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

The man turned his head away and sneered, "Don't be so quick to thank me. Even if I settle you in, it doesn't necessarily mean you're safe. Don't blame me for not warning you sooner."

Following behind Zhou Ke'er, Fiss watched Zhou Ke'er's dramatic performance without saying a word, only a hint of doubt in his eyes: Why is this person behaving so differently from before? Could she have been possessed without her knowledge? But it doesn't seem like it.

Moreover... for some reason, seeing Zhou Ke'er's hypocritical performance, a complex emotion involuntarily welled up from the depths of her heart: anger, fear, grievance, confusion, and even relief. These seemingly conflicting or unrelated emotions were mixed together in her heart, forming an extremely tangled feeling.

She pursed her lips, unsure why, but ultimately said nothing.

"Is this forest really that dangerous? Even with your help, we still can't guarantee our safety? That would be terrifying!"

Zhou Ke'er, on the other hand, was completely unaware of Fiss's condition and continued to diligently extract information—after all, he couldn't use his supernatural abilities now and was just an ordinary person. Ordinary people don't have eyes in the back of their heads, so naturally they couldn't see Fiss's expression and demeanor. He put on a worried look and hurriedly asked, "Then, may I ask, is there any way to leave this forest? You see, we are both just ordinary people who are extremely weak. Even with your protection, we might not be able to escape danger, and we would be troubling you all the time. It would be better if we just left this place as soon as possible."

"Oh? You're the first rational person I've ever met. The people I've met before were all stubborn and refused to leave no matter how much I tried to persuade them. They're probably overgrown with weeds by now. You can't reason with those damned ghosts."

The man was slightly surprised by what he heard, but he wasn't angry. Instead, he seemed quite pleased: "Your choice is right. Leaving this awful place as soon as possible is the best option. Hmm... since you've said so, there's no need to take you to a place to settle down. I'll just take you out directly."

"Really? That's great! But I'm a little worried. There might still be monsters guarding outside. If we go out, we'll just be throwing our lives away." Zhou Ke'er quickly reminded her again.

The man waved his hand and said, "You don't need to worry about that. The way out is completely different from the paths that led you to this forest. Don't worry about running into the monsters that were chasing you before. If you're still worried, I'll personally take you to the nearest town after we leave this forest."

"Oh, I can't accept this! Thank you for your help."

Zhou Ke'er immediately nodded in agreement, but a sense of unease began to creep into her mind: "The nearest town? But no place in the outside world is safe right now. Is he going to send us to a town in the main world? Impossible. That bastard Nyaruko wouldn't just hand over such an easy win to me. And since this guy so easily sent us to an outside town without any resistance, and succeeded so smoothly, then obviously that so-called destination town is fraught with even greater danger. No, I'll have to find a way to protect this guy and have him take the fall for me."

With that in mind, Zhou Ke'er began to secretly make plans.

There was no other way. Now that he had lost all his strength, he simply couldn't survive under these circumstances without resorting to scheming and trickery, let alone find Red Crane and the others. To achieve his goal, he had no choice but to use everything at his disposal.

However, not long after, a sudden accident interrupted Zhou Ke'er's thoughts.

As they walked, they suddenly noticed the man's serious and surprised expression. They immediately stopped in their tracks. "Wait, stop! Oh no, why did we have to run into these ghostly things at this time... You guys find somewhere to hide! Quick!"

Before Zhou Ke'er and Fiss could see anything, the man pulled an arrow from the quiver on his back and shot it sharply in a certain direction.

With a whooshing sound as something cut through the air, a chilling scream followed—a sound that no human could possibly make.

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837. The Battle in the Forest

"Don't just stand there, get behind me! These guys are tough to deal with."

The man spoke again, his expression grim and serious.

As he finished speaking, two grotesque creatures, resembling hunting dogs but covered in disgusting sores and barbs, with mouths capable of lifting the entire upper half of their heads upwards at a ninety-degree angle, sprang out of the bushes and pounced straight at Zhou Ke'er and Fei Si behind the man.

After all, you should pick on the weakest one. This man just shot an arrow so fiercely, why bother fighting him to the death first?

"tsk"

The man frowned, immediately released the bowstring, reached for the dagger strapped to the outside of his calf, and suddenly swung it at the two monsters.

Unfortunately, he could only throw one dagger at a time. It hit its mark, sending the hound flying with a yelp, pinning it to a tree trunk behind it. But the other dagger encountered no resistance. With a nimble turn, it bypassed the man and lunged straight at Zhou Ke'er and Fiss.

Zhou Ke'er was quick-witted and nimble-fingered. As soon as he saw the two hunting dogs' movements, he anticipated that this would happen. Before the hunting dogs could even get around the man, he had already made his move. He immediately grabbed Fies and circled around the man halfway, directly in front of him.

Completely unprepared for Zhou Ke'er's trick, the hunting dog lunged straight at his original spot, unable to brake in time, and crashed to the ground with a "bang," hitting nothing at all.

"it is good!"

The man couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. Before the hunting dog could react, he immediately lunged forward and delivered a whip kick, sending the dog flying and crashing into a tree trunk, where it rolled together with the monster pinned to the tree by a dagger.

He quickly drew his bow and nocked three arrows, which struck the two hunting dogs and pinned them to the ground.

Zhou Ke'er frowned slightly—the way this guy handled it so easily was completely different from how he looked earlier when he seemed to be facing a formidable enemy. That meant that it was obviously not that simple, and there must be other dangers—either these two hunting dogs were not so easy to deal with, or there were other dangers waiting in the dark.

Realizing this, Zhou Ke'er immediately turned her back to the man and cautiously observed her surroundings to prevent anything from launching a sneak attack.

But something strange was that Fies had been very silent since the beginning, frowning and not saying a word, as if he had a headache. I wondered what was wrong with him.

But now is not the time to ask about such things. Zhou Ke'er can only be more cautious in case Fies suddenly loses control and attacks someone.

Just as Zhou Ke'er had predicted, before the two hunting dogs were completely dealt with, strange figures darted out from the shadows once again.

Just as Zhou Ke'er was about to repeat her old trick, she didn't expect that before she could, Fiss suddenly stretched out his hand and made a firm grasping motion in mid-air.

In an instant, Zhou Ke'er seemed to see a phantom with curled ram horns appear on Fies's body. A familiar magical power surged on Fies's body, and then an invisible hand tightly gripped the attacking monster, instantly crushing it into dust.

Damn, there's only one complete waste of space, and that's me, Zhou Ke'er?!

Zhou Ke'er's eyes widened, but she still felt that the phantom figure looked so familiar.

Fies turned to look at Zhou Ke'er, but her eyes didn't seem to be looking at Zhou Ke'er. To be precise, it seemed that she wasn't looking at Zhou Ke'er's body, but at something deeper.

"you……"

She opened her mouth slightly, but in the end only managed to squeeze out one word. After giving Zhou Ke'er a deep look with a complex and meaningful gaze, she slowly closed her eyes and collapsed limply.

Zhou Ke'er stroked her chin, watching as she really fell straight to the ground with a "thud" and still didn't react. Confirming that she must have really passed out, she squatted down and helped her up.

The man turned around. He was initially worried about how to rescue the two people behind him if they were ambushed, but he didn't expect them to have a trump card to protect themselves, although it seemed to have significant side effects.

Having a trump card is normal; in fact, it would be strange to enter the forest without one. So the man didn't say much about it, but simply nodded to Zhou Ke'er: "You need to take good care of her now. We're about to break out. Don't worry, the remaining monsters aren't as strong as these few, but their numbers are a problem. If we were to deal with them one by one, it would take too much time. So, charging straight out is a better option."

Zhou Ke'er nodded, indicating that she understood.

Seeing this, the man sheathed his bow and drew two short swords from his waist, then darted off in one direction, shouting, "Follow me!"

Then don't be so fast!

Zhou Ke'er hoisted Fiss onto her back and quickly followed the man. Although he was leading the way, clearing the path with his twin swords as he moved forward, his speed wasn't particularly fast. However, considering Zhou Ke'er's current physical condition as an ordinary person, and the fact that she was carrying someone on her back, it was naturally not easy for her to keep up, and she was already finding it quite strenuous.

That bastard Nyaruko, even a power-up would make him much better than he is now! Why are you targeting him like this? He just pulled off some mess by relying on his strange immortality! He didn't do anything particularly outrageous. If you're not happy, then don't play!

Zhou Ke'er cursed inwardly as she gritted her teeth and followed the man in front of her.

Finally, after an unknown amount of time, Zhou Ke'er was so exhausted she was on the verge of losing her mind. She continued moving forward purely out of inertia, her legs numb and mechanical, her vision blurred and she could see nothing clearly. At this moment, the man in front of her finally spoke: "Alright, we're safe now. The nearest town is not far ahead, you can go there... Hey! Don't faint?!"

Upon hearing the man's words, Zhou Ke'er disregarded any danger and immediately lunged onto the grass in front of her. Before her body even touched the ground, she lost consciousness and fell into a coma.

The man looked at Zhou Ke'er and Fei Si lying on the ground and was in a dilemma. He sighed helplessly and had no choice but to help them deal with the aftermath for the time being.

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838. A Dream of Illusion

However, Zhou Ke'er, who had lost consciousness, was still able to "feel" the passing of awareness.

He felt his consciousness being drawn out of his body, slowly flowing towards some unknown direction.

After a burst of dazzling, colorful light, Zhou Ke'er felt as if she had passed through an extremely deep and secluded tunnel.

Immediately, he "realized" that he had opened his eyes—and so he actually did.

Zhou Ke'er tried to act, but he was just a mass of consciousness, without even the evil spirit that carried it, so he couldn't move.

So he could only look around at his surroundings.

Zhou Ke'er found herself in a place that resembled a library, but it stretched into the endless distance, as if it were a complete world in itself, with no end in sight.

Its top is not covered by a dome, or rather, this endless galaxy is its dome. Countless dazzling and enchanting lights flow across the sky, like a wonderful hallucination produced after accidentally ingesting hallucinogens.

The sound of rustling footsteps came from behind the bookshelf next to them.

Unable to move, Zhou Ke'er could only gaze in that direction, watching helplessly as a figure approached.

Soon, a somewhat familiar figure appeared behind the bookshelf—it was Tavel, whom Zhou Ke'er had met once before.

He saw Zhou Ke'er arrive, but his face showed no surprise, as if he had expected it all along.

Is this place Tavel's territory? Zhou Ke'er didn't quite understand how she got here. Could it be that after Renault, Nyarlathotep, and those guys, Tavel was also going to get involved? Was it him who dragged Zhou Ke'er here?

But as if he could see through Zhou Ke'er's thoughts, Tavel shook his head and answered sincerely, "It wasn't me who summoned you, but your own consciousness, through the repeated cycles of dispersion and condensation, passed through that door in the form of a 'key' and came here. All of this was destined to happen."

Tavel spoke in a very mysterious way, and to be honest, Zhou Ke'er didn't understand much of it. She only realized that Tavel had predicted that Zhou Ke'er would come here a long time ago.

He sized up Zhou Ke'er for a moment, then revealed a slightly regretful expression. "Nyaruko still loves to play tricks on others. You've been deceived by Him. If you had properly read the knowledge I gave you before, you wouldn't be in this situation—you would have realized long ago that He could never seal your divinity as the origin. Yet, even with such a clumsy and flimsy lie, you were easily fooled. This is because of a lack of knowledge that you were deceived."

Zhou Ke'er was somewhat surprised. Tavel's words actually meant that his power had not actually been sealed by Nyarlathotep? But he definitely felt that he had become an ordinary person.

Faced with Zhou Ke'er's surprise, Tavel was not disappointed. Instead, he patiently explained, "Listen to me—time is actually still; it has no beginning and no end. The feeling that things change because of the flow of time is just an illusion. In fact, time itself is an illusion. Only those beings in finite dimensions with narrow vision would think of things like past, present, and future. Humans develop the concept of time simply because of those processes they call change, but these changes themselves are an illusion. All those things that existed in the past, exist now, and will exist in the future actually exist simultaneously."

After listening to this long passage, Zhou Ke'er was still confused and didn't understand what Tavel meant by suddenly talking about time.

Tavel shook his head helplessly before continuing to explain, "Because what humans perceive as the past, present, and future exist simultaneously, but humans can only perceive the 'present,' and although you possess divinity, your way of perceiving the world is still no different from that of humans—therefore, your perception is easily deceived by Nyarlathotep, who secretly replaces your understanding of the 'present' with the 'past.' This doesn't affect you personally, but because you can only perceive one dimension, you can perceive your current existence as belonging solely to your 'past' self."

After Tavel explained it so thoroughly, Zhou Ke'er finally understood what he had just revealed.

It turns out that Nyaruko's actions from beginning to end were nothing more than a smokescreen, or a little trick to tease people.

Everything about Zhou Ke'er still exists, but due to her shallow and one-dimensional way of perceiving, she has been disturbed and replaced by Nyaruko, thus falling into ignorance of her own perception. She mistakes her "present" self for her "past" self, and therefore cannot perceive everything she possesses in the "present." Furthermore, since there is no such thing as a "past," "future," or "present"—these three are inherently overlapping—Zhou Ke'er cannot detect any flaws and genuinely believes that her abilities have simply been sealed.

"Very good, now it seems you finally understand what all this was all about."

Tavel nodded, then gestured towards the bookshelves behind him: "Then, all who enter my school will receive gifts. Consider the explanations just now as a complimentary gift. Now—you may choose any book from these shelves, and all the knowledge within will be yours."

Zhou Ke'er couldn't speak. He could only watch as the names of countless books flashed by rapidly before his eyes. He had a premonition that even just the titles of these books combined surpassed all the knowledge he had acquired since birth—knowledge is indeed a gift to everyone!

He was acutely aware that if this continued, he would be overwhelmed by the endless list of books before he could even choose any.

She dared not look any further, nor think any further. Even choosing a book was a luxury. Without hesitation, Zhou Ke'er randomly picked a book that was flashing before her eyes and projected her consciousness onto it.

"It seems you've already given a choice—it looks good. In fact, not having a choice would have been a mistake."

Tavel sensed Zhou Ke'er's choice, and immediately clapped his hands. In that instant, countless streams of information stopped and dissipated, leaving only that one book.

Before she could even check the book's title, an even stronger stream of information flooded into Zhou Ke'er's mind.

Unsurprisingly, he lost consciousness instantly.

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839. Gods

Consciousness gradually returned.

Zhou Ke'er felt that her consciousness had indeed returned to her body.

However, his mind was filled with countless complex messages. If Zhou Ke'er had not already experienced something similar before, and had not been backed by divinity, these messages alone would have been enough to drive him to madness.

However, now is not the time to slowly sort out this information—to be honest, although Tavel is very generous with the knowledge, the timing of each time he gives it is very strange. He doesn't give Zhou Ke'er any time to learn and absorb it at all. Isn't that just giving her nothing?

In short, I can only gather these messages up and throw them into a small corner of my memory temple for now, and stuff them into any random cubicle. I don't have time to look at this stuff now, I'll deal with it later.