Ke'er appeared in front of it as if she had anticipated its movements. "See? This is how you launch a sneak attack."

Before she finished speaking, Zhou Ke'er tightly gripped the other person's hand holding the dagger with her right hand and stabbed it fiercely towards its own head, while her left hand smoothly pulled out another dagger from the other person's belt.

The man felt the dagger in his hand stabbing towards his head, and instinctively tilted his head back to dodge, narrowly avoiding the attack.

Just as it was about to mock Zhou Ke'er for actually making the mistake it had so confidently stated, it suddenly felt a sharp pain in the back of its head, a cold sensation penetrating its brain—the dagger Zhou Ke'er was holding in her left hand had been waiting in that spot all along, and it had even bumped into it by leaning its head back.

"?!!"

Zhou Ke'er let go of his hand, and the guy collapsed to the ground.

Picking up the axe that had been tossed aside, Zhou Ke'er chopped down the man's head, smashing the mask along with it, while shaking her head and sighing, "No difficulty at all. Is this all you've got?"

Zhou Ke'er figured it out. Judging from the two guys she had encountered so far who should be considered "staff members of the castle", the "monsters" here were just superficially terrifying and had physical abilities much stronger than normal people. Apart from that, there were no other illogical settings.

Of course, it's also possible that Zhou Ke'er just hasn't met the right person yet.

Zhou Ke'er crouched down and picked up the daggers from the man's body, putting them into her own possession. Then, she picked up the axe and walked forward.

There's no need to keep asking that unlucky guy what this place is used for; anyway, asking won't necessarily get you any answers, and besides—it's no longer important to Zhou Ke'er.

What is the purpose of this castle, and how does it affect what Zhou Ke'er wants to do here?

Since there are no task restrictions, Zhou Ke'er can do whatever she wants!

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772. The Strange Man in the Castle (Part 3)

"Da...da..."

The sound of light and heavy footsteps echoed in the porch—it wasn't that Zhou Ke'er was lame, but that he was hopping around on the checkered floorboards out of boredom.

It's strange that after he dealt with the guy wearing the clown mask, no other guys came knocking on his door like the Calabash Brothers saving their grandfather. It's actually a bit boring.

"Clang~ Clang~"

Just then, a bell rang out from nowhere, its sound resounding throughout the entire castle. Before the bell had even faded, the candles on both sides of the porch went out one by one, as if a switch had been pulled, until the entire castle was plunged back into darkness.

A sinister voice echoed throughout the castle: "It's dark, please close your eyes~ Those who haven't hidden themselves properly should be careful."

Zhou Ke'er blinked. With the help of the eerie power, he quickly adapted to the dark environment and continued walking forward while observing his surroundings.

In the pitch-black environment, everything around seemed to undergo some kind of indescribable change—well, it was indescribable to normal people, but with Zhou Ke'er's adaptability to this thing, she could see all the changes clearly.

For example, the patterns on the walls on both sides of the porch are constantly unfolding, as if fresh blood is dripping down the lines, forming a pattern of an eye standing in a triangle.

Moreover, these patterns were constantly changing, and the eyes seemed to be fixed on Zhou Ke'er, following his movements.

Upon closer inspection, one can see faint, scattered green fluorescence emanating from the patterns. Even those who cannot see in the dark can discern the patterns outlined by these lines.

Although these patterns do not contain any evil aura, they seem to have "borrowed" some evil functions in some way—for example, most importantly, if a normal person stares at this thing for a long time, it will have an impact on their mind, or even distort it.

Now, the entire castle is plunged into darkness, with only faint light emanating from these patterns. This is a deliberate use of the principle of phototropism, intended to make those "people" still outside notice the patterns and thus distort their minds.

Speaking of which, what that voice said earlier did bother Zhou Ke'er.

The term "player" is not hard to understand. At the beginning of this module, the middle-aged man with two horns, who looked like a demon, said that this was a "game". So it is obvious that Zhou Ke'er and the others who woke up on the floor of the hall should be the players or "players" of this game.

Zhou Ke'er remembered that the phrase "Close your eyes when it gets dark" seemed to be a fixed line from some kind of game. But if it was that kind of game, it meant that the person who was going to attack the other "contestants" was also one of the "contestants." But Zhou Ke'er had already detected them at the beginning of the module, and there wasn't a single monster or anything out of the ordinary among the "contestants"—they were all perfectly normal people.

Therefore, if the "player" were to make a move in this "dark" environment, the influence of these patterns would be a significant disadvantage, in addition to the interference from the monsters from before—unless the "player" doesn't need to leave a safe location and can directly control the monsters from the spot? But if that's the case, how did he gain full map visibility?

Or perhaps... the phrase "Close your eyes when it gets dark" is merely a "reminder" and has nothing to do with the game's content? "When it gets dark" means the castle is plunged into darkness, and "close your eyes" means to close your eyes and not observe, otherwise you will be affected by those patterns? Although this explanation is somewhat far-fetched, it does make sense.

As Zhou Ke'er pondered, she stepped into the corner of the porch and entered a place that resembled a banquet hall.

There were no fluorescent patterns on the walls here—instead, a single, enormous eye pattern stretched across the ceiling of the room. Unlike the numerous and intricate patterns on the porch walls, there was only one, as if it were gazing down upon the entire room.

"Pat-pat-pat..."

Just then, a series of hurried and disordered footsteps came from afar—the sound grew closer and closer, seemingly coming from this direction.

Zhou Ke'er raised an eyebrow with interest. He'd been playing a one-man show for so long; now it was finally time for other actors to join in. Hopefully, he wouldn't ruin it so easily.

Licking her lips, Zhou Ke'er's lips curled up slightly as she walked unhurriedly toward the direction from which the sound came. She even mischievously changed the giant axe she had been holding with both hands to one hand, dragging it on the ground and making a teeth-grinding scraping sound as it was dragged along.

Soon, a figure appeared at the side door at the other end of the banquet hall. It was a woman who looked to be in her early twenties. Her blonde hair was soaked with sweat and clung tightly to her cheeks and forehead. She exuded a panicked aura, as if she had stumbled and staggered here in a panic.

When his gaze swept over Zhou Ke'er, his eyes didn't change at all—it seemed he couldn't see clearly in complete darkness.

Of course, this is incomparable to Zhou Ke'er. Rather, it's more accurate to say that Zhou Ke'er's eyesight might be better in the dark—he could even see the other person's eyes clearly from this distance.

However, it seemed that no monsters were chasing her. So what was she running away from?

And... couldn't she hear the sound of the axe scraping the ground?

Zhou Ke'er continued to approach her unhurriedly, the sound of the axe scraping the ground echoing in the banquet hall.

Finally, the man's movements visibly began to falter. Zhou Ke'er could even see it clearly—his eyes revealed a look of surprise and uncertainty. He immediately stopped in his tracks, squatted down, and gently took off his shoes, throwing them away with a "thud" sound. Then, he tiptoed away in the opposite direction.

So, does this mean that, logically speaking, the monsters here wouldn't be able to see their surroundings clearly in the dark? Or is she not guarding against monsters, but against other contestants?

Zhou Ke'er blinked excitedly, then headed straight for the woman's location.

"?!"

The woman's expression suddenly became quite interesting—a mixture of confusion, surprise, and fear. Her eyes seemed to say, "The other person can see my movements? That's impossible! What's going on?"

But she did not choose to sit and wait for her fate. Instead, she gritted her teeth, turned around, and tiptoed towards the direction where she had discarded her shoes.

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773. The Strange Man in the Castle (Part 4)

Zhou Ke'er watched with great interest as the woman cautiously hid in another corner, holding her breath and staring intently, trying to see clearly what was happening in front of her, but she just couldn't see anything.

Zhou Ke'er casually leaned the axe against the edge of the table and tiptoed toward the other woman, quickly getting behind her.

Meanwhile, she was still trying to look ahead, but she couldn't find any trace of Zhou Ke'er.

Slowly approaching her ear from behind, Zhou Ke'er whispered in a pleasant yet eerie tone, "Here... oh..."

The poor girl was so frightened that her hair stood on end, and without hesitation, she lunged forward and rolled away.

She reacted quickly, but unfortunately, Zhou Ke'er reacted even faster. Just as she was halfway through her forward lunge, she felt herself being pulled hard, her body coming to an abrupt halt. If she hadn't instinctively braced herself with her hands on the ground, she probably would have landed face-first.

"Hey, hey, be careful! If I hadn't been holding you, you would have fallen flat on your face."

With a smile, Zhou Ke'er twisted the truth and said in a lighthearted tone, "Don't be afraid, I'm not a bad person."

Upon hearing this, the woman's back stiffened, it was unclear whether she believed it or not—but most likely she didn't.

However, Zhou Ke'er quickly added in a sinister tone, "Because... I'm not human~"

"call out!"

Before she could finish speaking, the woman couldn't help but turn around and swing her fist in the direction from which the sound came.

It was then precisely grasped by Zhou Ke'er's hand.

"It's not good to lay hands on you. I haven't done anything to harm you yet, have I? What you're doing really hurts me."

Zhou Ke'er said in a very regretful tone, "I thought we should help each other."

The woman had calmed down by now. She probably realized that Zhou Ke'er was just a smooth talker and didn't seem to have any intention of making a move. So she tried to negotiate: "I don't think what you did just now can be called mutual help—you haven't even let go of me yet."

"Hey, you can't say that. Look at you when you came in, all disheveled and terrified, how pathetic. So, I'll help you get out of this mess, and you'll help me find happiness. Isn't that a perfect example of mutual help?"

Zhou Ke'er released the other person's hand, and although she knew the other person couldn't see, she still subconsciously spread her hands and answered in the standard gesture.

Of course, Zhou Ke'er didn't actually intend to kill the other person. He wouldn't act rashly unless someone posed a significant threat to him—for example, that unlucky guy from the beginning, isn't he still safely left in that room?

He only killed those who tried to harm Zhou Ke'er; that could be called self-defense.

"!"

The woman felt the hand that was holding her loosen, so she didn't bother to answer anymore and immediately continued to crawl forward on all fours, trying to get away from the guy behind her who was either a monster or a mutt.

Zhou Ke'er licked her lips, blinked her eyes with interest, and followed quietly behind the other person. She crawled one step, and Zhou Ke'er took one step.

Finally, she seemed to think she had climbed to a safe position, so she stopped and prepared to stand up.

At the same time, Zhou Ke'er squatted down slightly and said to her, "Is your turn over? Now it's my turn to act."

The woman's entire body stiffened instantly.

Tell me, who wouldn't panic in this situation? If you shifted the first-person perspective to this woman's, this single clip alone could be made into a horror movie!

"Honestly. Not smart enough, you're really not smart enough to do this—with all this evidence, can't you see that I can actually see you even in the dark, and even see you clearly?"

Zhou Ke'er said in a lecturing tone, "Otherwise, do you mean I have some kind of ability that allows me to instantly appear behind you? That's obviously impossible. Since I can see you in the dark, while you can't see anything, trying to blindly run away in this situation... is just too irrational. Don't you think so?"

After being greatly shocked for a moment, the woman calmed down slightly and entered a state of sage mode. She seemed to realize that she couldn't escape anyway, and began to exude an air of exhaustion and resignation: "So what do you suggest I do? Just let you kill me without resistance? Fine, then I won't resist now, go ahead and do it."

"Clang~ Clang~"

Just then, a bell rang out again, and the candlelight throughout the castle gradually returned to its original brightness.

This time, Zhou Ke'er paid attention—the way these candles regained their light was not by relighting the flames, but by the flames that were already burning changing from their dark color back to their original brightness.

In fact, the flames on these candles never went out.