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

The tall, dark-skinned man quickly called for a stop, covering Nyaruko's mouth with his hand while looking awkwardly at Zhou Ke'er: "Well, you saw it too, that's just how this guy is. I won't say anything, just be lenient with him. I can only say good luck and try to be able to protect yourself next time. I have to go back and take the punishment for this guy now. I'm not talking anymore, I'm not talking anymore."

"Don't do that. Then...wouldn't it be nice to just send me to the main world and give me a speedrun ranking reward?"

Now that the truth has been revealed, Zhou Ke'er is still thinking about using connections and cheating.

The tall, dark-skinned man looked at Zhou Ke'er speechlessly, unsure of what to say for a moment. He seemed to be organizing his thoughts, but Nyaruko spoke first, saying, "I really don't understand you! Why are you so obsessed with that damn reward? Right now, those things are just trash to you, don't you understand?"

Think about it carefully. Whether it's the newly developed divinity, the knowledge gift given by Tavel, the data modules you discovered in reality, or even studying the "Seven Secrets of the Earth" more, or even just practicing that "Smoke Mantra" single-mindedly, it's hundreds of times better than wasting time and effort on that stupid reward.

"Don't even mention normal people, even abnormal people should have been thinking about these things long ago. Why are you so fixated on petty gains? I don't know if you're smart or just plain stupid."

The tall, dark-skinned man gave Zhou Ke'er an awkward smile: "That's true, though his words may be rough, they're not wrong. In your current situation, fighting for those superficial things won't help; it'll just be a waste of time. You should think about other things instead. This opportunity is perfect; the first phase of the world mission still has a long way to go, so you can make good use of it. I won't say anything more; I'm taking this guy with me now. See you next time."

After saying that, the tall, dark-skinned man grabbed Nyarlathotep and quickly slipped into the spatial rift, disappearing from the house.

"屮!"

Zhou Ke'er leaned back on the table, rubbing her forehead—everything Nyarlathotep had mentioned in Nyarlathotep's last words, from divinity to Tavel's gift, and even the data modules he had secretly obtained without ever revealing them to anyone else, was known perfectly well to those beings.

With such an extreme information gap and power imbalance, how can they possibly fight against them? Everything is completely under their control.

To be honest, Zhou Ke'er didn't think Renault and his team could succeed at all, but they had no other choice. Now, Zhou Ke'er could understand them a little better.

Just as Tavel said when explaining the principle of the seal, the world in their eyes is a superposition of the past, present and future, a world that was originally complete. Under such circumstances, species with single-threaded perception are inherently at an absolute disadvantage.

Yes, indeed, all their hidden schemes and plans were crystal clear to those beings, and their strength was indeed insignificant compared to them. But if they chose to give up, they could only accept that one day they or their loved ones would be played and manipulated by those beings without warning.

What Nyarko said when she provoked me was the most accurate description of what really happened.

"Tsk, what a hassle."

Zhou Ke'er stared at the ceiling for a while before sitting up again. The moment he sat up, his strength was rapidly recovering.

Of course, this does not mean that Zhou Ke'er's observation of the world has reached the level of those beings; he just used a shortcut.

Just like a nearsighted person, although it is difficult to restore their vision to normal, they can still remove the hands of others who are covering their eyes.

Furthermore, Nyaruko's illusion was just something she did casually, merely adding some patches to the seal of the Swollen Woman. The seal that the Swollen Woman applied was also a general seal applicable to all players, so it couldn't have been done with much care. After Zhou Ke'er understood the principle, she was naturally able to easily break through this illusion.

"It's time to go."

Zhou Ke'er stood up.

However, just then, a voice rang out from the side.

"So, this time, you're still going to choose to abandon me and leave?"

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842. Who is it? Who are you?

"?"

Zhou Ke'er turned her head inexplicably and looked in the direction from which the sound came.

But then they saw that Fies had woken up at some point, his eyes gleaming with an unfathomable light, looking at Zhou Ke'er with an indescribable expression.

However, Zhou Ke'er really couldn't figure out what was going on, because he really didn't remember ever seeing Fies.

So he naturally asked, "What do you mean by that? Have I done anything to you before?"

However, the next moment, Fies's eyes glazed over, he staggered back two steps, and lowered his head.

When she looked up at Zhou Ke'er again, she had returned to the blank-slate appearance she had at the beginning of their first meeting.

"Strange...where am I?"

Fis rubbed his temples in confusion and said to Zhou Ke'er, "I remember I was just in the woods when several monsters pounced on us..."

Zhou Ke'er was shocked. "What are you doing here? Are you a riddle teller? You're only saying half of what you mean and then switching back to normal? What's the difference between this and taking a dump halfway and then pulling it back in? That's disgusting!"

He scratched his head. Although he really wanted to know what was going on, judging from the formula of TV dramas and movies over the years, he knew he wouldn't get any answers by asking now, so he might as well not ask and save himself the time.

Thinking this, Zhou Ke'er squatted down and poked the witch who was lying on the ground pretending to be dead. "Hey? Aren't you going to get up and explain what's going on?"

The witch hurriedly and timidly scrambled to her feet, her face beaming with "happiness," and asked with an awkward laugh, "Explain...explain what? I, I really did faint just now. I didn't see anything, I didn't know anything, and I only just woke up now, haha, haha."

"You've been knocked unconscious, haven't you?"

Zhou Ke'er twitched the corner of her mouth.

Although she didn't know what "冲" meant, the witch nodded hurriedly like a chicken pecking at rice, saying, "Ah, right, right, 冲 has fainted, has fainted."

Haha, this witch is so cowardly, she looks just like a cold-cooked rabbit! Is she another version of herself in the world?

Zhou Ke'er flicked the witch's forehead with her finger. "Alright, alright, stop fooling around. If I wanted to hurt you, you'd be dead already. What are you afraid of? I just wanted to ask you where this place is and if you know if this place leads to the main world."

Although Nyaruko and the tall black guy advised him not to obsess over wanting to race to the main world, and after thinking about it, he realized they were right, the problem was that he still had to go eventually. Shouldn't he find out how to get there beforehand, just in case?

It's better than having the first stage of the world quest already started, and Zhou Ke'er still standing here cluelessly, not knowing how to leave.

Wouldn't that mean sending a huge amount of mail?

"This is the nearest town to the Forest of Gaps, but it's more like a protective wall used to isolate the Forest of Gaps than a town. There aren't many ordinary residents in the town; most are soldiers who have been dispatched here, or witches like me. In short, apart from soldiers, there are some strange guys."

The witch hurriedly and diligently explained, even going so far as to say that she was a strange fellow, "As for the main world... I haven't heard of it... Oh wait, wait! That's right! I remember now, although I don't know, I once heard the Grand Magus of the Royal City Magic Academy say that there might be worlds above worlds, and he might know about them!"

The witch, thinking she could get rid of the blame, didn't care about her mentor anymore and sold him out without hesitation.

Fies, standing to the side, was a little confused. Wasn't she the one who asked the question first? How did the topic come back to this?

However, now that she was a little more lucid, she roughly realized that the man in the forest must have rescued them. Perhaps he was injured or had fainted, so after taking them out of the forest, he entrusted them to this witch. She just didn't understand why the witch seemed so afraid of Zhou Ke'er—what had happened while she was unconscious?

Although Fies was very curious, she knew what was important and didn't interrupt, but quietly stood aside and listened to the conversation.

"Oh? Is that so..."

Zhou Ke'er pondered for a moment. He had previously thought that this place might have been created by Nyaruko on the spot for her play, and that it might disappear once she was captured and taken back. However, it seemed that this was not the case. Although she came from the real world, the sudden addition of a bunch of maps—such as the so-called forest and the royal city—did not seem like maps that could be forcibly inserted into the real world. It was more like Nyaruko had opened a rift connecting to the next world, which Zhou Ke'er had just slipped into.

No wonder it's called the Forest of Gaps.

It seems we still need to go to that so-called royal city to check the situation.

However, there's no need to rush. If this is indeed a secondary world, Zhou Ke'er can still think of a way to transfer to the main world.

It was Nyaruko and the others who reminded Zhou Ke'er that he hadn't studied that data module yet. After he got it, he just put it away. If they hadn't reminded him, even Zhou Ke'er himself would have almost forgotten about it.

Moreover, it's perfect to stay here with this timid witch; isn't that better than living outdoors in the open?

Plans are in place!

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On the other hand, Zhou Ke'er has started to study and improve her strength, which is nothing to mention. On the other hand, Hong He and the others have encountered some trouble.

While ordinary monsters posed no real threat to their safety, the problem was that they couldn't find a way to reach the main world. Initially, they worried about what would happen if they found a teleportation array but no array master could activate it; now it seemed like a completely unnecessary worry—because they couldn't even find a teleportation array in the first place.

"Could it be that we've fallen into a fixed mindset? Maybe the way to the main world this time isn't even about finding a teleportation array?"

Inside a house whose exterior was dilapidated but whose interior was still relatively intact, Zhijiansha ate fast food while unable to resist coming up with a new idea.

Red Crane raised her eyes: "It's not impossible. But the problem is, we can't find any other way besides this. We can only take it one step at a time. At worst, we can wait for the world quest phase to start and then be teleported there with the remaining players. After all, our goal isn't to race for the main world rankings, right?"

Hearing this, Zhijiansha nodded helplessly: "That's right, we still need to find the cold-cooked rabbit first. We're feeling drowsy, and Zhang He and Zhou Ke'er are still here..."

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843. Change

"While that's true, let's not even talk about Zhou Ke'er, whom we can't contact at all. Even the others we can contact are located far away from us. Not to mention that everything outside has changed drastically. Who knows what kind of mess their old place has become now?"

But before anyone could even finish her sentence, and before anyone else could chime in, Zhijiansha began to complain helplessly to herself: "Besides, let's not even talk about them, let's talk about ourselves. Where are we now? We can't even tell anymore!"

As she spoke, she glanced around the room. At this point, only she, Red Crane, and Qiao Yixia remained. Originally, Bolius had left with them, but after realizing he couldn't contact Zhou Ke'er no matter what, he chose to leave the group and immediately go looking for her.

Qiao Yixia stood by the window, her eyes slightly narrowed, and suddenly said, "It's foggy outside. This fog is strange—it's too fast and too thick."

Upon hearing this, Honghe and Zhijiansha immediately rushed to the window and looked outside. Sure enough, just as Qiao Yixia had said, a thick fog, as if it were a tangible substance, swept in from all directions, completely enveloping the outside. In no time, it was pitch black, and not only was the outside situation obscured, but even the slightest outline was deeply buried by the thick fog.

The only saving grace is that the thick fog has not yet spread into the house.

Because this dilapidated house no longer has any windows that can be closed.

Qiao Yixia slowly stepped back. "My advice is—if it's not necessary, it's best not to touch that mist. I can't see through what it is; it's definitely more than just mist."

Upon hearing this, Finger Sand and Red Crane were about to retreat when they suddenly felt a dizzying sensation—no, it wasn't just the two of them who felt dizzy; it was as if the entire house had been lifted up and then casually thrown down!

Caught off guard, the sand between her fingers almost flew out of the broken window, but fortunately, the quick-thinking flamingo grabbed it with both hands and slammed it heavily against the wall below the windowsill, barely escaping being thrown out.

"The space is in disarray—no, we're no longer in the same place we were before!"

Qiao Yixia instantly sensed something was wrong. She immediately leaped to Honghe and Zhijiansha's side, braced herself against the wall with one hand to shield them, and drew her rapier and plunged it into the ground. Immediately, a semi-circular light screen expanded outward from the rapier, enveloping all three of them.

Soon, a series of even more intense shaking and tremors followed, making them feel dizzy and disoriented, as if they were being tossed around in a washing machine. Fortunately, thanks to the light screen set up by Qiao Yixia, none of them were thrown off again by the violent shaking. Otherwise, they might have fallen out of the window, and who knows what might have happened then.

After what seemed like an eternity, finally, with a final, heavy impact, the house seemed to have finally come to rest. The already dilapidated house was now almost completely destroyed, looking even more ruined than a complete wasteland from the outside.

After waiting for a while and confirming that the trembling had stopped, Qiao Yixia deactivated the light screen, stood up, and immediately checked the situation outside.

Now she doesn't even need to look out the window anymore, because the house is now completely drafty.

What appeared before her was not the monster-infested landscape she had expected, nor the treacherous environment of a lava abyss, nor even the reinforced concrete surroundings as before.

They found their house had been smashed on the edge of a remote forest, facing a cold and old town.

The area is surrounded by mountains and is located in a low-lying valley.

The houses in the town are mostly made of wood, giving it a feel of ancient China from a bygone era.

What's strange is that even though such a huge house, which looks completely different from the houses here, fell from the sky and crashed hard not far from the town with such a loud noise, no one came out to check the situation.

It's like there's no one in the town at all; it's a completely dead town.

Feeling a little dizzy from being shaken, Zhijiansha stood up, clutching her head: "What exactly happened? What happened?!"

"I don't know if we were targeted or if we accidentally triggered some mechanism, but in any case, we should no longer be in the same place, right?"

Honghe remained expressionless as always, speaking in a completely flat tone, "The entire house was uprooted and has been thrown somewhere..."

"That's right, that's roughly the situation."

Qiao Yixia replied coldly, "I didn't even realize at first that those thick fogs carried such immense power. If it weren't for most of my power being sealed..."

Honghe's eyes flickered, and she subconsciously began to check the game interface displayed on her device. "The communication module is unusable—no, it can't be said to be completely unusable. At least I can still communicate with the two of you. If that's the case, the space we're in now might not belong to the real world, which would cause the communication module to malfunction. Thinking about it this way, Zhou Ke'er should have encountered a similar situation."