Not long after the “Butterfly Fall Incident,” Everly entered 9th grade, and her height had already shot up past 1.7 ters.
Perhaps due to the witch incident, nothing particularly major happened at school that year. Most of the students had basically moved past the shadow of Seradiya’s death and returned to their normal, peaceful lives.
It was also during this year that Everly received a sudden call from her long-uncontacted scumbag father, Shelly. He had so news—he was getting remarried.
Ever since Shelly gained fa in Pukati for a series of paintings, it was as if a dam had burst inside him. He went on to create several more series based on myths and supernatural stories, all of which were surprisingly well-received. Shelly Minas had thus leapt from being an unknown painter to a na of note in the U.S. art scene, enjoying both fa and fortune, living a wealthy and lavish lifestyle.
The saying “money makes n corrupt” could not have suited Shelly better. Every ti he called, he would put on a sentintal act, reminding Everly of her late mother Rachel, professing how much he loved and missed her. But Everly wasn’t naïve—she could go online. Gossip about the famous painter Shelly didn’t require any special searching; opening any entertainnt section would be enough.
Thanks to his undeniably handso face, over the past ten-plus years while Everly was away, Shelly had been involved romantically with his assistant, a certain widow, and even the illegitimate daughter of so wealthy man. Now in his early forties, perhaps suddenly seeking stability, he decided to marry the illegitimate daughter of the wealthy man with whom he had the longest entanglent.
“The wedding is on the 18th of this month… the timing is a bit tight, but Sophia insists on marrying this month and then honeymooning together in Sunford City…” he said, then stamred as he asked Everly if she wanted to attend the wedding. Everly glanced at the calendar. Good grief—it was already the evening of the 15th! If she left on the 16th, she wasn’t even sure if she could get a plane ticket. Just thinking about all the transfers and the bumpy travel alone was enough to make her dread it.
Waiting until now to tell her the news, Shelly clearly didn’t want her at the wedding, didn’t want her to interrupt the sweet monts with his new wife, Sophia.
Sure enough, as soon as the question was out, before Everly could answer, Shelly went on: he knew she was busy with her studies and that the trip was too far, so even if she didn’t attend the wedding, it would be fine—he and Sophia would understand, and so on…
That was not what Everly wanted to hear!
Even though she herself wasn’t keen on going to her scumbag father’s wedding, actively refusing was very different from being trapped in his little sche and forced to say no. She had to at least stand her ground.
So Everly swallowed her anger, raising her voice in fake cheerfulness to interrupt Shelly’s rambling:
“Daddy, you’re finally getting married, that’s wonderful! Don’t worry, I’ll definitely co to such an important event. I’ll have Grandpa buy the tickets right away…”
Before she could finish, Shelly’s panicked voice ca through the phone:
“Wait, wait, Everly, you don’t have to force yourself like that.”
“I’m not forcing myself, just happens I also miss you… But Daddy, the family’s a little short on money lately, and I don’t have enough for a plane ticket. Could you lend so?”
Shelly let out a sigh of relief:
“Oh, that’s my oversight. All these years I haven’t given you any allowance… I’ll transfer you 20,000 dollars right away. Listen to Daddy—use it to buy plenty of food and clothes, live well, and don’t wear yourself out just to attend the wedding. Daddy would worry.”
“…”
So stingy. After abandoning his daughter for over ten years, he thinks sending 20,000 dollars makes it like nothing happened?
Everly rolled her eyes and kept up the act, continuing to bargain with her scumbag father. Spotting his weak point—his not wanting her to interfere with the wedding—she pressed him hard. By the ti she hung up, her account had an extra 100,000 dollars in “allowance”, even reclaiming the 50,000 dollars Shelly had borrowed from Old John to hire Wester.
Hmph, this scumbag father has been living it up outside for so long—finally he’s handing over so gold… though not nearly enough. He’s too good at wasting money, so I’ll just have to keep working hard to make more.
With the money in hand, Everly turned her attention to college.
At first, she had considered whether she should immigrate to another country. The U.S. was full of horror scenarios—hardly ideal for survival—so maybe another country would be safer. For example, the Xia Nation on the neighboring continent had a cultural and historical background similar to the Hu Nation from her past life. Unlike the U.S., it didn’t seem to have a fascination with horror films, so maybe living there would be much more stable.
So, once Everly had the ans to “see the world with her own eyes,” she researched other countries.
The result? Just like the U.S. with its horror films, the Xia Nation wasn’t exactly peaceful either. In the previous life, the nation had outlawed supernatural creatures, but in this world, spirits ran rampant. Righteous and evil cultivators were constantly at war, and every so often a “King of the Undead” would suddenly appear in a particularly dark place, swinging a sword that could deal 999 damage in one hit… In short, while there weren’t horror films per se, the Xia Nation had plenty of urban fantasy novels and dia—and it was just as dangerous.
It wasn’t just the Xia Nation. Looking a little further, every country had its own troubles. For instance, in the Neon Nation, malevolent ghosts were too nurous to purify, and every so often a “Night Parade of One Hundred Demons” would appear, killing a long string of people. In Goryeo, chaebols held all the power, heretical sects thrived, and disasters like subway fires, ship sinkings, and train derailnts happened repeatedly—apparently all connected to sect sacrifices.
In short, people all over the world lived in one kind of misery or another.
Under these circumstances, immigrating seed unnecessary. After all, the U.S. was where she had grown up; she was already sowhat accustod to the typical patterns of horror scenarios, and her survival odds were far higher than in countries overrun by supernatural forces. Plus, Old John’s underground refuge was in the U.S., managed for so many years—abandoning it would be a sha.
So Everly decided to stay in the U.S. from now on.
To do well, of course, she needed to go to college.
If this were a stable, peaceful society like in her previous life, Everly would have done everything she could to get into a prestigious school—even an Ivy League—majored in finance, computer science, or dicine, and then landed a high-paying job to experience life as one of the elite abroad.
But in a world crawling with horror scenarios, that was out of the question. She wasn’t sure if it was sothing special about a “traveler’s” body or what, but while other Aricans might live their entire lives here without encountering major incidents (though even a single accident could be fatal), she seed especially unlucky. From infancy, mishaps had followed her constantly, so it was clear her future wouldn’t be smooth sailing either.
In this situation, strong survival skills were far more important than other abilities. Especially after her scumbag father had just handed over a chunk of money, she suddenly realized she even had a legal father to rely on, which significantly reduced her urgency to earn money herself.
Even if she chose a less popular major that made finding a job difficult, she still had Old John’s gas station as a fallback. Between tourists visiting the Lemot Desert and the trust fund Old John had been saving for her over the years, she wouldn’t beco rich, but at least she could eat and live comfortably.
After researching extensively, Everly set her sights on New Osebuch State University as her college goal. This was a public university in New Osebuch, in the northeastern U.S. Though not an Ivy League school and sowhat dim compared to the many shining universities in Arica, it offered a truly remarkable program: Wilderness Survival.
Co on—that was a Wilderness Survival program! Not only could she learn the basics of wilderness first aid, risk managent, leadership, team behavior, and managent, but she’d also get hands-on experience with rock climbing, kayaking, and outdoor expeditions. Everly could hardly imagine how strong she would be after four years of training.
With a clear interdiate goal in mind, Everly began making her plan.
Although New Osebuch State University wasn’t as strict as so other schools, it was still the best public university in the Northeast and had several requirents for incoming students. For example, students needed a GPA of at least 3.3, an SAT score above 1300, and 60 hours of community service.
Everly retained so mories from her previous life, so 9th-grade studies were still manageable. Her weekends were fairly relaxed, leaving ti to take her old dog, Buddy, for walks. Once she entered high school, with courses becoming more difficult, even she would need to devote much more ti and energy to academics. Additionally, to make her résumé look impressive, Everly planned to stay active in the tennis club, which would also take up part of her extracurricular ti.
So she decided to use her relatively free 9th-grade year to start accumulating community service hours.
However, U.S. community service… how to put it… seed full of traps.
For instance, the common “care for vulnerable groups” programs involved visiting nursing hos to keep the elderly company, teaching English to immigrants, or assisting people with disabilities.
The elderly in nursing hos might be sorcerers trying to swap bodies and co back to life. The immigrants she taught might be fugitives using false identities. The disabled individuals she helped could, years ago, have been serial killers… Just looking at the program descriptions, Everly could picture a whole series of horror movie scenarios.
So she skipped this category at lightning speed and kept looking.
Programs like preventing disease for poor families? Not great—what if so terrifying infectious disease shows up? Finding housing for street holess? No way—what if one of them is a dangerous person? Organizing community events? Too exhausting—so much social interaction required…
After eliminating almost every option, Everly finally turned her attention to “recreational service” programs. In downtown Micano, there was a well-known, long-standing theater called the Xinkalan Theatre. This year marked its 80th anniversary, and to celebrate, the theater had invited the famous Pipe Theatre Company from Yonah State to provide a week-long series of free performances from next Saturday to the following Saturday.
During the performances, the theater needed a large number of volunteers to provide guidance, coat-check services, and maintain order. Announcents for volunteer recruitnt were posted on major social dia platforms and school communities.
At first, Everly hesitated when she saw that the Xinkalan Theatre had been around for 80 years. She always felt that such old buildings might be prone to ghost stories, evil spirits, or other scary things—it seed a bit risky. Luckily, Everly had never been to the Xinkalan Theatre, but her long-ti collaborator, Rebecca, had.
As a student at a minor university, Rebecca also had community service requirents and had worked as an usher at the theater during a Shakespeare Festival.
“The Xinkalan Theatre? It’s actually pretty clean, nothing major to worry about. If you’re doing community service there, you can go without concern,” Rebecca said casually after learning about Everly’s worry.
So Everly submitted a volunteer application through the service platform and was quickly approved.
Since she only had Saturdays and Sundays free, she chose next Saturday for the full day. The work was simple: maintain order in the theater and politely remind any rowdy or standing spectators to follow proper etiquette.
This type of service didn’t require any prior training—on-site learning was enough. So from Monday to Friday, Everly attended school diligently. It wasn’t until Friday after classes that Old John, who had co to pick her up, took her to stay at a hotel in downtown Micano.
They planned to stay there for one night, then go straight to the theater the next day. Everly would handle her community service, and Old John, who hadn’t seen a play in many years, could enjoy the free performances. In the afternoon, when Everly’s shift ended, the grandfather and granddaughter would drive back to the gas station.
The plan seed perfect—unfortunately, luck was not on their side.
No one could have anticipated that on Saturday, the Xinkalan Theatre, packed with crowds, would be invaded by a group of indiscriminate killers.
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