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

The world's geography has been completely transformed, resulting in dramatic changes. Perhaps the area on the left is a waterfall swamp, while the area on the right has suddenly become an adjacent lava field. Such contrasting adjacent sites are now commonplace.

Even though he had just escaped one danger only to fall into another, Zhou Ke'er didn't have many choices. He could only plunge headlong into the forest.

Fortunately, just as he had expected, these monsters seemed to be quite territorial. The monsters that had been chasing Zhou Ke'er just stayed at the edge of the forest, roaring at her, but they didn't dare to come in and catch her.

As soon as Zhou Ke'er relaxed, an overwhelming feeling of fatigue and soreness washed over her entire body. Her body was completely overwhelmed by exhaustion, and Zhou Ke'er collapsed to the ground, unable to move even her fingers.

Although it's hard to say whether Zhou Ke'er's body still has organs that produce adrenaline, or whether those organs can function like normal people, her condition just now was indeed as if she was filled with adrenaline, which is why she didn't immediately succumb to the pain and exhaustion all over her body. Now that she's out of that state, even if it wasn't entirely Zhou Ke'er's intention, even if she wanted to get up and continue running away, it's no longer something she can decide for herself.

He collapsed to the ground, his consciousness fading.

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834. Similar flowers

After an unknown amount of time, Zhou Ke'er finally woke up from her coma.

But he found himself not in the forest where he had fallen. As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw an unfamiliar ceiling—or rather, the roof of a very simple wooden cabin.

Zhou Ke'er planned to close his eyes and touch for a while longer, but before he could close his eyes, he heard a clear and somewhat familiar voice from the side.

"Are you awake?"

As the sound came, Zhou Ke'er subconsciously sat up and looked in that direction. She saw a pretty woman dressed in simple clothes, as if she had stepped out of a Western fantasy world, sitting on a small wooden chair, with a bowl in her hand containing a liquid that looked like medicine.

Zhou Ke'er was momentarily surprised—but quickly realized that this was the real world being eroded by the game. He clearly remembered that he was on the outskirts of a secluded forest before he fainted, and the woman in front of him didn't seem like a "player" at all.

Could it be that "NPCs" can be generated in the real world?

No, Zhou Ke'er shook her head. It's not accurate to say that these beings are NPCs. Now that you understand the operating mechanism of this so-called "game," you'll find that, apart from not having a physical form in reality, these beings are almost no different from real people. And now that they've even been given bodies that can appear in reality, the boundary between them and real people has been further blurred and eliminated.

Strangely, even though she should have never seen this woman before, Zhou Ke'er somehow felt that she looked somewhat familiar.

"Cough...Where am I?"

All her thoughts had been processed in an instant. Zhou Ke'er coughed slightly and asked in a hoarse voice, "How did I get here?"

The woman placed the bowl she was holding on the wooden table beside her. Her soft, golden hair cascaded over her shoulders. She turned to look at Zhou Ke'er and said, "When I went to gather herbs on the outskirts of the forest, I found you unconscious there. There were also many terrifying-looking monsters outside the forest, just standing there staring straight at you. I don't know why, but they seemed afraid to enter the forest, so I brought you back to my cabin. However, if you ask where this is... I don't really know either."

Zhou Ke'er nodded slightly. Most of what this guy said matched the scene he saw before he fainted. Moreover, if he wanted to kill him, he could have done so while he was unconscious. Since the other party did not do so, it meant that at least he was not in danger of death—at least not now.

Of course, it's also possible that he wanted to gain Zhou Ke'er's trust and favor, so that she would do other things for him. But that's not a big problem. There's no such thing as a rescue without a reason in this world. Since he actually saved Zhou Ke'er's life, isn't it perfectly reasonable for him to do something for her in return?

Rather, it's more accurate to say that Zhou Ke'er herself often uses such methods to achieve exchanges of benefits, so naturally she wouldn't feel particularly troubled by such matters.

"You don't even know where you are? What does that mean?"

While pondering this in her mind, Zhou Ke'er also spoke with a puzzled expression, "You also came here from outside?"

The woman shook her head and answered honestly, "No, that's not it. As soon as I regained consciousness, I found myself in this forest, in this little cabin. However, I have no idea where this place is, why this cabin is here, whether this cabin is mine, or... who I am."

Zhou Ke'er narrowed her eyes slightly. This was the strange thing. It wasn't that the woman's ignorance was strange. In such a bizarre and inexplicable place, anything could happen. But what was strange was that the woman seemed too honest. Zhou Ke'er had only asked one question, and she was about to reveal all her secrets. This was not how you gain trust.

Unless this statement isn't entirely true and is just meant to fool Zhou Ke'er.

Zhou Ke'er naturally treated all such claims as lies.

"So you dare to save me? Aren't you afraid that we might have some old or new grudges between us?"

Zhou Ke'er got off the bed and stretched her limbs. "Although it is indeed heartless to say this, if I were you, I would never save a guy who looks like he has an unknown background and is definitely in trouble."

The woman tilted her head, winked at Zhou Ke'er, and said innocently, "But when I saw you, I felt a sense of familiarity, as if I had known you before. So I thought, if I save you, maybe I can find out about the things I've forgotten about the past."

"To be honest, I feel the same way. But I can't remember ever seeing you before—what's your name?"

Zhou Ke'er touched her chin and continued to ask.

The woman remained seated on the small wooden chair, staring intently at Zhou Ke'er, and shook her head: "I don't remember."

Yes, that's normal. If you've forgotten everything, you shouldn't even remember your own name.

Forget it, what happens to this guy is none of Zhou Ke'er's business. His current goal isn't to waste time with this guy; he needs to hurry up and find Honghe and the others.

Although they had no way of knowing their location, and had absolutely no idea where they were...

Zhou Ke'er sighed, reached out and tapped the game panel, but as expected, she couldn't use the communication module.

Logically speaking, this module should not be disabled. When Zhou Ke'er was about to drive Honghe and the others out of the community, she took a special look and the module was still usable. The reason why Zhou Ke'er can't use it now is probably because when she was captured by Nyaruko, that guy deliberately disabled it to make things more difficult for her.

Honestly, isn't this against the rules?! And they're even targeting people? This is outrageous!

Zhou Ke'er was slightly annoyed, but she quickly calmed down and turned to look at the woman: "I am very grateful to you for saving me, but I cannot stay here too long. Firstly, it might attract those monsters and endanger you, and secondly, I still have things to do. So, to repay your life-saving grace, you can make a request of me, and I will try my best to help you—but it's best not to drag it out for too long, otherwise I won't be able to help you."

That's right, he said those words so brazenly, after all, he's such a despicable person.

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835. As if recalling the past

However, the woman looked slightly confused. After thinking for a while, she shook her head and said, "I don't know what I need your help with. You see, I don't remember anything right now, and I don't know what I should do, so naturally there's nothing I need your help with. Besides, even if I asked you to help me regain my memories, it's obviously not something that can be done in a short time. Even I don't know what to do, so you, who I've only just met, are even less likely to know."

Zhou Ke'er nodded. "What you said makes a lot of sense, so there's nothing I can do about it. In short, consider this a favor I owe you. If we happen to meet again in the future, you can ask me to repay this favor. As for now, I'll be going now."

"Um... wait a minute..."

Suddenly, the woman spoke again: "Please wait a moment. I don't know why, but I have a premonition that if I stay by your side, I might remember some things about my past. So, please let me travel with you."

Zhou Ke'er raised an eyebrow—goodness, what exactly is this feeling of inexplicably attracting teammates in an RPG game? However, it doesn't seem so unexpected. Just think about this kind of plot—being rescued by a stranger living alone after being unconscious, and then suddenly switching to an adventure together after some small talk, it's a classic, timeless storyline.

Thinking about this, Zhou Ke'er was completely certain that the appearance of this guy was definitely orchestrated by Nyaruko.

To force together the plot she wanted, that guy would do anything. Isn't it perfectly normal for him to add a teammate? Who knows, maybe she'll find just watching from the sidelines not enough and will try to possess and replace the character so she can experience it herself.

Although she could guess that this would happen, Zhou Ke'er couldn't refuse. After all, it was better to just pretend she didn't know and accept it for now. If she refused, who knew what kind of trouble Nyaruko would cause to achieve her goal? That would be much more troublesome than it was now.

Anyway, it's just another burden. Besides... judging from Zhou Ke'er's current physical condition, he might not be as strong as this woman. It's really hard to say who's holding him back.

A series of thoughts flashed through Zhou Ke'er's mind. She paused for a moment, then readily nodded in agreement, "Okay, since that's what you think, let's do it that way."

The woman looked somewhat surprised: "You agreed so easily? I thought you wouldn't agree, after all, you'd be taking me along as a burden."

Zhou Ke'er put her hands on her hips and said confidently, "Who's the burden is still uncertain! To be honest, I might be much weaker than you, and I'll have to rely on you to protect me. Since I can have an extra bodyguard, why should I refuse?"

The woman opened her mouth slightly, revealing a shocked expression. She really didn't expect Zhou Ke'er to say such shameless words so openly.

While the woman was still in surprise, Zhou Ke'er spoke up again: "By the way, why don't you give yourself a name? I can't keep calling you 'Hey' and 'You' all the time, can I?"

"A name..."

The woman frowned, tilted her head back, and thought for a moment. "I can't think of anything. Ah... Fez, then Fez it is."

Zhou Ke'er narrowed her eyes slightly, searching through her memories, but she couldn't recall anything about that name. However, it was also possible that it was just a name the other person had chosen randomly.

But it's still quite strange.

Shaking her head to put her doubts aside, Zhou Ke'er nodded. "Okay, let's do it that way then. By the way, my name is Zhou Ke'er. In that case, let's set off—by the way, although I know where I'm going, I have no idea how to get there, so I'll probably spend most of my time finding my way and running away. So I'll have to ask you to guide me through the forest."

Fies blinked and pointed to himself: "But I don't know how to navigate the forest. I only recently found myself in this forest without any memory of it. Although I have this little cabin as a place to rest, I haven't gone too far because I'm afraid of wild animals or getting lost."

"Alright, let's scout ahead first."

Zhou Ke'er nodded, not too disappointed. After all, the other party had already said something like that before. Now, Zhou Ke'er casually brought it up again, actually intending to secretly trick the other party. If Fis had just agreed very naturally and said that he would just follow her, then this complete reversal of behavior would make Zhou Ke'er suspect that some scoundrel had personally intervened.

Soon, the two left the cabin. After confirming the direction they had come from, they headed in the opposite direction—which was obvious, otherwise, if those monsters were still waiting for Zhou Ke'er outside the forest, going there now would not only prevent them from rushing in and killing her, but it would also be a waste of time.

After walking for an unknown amount of time, the scenery in the forest remained unchanged. If Zhou Ke'er hadn't been carving marks on the trees along the way, she would have thought she had somehow fallen into a maze.

Even so, there's no better way now than to keep moving forward.

The sky gradually darkened as the two walked on.

“Mr. Zhou Ke’er, it’s already dark. Continuing to travel through the dark forest doesn’t seem like a good idea. Perhaps we should find a place first…”

Just as Fies was about to offer a reminder, before she could finish speaking, a sharp whooshing sound suddenly came from behind. Zhou Ke'er reacted quickly, leaping forward and tackling Fies to the ground. Immediately afterward, an arrow flashing with a cold light flew past slightly above where she had been standing, embedding itself firmly in the trees behind her and sending splinters of wood flying.

"Who goes there!"

Zhou Ke'er immediately asked, which was also an implication that she was not a monster - after all, since the other party could use tools, the possibility of being a monster was relatively low. If they could communicate, there was no need to be hostile.

"That's the question I should be asking. Who are you people? Why have you come to this place?"

A figure slowly emerged from the shadows, holding a short bow in his hand. He frowned as he looked at Zhou Ke'er and Fiss, and asked in a cold voice.

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Please take one day off.

I'm having a bit of writer's block. Let me think about how to best continue the story.

If we continue with the current storyline, there will be a fairly long plot line, but it won't be closely related to the main storyline and will feel rather drawn out.

If we jump straight into the main storyline, it will feel abrupt and disconnected from the current plot.

I didn't think of all this when I was writing the outline, which was a mistake.

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836. His death is not a pity.

"We? We're just poor souls who fled into the forest being chased by monsters from outside."

Zhou Ke'er immediately raised her hands to indicate that she posed no threat: "Isn't it obvious at a glance? Look at the mess we're in."

The guy on the other side could actually see that was the case, otherwise the arrow wouldn't have been stuck in the tree trunk, but in Zhou Ke'er's forehead.

He frowned slightly, lowered the crosshair of his bow and arrow, and pointed it at the ground at an angle. Then he continued, "Escaping into the forest? That's not a good choice. Here, you'll only die a more miserable, more bizarre, and more strange death."

Zhou Ke'er's face showed a very realistic expression of panic, and she hurriedly asked, "How could this be?! We don't know anything about this. When those monsters saw us enter the forest, they only dared to linger and show off outside the forest. They didn't dare to come in at all, so we thought we would hide in the forest for a while. We have no idea what kind of forest this is—could there be something even more dangerous here?"

"Humph……"

The man with the bow sighed helplessly, slightly lowering his guard, but his words were irrelevant: "What's going on lately? This forest shouldn't be connected to other places, but more and more people are wandering into it."

Zhou Ke'er blinked at the other person, looking completely innocent, indicating that she knew nothing and was just a poor little thing who had been chased in by a monster.

"Never mind, judging from your expressions, I have no idea what's going on."

The man shook his head and turned around: "Come with me. Let's find a place to settle you down first, otherwise, with your skinny arms and legs, I'll have to search the whole forest for your corpses tonight, which is a huge hassle."

Wow, he's actually a cold-faced but warm-hearted guy. It sounds a bit sleazy, but these kinds of people are super easy to fool, aren't they?

Zhou Ke'er inwardly scoffed, but on her face she wore an extremely sincere expression of gratitude, "Really! Thank you! Thank you so much! Otherwise, we would definitely be dead."