Twenty minutes later, Ray put down his pen and finished the test.
"So? Am I cured?" 'David' asked, his face still wearing that eerie smile.
Hmph.
Ray sneered inwardly, already sick of this act.
He had to admit—the Shadow King was unbelievably bored. The guy had actually sat there and gone through the entire test without pulling any weird stunts. Not even a hint of mischief.
Ray had expected him to sabotage the session somehow, maybe lash out and force an early end to the test. But no, this freak just went along with the whole routine, playing his role to the end.
And the result? Well, that was obvious.
Even a layman could see that this 'David' wasn't acting like his usual self. The logic and accuracy of his answers were irrelevant. No real psychiatrist would judge a patient's mental state based solely on test responses.
If logic alone mattered, Beth wouldn't still be keeping Ray locked up in here.
"To be honest, in your current state, you wouldn't pass the test," Ray said with a shake of his head.
"Oh? Really? What a shame," 'David' replied with a smile.
He said it was a shame, but there was not the slightest trace of disappointment in his expression. It was clear he didn't care in the slightest.
"Ray… that's your name, right? Tell me, do you think I still have a chance at recovery?" 'David' asked, eyes fixed sharply on Ray, that same twisted grin on his lips.
"No idea," Ray replied casually.
"No idea?"
"Who could say for sure? If I knew the answer, you think I'd still be locked up here?"
'David' nodded slowly and gave a soft laugh. "I see… well then, thanks for your trouble. Oh, and—I don't want him to know I exist. Understood?"
As he said this, his pupils suddenly gleamed with a yellow light!
Crap!
An alarm blared in Ray's head. He instantly realized what 'David' was trying to do, but a wave of dizziness overwhelmed him before he could react. His vision blurred...
At the same time, a system prompt flashed in his mind:
"You are being targeted by a minor mental contamination attack from Amahl Farouk."
"Contamination Level – Low. Spend 10 Universal Points to remove?"
[Yes] / [No]
Like it was even a question—remove!
Ray immediately confirmed. Ten points from the fifty exploration points he had just earned were automatically converted and deducted.
The dizziness vanished instantly.
"Damn… I slipped up," Ray thought, now fully alert.
That final move from the Shadow King showed he'd seen through Ray's little performance. He had realized Ray was just pretending, and had attempted to mess with his mind in return.
And Ray knew exactly where he'd gone wrong.
He never should have acted like he didn't notice 'David' was acting like a completely different person. The shift had been way too obvious. Even someone without a psych background would have picked up on it. For someone like Ray, a trained psychologist, to miss it? Impossible.
Fortunately, the Shadow King had no way of knowing that Ray recognized him for who he truly was. At worst, he probably assumed Ray thought he was just another one of David's alters—and that Ray was playing dumb to avoid provoking him.
If not, this would've been way more than a mild psychic jab.
Still, the whole thing left a bitter taste in Ray's mouth.
If he hadn't been lucky enough to earn those 50 exploration points, the Shadow King might've succeeded. And the likely result? Ray didn't need a vivid imagination to guess—probably some memory wipe, or maybe a subconscious compulsion to never speak of the event again.
"You started this… don't worry, I'll pay you back eventually," Ray vowed silently, keeping his face as calm as ever.
That short encounter with the Shadow King had shaken him.
Up until now, whether dealing with the hospital staff or even David, Ray had carried an unconscious sense of superiority—one born from the 'omniscient player' perspective he had before arriving in this world. He knew the story. He knew everyone's fate. It had started to feel like these people were just NPCs.
But the Shadow King had shattered that illusion.
Even without knowing everything Ray did, he'd still taken the upper hand. If not for the system, Ray would've walked away from this humiliated—or worse.
If he didn't let go of that arrogant mindset, it would get him killed. And he wouldn't even see it coming.
In that sense… maybe he owed the Shadow King a thank-you for the wake-up call.
"Huh? What am I doing here? Did I fall asleep?" David suddenly said, jolting upright, dazed and confused.
"I think I'll take a walk to the library… you coming, Ray?" he asked, stretching like nothing had happened.
"I'll pass. I'd rather rest a bit," Ray said, shaking his head.
"All right then, I'll head out. See you later," David replied casually before walking away.
"Another memory wipe, huh?" Ray muttered, watching him go.
It was obvious. David had no idea what had just happened. He didn't even remember Ray offering to run the test for him—a moment that had made him so happy earlier.
Now he didn't even mention it.
Whether he'd truly forgotten or just subconsciously believed the test was already done, it didn't matter. Either way, it was the Shadow King's doing.
And this wasn't the first time. That parasite had been inside David for over thirty years, warping his memories again and again.
Like that yellow dog David swore his family once had.
They'd never owned a dog. That memory was fabricated entirely by the Shadow King—a creature only David could see.
There were plenty of other cases like it. Subtle manipulations meant to nudge David further and further toward instability, until he finally snapped and lost all reason.
"Sick old freak… I'll end you someday," Ray growled under his breath.