Before his eyes could adjust, his ears caught the sound of wailing air raid sirens.
This sudden crossing left Liu Hong completely unprepared.
There were so many disaster movies he hadn't even watched yet! Even for the ones he had seen, he couldn't remember the plots clearly. He thought that if he ever had to time-travel, he should at least go back and watch every single disaster film first. He needed to make thorough preparations before planning any trips across worlds. Who would have thought that simply scrolling through Douyin could land you in an isekai?!
It was too sudden, giving Liu Hong not a second to prepare.
The sound was bone-chilling, forcing Liu Hong to blink hard so his eyes could adjust and see what was happening.
Opening his eyes, he found himself standing near the checkout counter of a supermarket, surrounded by a crowd of people. Everyone stood frozen in place, listening to the air raid sirens, completely clueless about what was going on.
At that moment, a man with blood streaming from his mouth and nose came running frantically toward the supermarket, heading straight inside and shouting at the top of his lungs the moment he crossed the threshold.
"There's something in the mist!! There's something in the mist!! It dragged John Lee away!!!"
A man whose clothing suggested he was a supermarket clerk hurried to grab the newcomer, trying to calm him down.
Yet the man, Dan, remained utterly terrified, shouting to everyone in the room:
"The thing in the mist dragged John Lee away!! I could hear him screaming!!"
Then he looked around and screamed again:
"Close the doors! Hurry, close the doors!!"
Nobody had figured out what was going on yet, but seeing how panicked he was—and with the air raid sirens wailing relentlessly outside—the people closest to the entrance stepped forward and pulled all the doors shut. Everyone crowded toward the doors, desperate to see what was happening.
Dan spoke up again:
"Don't go out there! There's something in the mist, it dragged John Lee away!"
Dan must have been frightened out of his wits; he sat down by the entrance, repeatedly warning the others.
Liu Hong didn't have a spare second to think about anything else. He forced himself to focus on the situation at hand. This was a disaster movie—a world where a single misstep meant instant death!!
"Stop talking bullshit! I'm going back to my car!!"
A man shouted angrily, shoved the door open, and bolted outside.
Liu Hong had just noticed memories that didn't belong to him beginning to surface in his mind. Hearing the shout, he shoved those intrusive memories aside, raised his head, and watched the man run out, eager to see what would happen to him.
Dan tried to stop him, but it was already too late; he was already gone.
They watched as thick, billowing fog rolled in from outside the plaza. Everyone in the plaza was fleeing in panic in the opposite direction of the thick mist.
Liu Hong and the people inside the supermarket watched with their own eyes as the man reached his car, jammed the key into the lock, and tried to open the door. The thick mist swallowed him whole, concealing him from sight entirely.
Everyone stared fixedly in that direction, waiting to see if anything would happen. If nothing happened, they would flee too; staying put here was no solution. Besides, many of them still wanted to go home and reunite with their families.
Immediately afterward, a blood-curdling scream pierced the air from the direction where the man had gone to find his car.
Everyone heard it loud and clear, though they couldn't see what was actually happening out there. The people who had opened the doors to check the situation instantly retreated into the supermarket and slammed the main doors shut.
Panic rippled through the crowd gathered at the entrance.
Some guessed the fog was caused by industrial pollution, or perhaps a chemical plant explosion. Liu Hong had no idea what was going on either; completely bewildered by the unfolding scene, he ransacked his memory but realized he truly hadn't watched this movie. He had not the slightest impression of this mist-shrouded setting.
Right now, he was just as clueless as everyone else in the supermarket. Facing the unknown monsters hidden in the mist outside, he felt utterly helpless, with no idea what to do.
This wasn't any conventional disaster he was familiar with—there were no zombies, no extreme weather, and no natural calamities. What they faced was a treacherous, dense fog and the unknown monsters lurking within it.
Suddenly, a thought struck him!
The main characters!!
In every movie, the main characters never die!! In this terrifying world that was completely alien to him, he had to find the main characters!! He could only survive by sticking with them.
Liu Hong had suffered enough of that agonizing, heart-wrenching pain of death. Especially since dying in a movie meant having to experience it all over again in the real world! And the earlier you died, the longer you had to endure the torment of death in reality. That was simply unacceptable to him!!
He had to find the protagonist group.
From his three previous movie worlds, Liu Hong had basically figured out the rules: the moment he woke up, he was invariably in the exact same frame as the protagonist! In the first world, an airplane swept past, and the protagonist happened to be on that plane—he might have caught a fleeting glance of himself as the camera panned past the protagonist looking out the window. In the second world, a sudden tsunami struck; both the protagonist and he had just stepped out of taxis shortly before, and they were caught among the cluster of cabs right in the path of the oncoming wave. In the third world, the protagonist walked right past the aisle beside him.
From this, he deduced that whenever he crossed over, he would undoubtedly start out in the same frame as the main character.
Therefore, the protagonist should be right here in the supermarket right now!
Who could it be?
Those three soldiers?
There was a gorgeous female clerk in the supermarket—heroines were usually pretty, could it be one of them?
Or Dan, who had just run in to warn everyone?
Or perhaps the man holding a little boy?
It could even be that Black guy!
Judging by the setting, this was the United States, and political correctness ran deep here, so there was a high probability the protagonist was Black!!
Liu Hong scanned the crowd, desperately trying to analyze who the main character might be.
Right at that moment, the entire world began to shake violently.
An earthquake?!?!
The apocalypse of natural disasters!?!?!
Liu Hong wasn't sure, but right now, taking cover was the top priority.
He vaulted agilely over the checkout counter, ducked behind an empty cash register, and curled up tightly into the hollow space underneath.
The city where Liu Hong had lived lay on an earthquake belt, so earthquake drills were a routine part of life. The intensity of this tremor wasn't actually too bad—he estimated it felt like a magnitude six or seven. But with the looming threat of an apocalypse, he had no way of knowing whether subsequent tremors would grow stronger.
Hiding was his only option.
Crouched beneath the counter, he observed the situation outside.
He saw the man holding the child standing frozen in place, looking completely dazed, holding the boy without even thinking to take cover.
That basically ruled him out as the protagonist! A main character couldn't possibly lack all vigilance and stand there so defenseless.
The man's name popped into his head.
David.
David Drayton.
He was a local painter who lived in the town. His son's name was Billy. He also had a wife, though for some reason she hadn't come along.
Liu Hong hurriedly called out to him, telling him to hand the child over!
The space beneath the checkout counter couldn't fit two adults, but one adult and a small child could manage!
Seeing Liu Hong reach out, the man quickly passed his son over.
Liu Hong scooped the boy up and pulled him back into the hiding spot under the counter. He saw the man crouch down right beside them as well; though he didn't try to squeeze in, he just squatted next to the counter, and Liu Hong didn't say anything further.
The little boy wept in terror in Liu Hong's arms. Screams echoed from all directions, with people shouting for everyone still standing to get down.
The entire supermarket shuddered; plaster began to peel from the ceiling, and a hanging light fixture crashed to the floor.
Liu Hong couldn't help wondering if this world was suffering through a natural disaster apocalypse. But if so, what was the thick fog outside?
Could multiple apocalypses be happening all at once??
Liu Hong felt a wave of dizziness. Was there any chance of surviving this??
He didn't know; he only knew he had to stay alive for as long as possible. The feeling of death was far from pleasant.
The earthquake didn't shake for long before it finally stopped.
People slowly picked themselves up from the floor.
Some claimed it was an earthquake, while others insisted a factory had exploded. Liu Hong had no clue what was really going on—surely a factory explosion couldn't cause tremors this severe? Someone even suggested that what was outside was Death itself, and that the end times had arrived.
Whether Death was out there or not, Liu Hong didn't know, but he knew for a fact that this was a doomsday disaster.
Everyone else was gripped by panic.
Having been through earthquake drills, Liu Hong feared that aftershocks might follow this tremor. Since he had no idea what movie this was, he was in the exact same boat as everyone else, forced to do his utmost to survive this catastrophe.
He didn't have the energy to worry about the people still lingering near the doors. Since going outside was out of the question, the standard rule in movies during the early stages of a disaster was to stay put in a safe zone where danger couldn't easily reach you.
Even so, he needed to find a secure spot to wait it out.
Liu Hong grabbed a handful of high-calorie chocolates from the snack aisle and stuffed them into his pockets. Then he pushed a small cart and loaded it with some crackers, bread, and bottled water.
He pushed the cart into a triangular alcove, wedging himself as far into the corner as possible. Making sure that even if another earthquake struck, this particular patch would remain intact, he finally sat down to sort through the memories in his head.
Logically speaking, during an earthquake, people should head outside to open areas for safety; unfortunately, a thick fog blanketed the outside world, and the screams of those who had ventured out still rang fresh in his ears.
He didn't dare take that risk.
Having crossed through three worlds already, this was his fourth. Why was it that only in this world did he possess the memories of the body he inhabited?
Were there other rules Liu Hong had overlooked?
What had he done differently in each of these worlds?
These were the questions Liu Hong needed to ponder right now.
He also needed to sort through his memories to see if any breakthrough would help him figure out what movie this was.
In this life, his body belonged to a local townsman who had gone away to another city for college. However, his grandparents still lived in the northern part of the town. His parents worked in a big city and hadn't come back.
His current trip home was mainly because of school break, allowing him to stay for a few days. Because of strong winds the previous night, a tree in their yard had snapped. His grandfather was sawing wood at home while his grandmother was cooking. When they ran out of seasoning at home, they had sent him to the supermarket to buy some.
And that was how he had stumbled right into this mess.
The people in this small town were all familiar faces; nearly everyone knew everyone else.
In this world, Liu Hong's name was Henry.
Henry Wilson.
All of this information had slowly surfaced in Liu Hong's mind after his transmigration, including memories that allowed him to recognize most of the people here.
He didn't know why this was happening. Was it because the protagonist in this world lived in a small town where everyone knew each other, which was why he was granted this body's memories? Or was there another reason entirely?
Regardless, having these memories certainly made things much more convenient, allowing him to take more factors into account.
For instance, there was a military base near this town.
That military base was situated at the southern end of the town, and the thick fog that morning had started spreading outward from that exact direction.
A woman living on the south side of town had mentioned this while he was picking out items earlier, saying she had seen fog rolling down from the southern mountains early that morning.
There was another detail: on his way to the supermarket just now, truckload after truckload of military vehicles packed with soldiers had sped toward the south. They had roared past Henry at breakneck speed.
As an ordinary person, Henry hadn't given it a second thought. But to Liu Hong, who knew he was trapped inside a disaster movie, that piece of intelligence was immensely crucial!