Chapter 56 Goal: Everly Wants to Go to College

Chapter 56 Target: Everly Wants to Go to College

Not long after the "Butterfly Fall Incident," Everly entered 9th grade, and her height shot up past five foot seven.

Maybe because of the witch incident, nothing major happened at school that year. Most students had basically moved on from the shadow of Seradia's death and returned to their peaceful lives.

It was also that year that her good-for-nothing dad Shelley, who hadn't contacted her in ages, suddenly called to tell Everly some news—he was getting remarried.

Ever since Shelley's series of paintings created in Pukati had made a name for him, it was as if he'd suddenly hit his stride. He went on to create several more series based on myths, legends, and supernatural tales, all of which were surprisingly well received. Shelley McNas thus leaped from being an unknown painter to a notable figure in America's art circle, making a name and a fortune, living the high life.

"When men get rich, they go bad" fits Shelley perfectly. Although every time he called, Shelley would put on a loving act, going on about Everly's deceased mother Rachel, how much he loved and missed her. But Everly knew how to use the internet. She didn't even have to look for gossip about the big-shot painter Shelley; just flipping to any entertainment page would show her plenty!

Thanks to that face of his, during the ten-plus years Everly wasn't around, Shelley had flings with his assistant, a widow, and a billionaire's illegitimate daughter. Now in his early forties, maybe he suddenly felt like settling down, so he decided to marry the rich man's illegitimate daughter he'd been tangled up with the longest.

"The wedding is on the 18th of this month... The timing is indeed a bit rushed, but Sophia insists on getting married this month, then we'll go to Sanford City for our honeymoon..." He then stumbled over his words and asked if Everly wanted to attend the wedding. Everly checked the calendar—yikes, it was already the evening of the 15th. If she left on the 16th, forget whether she could even get a ticket—just thinking about the exhausting travel and transfers was enough to kill her.

By waiting until now to tell her, Shelley clearly didn't want her at the wedding, ruining his sweet moments with his new wife Sophia.

Sure enough, right after asking, before Everly could answer, Shelley quickly added that he knew Everly was busy with school and the journey was too far, so even if she didn't come, it was fine—he and Sophia would understand, blah blah blah...

That wasn't what Everly wanted to hear!

Although she didn't really want to attend her deadbeat dad's wedding anyway, there was a big difference between her actively declining and being manipulated into declining! She had to prove a point.

So Everly suppressed her anger, put on a sugary voice, and cheerfully interrupted Shelley's nagging: "Dad, you're finally getting married, that's wonderful! Don't worry, I'll definitely come to such a meaningful event. I'll have Grandpa buy tickets right now..."

Before she could finish, Shelley's panicked voice came over the phone: "Wait wait wait, Everly, you don't need to force yourself like that."

"No forcing at all, I miss you too, Dad... But Dad, we're a bit broke at home lately, no funds for plane tickets. Could you lend me some?"

Shelley sighed in relief upon hearing this: "This is my bad, I haven't given you any allowance all these years... I'll transfer you 20,000 Mido right now. Listen to me, use this money to buy some good food and clothes, live well, and don't wear yourself out trying to come to the wedding. It'd break my heart."

"..."

So stingy—abandoning his daughter for over a decade and thinking 20,000 Mido makes up for it?

Everly rolled her eyes and continued her sweet-talking game with her deadbeat dad. Targeting his weakness of not wanting her to disrupt the wedding, after milking him for all he was worth, by the time Everly hung up, her account had gained 100,000 Mido in "allowance," and she'd even gotten back the 50,000 Mido Shelley had borrowed from Old John to hire West.

Hmph, this deadbeat dad, after being left to run wild for so long, finally dropped some coins... though not much. He was too good at splurging; he'd have to keep hustling.

With money in hand, Everly started worrying about college.

At first, she'd considered immigrating to another country. America was full of horror movie scenarios, unsuitable for survival—maybe other countries would be better. Like Xia Country on the neighboring continent, whose cultural background and development were similar to her previous life's China. China didn't produce horror movies like America did, so maybe living there would be peaceful.

So once Everly had the means to open her eyes to the world, she specifically searched for information about other countries.

The result? Just like America was full of horror movies, Xia Country in this world wasn't peaceful either. Things that had been forbidden from becoming spirits after the founding in her previous life were running wild in Xia Country now. Righteous cultivators and evil practitioners fought endlessly, with the occasional extreme-yin land spawning a zombie king that could one-shot you... In short, while it didn't have horror movies, Xia Country had urban fantasy novels and films, equally dangerous.

Actually, it wasn't just Xia Country. Digging a bit deeper, other countries had their own troubles. Japan, for instance, had so many harmful ghosts that purification couldn't keep up, with the occasional Hundred Demons Night March killing long lines of people. South Korea had chaebol monopolies, rampant cults, and endless fatal incidents—subway fires, sinking ships, train derailments—all rumored to have cult sacrifice behind them.

In short, people all over the world lived in their own versions of deep water and scorching fire.

Under these circumstances, immigration wasn't necessary. At least America was where she'd grown up, and she was already used to horror movie tropes, with a much higher survival rate than other countries plagued by supernatural forces. Plus, Old John's underground shelter was in America, and after all these years of operation, abandoning it would be a waste.

So Everly decided to stay in America.

To do well, she needed to go to college.

If this were the peaceful, stable society of her previous life, Everly would have fought tooth and nail to get into an Ivy League or top-tier school, majoring in finance, computer science, or medicine, then land a high-paying job after graduation and experience life as an elite in a foreign country.

But in a world full of horror movies, forget it. Whether it was something special about transmigrators or what—other Americans could live their whole lives without encountering any incidents (though, of course, one incident could also turn them into a box)—she was especially unlucky, with incidents piling up since infancy. It was predictable that her future wouldn't be smooth sailing.

In times like these, strong survival skills were clearly more important than other abilities. Especially after her deadbeat dad dropped some coins, she realized she had a legal father to rely on, which significantly reduced her drive to earn money.

Even if her major was too niche to find a job easily, she had Old John's gas station as a fallback. With tourists heading to the Lemote Desert and the trust fund Old John had saved for her over the years, while she might not get rich, she wouldn't go hungry either.

So, after researching various sources, Everly set New Osebukh State University as her target. It was a public university in the northeastern state of New Osebukh. While not an Ivy League and somewhat dimmed by the brilliance of America's many universities, it had a truly unique major—Wilderness Survival!

Seriously, a Wilderness Survival major! Not only could she learn wilderness first aid, risk management, leadership, team behavior and management, but she could also get hands-on with rock climbing, kayaking, wilderness expeditions, and more. Everly could hardly imagine how formidable she'd be after four years of that.

With her stage goal set, Everly started planning.

New Osebukh State University, while not as strict as other schools, was still the best public university in the Northeast, with numerous admission requirements. Besides a GPA of no less than 3.3 and an SAT score above 1300, students also needed a cumulative 60 hours of community service.

Everly had some memories from her previous life, so 9th grade was manageable, leaving her weekends relatively free, even with time to walk her old dog Buddy around. Once she hit high school, with the increasing difficulty of courses, even she would need to invest more time and energy into her studies. Additionally, to keep her resume impressive, Everly planned to stay active in the tennis club in high school, which would also take up her extracurricular time.

Therefore, Everly decided to accumulate her community service hours while 9th grade was still relatively relaxed.

But these community service options in America... how should she put it, they felt full of pitfalls.

For example, the common "caring for vulnerable groups" category included things like accompanying the elderly at nursing homes, teaching English to immigrants, and assisting people with disabilities.

The elderly at nursing homes might be sorcerers wanting to resurrect by swapping bodies, the immigrant students might be fugitives using stolen identities, and the disabled people she'd help could have been serial killers years ago... Just reading the list, Everly could imagine a series of horror movie scenarios.

So she quickly skipped that category and continued scrolling.

Providing disease prevention for impoverished families—no way, some terrible infectious disease might pop up. Finding housing for the homeless—no way, what if the homeless person was a bad guy? Organizing community events—no way, too exhausting communicating with lots of people...

After eliminating a wide range of options, Everly finally set her sights on "leisure services." In Mikano city, there was the Xinkanlan Theater, a famous long-standing local venue. This year marked its 80th anniversary, and to celebrate, the theater had invited the renowned "Pipe Troupe" from Yona State to provide a week of free performances from next Saturday to the following Saturday.

During the performances, the theater needed many volunteers for guidance, coat check, crowd control, and more, and had posted recruitment notices on major social media and school communities.

Initially, Everly hesitated upon seeing the theater was 80 years old. She always felt such old buildings tended to harbor scary legends, ghosts, and evil spirits—seemed a bit dangerous. Fortunately, while Everly had never been to the Xinkanlan Theater, her long-time collaborator Rebecca had.

As a student at a diploma mill university, Rebecca also had community service requirements and had worked as a guide during the "Shakespeare Drama Festival" at the theater.

"Xinkanlan Theater? It's pretty clean there, no major issues. You can go there for community service without worry," Rebecca said when Everly mentioned her concerns during casual conversation.

So Everly submitted her application for theater service on the volunteer platform and was quickly approved.

Since she only had Saturdays and Sundays free, she chose to serve the entire next Saturday. The task was simple: maintain theater order and remind noisy or standing-blocking audience members to follow viewing etiquette.

This kind of service required no prior training—just on-site instruction. So from Monday to Friday, Everly attended school as usual. Only after school on Friday did she, picked up by Old John, check into a hotel in downtown Mikano.

The two planned to stay there for a night, head to the theater the next day—Everly for her community service, and Old John, who hadn't seen a play in years, to catch some free performances. When Everly's shift ended in the afternoon, they'd drive back to the gas station.

The plan was solid, but unfortunately, luck wasn't on their side.

No one could have predicted that on Saturday, a gang of indiscriminate killers would storm into the packed Xinkanlan Theater.