Movie World Domination System: Chapter 2—Is This World Allergic to Us?

The prompt "[Main Quest: Find Wendy]" remained frozen on Julio's phone screen. Try as he might, he couldn't perform any operations—not even turning it off.

"What's going on...?" Julio recalled being in his apartment earlier, broke and desperate, when his landlord ordered him to pack up and leave. With no options left, he pulled out a business card given to him by a mysterious stranger a month ago. The moment he scanned the QR code at the back of the card, he blacked out.

"Is this some kind of reality show like Squid Game?" The Netflix series, featuring a desperate protagonist who joined a deadly game, had gone viral a few years back. Though its second season flopped, many producers had adapted similar concepts for reality shows, like Beast Games. No one actually died in these settings, but the huge sum of prize money drew massive audiences.

Either way, Julio refused to work without a contract or remuneration. Even for a reality show, he needed to know the prize amount.

A dreamer might work for free, but an empty wallet leaves no room for dreams.

Julio kept asking passersby where the "producers" were, but they either stared at him strangely or dismissed him as crazy. Finally giving up, he slumped motionless on the bench. His eyes were fixed on the spinning chair ride ahead, where riders screamed in delight. As he watched both the riders and the people waiting in line, a young couple caught his attention. They stood out with their flashy outfits and absurdly oversized sunglasses, taking photos of each other with a digital camera.

When they reached the front of the line, the security guard pointed to the "No Glasses" and "No Photography" signs at the entrance. The guy casually shrugged before tucking away his sunglasses and digital camera. He then turned to show his girlfriend a 110-series spy camera. Though Julio couldn't identify the specific model, he knew these 1970s cameras had been out of production for years.

"They're clearly trying too hard to look cool without knowing what they're doing. Not only are they wearing sunglasses at night, but that guy doesn't seem to realize his 110-series camera won't capture anything in the dark without a flash." he muttered under his breath.

At that moment, Julio had a sudden vision of the camera flying from the guy's hand—but his phone interrupted his train of thoughts with an abrupt vibration.

[Warning: Synchronization rate has dropped to alert level]

[Please approach target to recalibrate synchronization, or you will experience rejection reaction]

"Rejection? Come on, you think I want to be here?"

Julio glanced at the prompts dismissively. He was scanning his surroundings for hidden cameras when his phone screen began emitting a red light and vibrating in rhythmic cycles that mimicked the breathing pattern of an angry person. Julio remained unmoved. During university, he'd worked temporary jobs on small shows where paymasters exploited his status as an international student to steal his wages. He couldn't complain since getting caught working under the table meant deportation. He couldn't risk filing complaints either—who knew if it would cost him future employment opportunities?

The phone's vibrations intensified, and each pulse lasted longer, as if it was insisting that its warning wasn't a joke. Though Julio felt uneasy, he refused to yield. He needed money and couldn't afford to waste a chance to stand up for himself.

After three long vibrations, the red light and pulsing ceased. Julio received a new alert.

[Warning: Rejection reaction approaching Danger Level 1]

Below the alert was a progress bar split into three segments, with a skull icon drifting slowly from Segment 1 toward Segment 2.

A five or six-year-old child emerged from the crowd, heading straight for Julio with an inflatable hammer. He watched the child, wondering if this "danger" was just meant to embarrass him.

The child tottered up to Julio, lifted the hammer, and bonked his forehead repeatedly while chanting "Die, Die, Die!"

Julio laughed. He couldn't imagine what audience would find such a boring show entertaining, but he'd had enough. He pushed away the child's hammer and stood to leave when suddenly his hair stood on end—something small was spinning down from above.

Get down! Or I'll die! In that instant, Julio's instincts took control as his body jerked away. The object whistled past his head and smashed into the bench behind him, leaving a huge crater. Had he not stood up moments before, that'd have been his skull.

Looking ahead, he spotted the tourist who'd smuggled the camera onto the ride. The man was still on the spinning chair, peering in Julio's direction—but the camera was no longer in his hands.

"Damn it..." Julio cursed.

"You almost killed me, you know that?" he shouted, but the man couldn't possibly hear him—the ride had already carried the man away from him.

"I'm so sorry!" a woman's voice cut in. "He's quite naughty, but I don't think he'd have tried to kill you."

Julio turned to find the child's mother addressing him.

"Oh no, it's fine, I wasn't talking about him, but rather—" Julio tried explaining, but his phone interrupted with increasingly violent vibrations.

[Warning: Rejection reaction approaching Danger Level 2]

Whether the phone was intelligent enough to know Julio wouldn't check it, or the situation was truly dire, this time it broadcasted the message in a mechanical voice.

Julio glanced at the woman before him, who appeared oblivious to anything unusual.

"Watch out!" the woman suddenly screamed. A chill ran down Julio's spine as he turned—the Grim Reaper doll that was hanging on the pole had fallen, its razor-sharp scythe plunging toward his eyes.

"F**k me." Julio knew he should dodge, but his body wouldn't move.

Suddenly, a powerful force yanked his arm, jerking his body to the side. The Reaper's scythe struck the ground with a shower of sparks. If it'd hit him, he'd have lost an eye—or worse.

A familiar voice shouted: "Run!"

Julio scrambled to his feet and ran, pulled along by his rescuer. This place was seriously cursed—forget the prize money, staying alive was more important. Judging from the silhouette in front of him, his savior seemed to be someone he knew.

The person sped forward breathlessly but didn't slow down. Julio realized they were heading toward the roller coaster area.

[Approaching target, recalibrating synchronization...]

[Synchronization rate 45%...]

[Synchronization rate 98%...]

[Destiny Particles synchronization complete]

[Rejection reaction eliminated]

[Domination system operating normally]

[Main Quest has been updated: Save Wendy]

Upon hearing these new voice prompts, the person ahead finally stopped, gasping heavily for air. Julio recognized him—it was his good friend. "Max! What are you doing here?"

Max held up his hand, signalling for Julio to let him catch his breath before responding. Being considerably heavier than Julio, and despite their regular after-dinner walks together, the sprint had left him winded.

"I'll get you some water," Julio offered, but Max grabbed him and shook his head to stop him from leaving.

Finally, Max spoke after regaining his breath.

"Listen, Julio. We're not in our world—at least, not the Earth we live on."

"What?"

"Have you seen the Final Destination movies?"

"Of course. They all followed the same pattern: the main character foresaw a deadly accident and saved himself and others from dying. Then some supernatural force hunted them down, creating elaborate accidents to kill everyone who escaped."

"We're in an alternate dimension that follows the same rules—specifically, those of Final Destination 3. Look around, this is the carnival from the movie's opening scene—exact in every detail."

Julio looked up at the entrance to the roller coaster ride—the attention to detail was remarkable. A grotesque red devil's head bellowed the familiar line: "I'll see you soon."

Before Julio could speak, Max rushed to continue, worried Julio wouldn't believe him. "Your phone has no signal, right? And there's no Wi-Fi. That's because we're in 2005, not 2025. We don't belong in this space, and the rejection reaction is trying to expel us from this space. I don't know exactly why, but when we got close to Wendy as the system requested, the rejection reaction vanished."

"Wait, Max, how much did they pay you?"

Max's eyes widened in shock as he stared at Julio. He raised both hands and clapped them firmly on Julio's head.

"Wake up, Julio! Stop dreaming! We'll die if you keep doing this!" Max exclaimed. He then grabbed Julio's phone and threw it far away.

"Hey!" Julio shouted.

"Check your pocket."

"Huh?" Julio reached into his pocket. His phone was still there, completely intact.

"Like I said, I can barely understand all that's happening, but—" Max grabbed a passerby. "Hey man, can you see what he's holding?"

Julio showed him the phone.

"Nothing?" the person said, looking puzzled.

"Look carefully. He's holding a phone, isn't he?"

The passerby leaned in closer, his brows furrowing as he strained to make out what was in front of him.

"Ah, it's a Nokia 8800! That's strange. I couldn't see anything a moment ago. Are you performing a magic trick?"

"Okay, thanks."

Max let him go, and now it was Julio's turn to be shocked. He was clearly holding a touchscreen smartphone, not an ancient Nokia 8800.

"As you can see, they can't comprehend things that don't belong in this world."

"Holy cow... Did we really travel through time? But how do you know so much about this?" Julio asked.

"Remember Steve?"

"Of course, he was the one who said my script sucks."

"Well, you don't have to bother with that anymore. He died in an accident because of that rejection reaction, and his body was wiped out by some kind of mysterious force right in front of me—not a trace left behind."

Movie World Domination System: Chapter 3—The Side Quest Challenge