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

Alex was taken aback by what he heard, but then became interested. Looking at the skeletal frame with its ashen face (a blue skull), he chuckled and started talking back and forth with Zhou Ke'er, completely disregarding the skeletal frame. He even deliberately raised his voice, probably hoping that passersby would hear him.

This guy is actually quite... to Zhou Ke'er's liking.

"Huh?! Are you going to make things difficult for me?!"

Zhou Ke'er feigned surprise and turned to look at the skull frame. "I thought Ning was a tolerant and magnanimous person, but I didn't expect him to make things difficult for me! I'm so scared... Maybe I shouldn't go to this school anymore..."

"Ahem! Please don't listen to this unruly student's nonsense! I will absolutely not make things difficult for you!"

The skeletal figure glared at Alex, who was looking at him defiantly, then turned to Zhou Ke'er and said with a hint of flattery, "Please be sure to study at our academy. We will assign you the best major, the best teachers, and the best job placement opportunities!"

"???"

Zhou Ke'er was genuinely shocked. What on earth was going on? Why did this guy become even more of a sycophant the more she criticized him?

A simp who licks his boots will end up with nothing!

Alex, who was watching the show from the sidelines, was also surprised. He had never seen this skeleton so easy to talk to before, and he even wondered if the guy had taken the wrong medicine.

Oh...that's possible. This old skeleton has a particular fondness for performing rituals and such in private; maybe it's damaged his brain...

Alex thought this with complete conviction and nodded.

Ugh... If this keeps up, he might end up worshipping me... That would be even more troublesome! Damn masochist!

Zhou Ke'er pursed her lips, sighed, and said, "Alright... let's leave it at that for now. Let's go out. Xing Jinqing is probably getting impatient, and we can't waste his time."

"That's true. Well then, old skeleton, goodbye~ You did a great job today, I'll go spread the word for you!"

Alex nodded, then grinned at the skull and said something.

As the skeleton watched Zhou Ke'er and Alex walk away, the soul fire in its eye sockets flickered, revealing the intense thoughts swirling within it.

"It seems He has a good relationship with Alex? How did Alex manage to get close to a god favored by such a great being?... No, maybe it wasn't Alex who befriended Him, but rather He himself who went to befriend Alex!"

The skeletal figure's thoughts raced, his mind taking flight: "I just overheard them mention 'Xing Jinqing.' I've never heard of her before, but I imagine she's a student from the Far Eastern pantheon..."

This flamingo student, upon arriving at the academy, immediately befriended two students from the two most powerful pantheons... He must have something in mind. Perhaps he was sent to the Academy of Gods by some great being...

This...thinking about it carefully is terrifying! I definitely need to report to the higher-ups quickly, otherwise it'll be too late and I'll be in trouble! And I can't alert them; I have to treat them well for now!

The soul fire in the skull's eye sockets trembled violently, then it turned and walked into the room, slamming the door shut behind it.

Zhou Ke'er and Alex walked outwards.

"Wow! Red Crane, how did you do that! That old skeleton was actually acting like he was trying to curry favor with you! He's never treated any other student like that before..."

After walking for a while, Alex couldn't help but ask, with a smug look on his face: "Haha, this is so awesome! I never dared to talk to Him like this before. Look at his expression, like he's been holding in three years' worth of stale poop in his bones and can't poop it out because it's too hard. It's really getting me super high!"

"..."

Zhou Ke'er silently cursed Alex's bizarre and disgusting analogy twice in her mind, and secretly memorized it for later use. "I don't know... I said I was a candidate for God, and He turned into this... I guess He thinks I will become the supreme god sooner or later, so He is trying to please me in advance?"

"Hmm...that makes sense! Really, I never thought of that! God, maybe you can even rebuild heaven...Wow! You're a super big shot! Should I start following you from now on?"

Alex belatedly realized with shock, "No wonder that old skeleton... to use the terms of the Far Eastern pantheon, he really is a thousand-year-old tortoise and a ten-thousand-year-old turtle! What a cunning old fox!"

...As if you gods wouldn't live that long.

Zhou Ke'er's lips twitched.

"Alright, Xing Jinqing has been waiting outside for so long, let's..."

As Zhou Ke'er was speaking, she suddenly felt a push and almost lost her balance and fell to the ground.

Before he could even react, he heard a series of sobbing sounds.

"Whoa! I finally found you! You scared me to death! I thought you'd been found out! If you'd been found out, I'd be doomed! Why were you running around like that?! I've been looking for you for ages!"

It turned out to be Ai Lei, who spoke incoherently to Zhou Ke'er with tears in her eyes.

"???"

Zhou Ke'er sighed in exasperation. It was you who told her to hide, without even explaining how to contact him or where to find him. And now you're blaming her?

"What are you doing...?"

Alex was stunned by what he saw and looked at the sobbing Ellie in surprise.

"I noticed this young lady looked very anxious, so I went to help her. I didn't expect she was looking for Honghe, so I brought her along."

Xing Jinqing, standing behind, answered with a gentle smile, displaying the refined demeanor of a gentleman, "Honghe, have you finished registering? Is your student status all set?"

"Uh...that..."

Zhou Ke'er was about to answer when she was interrupted by Ai Lei's shocked voice: "What! Student status! You... you can actually enroll?!"

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

84. Main World: Academy of Gods (Completed)

"Ahem, well... I have something to take care of with Senior Ailei, so I'll be going now! Let's talk again next time!"

Zhou Ke'er quickly covered Ai Lei's mouth to prevent her from letting something slip, otherwise Zhou Ke'er would die.

After casually greeting Alex and Xing Jinqing, Zhou Ke'er grabbed Ai Lei by the collar and slipped away.

Hehe! Perfect, I didn't leave them my contact information, and by pretending to be busy with something with Ellie, it would look like I forgot to leave my contact information because of an emergency, so they wouldn't be suspicious immediately! Kill two birds with one stone!

Carrying a small Ai Lei, Zhou Ke'er took off running and slipped away to a small, secluded lakeside, where there was no one around.

Zhou Ke'er put Ai Lei down. Luckily, this guy was a god, otherwise he might have been strangled by Zhou Ke'er.

"Cough cough!"

Ai Lei coughed violently a few times, then regained her shocked expression and looked at Zhou Ke'er, continuing to ask, "They just said... you registered for school?! What's going on? Does our academy now accept mortals too?"

And...you didn't expose me, did you?! If word gets out that I brought you here...we're all doomed!

"...Can't you trust your dad a little bit? I said I wouldn't be exposed, and I definitely won't be exposed."

Zhou Ke'er replied helplessly.

"But you didn't say that... I was the one who asked for it..."

"Irene muttered in a low voice."

"???"

Zhou Ke'er's veins throbbed involuntarily. After taking a deep breath, she slowly asked, "Alright, since you don't want me to be exposed, then you have to find a way to send me back to where I was, right? As long as you send me back, this matter can't be exposed, right?"

Zhou Ke'er didn't know if forcibly exiting the module would still give him the reward of exploring the hidden world view, so she could only try it on Ai Lei first.

"Sure, you can... but if you become a student at our school, you'll have to attend classes according to the schedule..."

Ai Lei glanced at the watch on Zhou Ke'er's right wrist and whispered, "Otherwise, you'll lose credits, and losing credits means you can't graduate..."

Is this the real issue? Your focus is so strange!

Zhou Ke'er rubbed her temples, truly at a loss with this kind of guy. "How about this? Even students of this academy can't stay on campus forever, right? You must have ways to leave the school, and ways to come back after leaving, right? Just let me know about these two methods, okay?"

"Hey, that's right! You're so clever! No wonder you managed to fool the people at the office and get admitted... Now you've gone from a mortal to a god-like candidate!"

Ai Lei looked at Zhou Ke'er in surprise, saying with an expression that said, "I never expected this."

So! Tell me now!

Zhou Ke'er pinched Ai Lei's cheeks hard with both hands, pulled them apart forcefully, and then let go, causing the flesh on Ai Lei's cheeks to bounce back with a "smack".

"Ouch...it hurts so much..."

Ai Lei complained tearfully, then, seeing Zhou Ke'er's fierce expression, she said, "Here's how it is. You use the watch distributed by the office to create a teleportation coordinate at your chosen location, and then you can teleport directly here through the watch..."

"This watch... what kind of high-tech gadget is this? It's neither fantasy nor magic! Are you guys going down the technology side?"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Ke'er glanced at her watch in surprise, not expecting that this thing could teleport people.

"I don't know the principle behind it either..."

Ai Lei rubbed her cheeks and mumbled, "As for leaving school, hehe, you've come to the right person. Normally, students can't leave school except for practical exams or after graduation. But as a senior who repeated three years, sneaking out of school is my specialty!"

What's so great about that?!

Zhou Ke'er couldn't resist reaching out her sinful hands again to knead and flatten Ai Lei's cheeks.

"Swell...swell it up, just like this paper..."

Ai Lei finally broke free from Zhou Ke'er's clutches, then rubbed her already red face and said, "Actually, the teleportation coordinates of this watch can be set by yourself! And you can change them multiple times. You just need to leave a coordinate record at school, save it, and then leave another coordinate record outside of school, and then use them in rotation."

"..."

Zhou Ke'er couldn't help but complain: "Such a simple operation, and only you, a repeat student, figured it out?! Are the other students stupid (beep—)?"

It must be just this one lazy bum who puts his mind on this kind of thing.

But... even so, Zhou Ke'er still can't leave the module...

From the very beginning, all the previous main and side quests have disappeared. The remaining quest, exploring the hidden world, doesn't even have a quest description, a time limit, or any mention of how to end the module...

Damn, did they remove the exit key (or Esc key?)?! Zhou Ke'er doesn't want to play SAO yet!

Zhou Ke'er gritted her teeth in resentment. If she chose to force quit the module, she would be punished... but this situation couldn't be blamed on Zhou Ke'er, could it? Or rather...

Wait a minute! Zhou Ke'er suddenly realized, no, she had a sudden epiphany... Why should she be afraid of these gods discovering her true identity? If they do, Zhou Ke'er will be killed, right? And being killed would just conveniently end the module!

Besides, Zhou Ke'er's current mission doesn't say she can't die, right? Wait a minute... in that case, it doesn't have to be so complicated... there's just Ereshkigal here! She's a god after all, she can definitely kill Zhou Ke'er!

Zhou Ke'er was immediately delighted. She first entered the coordinates of her current location on her watch, and then looked at Ai Lei seriously and said, "Okay, now I have a favor to ask of you! This is my lifelong request!"

"Wha...what is it?"

Ai Lei was startled and even stopped rubbing her face. She looked at Zhou Ke'er in a daze and asked.

Kill me!

"What?! I really didn't mean to kill you! Even though you're a lot of trouble, I never thought of that, really!"

When Ai Lei heard Zhou Ke'er's words, she was startled and quickly shook her head to explain.

"...You think I'm troublesome?!"

Zhou Ke'er's face darkened, and she approached Ai Lei threateningly.

"Heh heh, maybe if I scare her like this, she'll just kill me! That way, next time we run into each other, I can use that as an excuse to blackmail Ai Lei," Zhou Ke'er thought to herself.

"Waaaah!"

Ai Lei cried.