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

With a sharp shout from Zhou Ke'er, the cold-cooked rabbit she had thrown landed right at the corner of the end of the corridor. From Zhou Ke'er's perspective, she could see a candlestick hanging on the wall at that corner, with a burning candle on it!

Cold-cooked rabbit was thrown around and was completely disoriented. It got up in a daze, not even realizing what had happened. Instinctively, it did as Zhou Ke'er told it to do, grabbing the candlestick and throwing it at Zhou Ke'er.

"I meant pass it over, not throw it over!"

Luckily, Zhou Ke'er reacted quickly, otherwise she would have definitely dropped it. She immediately raised her arm high, as if to throw it—but just then, Xiao Mo's eyes widened in shock, and she quickly stopped her, saying, "No! No! Stop it! Don't you see what you're holding? A candle…it's fire! Fire that burns and keeps you warm! We've been searching all this way for this! Don't waste it here!"

"Ah?"

Zhou Ke'er was taken aback upon hearing this, then suddenly looked at the candlestick in her hand with a realization: "Oh right! This is actually fire?"

"bass!"

Just then, the armored figure seemed to sense a threat and instantly turned around, swinging its greatsword at Zhou Ke'er—or rather, at the candlestick in Zhou Ke'er's hand.

"Ah Rabbit, take the torch!"

Zhou Ke'er reacted immediately, quickly throwing the candlestick back to Leng Chi Tu. She then performed a backflip, landing flat on her back and narrowly dodging the swinging greatsword. The icy wind of the sword grazed her cheek at very close range, and Zhou Ke'er almost thought she had been cut by the knife.

However, just as Zhou Ke'er fell backward, the chandelier on the ceiling of the corridor caught his eye—oh right, there's still a light here!

Although it's unclear whether this chandelier is lit by candles inside or by electricity—either way, it seems perfectly suitable for keeping warm.

Why didn't anyone notice this?!

As Zhou Ke'er pondered, her hands didn't stop moving at all. Without even getting up from the ground, she grabbed a decorative flowerpot from the side of the corridor and smashed it against the chandelier on the ceiling.

"boom!"

With a soft sound, and then...

The chandelier's casing and shade were broken, and it had become dark inside.

It seems they weren't using candles as a light source!

That means that unless it's done through supernatural means, this castle is definitely electrified!

Fine debris fell from the ceiling, scattering onto the armor with a "whoosh" and instantly turning into a pile of ice crystals.

"Oh!"

However, at that moment, Cold-Eat Rabbit suddenly exclaimed, followed by the sound of the candlestick falling to the ground—clearly, Cold-Eat Rabbit had failed to catch the candlestick that Zhou Ke'er had thrown.

"..."

Xiao Mo covered his face helplessly, but there was no use in criticizing others at this time. He quickly signaled the others to take advantage of the fact that the armor's attention was currently drawn to the fallen candlestick and slip away from it.

However, contrary to everyone's expectations, the candlestick that fell to the ground did not extinguish or ignite the carpet on the ground. Instead, it continued to burn steadily and peacefully, just as it had at the beginning.

There's definitely something wrong now; you can see it even without looking.

Zhou Ke'er quickly rolled over, dodging the armored figure's slash, and grabbed the candlestick that had fallen to the ground.

It has to be said that it was fortunate that this armor wasn't particularly agile; with normal human speed, as long as one didn't panic, it was perfectly capable of dodging it. Otherwise, just the fact that touching it would freeze one would have been enough to give Zhou Ke'er and the others a run for their money.

Then Zhou Ke'er did something that shocked everyone – he placed his left hand on the burning flame on the candlestick!

As Zhou Ke'er expected, there was absolutely no reaction. Not only was there no burning sensation, but she didn't even feel the slightest increase in temperature. It couldn't be described as touching a flame; it was more like touching the northwest wind.

However, although she felt nothing at all, the flames began to spread along Zhou Ke'er's fingers, gradually attaching to her palms, and even spreading further.

Cold-Eat Rabbit's eyes widened, and he quickly raised his fist in encouragement: "Zhou Ke'er! Quickly use the Flame Fist on that guy!"

Upon hearing this, Honghe's eyes instantly sharpened. She glared at Lengchitu with her lifeless, dull eyes and protested coldly, "That should be my line! And how do you know that reference?"

Cold-cooked Rabbit said righteously, "You've said it so many times already, isn't it normal for me to remember it? Besides... isn't it too boring for you to always be the one to say it? Shouldn't it be my turn by now?"

Zhijiansha gasped – This is terrifying! Is Cold-Eat Rabbit declaring war on Red Crane? Thinking about it carefully, Cold-Eat Rabbit's actions throughout this journey have clearly been scheming! Stealing Zhou Ke'er from Red Crane, playing with her jokes! This is an attempt to usurp her position! This is rebellious intent!

Realizing this, Zhijiansha dared not say anything more and quickly followed the others to the side where Zhou Ke'er and Lengchitu were.

"Drink!"

Before the flames on her hand could spread to her entire palm, Zhou Ke'er clenched her fist and slammed it hard into the armor's... uh, head? Or rather, helmet.

A muffled thud rang out as Zhou Ke'er punched the helmet, sending it flying and slamming it against the wall, leaving behind a wall of ice crystals. The flames, however, traveled along Zhou Ke'er's fist and smashed into the hollow neck of the armor.

Ice crystals climbed up Zhou Ke'er's palm and merged with the flames, the two seemingly locked in a state of mutual restraint. Beneath the frost, the flames still flickered—a phenomenon that defied easy explanation.

Fortunately, the armor that took the hit was quickly engulfed in flames and collapsed to the ground, motionless.

Strangely, the carpet and walls that were in close contact with the flames showed no signs of burning, and the flames did not spread to these areas at all.

While it was somewhat surprising that the armor was defeated so easily, upon reflection it was quite normal, considering it was only the first danger encountered shortly after the start of the game—if this really caused a loss of player numbers, then this module would be much more difficult than it appeared.

Wow! Cool!

Cold-cooked Rabbit had somehow come over again, carefully examining Zhou Ke'er's left fist, and couldn't help but exclaim in admiration.

The flamingo carefully examined the cold-cooked rabbit.

Sand between his fingers carefully examined the flamingo, holding his breath and not daring to speak.

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814. The Strange Castle (Part 6)

"Heave-ho..."

Zhou Ke'er bent down and picked up the greatsword that had fallen to the ground with his left hand—after all, he was the only one present who could touch it.

Like Zhou Ke'er's left hand, this greatsword was covered in frost, and at the same time, flames with no heat flickered on it.

Ruomu didn't dare to get close enough to look, but only stared at Zhou Ke'er's hand and the sword from afar, and couldn't help but exclaim, "This is truly... beyond imagination. Is this how it was resolved?"

"More than that, I'm curious about... how did you end up putting your hand on the candle flame? That's not something a normal person would do. Unless—you knew beforehand that these flames wouldn't burn you, but could actually become your weapon."

Xiao Mo stared intently at Zhou Ke'er, as if he had discovered her secret, and said in a deep voice.

This was indeed an interesting thing. Of course, it wasn't something Zhou Ke'er did on a whim or on a whim; it was to verify one of his conjectures.

However, before Zhou Ke'er could answer, Leng Chi Tu nonchalantly interrupted, "You guessed pretty accurately—yeah right! Why are you making that smug look on your face? This guy is clearly not a normal person—isn't that obvious?"

"Well said, don't say it again next time."

Zhou Ke'er grabbed Leng Chi Tu's cheek with her right hand and pulled it up hard, threatening in a vicious voice, "If you reveal my secret again, I'll shove this lump of flesh from your cheek into your own mouth!"

"No no no!"

The cold-cooked rabbit brandished its claws, trying to save its chubby face, but clearly failed. "Ouch! Ouch! I'm sorry, please let me go!"

"..."

Xiao Mo couldn't help but roll his eyes, utterly speechless at how he had actually thought this guy was a hidden master. It seemed he had overthought things; no matter how you looked at him, they were just a pair of silly pranksters, with no profound hidden abilities whatsoever. "Heh... never mind, now's not the time for this nonsense. Have you noticed? The temperature around us is ridiculously low, and the countdown timer above our heads is even accelerating."

"However, it seems that our original plan has been proven to be unworkable."

Ruomu, with a drooping eyebrow and a worried expression, said, "I was thinking of finding some flammable material to light a fire for warmth, but now I find that even the fire itself isn't hot at all... Doesn't that mean it's impossible to achieve the goal from the very beginning?"

"Ah, that's true. This fire isn't hot at all. Why don't you touch it?"

Zhou Ke'er pushed the greatsword towards Ruomu, which startled him greatly. He looked like a cat with its fur standing on end, his mustache bristling, and he instinctively jumped back.

"Alright, alright, stop arguing with them."

Zhong Ming grabbed Ruomu by the back of her collar to prevent her from falling flat on her back. He shook his head and said, "Let's keep going. Given the current situation, going back the way we came is certain death. We can only hope there's a chance ahead." (This is followed by a seemingly unrelated sentence: "Hou Zhangsi")

"Hilarious, what kind of turning point could there be?"

But then Zhou Ke'er burst into four untimely laughs: "I laugh at Zhuge Liang's lack of strategy and Zhou Yu's lack of wisdom. If I were to place a wooden puppet named Billy here, riding a tricycle out around the corner and saying to us, then we would be trapped with nowhere to go, nowhere to hide, nowhere to escape!"

Unexpectedly, before Zhou Ke'er could finish speaking, they heard the sound of a tricycle being pedaled from around the corner, and then a strangely shaped, ugly wooden puppet appeared in everyone's sight.

Hi, I'

The puppet spoke slowly, its tone sinister and its voice hoarse.

Cold-Eat Rabbit couldn't help but widen its eyes and look at Zhou Ke'er, exclaiming, "Wow... you really are an incredibly accurate jinx!"

Honghe lowered her eyes and pondered for a moment, then turned to look at Zhou Ke'er. After their eyes met, she immediately confirmed her guess. It seemed that her guess was almost identical to Zhou Ke'er's, and it had now been verified.

However, Zhong Ming, standing to the side, immediately misunderstood. He grabbed Ruomu and Mumu, who was silently cowering behind him, and led the group back a couple of steps. Instead of turning his wary gaze to the puppet, he looked at Zhou Ke'er and said coldly, "You bastard, you really have a problem... I suspected it from the beginning. Everyone, whether they contributed or not, at least worked hard to advance the mission. From beginning to end, only you two have been joking around and making a fool of yourselves."

I initially thought you guys were just a little off your minds, but now it seems that's not the case at all! Your mission must be completely different from ours, right? Let me guess, is it to stop us until we run out of time and die?

Upon hearing Zhong Ming's analysis, Mu Mu immediately had a look of sudden realization: "So that's how it is! No wonder! If that's the case, then their initial behavior can be explained! They pretended to be fooling around, but were actually secretly slowing down the countdown—if they hadn't been discovered, they would have really gotten away with it! They definitely wanted to create a time difference, slowly wait for us to freeze to death, then the game would be over, and they would win!"

Zhong Ming became increasingly certain of his conjecture as he spoke, nodding with complete conviction: "That's why he dared to put his hand directly on the candlelight just now! Because he knew perfectly well that it wouldn't pose any danger to him; this was information they had known from the beginning. And just now, what seemed like casual talk was actually a signal to this puppet monster to come out!"

Ah this...

Zhou Ke'er scratched her head. Oh no, he'd become the bad guy.

Huh? It seems like he was a bad guy to begin with?

Oh, that's okay.

Even Cold-Eat Rabbit looked at Zhou Ke'er in shock: "What?! You're actually a villain? I had no idea! You've really fooled me! Aren't we comrades?!"

Zhou Ke'er expertly reached out her right hand, grabbed Leng Chi Tu's cheek, and pulled hard, reminding him with a forced smile, "Haha, what are you pretending for? You're on my side too. Got it? You're a big villain too."

"Ugh! What a bunch of rude people..."

Just then, the puppet Billy's sinister voice rang out again: "Didn't your parents teach you that ignoring someone's question is a very impolite thing to do?"

Zhou Ke'er scratched her head, then put the greatsword aside, took a few steps forward, squatted down, and extended her burning left hand to Billy, grinning as she said, "I was wrong, I apologize—how about we shake hands to show our friendship?"

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815. The Strange Castle (Part 7)

The puppet Billy glanced at the flames burning on Zhou Ke'er's outstretched hand, made a few clicking noises with his mouth, and then squeezed out a reply: "My hand is fixed to the handlebars of a bicycle, so I can't shake your hand."

"Oh, you should have said so earlier."

Zhou Ke'er smiled and patted Billy's shoulder with her left hand. "It's okay, I forgive your rudeness. I've always been a tolerant and generous person."

Just as Zhou Ke'er was spouting trash talk, the flames in his hand naturally spread to the puppet's body. Without the frost to stop it, the puppet's body quickly turned charred black, emitting a burnt smell.

"Huh? That's strange... this thing is actually on fire?"

Zhou Ke'er exclaimed in surprise.

"What nonsense is that? If it's on fire, it's bound to burn... Wait, what?!" Cold-Eat Rabbit was halfway through his rant when he suddenly realized what he was doing and his eyes widened in surprise. "This thing actually caught fire?! Not only did it catch fire, it's charred?"