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

One of the staff members stared wide-eyed in disbelief and screamed—even when the wall had just been breached, they hadn't been this surprised or terrified. They seemed to have assumed that Zhou Ke'er wouldn't harm them no matter what, but they never expected Zhou Ke'er to say something like, "This is against the rules! You all signed an agreement when you joined the game! Violating the agreement will be punished!"

"Oh dear, you're right, probably. But you've overlooked one thing..."

Zhou Ke'er smiled, her eyes crinkling, and kindly reminded her, "But I didn't sign any agreement. Who told you I joined this game through the proper channels, huh?"

However, this was already quite obvious from the moment Zhou Ke'er entered this module, wasn't it? How could the staff who can monitor the entire situation not know about it?

Did they simply not notice Zhou Ke'er, or is there some other hidden reason?

Forget it, it doesn't matter.

Zhou Ke'er held up one finger: "Okay, now I'll count to five. If anyone hasn't run away or spoken by the time the countdown ends, I won't hold back."

Control the big and the small. "Five...four..."

"Ahhh!"

The staff finally felt the threat of death and began to scream and scatter in all directions.

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785. The Strange Man in the Castle (Sixteen)

But there was only one emergency exit, and it was temporarily locked. They could only escape through the hole that Zhou Ke'er had just broken open—but there were only five seconds left. Even if one person could escape in two seconds, at most two and a half people could escape.

What should we do if we want to survive?

Soon enough, a staff member reacted and immediately turned back to Zhou Ke'er's location without hesitation. Before they even stopped, their voice trembling as they shouted, afraid someone would beat them to it: "I...I'll talk! I'll tell you everything! Please don't kill me!"

Zhou Ke'er smiled and nodded slightly at the man. "Okay. I've always been a person who keeps my promises."

The other staff members who were still fleeing for their lives heard what the man said and immediately looked at him with disbelief. Then they turned their heads and glanced at the hole in the wall that had been blocked and there was no way to pass through. Under the pressure of death, they all chose to surrender, gritted their teeth and turned around, shouting at Zhou Ke'er to tell him the location of the other staff members.

"So humans are really interesting."

Zhou Ke'er couldn't help but chuckle, but the next second she tilted her head, looking as if she was deep in thought: "However, if I were one of you, I would probably be the first to surrender. It seems I'm quite interesting myself."

The staff gradually calmed down, wondering what Zhou Ke'er meant by those words.

Zhou Ke'er then put on a very innocent expression and spread her hands: "Huh? You don't really think I'm going to kill you, do you? No way... You guys have such a bad impression of me. Do I really look like the kind of bad guy who would kill people randomly? Waaah~ This is so sad. There's no way I could do such a thing, right?"

"???"

These words left the staff speechless, all looking at Zhou Ke'er with bewildered expressions, unable to utter a single word.

Zhou Ke'er blinked and pointed at the screen: "Look for yourselves, there are so many people watching. How can you kill someone in public? Even if it doesn't scare the audience, it would be terrible to scare the children. How could you do such a thing?"

Even though Zhou Ke'er said that, the staff still didn't believe his nonsense at all—after all, just by looking at him, they knew that he was definitely not a good person who would care about leading children astray.

If you actually believe what this guy says, you might end up getting ripped off!

The first staff member to speak gritted his teeth and mustered his courage to continue asking, "So—do you still want to know where the other staff members are? If you do, I'll tell you right away, go find them."

He's probably given up, since the scene here has already been broadcast live. Staff in other broadcast rooms or other departments have already seen his pathetic state of being the first to surrender and betray his comrades. No matter what he does now, his future career probably won't be smooth sailing. So he might as well just give up on himself and let this jinx go around to other people's places and everyone will be doomed together!

The other staff members instantly looked at him with a complex mix of disdain and admiration, then looked at Zhou Ke'er, clearly hoping that Zhou Ke'er would leave as soon as that guy said.

We've already lost face, at least we should save our lives, right?

Zhou Ke'er stroked her chin, looking thoughtful. After a while, she nodded: "You're right. I've already come to see you all, but if I don't meet with the other staff, wouldn't that be favoritism? I'm not one to be biased. Come on, lead the way, please take me there together—don't leave anyone behind. Otherwise… I'll be angry." At this moment, Zhang Si…

The implication is that no one can escape.

The staff never expected that they would be involved, and they couldn't help but start complaining all at once. They didn't dare to say anything bad about Zhou Ke'er to her face, so they could only start criticizing the staff member who spoke first.

But that guy didn't care about the other staff members' whispers and pointing fingers at all. Although he was taken aback for a moment when he heard Zhou Ke'er's words, seemingly surprised, he quickly accepted reality—it can only be said that people who have given up on themselves do have a much stronger ability to accept things—he sighed and revealed a gloomy expression: "Okay, let's do it your way. Anyway, after this show ends, I'll probably lose my job—so where do you want to go? How about taking this opportunity to tour the whole castle?"

"Excellent suggestion, approved."

Zhou Ke'er slung the axe over her shoulder, waved goodbye to the screen, and walked forward, saying, "Let's go, let's meet the other staff members and explore this castle together!"

"No! No, I don't want that kind of thing!"

"It's over once the 'darkness' phase begins!"

"No, you can't do that!"

Upon hearing Zhou Ke'er's words, some staff members were immediately unable to accept this fact. They glared at the first guy to surrender, but found that he had no intention of paying attention to them at all. Under extreme fear, they couldn't help but scream and shout.

"very noisy."

Zhou Ke'er picked at her ear with her little finger: "Didn't I already walk all the way here in what was supposed to be 'darkness'? There's nothing to be afraid of at all. Besides, aren't you staff members? Why are you afraid of the segments your own production team has set up?"

"No, actually—this castle doesn't belong to the production team, nor was it set up by them. It's just that we made some kind of deal with the higher-ups in the production team to borrow it for filming." (Qiang Xi reads Xi)

The self-deprecating guy explained with little interest: "So, if we staff members stay in the designated areas, there's naturally no danger, but if we leave, even the production team can't guarantee our safety."

"Oh, I see. No wonder they're so afraid. Why aren't you afraid?"

Zhou Ke'er suddenly realized and looked at the lazy guy. (The last part, "制大制枭," is a Chinese idiom meaning "to control a big tyrant" or "to control a powerful tyrant.")

The guy who was just going through the motions glanced at Zhou Ke'er with narrowed eyes: "There's nothing to be afraid of anymore. Anyway, I'll be kicked out. Being fired from the show in this godforsaken place is no different from being dead. Whatever, it would be best if we all died together, so the show would have to hire more people. If I'm lucky enough to survive, they might even have to hold their noses and keep using me."

Wow! This guy seems to be giving up, but he's actually quite cunning!

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786. The Strange Man in the Castle (Seventeen)

"Wow, that's pretty vicious."

Zhou Ke'er made a slightly joking remark and herded the other staff members out of the broadcasting room like ducks.

The guy who was just showing off had no shame whatsoever. He slightly raised his eyes, truly putting on a show, and even dared to say something like, "Likewise," to Zhou Ke'er.

"I'm quite curious, what exactly is this castle? How much do you know about it?"

Zhou Ke'er didn't pay much attention to what the lazy guy said, nor did she get angry because of it—after all, he was indeed quite vicious—but instead asked about other things.

The guy sighed, looking uninterested. "I don't know much. I'm just an ordinary staff member, and based on what I know, I'm no different from those guys before. If you want to ask this, you might as well hang up those guys in the production team and interrogate them, or arrest and torture the owner of this castle..."

Zhou Ke'er stroked her chin and nodded: "What you said makes a lot of sense. In that case, let's go find the production team first. Come on, lead the way."

The guy who was just sitting around opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but just then, a bell rang and the entire castle suddenly went into "darkness".

After a moment of silence, almost all the staff screamed and began to scatter and run away. Some were genuinely afraid of being killed in the dark, while others planned to take advantage of the chaos to escape—didn't they know that Zhou Ke'er could see in the dark? Did they really not know, or did they forget in their panic?

Well, the feeling that something's not right has become very obvious by now.

"Xi" is pronounced "xi". Just now in the broadcast room, it was clear that the sound coming from the monitor screen could be heard, but it seemed as if those people hadn't heard a single word Zhou Ke'er had uttered since the beginning of this module. The chances of everyone completely ignoring it are extremely small. Furthermore, even if they really didn't hear the sound, Zhou Ke'er's night vision was clearly evident just from the scene on the screen.

But this group of people acted as if they knew nothing about it.

There must be something fishy going on.

Zhou Ke'er turned to look at the lazy guy who was following beside her and leading the way half a step ahead, and casually asked, "Why aren't you running?"

"Running or not running, I'll die anyway. If I don't run, you might have to protect me, so wouldn't that be safer?"

"Playing it cool" guy replied casually and nonchalantly.

"How can you be so sure I can protect someone in this darkness? Maybe I'm just a show-off with an axe. Who knows, the one who actually defeated the monster and left the axe behind, which I just happened to find, might be someone else."

Zhou Ke'er started spouting nonsense again.

Perhaps this is one of his hobbies.

"........."

The guy sighed, didn't turn around, and replied in a tone befitting an idiot, "Come on, we just came out of the broadcast studio. How do you think I would know about this? Trying to fool me with something like this is just too much..."

Before he could finish speaking, he felt a cold and sharp touch on his neck. A sense of crisis instantly surged into his mind, and he immediately shut his mouth and stood still, not daring to move.

Zhou Ke'er slowly moved closer, her tone cold: "I almost got fooled by you—your acting skills are indeed quite good. However, there are also many flaws."

The guy who was just sitting around paused slightly, then clicked his tongue and said, "Tsk... When did you figure that out? That was a bit too fast."

At this moment, 17bXW* Zhang Si. However, Zhou Ke'er put away her axe and chuckled, "I didn't see that coming—I was just bluffing you."

"Haha, actually I was just agreeing with you, I don't really know what you're talking about."

The guy who was just sitting around immediately seized the opportunity to try and clear himself of any suspicion.

"Even after all this, there's no need to treat me like a fool."

Zhou Ke'er stared with the same dead fish eyes as the flamingo, glanced at the other "staff" who were still scattering and running away, and said, "Let's stop those guys too. They're making a lot of noise, which is actually quite annoying."

“I’m just an ordinary staff member; I can’t order them around.”

The guy who's been lying low continues to lie low.

Without hesitation, Zhou Ke'er swung her axe directly at the other person's neck, saying as she swung the axe, "That's enough, stop pretending. You're not even a human being, so how can you be a 'personnel'? That's enough."

"boom!"

A burst of smoke was heard, and then the guy who was just lazing around disappeared from his spot and instantly reappeared not far in front of Zhou Ke'er.

However, Zhou Ke'er didn't think the axe would hit her, so she didn't use any force at all. Even if she missed, she wouldn't get hurt.

"You could tell that? When did you figure it out?"

A young man with two curled horns on his head, pale skin, and dark circles under his eyes that made him look like he hadn't slept for tens of thousands of years—the same guy who had just revealed his true colors—yawned at Zhou Ke'er with a slightly curious expression, looking listless from not having slept for too long.

"Huh? I didn't see that coming. I was just bluffing. I only pretended to make a move, I didn't actually do it—look, the axe didn't really come down at all."

Zhou Ke'er looked completely innocent, her eyes wide with naivety. She blinked and said, "Besides, I didn't think this axe could really hurt you. Why are you running away? Lie to me one more time and I'll believe you, really."

"You're right. He should have just slashed me and then fallen to the ground pretending to be dead. That was a miscalculation."

The dejected demon patted his forehead, a slightly regretful expression on his face: "Sigh, I didn't have much experience the first time. I'll learn from this and try again next time, and try again next time."

As it spoke, it snapped its fingers. With a crisp sound, all the other "staff" that were running around instantly turned into black smoke and re-entered its body.

Zhou Ke'er slung the axe back over her shoulder, finding the guy in front of her rather interesting. Although even if he wasn't, she didn't plan to attack him right away. "You really have nothing better to do than put on such a show for an ordinary contestant like me. Besides—is it alright for you to abandon your post like this?"

"Hey! How did you figure that out again? That shouldn't be the case. How did you know I was on duty here? Shouldn't you have assumed I came here specifically to prank you? And also suspected that the broadcast room we just saw was fake? That would be more normal!"

The decadent demon looked at Zhou Ke'er in surprise, as if she were a great detective, sizing her up and down: "You saw through the flaw all along, didn't you? It wasn't a bluff at all, right? So where exactly did things go wrong?"

"No... I was just bluffing you about that."

Zhou Ke'er answered with an innocent look on her face.