Chapter 1:

It was a sunny April in Los Angeles, and the weather was incredibly peaceful. A spell of freezing rain had just passed, gradually giving way to the boisterous warmth of summer.

Young students dotted the lush, green lawn at the EUC School of Cinematic Arts, lounging, reading, and chit-chatting among themselves. A few could be seen tapping on their phones and laptops.

The air was filled with youth, optimism, and promise.

Among those, a single student walked with a deflated expression on his face. He held a cardboard box in his hand which was filled with miscellaneous belongings as he made his way out of EUC.

His name was Will Evans and he had just dropped out from EUC.

“I can’t believe I have transmigrated into an alternate earth…”

He muttered under his breath as he walked, his eyes looming over to the people he could recognize from his memories from time to time.

Last week, Will had found himself in the body of a person he couldn’t recognize. Coincidentally, both of them shared the same name and interest but there were many things that were different.

First thing was that he wasn’t in 2021 anymore but 2010. There was no covid going on and anyone can roam out freely without any care of a virus.

But there was one more thing that really shocked Will.

He was on an alternate earth. Will found it out after he had heard his ex roommate talking about a top actress that would star in a romantic comedy next month.

But to his surprise, Will has never heard of her.

After going through all his memories, he realised that although this earth was the same as the one he knew in technological advancements, there were many things that were different.

For starters, most of the movies, celebrities and songs he knew of didn’t exist and they were replaced by something else.

Will was in the same situation as Zhang Ye now!

The first thought in his mind after knowing this was that he can emulate the movies and TV shows he knew and become rich.

But this wasn’t simple at all.

Even if he can remember the plot for some of the movies, he didn’t remember it frame by frame or every single dialogue.

At most, he can create a crude screenplay. And even if he can write Harry Potter, there is no guarantee that it would work the same.

After all, even in his universe, Harry Potter was rejected quite a lot of times. Luck was always a factor!

‘Moreover, I’m dropping out of one of the best cinematic schools in America.’

The original owner of the body always has the dream to make it big as a director. Because of it, even after his mother had died, his father has worked hard to pay for the tuition fee of EUC.

Two months ago, his father died due to alcohol poisoning, a habit he had gotten due to the death of his wife, leaving Will alone in this world.

With his death, Will was all alone in this world and there was no money to pay his tuition fee. Although he could ask for financial help from some of his father’s friends, he decided against it.

At first, the original owner worked hard to pay off the fee by doing part time jobs. But he wasn’t able to maintain both work and studies.

So in the end, he decided to drop out but two days ago, his body was taken over by Will in an unknown circumstance.

Sigh!

Sighing dejectedly, he walked away from the campus.

‘Not even a week of transmigration, I’ve no family, no money and dropped out of college. God bless my future.’

He took a cab and went to his rented apartment. It was small and devoid of any furniture. He dropped the box carrying his stuff from school and walked out of the apartment.

He didn’t want to face the landlord again, whose mouth only moved to ask for rent.

Walking around aimlessly, Will couldn’t help but think about his future choices.

Like other transmigrators, he wasn’t given anything convenient like a cheat. He even tried out weird poses to see if he’ll suddenly shoot out spider webs from his hands.

But that didn’t seem to be the case.

Like the original owner of this body, even Will wanted to become a successful director and earn enough money to live a peaceful and convenient life.

He could still work on his dream, but his future would be a lot harder as he was a dropout.

Not being able to come to a conclusion, Will kept walking around aimlessly till he found himself near a cinema hall.

A big movie poster displayed right outside. The movie seemed to be related to the army as the protagonist on the poster was looking at the dead bodies of his fallen comrades.

Putting his hand in his pockets, Will found a $10 bill. He smiled wryly as he decided to spend the last bit of money he had on a movie he didn’t know about.

The movie ticket cost $8 and he didn’t even have enough money left to buy popcorn.

Sitting on the theatre seat, Will watched the commercials playing before the movie started.

The movie went on with a story of the protagonist joining the army for the first time. His enthusiasm soon dies when he looks at the dead body of the soldier being brought back to the army barracks.

The story went on to tell how a major character changes the Protagonists thinking about war, soon that character dies too.

All in all the movie was pretty patriotic and showed the dark sides of a war. The movie ended as the audience cheered.

Will, who had never watched this movie in his previous life, felt weird. Although this world didn’t have the movies and stuff from the earth he came from, It had its own history and culture prospering from generations.

As Will was about to leave the theatre, his head suddenly felt light for a second as he fell back to his seat.

His head didn’t hurt, it just suddenly felt light as he tried to stabilise himself.

“Hey dude, you alright?”

He could hear the muffled voice of the guy next to his seat.

“Yeah, I’m good. Don’t worry, just got a bit dizzy for a second.”

Will replied while still trying to regain his bearings.

“It’s alright man, the movie was really harsh. It hit me hard too, just take it easy.”

The other guy said as he patted his shoulder and walked away too.

The theatre soon started emptying up as everyone walked out one by one.

Will was already feeling alright, but the reason why he couldn’t move from his seat was due to the shock he was currently feeling.

A blue translucent screen was hovering above his eyes as few texts appeared on them.

[???? ?? ?? ????? ???? ?? ???? ???????????? ???? ?? ?? ??? ????????? ????? ? ???? ???? ???. ??????? ????, ?’? ??? ????????? ??????.]

Seems like he wasn’t as helpless as he thought he was.