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

Huang Quan chuckled foolishly twice, then quickly corrected himself, pointing to the door and shouting with great momentum, "Let's go! Destination: the Gate of the Dead!"

"Don't come up with random names!"

"How can you just pick a random name? That's like sending someone to their death!"

The scene before my eyes gradually blurred, and the sounds became distant, faint and indistinct.

A cloud of black mist surged in, and for some reason, a sentence flashed through Zhou Ke'er's mind:

"The hymn of humanity is the hymn of courage, and the greatness of humanity is the greatness of courage."

------------

73. Death Loop (Zero)

Welcome to "Dream of the Mist"

Dense fog is gathering...

You have two system notifications.

[① Player "Zhou Ke'er" has not claimed the title. Please claim it as soon as possible.]

[② Player "Zhou Ke'er's" title "Two-Faced Conman" has expired due to a system error.]

The system will provide player "Zhou Ke'er" with a certain amount of compensation, which has been sent to her in-game mail. Please claim it as soon as possible.

Upon logging in, a long string of system notifications appears.

Zhou Ke'er stroked her chin, first accepting the new title, then glanced at her friends list and found that Red Crane, Finger Sand and the others were not online.

Title: Manipulator of People's Hearts

【Effect:

①Whenever anyone present believes your disguised identity, you will receive the "Deception - Sanity Recovery" buff.

② Consume the corresponding sanity points to designate someone (ineffective against players) to completely believe in the identity you are impersonating.

(Note: "Fraud - Sanity Recovery": You will continuously recover sanity at a rate of 1×n%/minute, where n is the number of people who believe your disguised identity.)

[Note: I am God, do you believe it? What? You don't believe it? Okay, then you believe it now.]

"Tsk...they've really been nerfed."

Zhou Ke'er scratched her head helplessly and put on the title first. "The effect of restoring sanity is much weaker than the Cold Rabbit title, and the effect of crowd control and brainwashing is... neither good nor bad. Moreover, it can't be used on players, so it's rather useless."

"However... it's not bad when used together. Start with the second skill to brainwash, give yourself a buff, and as long as the scene doesn't change, slowly brainwash everyone, and maybe you can recover your sanity in a minute... it's a sneaky late-game skill."

"But sneaking around isn't my style. I'll change the title later."

With that thought in mind, Zhou Ke'er opened the email, ready to see what the system compensation would be.

You have an unread email.

FROM Naya

Due to a bug in the title "Two-Faced Fraudster" for player "Zhou Ke'er", the title has been temporarily suspended.

The development team sincerely apologizes for the inconvenience caused to player "Zhou Ke'er" and will provide some compensation. We hope you enjoy the game.

Item: "Fake Jehovah's Broken Divinity" (Unclaimed)

TO "Zhou Ke'er"

"Wow, it's an item! Aside from clothing, you can count the number of items that can be used to create a module on one hand. This compensation... I guess it's a bargain."

Zhou Ke'er couldn't wait to claim the item and check its attributes.

【Item Name: Counterfeit Jehovah's Broken Divinity】

[Quality: A small trinket casually crafted based on the original, a truly remarkable product]

【Effect:

① In this module, the favorability of Jehovah's followers towards you increases by 80%.

②You will receive a faint but pure power of holy light.

(Note: Holy Light: originates from the power of God; please explore how to use it on your own.)

[Note: Perhaps you can use this to rebuild heaven? Haha, just kidding, this is just a fake, be careful the real one doesn't catch you~ But don't worry too much, after all, the real one is already dead, hahahahaha!]

"....this..."

Zhou Ke'er didn't know what to say; there were just too many flaws! The name itself was off!

Why make a broken version when it's already a fake?! And what kind of mess is this, haphazardly sculpted from the original...?

So, this thing... the divine essence of God is in Nyarlathotep's hands? The final note also says that God is dead... could it be that he died at this guy's hands?

Zhou Ke'er couldn't help but recall what she had heard in her dream before: Cronus said that God led all the angels in a reckless attack, only to be completely wiped out.

Hmm... if Nyarlathotep was also a participant in the final battle of the Old Era, then maybe God really did die at his hands...

Forget it, why think about this kind of thing? Anyway, Zhou Ke'er is just an insignificant nobody... probably.

Thinking this way, Zhou Ke'er chose to activate the single-player mode—leaving the cabin to explore... she might accidentally lose the clothes she just bought and the items she received as compensation, so she decided to wait until she was with other people.

Let's choose an easier difficulty level to relax first; forget about the dense fog difficulty...

[Nightmare" Solo Dungeon Selected Successfully]

Number of people: 1

Loading...

Enjoy the game!

After the system notification tone ends, a CG sequence plays as usual.

The night sky was clear, with sparse stars twinkling faintly, almost swallowed up by the neon-lit sky.

A cold wind howls; this is both the liveliest and the loneliest place.

A figure stood on the top floor of the building, on the rooftop, looking down at the masses below.

A piece of paper lay at his feet, weighed down by a stone he'd picked up from who-knows-where. The page trembled wildly in the cold wind, as if trying to escape from this place.

"I don't know what kind of life I've lived, or what kind of life I should live, and I don't want to live anymore."

A disheartened narrator's voice rang out.

"You have the courage to die, but not the courage to live?" People who say things like that are just (beep)."

"It's precisely because they lack the courage to live that they choose the easy and pleasant path of death! So stop spouting such ridiculous nonsense!"

"Because compared to living like this, death is as pleasant as a child's game."

"This kind of life will only bring endless suffering, but death is just a matter of a moment."

"To live is to accomplish nothing. Death... at least that's the only thing I can control, and only death..."

The figure leaped off the rooftop of the fifty-story building.

"Pfft"

The moment the person fell to the ground, the screen went black, then switched to a white space, with a black phantom floating on the huge throne.

"die"

The narrator ended with two words that seemed to come out of nowhere.

Main Quest (Optional):

① Survive, the same old task. Even though you want to die, but... I said I want you to live, will you listen?

②Death, of course, is not a random death, but a "death of one's own choosing," not due to an accident, not due to some other interference, but "suicide."

Rewards: ① 10 Sanity Points / ② 5 Sanity Points

Side Quests (Optional):

① Try to please "Death," maybe it will be happy and won't want to torment you anymore? Probably. Reaching a favorability rating of 40 completes the task.

② Completely enrage "Death". You wanted to die anyway, and this guy actually dragged you along. Is there no law? Damn it! The mission is complete when your favorability reaches -80.

Rewards: ① 15 Sanity Points / ② 10 Sanity Points

[Bonus Task: Who says "death" itself can't die? What do you think? Kill Him, it's that simple, I said.]

Reward: 30 Sanity Points + Special Reward

[Countdown to entering the module: 30...29...]

"Wow, this module is interesting! Both the main and side quests are optional. Although the first option not only looks simple but also has a high reward... haha, they really knew I wouldn't choose to please others."

Zhou Ke'er stroked her chin, a smirk playing on her lips. "Provoking others is such an easy thing. Who isn't a bit of a sarcastic person at heart? And... this extra mission actually has a special reward... I definitely have to try and get that."

"Speaking of which... is 'death' in this module actually materialized? It seems to be some kind of deity, a deity representing death. If it's a deity from an ancient era, I might remember its weaknesses; if I happen to know them, that would be quite satisfying."

Soon, the module countdown ended, and a thick fog rushed towards Zhou Ke'er, enveloping him inside.

Countless blurry black shadows swept through the thick fog, among which several gazes were particularly conspicuous, but upon closer inspection, it was impossible to tell where they came from; one could only be very sensitive to those gazes.

Wait... how many? Why are there several?

There are only two truly remarkable beings who have "observed" Zhou Ke'er, right? If there are others, why aren't they shown in the game system?

Zhou Ke'er was slightly puzzled.

The fog grew even deeper and darker, but then a bright white light appeared and drew closer to Zhou Ke'er.

Finally, Zhou Ke'er heard a very faint voice, which sounded like gloating: "I told you, you better watch out, someone might knock you over one day!"

------------

74. The Death Loop (Part 1)

"Death is easy and pleasant, as comfortable as a child's play?"

Zhou Ke'er had just opened her eyes and hadn't even seen her surroundings clearly when she heard a deep, hoarse voice coming from in front of her, "The only thing you can control is your own death?... Interesting."

Zhou Ke'er looked ahead and saw that the voice was coming from the dark shadow floating on the throne.

"Since you've invited someone to your place, shouldn't you follow basic etiquette? First, you should introduce yourself, right? Then, you should explain why you invited them out of the blue, right? Finally... shouldn't you offer them a cup of tea and maybe a sofa as well?"

Zhou Ke'er tapped her left hand lightly with her right fingers. This module couldn't even bring in the cane... Really, does that mean Zhou Ke'er doesn't have a built-in weapon?