Bella followed the highway, leaving West Virginia.
Would there be more changes in Silent Hill? Would the monsters inside escape? She couldn't worry about that for now; that place was wicked, and staying far away from it certainly wouldn't hurt.
Strictly speaking, West Virginia was an Eastern state. Those monsters in Silent Hill should be the New York Sanctum's responsibility! As a college student from the West Coast, she shouldn't be tossing and turning over here.
From West Virginia back to California, she had to cross a full nine states. Even flying would take five hours; driving would be much slower.
Both Bella and Shaw needed a period of rest and recuperation, so their speed slowed down significantly without them realizing it.
Passing through Ohio and heading west into Indiana—as the name suggested, there were quite a few Native Americans here.
A tribe that supplied goods for Bella's magical item shop lived in Indiana. Due to her friendship with the Quileute tribe, this local tribe welcomed her arrival and invited her to rest within the tribe for a day.
The next day, in order to drive the old chief to visit his daughter who was studying out of state, Bella changed her original plan of heading due west when passing through Illinois. Instead, she drove north along the highway, entering Wisconsin.
After dropping off the old chief, seeing the sky getting darker, she wanted to follow the highway to Madison to rest.
The United States was a wicked place too. Big cities had shootings, robberies, various super-villains, and ambitious schemers stirring up trouble. Small towns, on the other hand, were overrun with demons, monsters, evil gods, and cultists—you could catch a handful with one grab! It seemed there was no safe place. However, on balance, Bella still thought big cities were relatively better!
She really didn't want to run into any more demons or ghosts. She would rather drive in the dark for a while to rest in the capital city of Madison.
But accidents happen.
Under the somewhat dim streetlights, a woman in a chestnut dress, with black hair cascading over her shoulders and carrying a backpack, waved from a distance to flag down the car.
The scene felt strangely familiar. Bella couldn't help but look at the back seat. Shaw appeared at the right moment and shook her head gently, indicating that it wasn't one of her peers (a ghost).
"Hi! Are you going to the small town five kilometers away? Can you give me a ride?" The woman flagging the car saw the driver was also female and walked over with relief.
No magic power, not a spirit body, and she didn't seem to be carrying weapons. Bella sized the other party up secretly. Hmm, looks harmless. Deep eyes, a high nose bridge, an average figure... at least an 85-point beauty.
"Sure, get in. I'll be passing through the town ahead." Hitchhiking or asking for a ride wasn't uncommon; she had no reason to refuse.
"Thanks." The other party thanked her politely but didn't give a name. It was a chance meeting; there was no need to know each other's names at a time like this.
The five-kilometer journey wasn't far, but it wasn't close either. The two chatted casually.
"Is that a laptop?" Bella asked, pointing at the other's backpack.
It was the year 2000. Although rudimentary laptops existed in '85, they were limited by hardware—heavy, bulky, and far from comparable to later generations, not to mention expensive.
Bella had never been willing to shell out for one. To her, the money for a laptop was better spent on a few clothes or a new bag! Never mind now; even twenty years later, the archaic tomes she studied could never be found online. She had no need for a computer.
Seeing a passerby running around with a laptop, she couldn't help but ask.
"Huh? Yes, I'm just a beginner." The young woman answered impeccably.
Bella didn't think much of it. Her vision and knowledge were twenty years ahead of this era. She was a layman in the computer industry, but she could still bring up some topics for chat.
"How do you think those viruses on the internet will develop in the future?" On April 26, 2000, the CIH 1.2 virus (Chernobyl virus) had a second large-scale outbreak. Over sixty million computers globally were damaged, with economic losses exceeding one billion. It was mid-December now, and the aftershocks hadn't completely vanished, so it was a valid conversational topic.
The young woman smiled shyly, thought for a moment, and said, "Maybe they'll become more powerful. I don't know either; I'm just a beginner."
The young woman obviously didn't want to talk about computers or the internet, so Bella immediately changed the subject.
"Do you know about the Mayan god Itzamna?"
"...???"
The young woman's eyes widened. Bella chattered on endlessly about myths and legends, discussing the Inverted Pentagram. The woman was on the verge of a breakdown. This is the technological age, and there's someone so superstitious? And a beauty at that—what a waste of that face!
"...I suddenly thought of a very interesting hypothesis. Actually, our internet can have more applications..." When Bella started talking about demons and hell, the young woman couldn't take it anymore and forcibly changed the subject.
"...That's a very creative idea." If she doesn't want to chat, then we won't chat. Bella felt a slight regret that she had a belly full of knowledge with nowhere to vent.
The young woman was very knowledgeable, and her views on the future development of the internet completely aligned with Bella's personal experience as a transmigrator.
The journey was pleasant enough. Finally, they parted ways outside a small town in Wisconsin named Lake Manitoc.
"If you're not in a hurry, you can rest in the town for a night. The road to Madison isn't easy to drive. Go two blocks ahead, there's a place called the Lakeside Motel. The beds are comfortable, and the environment is nice."
After a few simple words, the young woman smiled and took her leave.
Bella thought about it. Driving at night was indeed exhausting right now, so she decided to stay in this small town.
Telling Shaw to stay in the car, she got her room card, entered the room, and went straight to the bathroom.
Meanwhile, the young woman greeted her sheriff foster father and returned to her own room.
With two parts curiosity and three parts pride, she sat in front of a desktop computer, connected her own laptop, and pulled out another laptop from under the desk. Three computers lined up in a row. Her ten fingers typed rapidly, setting up a homemade firewall, jumping through several servers, and setting up a full suite of IP address camouflage before finally entering the California DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) server.
She didn't know Bella's name, but she had memorized the license plate. For a hacker, that was enough.
The DMV server was breached directly without arousing anyone's suspicion. The young woman browsed the information casually, as if playing a game, and found Bella's true identity.
Stanford University student, Isabella Swan.
"Just another so-called high achiever who only knows how to talk big? Heh..." The young woman's laugh held a hint of contempt. She looked down on these so-called graduates of famous schools. She believed that students taught under that educational system were all trash!