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

The Slit-Mouthed Woman sensed Sadako's displeasure. What could she do? She was working for someone else, so what could she say? She could only shut her mouth reluctantly, but her curiosity grew even stronger.

"..."

Zhou Ke'er blinked, glanced at the road ahead, and estimated that there was still some distance to go. He decided to log off now—he had no choice; his family was full of pampered old men who didn't lift a finger, and he was the only one who knew how to cook. If he didn't go back to cook dinner, they would probably blow up the kitchen.

Besides, he had already planned to do this.

He looked slightly tired and said softly to Sadako, "It seems my technique is still a bit immature; the power output is a little too high... I feel a little tired..."

Before she could finish speaking, Zhou Ke'er turned and lay down on her side, nestled in Zhenzi's arms, closed her eyes, and seemed to fall asleep.

Sadako was startled at first, but quickly noticed Zhou Ke'er's steady breathing, realizing she had simply fallen asleep from exhaustion. The initial shock subsided, replaced by a thrilling mix of joy and shyness. She looked down at Zhou Ke'er, who was nestled in her arms with her eyes closed, and a blush crept onto her cheeks, her breathing becoming heavy.

Zhou Ke'er, on the other hand, took this opportunity to log off. After all, she had experience logging off midway through a module before, and when she logged back in, it would just be that the module time had expired a bit, and there wouldn't be any major problems.

"Aha……"

Zhou Ke'er yawned and pushed open the bedroom door. The first thing she saw was Honghe sitting on the sofa, looking at her. Her eyes lit up almost imperceptibly, and she said in her usual monotone tone, "Great, you're finally awake. I was just wondering if you'd forgotten the time and I was going to go wake you up."

Zhou Ke'er sighed and glanced at the flamingos, Ming Mengjing, Qiao Yixia and Bolius gathered in the living room. Even Zhijiansha, who had been called home earlier, had come running back again at some unknown time.

So, out of all these people, not one of them knows how to cook?

What a parasite! The only purpose of their existence is to make rice expensive!

"Even if you can't cook, at least someone can lend a hand. Otherwise, at this hour, you'll be going hungry for a while if you want to eat."

Zhou Ke'er sighed helplessly. So why did so many parasites gather in his house? Luckily, his house was big enough that raising a few parasites wouldn't be a problem.

The barely reliable adult woman, Zhijiansha, immediately stood up, ready to go and help—but suddenly felt a chill for no reason. Without hesitation, she turned her head and saw Honghe staring at her with narrowed eyes.

"?!?!"

Cold sweat immediately broke out on his forehead.

She's so stupid, really. She only knew that Zhou Ke'er needed someone to go and help, but she forgot that there was an important person here!

Oh no, will her unconscious action just now be seen as disobedience or a demonstration? No! No, not that kind of thing!

Fingers were so frightened that they broke out in a cold sweat. A second after standing up, they quickly sat down again, forcing a smile as they looked at Red Crane and said hastily, "Haha, I've been sitting for too long. I'm just stretching my muscles. I didn't mean anything by it. I wasn't trying to take it from you, haha."

Zhou Ke'er's forehead creased with a "well" shape—what did that mean? Stand up and then sit down? Are you doing a deep squat here? Are you teasing him?

Looks like I need to find a chance to teach that "Finger Sand" a lesson. I always thought she was a reliable adult woman, but her image crumbled so quickly! You can never judge a book by its cover! How infuriating! How could she become as worthless as "Cold-Eat Rabbit" so fast!

"........."

Honghe looked at the rambling Zhijiansha with a puzzled expression, sighed, and glanced at Zhou Ke'er: "Forget it, I'll do it. But let me make it clear beforehand, I can't cook at all. I can wash vegetables and cut meat, but nothing else."

Soon, Zhou Ke'er and Hong He tied on their aprons and started working in the kitchen.

Halfway through, Zhou Ke'er felt the atmosphere was rather dull, so she wiped the sweat from her forehead and asked, "Red Crane, do you know what the common characteristics of psychopaths are?"

Honghe paused for a moment, looked at Zhou Ke'er strangely, and then pondered, seemingly seriously considering the question.

However, Zhou Ke'er quickly replied, "It doesn't have to be that complicated. It's actually very simple and can be summarized into two points: arson and animal cruelty."

Honghe tilted her head and thought for a moment, then nodded in agreement: "Although it is a generalization, arsonists and animal abusers do make up the majority of psychopaths."

Immediately afterwards, Zhou Ke'er's sinister voice was heard: "Me too."

Honghe blinked, wondering what kind of trouble Zhou Ke'er was up to this time, and subconsciously looked at him.

"Flamingo, look."

But then Zhou Ke'er earnestly placed the freshly prepared meat into the pot. "Like this, roasting this innocent animal with blazing flames... Ah, I'm so cruel that even I'm afraid of myself!"

Honghe was speechless at the fact that she had actually had some kind of expectation of Zhou Ke'er just a second ago. She was really speechless. She couldn't help but roll her eyes at Zhou Ke'er and clapped her hands, saying, "Wow, you are really awesome."

Zhou Ke'er stared wide-eyed in disbelief: "No! You're not Honghe! Who are you? Honghe is clearly a scoundrel just as wicked as me! Your reaction is too normal! It's as normal as if you've been impersonated by Zhijiansha!"

A tic-tac-toe mark appeared on Honghe's forehead. She pointed at the pot and said, "You'd better watch out for the meat in the pot first! If it burns, you'll have to eat it all by yourself!"

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795. Shall I leave?

"Let the stove cook all the ingredients—the spatula, submit to me! Roar, oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar! Roar, pots and pans! Roar, Juli Home Stove!"

Zhou Ke'er let out an arrogant laugh, her cooking style making it seem like she was about to kill someone. "One pot, two bowls! One cut, two pieces! One dish, two bowls of rice!"

Honghe waved her fist in dissatisfaction: "Pay attention when you're cooking! I don't want to eat burnt food! Besides, you've already said all your lines, what am I supposed to say? It's too much to act out a one-man show, isn't it?"

Zhou Ke'er immediately revealed a "woman-beach-frog-jumping-man" expression, and said with her head held high and a straight face: "You can't get a joke by someone else's charity, you have to fight for it yourself!"

Outside the kitchen, Ming Mengjing squinted at Zhou Ke'er and Honghe laughing and joking inside, and couldn't help but sigh, "There are actually people who are quite close to that guy... Could it be that that woman is some kind of monster in human skin?"

A smirk played on her lips. "More than that, I'm worried they might go too far and accidentally burn the food..."

When Bolius heard that Finger Sand dared to question Zhou Ke'er's level, he immediately wanted to stand up and angrily rebuke her, "Impossible, absolutely impossible!" But at the critical moment, he remembered that Zhou Ke'er had told him not to speak recklessly without permission, so he had no choice but to shut his mouth in annoyance and could only glare at Finger Sand.

That's awful, glaring at me like that!

The sand between his fingers immediately felt a chill for no apparent reason.

Qiao Yixia sat on the sofa, still holding her rapier in her hand at all times, and said without looking up, "What I find even stranger is—what kind of bewitching potion has this evil god given you? Normal people would be trying to run away as fast as they can when they encounter an evil god of this level, so why are you all keeping coming towards him? Isn't that too strange? Could it be that he has brainwashed and bewitched you without my noticing?"

Sand glistened between his fingers as he looked at her—this inexplicable woman in front of him was spouting strange things again.

Because Finger Sand was unconscious for a long time during that large-scale event, and only woke up when the event ended and she returned to reality, she didn't see the final scene at all. In addition, the explanations given to her by others were not detailed enough, so she had no real feeling about the event and had no idea about Qiao Yixia's identity—she simply thought she was just a chuunibyou (middle school syndrome) girl who was brought by Red Crane to freeload a meal.

"Isn't the whole 'evil god' thing a bit too much? That guy is indeed a very dangerous monster, but to say that he has reached the level of a god... is just too absurd."

But to everyone's surprise, Ming Mengjing answered in a serious tone, even with a hint of provocation: "Besides, you clearly thought that guy was an evil god, and you still wanted us to leave quickly—yet you still shamelessly stayed here, didn't you? Furthermore... compared to Zhou Ke'er, it's you—you clearly possess such powerful strength, yet you're neither a member of those families, nor an exorcist, nor even a ghost... wouldn't you say your identity is more suspicious?"

Qiao Yixia raised her head slightly, "First of all, it's not that I necessarily want to stay here, but because Huang Quan... no, Hong He insists on staying here, and I have to protect her, so I have no choice but to do this. Secondly—or rather, I have no idea what those forces you mentioned are. When I was sealed away, it was already an unknown amount of time since your era."

Upon hearing this, Polius finally couldn't hold back any longer and immediately retorted earnestly, "You ignorant mortals, don't go too far! Stop calling my lord an evil god and a monster. My lord is the great Olympian chief god, the god of time and space—Cronus!"

Now, not only Qiao Yixia, but even Zhijiansha and Mingmengjing looked at him as if he were an idiot.

However, the difference is that Zhijiansha simply thinks this guy is just an older chuunibyou (middle school syndrome) sufferer, while Mingmengjing thinks this guy has probably been brainwashed by Zhou Ke'er. He is a pathetic man who is completely manipulated by that monster Zhou Ke'er.

As for Qiao Yixia, she showed an expression of unbearable disapproval. After looking at Polius for a while, she said directly, "Cronus, the chief god of Olympus, is he alright... Let's not even talk about how Olympus was wiped out a long time ago. Even if the chief god at the time of its destruction was that old bastard Zeus, as for Cronus... I remember he was just an accessory to Huang Quan, wasn't he?"

Bolius was immediately enraged—you can insult him, but you can't insult Zhou Ke'er!

But he had just stood up abruptly and hadn't done anything yet when Zhou Ke'er came out carrying a plate in each hand and called out to them, "Dinner's ready! Dinner's ready! You're not kids anymore, are you? Get your own food, don't expect me to help you."

"Den"

The next moment, Honghe placed two plates on the table, stared with dead fish eyes, and said in a high-spirited tone, "I have failed to provide adequate hospitality!"

"Hey! That's my line, Kora!"

Zhou Ke'er's eyes widened, not expecting that her lines would be stolen after she had only said one sentence. She immediately complained, "Besides, you only helped out a little. What did you even entertain?"

Flamingo squinted and retorted mercilessly, "You said it yourself, thorns aren't given to you by others, you have to fight for them yourself."

Zhou Ke'er had shot herself in the foot; she could only glare at him and sulk.

That's awful, glaring at me like that!

Having already taken the opportunity to get her food, Zhijiansha, sitting at the table, casually teased, "I never expected that Zhou Ke'er would be an evil god."

"Oh, you're quite well-informed. You even found out about this."

Finger Sand didn't believe it at all, so it was just a casual joke. She never expected Zhou Ke'er to admit it so confidently, and even looked at her with a grin, saying, "So, you want to be my familiar? There's a god in front of you, you know~"

These words only made the sand between fingers even less convinced!

Zhou Ke'er always had this talent for making lies sound like the truth and the truth sound like a lie. She clearly had no intention of hiding this matter, and even openly displayed it—but why did no one believe her?

How strange! Could this also be the effect of the "brain-degrading halo"? But putting aside whether the "brain-degrading halo" actually exists, how can it be brought into reality?

Sand between Fingers couldn't help but laugh out loud: "Alright, since you've invited me like this, then I'll become your familiar. Wow, you're actually a god! How amazing!"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Ke'er suddenly leaned closer, almost touching her face with the sand between her fingers, raised her eyebrows and smiled, "Oh? You said it yourself, right? Since you said it, you can't go back on your word."

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796. Ghost City (Part 6)

As a result, Zhijiansha immediately reacted like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, awkwardly laughing while frantically glancing at Honghe, shaking her head and waving her hands to indicate that she was just joking.

I wonder what this guy has misunderstood about "family members" this time; his head is clearly full of lewd nonsense.

In short, after the meal, Zhou Ke'er logged back online and returned to the game.

I opened my eyes—an unfamiliar ceiling.

It was no longer a gloomy and cramped well. After all, Sadako was now a somewhat famous idol, so she naturally didn't need to live in that dry well anymore.

Zhou Ke'er sat up in bed. As the blankets were lifted, a sweet scent wafted out. Looking around, she saw Zhenzi sitting on a chair by the bed, her upper body leaning over the edge, seemingly dozing off.

Thankfully, this ghost city hasn't developed any paparazzi yet, otherwise, if Sadako had been filmed bringing a comatose man, Zhou Ke'er, home, it would have been a source of amusement for quite some time.

Noticing Zhou Ke'er's slight movement, Sadako, who hadn't really fallen asleep, immediately looked up. Seeing that Zhou Ke'er was now awake, she breathed a sigh of relief and said with teary eyes, "Mr. Joker! You really startled me! I thought you..."

Zhou Ke'er naturally gave a gentle smile and reached out to pat Sadako's head: "Didn't we agree not to call her 'sir' anymore?"

Sadako slightly raised her eyes, her gaze filled with a complex mix of gratitude, admiration, and guilt, which ultimately coalesced into a fanatical intensity as she looked at Zhou Ke'er. She thought to herself, "Indeed, I shouldn't call her 'Sir,' it should be... 'My Lord,' or 'Master'!"

Zhou Ke'er's lips curled up almost imperceptibly—he could sense through his divine power that Sadako's faith in him was extremely firm—and it was growing stronger.

A fanatic is being born.

After getting out of bed and stretching her body slightly, Zhou Ke'er waved her hand casually at Sadako, who looked worried. "Don't worry, I was just a little exhausted. It's nothing serious. Once I get used to it, this won't happen again."

Sadako nodded quickly, but for some reason, a blush rose to her cheeks again. It was clear that after hearing Zhou Ke'er's words, some lewd thoughts had formed in her mind.

However, this wasn't a bad thing for Zhou Ke'er; he was actually hoping the fanatics' faith would become even more fervent.

As she pondered this, Zhou Ke'er walked to the window and looked outside. It looked like a villa district. "Sadako lives quite luxuriously, huh?"

After the first believer was found, the rest of the ghosts and monsters followed.

While it's not difficult to fool these guys who have already hit rock bottom and whose situation can't get any worse, figuring out how to get them all together is something that requires careful planning.

Surely we can't go looking for them one by one? That would be too undignified. It's always the believers who kneel and beg the gods, not the gods themselves going out of their way to save believers one by one.

Such a deity is either obviously scheming, or although it is indeed a benevolent god, believers do not seem to cherish it much—after all, what is obtained after much effort or difficulty is more sought after than what is easily obtained without asking.

But before that... let's go check out that "Ghost Power Company" one more time. If it's still operating, we'll have to find a chance to cause them some trouble.