Nic watched the strange girl for a while, and she was very unusual.
The girl was talking to herself, as if someone was touching her, and she often said, "Stop mocking me!"
Nic playfully asked Zeta without using the God of Analyst skill, "Zeta, what do you think is wrong with her?"
[ If you were a normal person, you should think the girl is crazy, but I think she has another mental disorder. ]
"Crazy people have mental disorders, don't they? What do you mean by 'another mental disorder'?"
[ Like a mental illness, for example, schizophrenia. ]
"Eh, seriously? Oh my, that's really severe."
[ Do you want to help her? ]
"..."
Nic was silent for a moment, continuously observing the girl until he finally stood up and approached her.
"Hi," Nic greeted.
Then the girl turned and greeted back like a normal girl.
Nic asked what the girl was doing. The girl said she was playing with her friends.
"But they are mean and often mock me!" the girl said.
Nic was increasingly curious. "What is your name?"
Hearing Nic ask her name, she looked enthusiastic and introduced herself like a noblewoman, bowing.
"Nice to meet you, my name is Elysia! What is your name?"
Nic was quite impressed with how she introduced herself. "Ah, Elysia, that's a beautiful name. I'm Nic, nice to meet you."
After that, Elysia introduced Nic to her friends. Nic was just quiet because he didn't see any of Elysia's friends. Perhaps, as Zeta said, she often hallucinates because she suffers from schizophrenia.
"I need to confirm first... just to be sure,"
Nic used the God of Analyst and God of Psychology skills. After the analysis, it turned out she really had schizophrenia, and when he checked her mental state... it was a mess. There was no green, yellow, or red, but a dark purple color.
"Dark purple... her mental state is extremely chaotic, yet she looks normal when she talks. How could her mental state be this chaotic?" Nic worried inwardly.
[ Do you want to use a skill to cure her? ]
Nic shook his head.
[ Wow, wow, you're not being reckless for once? Has Master Nic realized the consequences? ]
"It's not like that, Zeta. I just want to understand her first..."
Nic activated the God of Illusion skill to create a real illusion of what was in Elysia's mind.
And when the illusion appeared, Nic was immediately shocked. There were many strange, uncomfortable whispers, unstructured images everywhere, and the "friends" Elysia mentioned had very strange forms.
"This is insane," Nic said.
Elysia looked at Nic. "What's wrong with you?"
"Em, nothing... it's just that your friend has been staring at me the whole time," Nic said.
Elysia was shocked to hear that. She saw that one of her friends was indeed looking at Nic, but she didn't expect Nic could see it too.
"Eh... no way..." Elysia stared silently at Nic.
"Huh?" Nic was confused.
Nic thought Elysia was unaware of her schizophrenia, so Nic wanted to act as if Elysia's friends were real... but what Nic didn't know was that Elysia was aware of her schizophrenia and accepted it... even so, she still interacted with her hallucinations to alleviate her loneliness.
"What do you mean... my friend is looking at you? Haha... that's impossible..." Elysia said, her voice trembling.
Elysia thought Nic was also experiencing the same thing as her.
But Nic quickly answered logically. "Look... I study in the world of psychology, and I already understand your condition, Elysia. That's why I'm trying to balance your hallucinations... I seriously didn't mean to mock you or anything."
"Ah, don't, you don't need to cure me... I'm fine like this, seriously," Elysia said. Her smile looked sincere, but her heart was clearly sad.
"I didn't say I was going to cure you..." Nic sat on the ground.
Then Nic pointed at Elysia. "I want to play with you!"
Elysia was confused, and whispers began to emerge in Elysia's ear. The whispers urged Elysia to stay away from Nic.
"He's lying. He's laughing on the inside."
"He's just like the others."
"You're better off alone with us."
"Leave this place and jump into the sea."
These random whispers appeared when Elysia's feelings were confused about something she had never encountered. The whispers seemed to forbid Elysia from seeing the real world again.
"I know, I know!! Be quiet!!" Elysia looked stressed.
Nic kept watching her. Nic also heard the whispers and even visualized them in front of himself using God of Illusion.
The visuals showed more adults, and it seemed Elysia's mental illness was caused by her environment.
Although Nic's head was dizzy, he continued to use God of Illusion. "Hey, Elysia."
Elysia, called by Nic, turned her back on him.
Nic started talking using God of Voice. He changed his voice to sound like the whispers Elysia heard.
"Stop running from reality, Elysia. I know your environment might have been cruel enough to make you this way and lonely, but trust me, there are still people who want to be with you," Nic's whisper reached Elysia's ear like the other whispers.
This made Elysia even more confused. She then turned around, and it turned out Nic was already behind her and wanted to touch her.
"DON'T TOUCH ME!" Elysia immediately panicked and hugged herself as if afraid of being harmed.
Elysia whispered softly as if asking her hallucinated friends for help. She also began to consider Nic a terrifying illusion.
But Elysia saw that none of her hallucinated friends helped her; they only watched. "Why... you wanted me to be with you! Help me! Stay away from that terrifying illusion!"
Inwardly, Nic felt a bit sorry. Initially, she seemed friendly, but once influenced by the whispers, she immediately became afraid of Nic.
"Hmm, Zeta, am I that terrifying?"
[ Yes, you are very terrifying. I have a suggestion, Master Nic. ]
"Hah, you're annoying, Zeta. What's your absurd idea this time?"
[ My idea is to leave this girl. Even if you add her to the list, you won't get skills and the stats are low. ]
"I think I need to upgrade your brain, Zeta. I'm not a machine that just wants to increase stats... I want to help them..."
[ Hehe, I'm just kidding. The idea I was actually thinking of is to use the God of Illusion skill and use the Illusion Transfer technique directly to her brain. ]
"Huh, how does that work?"
[ Basically, Master Nic, create an illusion to calm Elysia down, then transfer that illusion to Elysia's brain so she can be calm for a while. ]
"Hmm, interesting. I'll try it right away."
[ But Master Nic— ]
"Shhh! Be quiet, I need to focus."
[ ... ]
---
Nic created a super vast illusion: a wide meadow, adorned with flowers, a gentle breeze, trees, birds chirping, a blue sky, cats roaming, and so on.
"Okay, transfer immediately!" Nic transferred the illusion into Elysia's mind.
Elysia, who was covering her face and talking to her hallucinated friends, suddenly went silent.
Elysia was confused, slowly uncovering her face... "Huh... where is this?"
She appeared in the middle of a meadow, walking beside beautiful flowers. She saw a cat and hugged it...
"What is this... why am I here? Where are my friends? Where are the whispers? Did you leave...? But, this is so beautiful... I want to stay like this, just like I dreamed... ah, sorry friends! I—huh?, there are no whispers commenting... ugh," Elysia expressed her feelings.
She lay down in the meadow, feeling something she had never felt before: tranquility without anything strange... whispers... mockery... only the sound of beautiful birds chirping.
Then, a few minutes later, Elysia returned to the real world, and she didn't see her hallucinated friends or hear the whispers. All she saw was Nic lying on the ground.
"What exactly happened?"
Elysia was silent, waiting for her hallucinated friends, whom she hoped could explain, but for some reason, they didn't appear.
Elysia looked at Nic. Only Nic was there... a real human, not a hallucination, but unconscious.
"So, he's real..."
Elysia cradled Nic's head in her lap, and Elysia kept staring at Nic's face in silence.
She didn't move at all, as if she was curious.
Meanwhile, Nic, upon successfully transferring the illusion, immediately used the God of Health skill and held his chest, not to erase Elysia's illness but to absorb it into his body for Nic to experience.
Like he did with Cynthia, but different, Nic immediately passed out again, and he woke up in the subconscious realm where Zeta lived, but it was now filled with Elysia's hallucination anomalies.
[ Great, Master Nic brought something strange into my home. You are truly the best master, so much so that I want to hit you with an iron fist again. ]
"Ahh, Zeta, I'm sorry. Let's clean up Elysia's evil hallucinations and leave her good hallucinated friends!"
[ Clean it up yourself, I'm lazy. ]
"ZETAAAAAA!!!!"
To be continued...