Not long after the âButterfly Fall Incident,â Everly entered 9th grade, and her height had already shot up past 1.7 meters.
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 Seradiyaâs 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 some newsâhe was getting remarried.
Ever since Shelly gained fame 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 name of note in the U.S. art scene, enjoying both fame and fortune, living a wealthy and lavish lifestyle.
The saying âmoney makes men corruptâ could not have suited Shelly better. Every time he called, he would put on a sentimental act, reminding Everly of her late mother Rachel, professing how much he loved and missed her. But Everly wasnât naĂŻveâshe could go online. Gossip about the famous painter Shelly didnât require any special searching; opening any entertainment section would be enough.
Thanks to his undeniably handsome 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 some 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 entanglement.
âThe 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 CityâŠâ he said, then stammered as he asked Everly if she wanted to attend the wedding. Everly glanced at the calendar. Good griefâit was already the evening of the 15th! If she left on the 16th, she wasnât 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 didnât want her at the wedding, didnât want her to interrupt the sweet moments 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 didnât attend the wedding, it would be fineâhe and Sophia would understand, and so onâŠ
That was not what Everly wanted to hear!
Even though she herself wasnât keen on going to her scumbag fatherâs wedding, actively refusing was very different from being trapped in his little scheme 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 Shellyâs rambling:
âDaddy, youâre finally getting married, thatâs wonderful! Donât worry, Iâll definitely come to such an important event. Iâll have Grandpa buy the tickets right awayâŠâ
Before she could finish, Shellyâs panicked voice came through the phone:
âWait, wait, Everly, you donât have to force yourself like that.â
âIâm not forcing myself, just happens I also miss you⊠But Daddy, the familyâs a little short on money lately, and I donât have enough for a plane ticket. Could you lend me some?â
Shelly let out a sigh of relief:
âOh, thatâs my oversight. All these years I havenât given you any allowance⊠Iâll transfer you 20,000 dollars right away. Listen to Daddyâuse it to buy plenty of food and clothes, live well, and donât wear yourself out just to attend the wedding. Daddy would worry.â
ââŠâ
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 pointâhis not wanting her to interfere with the weddingâshe pressed him hard. By the time she hung up, her account had an extra 100,000 dollars in âallowanceâ, 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 longâfinally heâs handing over some gold⊠though not nearly enough. Heâs too good at wasting money, so Iâll 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 scenariosâhardly ideal for survivalâso 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 didnât seem to have a fascination with horror films, so maybe living there would be much more stable.
So, once Everly had the means to âsee the world with her own eyes,â she researched other countries.
The result? Just like the U.S. with its horror films, the Xia Nation wasnât 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 âKing of the Undeadâ would suddenly appear in a particularly dark place, swinging a sword that could deal 999 damage in one hit⊠In short, while there werenât horror films per se, the Xia Nation had plenty of urban fantasy novels and mediaâand it was just as dangerous.
It wasnât just the Xia Nation. Looking a little further, every country had its own troubles. For instance, in the Neon Nation, malevolent ghosts were too numerous to purify, and every so often a âNight Parade of One Hundred Demonsâ 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 derailments happened repeatedlyâapparently all connected to sect sacrifices.
In short, people all over the world lived in one kind of misery or another.
Under these circumstances, immigrating seemed unnecessary. After all, the U.S. was where she had grown up; she was already somewhat accustomed to the typical patterns of horror scenarios, and her survival odds were far higher than in countries overrun by supernatural forces. Plus, Old Johnâs underground refuge was in the U.S., managed for so many yearsâabandoning it would be a shame.
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 schoolâeven an Ivy Leagueâmajored in finance, computer science, or medicine, 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 wasnât sure if it was something special about a âtravelerâsâ body or what, but while other Americans might live their entire lives here without encountering major incidents (though even a single accident could be fatal), she seemed especially unlucky. From infancy, mishaps had followed her constantly, so it was clear her future wouldnât 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 Johnâs 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 wouldnât become 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 somewhat dim compared to the many shining universities in America, it offered a truly remarkable program: Wilderness Survival.
Come onâthat was a Wilderness Survival program! Not only could she learn the basics of wilderness first aid, risk management, leadership, team behavior, and management, but sheâd 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 intermediate goal in mind, Everly began making her plan.
Although New Osebuch State University wasnât as strict as some other schools, it was still the best public university in the Northeast and had several requirements 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 some memories from her previous life, so 9th-grade studies were still manageable. Her weekends were fairly relaxed, leaving time 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 time 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 time.
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⊠seemed full of traps.
For instance, the common âcare for vulnerable groupsâ programs involved visiting nursing homes to keep the elderly company, teaching English to immigrants, or assisting people with disabilities.
The elderly in nursing homes might be sorcerers trying to swap bodies and come 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 greatâwhat if some terrifying infectious disease shows up? Finding housing for street homeless? No wayâwhat if one of them is a dangerous person? Organizing community events? Too exhaustingâso much social interaction requiredâŠ
After eliminating almost every option, Everly finally turned her attention to ârecreational serviceâ 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. Announcements for volunteer recruitment were posted on major social media 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 thingsâit seemed a bit risky. Luckily, Everly had never been to the Xinkalan Theatre, but her long-time collaborator, Rebecca, had.
As a student at a minor university, Rebecca also had community service requirements and had worked as an usher at the theater during a Shakespeare Festival.
âThe Xinkalan Theatre? Itâs actually pretty clean, nothing major to worry about. If youâre doing community service there, you can go without concern,â Rebecca said casually after learning about Everlyâs 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 didnât require any prior trainingâon-site learning was enough. So from Monday to Friday, Everly attended school diligently. It wasnât until Friday after classes that Old John, who had come 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 hadnât seen a play in many years, could enjoy the free performances. In the afternoon, when Everlyâs shift ended, the grandfather and granddaughter would drive back to the gas station.
The plan seemed perfectâunfortunately, 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.