"America really is a magical place."
Driving the stolen Chevrolet, Xu Xiao couldn't help marveling.
He had thought that being in an unfamiliar place, without even knowing the movie's plot well, was a hellish start.
Unexpectedly, that delinquent couple, high out of their minds, had appeared and brought him straight back to a normal starting line.
The pair's appearance was no less than a beginner's gift pack in a game. It was hard not to call it the will of heaven.
Sometimes, a person needed a few benefactors to reach the pinnacle of life.
Xu Xiao couldn't say when he would reach that pinnacle, but the delinquent couple had indeed been his benefactors.
They had contributed not only a car to get around in, but also nearly two thousand dollars in spending money.
Money could make ghosts turn millstones!
With that money, at least he had the funds to get by for the next few days.
He drove to the nearest town and found a reasonably decent motel.
Since Xu Xiao was willing to pay double, the owner happily overlooked his lack of identification.
Afterward, Xu Xiao washed up briefly at the motel and filled his stomach.
Black trousers and a loose white T-shirt, paired with the capable, tough air Xu Xiao exuded without trying, made him look like a completely different person.
Don't ask where the clothes had come from. As the saying went, money could make ghosts turn millstones.
Although the blackhearted owner had charged Xu Xiao eighty bucks for the outfit, Xu Xiao had paid without hesitation.
He wasn't a miser by nature. Besides, dollars weren't used in the apocalypse, so there was no need to take that wastepaper back with him.
His cheat had also laid down clear rules about carrying items across worlds.
First, he could only take items no larger than his own body, and he also had to carry them on his person.
Xu Xiao had originally owned a handgun he had pieced together himself in the apocalypse, but he had sold it for some tools to enter the energy reserve area.
So when he crossed over, he had nothing but the tattered clothes on his back.
"But there's no rush. There'll be bread, and there'll be milk too."
Xu Xiao murmured a few words of comfort to himself and casually flipped through a magazine at hand.
He had gotten it from the motel owner. It contained some boring articles and advertisements for strippers.
Of course, most importantly, it also included some maps of the area around the town.
Now that he had taken care of his basic survival, the next thing to look into was how to acquire supernatural powers.
From what Xu Xiao had learned by watching the movie on the USB drive, the protagonists were three American high school students.
The story took place on a night after a school party. Beyond that, Xu Xiao didn't have much useful information.
Although he didn't know whether he had arrived where the protagonists' story began, the area around this town was all he could investigate for now.
He would do what he could and leave the rest to fate!
Xu Xiao greatly envied the powers the protagonists had gained after encountering that superpower crystal.
Telekinesis, flight, and mind control-the gas station employee's suicide scene-were formidable psychic abilities even in the apocalyptic world.
"I have to get my hands on that power. Only then will I have a chance to turn things around in the apocalypse."
After giving himself a pep talk, Xu Xiao quickly began checking the map.
In just five minutes, he finished checking the schools. He found one high school in the surrounding area.
Cascadia High School, the only high school nearby.
Judging by the terrain on the map, there was a vast coniferous forest and some hills near the school, a good match for the place where the protagonists obtained the superpower crystal in the story.
"I can only try my luck. If it really is the place, that would be great."
After committing the high school's name and location to memory, Xu Xiao went straight to rest.
There was no need to rush right now, however urgent things were. He could just look around the school tomorrow.
At noon the next day, Xu Xiao, who hadn't slept well, left the motel and drove the stolen Chevrolet to Cascadia High School.
Xu Xiao had spent last night thinking about all sorts of things, his mind full of worries. What would he do if he couldn't find the protagonists at the high school, or if the superpower crystal had already been used?
On top of that, the excitement of crossing worlds for the first time had kept Xu Xiao awake until the early hours, when he had finally drifted off.
But the timing worked out well enough.
American high schools weren't as intensely competitive as those back home, where students had to get up early in the morning for class.
Noon was a good time to visit the school.
Most American high schools used a credit system. Required academic courses were generally held in the morning, while electives and club activities took up most of the afternoon.
When Xu Xiao drove up to the high school, he couldn't help looking around from inside the car.
Many banners hung at the school gates, and one of them caught Xu Xiao's attention.
"To celebrate the football team's victory, the team invites all students to a party at Haven Hills-Wednesday afternoon."
Could my luck really be that good? I ran into the beginning of the story as soon as I got here.
Xu Xiao thought excitedly to himself.
It had all started with that high school party. If the party on the banner really was the one, he could use it to pin down the point in the story.
No rush, no rush. A banner advertising a party doesn't prove anything. I still need to find the male lead first.
Suppressing his anxiety, Xu Xiao silently drove into the school parking lot and parked in a space everyone had to pass on their way in or out.
Then he sat in the car, intently studying every student who came and went.
If he remembered correctly, the protagonist Andrew and his older cousin Matt drove to and from school together in one car.
Rather than risk going into an unfamiliar high school to look for them, this method of waiting by the stump for a rabbit was a little stupid, but definitely more effective.
After all, Xu Xiao only had to watch for a student carrying an old-fashioned video camera, and there wouldn't be many of those at any school.
After sitting there for two hours, Xu Xiao finally spotted a boy who might be the protagonist during the rush as school let out.
He was blond, with a rather large Panasonic video camera on his shoulder. He walked timidly, looking like a hard-luck case.
Is that you, Andrew?
Xu Xiao didn't rush to identify him. He kept watching until another, slightly taller boy took the person who might be Andrew to a car, then looked away.
After hesitating briefly and watching the number of students leaving the school gradually dwindle, Xu Xiao started the car with a determined look.
Let's take a gamble! I remember there was a gang of punks around that guy's home, and his mother was seriously ill.
The car accelerated and soon caught up with the car that had left ahead of him, possibly driven by Andrew's cousin Matt.
Xu Xiao trailed the car from a distance, following it into a nearby neighborhood.