America: I came here to study, not to show mercy.

Chapter 163 Halloween

Low-intelligence beings?
After a quick lunch at the school cafeteria, Li Xiaoen walked back to her dormitory, pondering what to do.

He had been using the magic book he received as a reward from the system, but after looking around, he couldn't find a suitable target for his experiment.

The ability description states low intelligence, which is impossible for humans. What about highly intelligent animals like monkeys or dolphins?

He suddenly had the idea of ​​going hiking in the wild again—since the first hike when an emergency occurred, the club had conducted several safety awareness lectures, and had only organized one outdoor hiking activity until now.

There's a match this weekend, but unfortunately, I was dragged away by a few girls to learn martial arts beforehand.

If we were to encounter that bear now, perhaps we could test his superpowers.

With a thought in mind, Li Xiaoen pushed open the door and was surprised to see Michael and Malcolm on the living room sofa.

"Why are you here?"

After saying hello, Sean Lee sat down on his single sofa and waved to Bruce, the big dog crouching at Malcolm's feet, with delight.

“Daniel called us over so we could admire the symbol of masculinity on him.”

Michael had just given a sarcastic reply when Daniel's angry shouts came from the kitchen. The three of them exchanged glances and burst into laughter.

Li Shane raised his hand to stroke Bruce's head, took the opportunity to use his ability to whisper something, patted its head twice, and then sat back down.

Bruce's body stiffened for a moment, then returned to normal. He turned around and took turns raising one limb and circling the sofa.

"Wow... Malcolm, when did your dog learn this trick?"

Noticing the big dog's movements, Michael couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.

"I haven't trained it."

Malcolm paused for a moment, his gaze involuntarily falling on Shawn Lee, who had just touched the big dog. Then, Michael realized what was happening and followed suit.

"You are its owner, and you've been with it for so long without training it to do anything. How can I, who have only known it for a short time, successfully train it to do such difficult moves?"
Li Xiaoen asked helplessly.

"Yeah, too."

The two looked at each other and nodded.

"Right, Sean."

Michael suddenly remembered something and quickly added, "Are you really not going to that underground striptease show on Halloween Friday? Malcolm already agreed to go."

"Yeah, Sean, why don't you come along and have some fun?"

Daniel finally came out of the kitchen, carrying two large plates of fried chicken to the low table. Judging from their glistening appearance, they were clearly freshly fried.

"I'm just an international student, I won't join you guys in the fun."

Li Xiaoen shook his head again, "Besides, I have an appointment."

"Have an appointment?"

The group stared wide-eyed, remembering that Li Xiaoen was acquainted with several beautiful young ladies, and then nodded helplessly.

"Don't worry, Sean, I'll take some pictures and send them to you later."

Without hesitation, Michael smiled, raised his chin, and reached for the fried chicken on top, only to be burned and quickly withdrew his hand.

"It's fresh out of the pot, what's the rush?"

Daniel chuckled and handed out a fork to each person, while also grabbing a fan and blowing air into them.

"Hey guys..."

Daniel pulled up a chair and sat down on the other side, spreading his hands in a gesture of invitation, "You guys know there's a costume fashion show for Halloween on Friday? How about we go together?"

"Is this your girlfriend's idea again?"

Michael frowned upon hearing this, tentatively took a bite of a piece of fried chicken with his fork, hissed as he burned it, and finally swallowed it with a grimace.

"It wasn't really her idea; we just happened to be chatting about it."

After hesitating for a while, Daniel finally gave a helpless reply.

"Just participating shouldn't be a problem, right?"

After getting Cokes for the other three from the refrigerator, Li Xiaoen grabbed a can of soda for himself and sat back down on the sofa. "As long as your girlfriend doesn't insist that you get a good ranking, that's fine."

The school's student organization department does not rank these activities. All the rankings mentioned by students are just topics spontaneously started by an older student on an online forum.

As soon as Li Xiaoen finished speaking, Daniel's expression froze.

“What the f**k…”

Michael couldn't help but curse out loud, "Daniel, is your girlfriend really that troublesome and prone to causing trouble?"

"I didn't say I wanted a good ranking, as long as it was outstanding, visually appealing, and memorable, that would be fine."

This time, Daniel's voice completely lacked confidence.

"You can only place on your own in this kind of fashion show," Li Xiaoen said.

"That's right, I'd like you all to come with me, so I won't feel awkward being alone," Daniel said with a forced smile.

What style of outfit do you want to wear?

Li Xiaoen asked again, "Do you already have any ideas? As long as it's not too strange, I'm fine with it. There's also one thing I need to change myself."

He subconsciously thought that if Victoria knew he was walking the runway with the pumpkin head she had carved, she would probably be very happy.

"Perfect, Sean. That's what I was thinking too. It's simple and cool!"

Daniel was overjoyed upon hearing this, and looked at his three friends. "My idea is that we each create our own costumes, but what we all have in common is that we all wear a lightsaber that lights up."

"I've already decided, I'll cosplay Sephiroth, the villain from Final Fantasy."

"..."

"You son of a bitch, Daniel, you've already chosen your coolest outfit?"

Michael's face darkened upon hearing this, and he forgot all about eating his fried chicken, leaning back on the sofa.

“There are also many swordsmen, like Jedi Knights, Roronoa Zoro, you can dress them up as.” Daniel quickly explained.

"I'll do it myself, you can choose whatever you like."

Thinking of Victoria's pumpkin head, Li Xiaoen suddenly became interested and waved his hand.

"Sure, Sean."

Seeing that Sean Lee was the first to agree, Daniel smiled and said, "Come on, have some fried chicken. I bought it specially and fried it myself."

"I'll skip the fried chicken, I've already had lunch."

Li Xiaoen shook his head and simply drank the soda water in his hand.

Having set his sights on exercising and improving his physical fitness, he was prepared to control his diet.

"Ex..."

Michael, standing nearby, suddenly shouted, drawing everyone's attention. He stood up with a serious expression, raised his hands above his head, and then let out a loud shout:
“calibur…”

The group paused for a moment, then looked at each other blankly.

"It's a line from an anime character." Suddenly remembering, Li Xiaoen explained helplessly, raising his hand to rub his forehead.

I almost forgot that Michael has a bit of a delusional personality, and the other person's carefree attitude has made me forget about that.

"It's decided, I'll cosplay my Saber then."

Michael chuckled twice and announced with a wave of his hand.

"Women's clothing?!"

Sean Lee choked on his soda, which made Daniel and Malcolm look at Michael in shock.

"Anyway, I'll be wearing a mask, so no one but you guys will be able to tell who I am, right?"

Michael smiled and raised an eyebrow.

"Okay, it seems like they've put on a mask, but actually they've taken it off."

Li Xiaoen shook his head with a sigh, then suddenly realized something and asked in surprise, "By the way, you like anime, but you also like watching strip shows?"

"This is different."

Michael shook his head. "I like them all."

"No, it's the same."

Daniel, who was standing to the side, finally couldn't help but complain, "Michael is just a womanizer, it has nothing to do with the two-dimensional or three-dimensional world."

"Oh, it seems our friend Daniel is going to be a pure and innocent boyfriend."

Michael's face darkened as he looked at Daniel. "Then why go to the striptease? I'll cancel it for you."

"Hey……"

Daniel quickly waved his hand, "This is different..."

"Are they different?"

Michael interjected, questioning, "No, it's the same..."

Seeing that the two were about to start arguing again, Li Xiaoen shook his head, gestured to the others, and went upstairs to his room.

Halloween is just a few days away on Friday. Although many students are already looking forward to it and excited, it doesn't matter to him. All he can think about right now is the progress of building that reasoning model.

With Professor Sedgewick overseeing his major courses, he can apply for exemptions for almost all of them. This is the only thing he has to sacrifice in his studies now—moreover, only if this model is completed will there be a chance for cooperation on the Sophie Company project.

Thinking this, Li Xiaoen calmed down.

No, once the model is finished, I absolutely have to dress her in a maid outfit!

After a short 40-minute nap in bed, Li Xiaoen got up, slung his backpack over his shoulder, and headed to the lab…

After several days of clear autumn skies, the campus lawns, gardens, and dormitories were gradually decorated with terrifying costumes, including skeletons and bloody dolls. Students walked between their dormitories and classrooms with hopeful smiles on their faces, all of which were suppressed and waiting for the final moment to explode.

After much anticipation, Halloween finally arrived on Friday.

"Hey, Sean."

After washing up and leaving his room, Li Xiaoen saw Daniel standing in front of the opposite door. Daniel handed him his phone and said, "Look, do I look like Sephiroth in my cosplay?"

At this moment, Daniel, with his long white hair, wearing a black coat and white shoulder pads, swung his wig in front of him with a flamboyant air before assuming a pose and looking over.

"..."

Looking back and forth between the photos on her phone and Daniel, Li Xiaoen was momentarily at a loss for words.

"It's okay, Sean. Give me your honest opinion. After all, I'll be wearing this to meet other people, so this will help me prepare mentally in advance," Daniel reassured him.

"Um……"

Li Xiaoen pondered for a moment before speaking, “I think that apart from your face looking like that of a Westerner, you don’t resemble the person in the photo at all.”

Upon hearing this, Daniel's face immediately fell.

"Oh, yes."

Li Xiaoen looked him up and down, then quickly added, "And the clothes he's wearing all look the same color."

"I'll wear a mask, just like Michael."

With his head drooping helplessly, Daniel reached for his phone, turned around, and went back to his room.

He almost forgot that Sean had a cunning side.

With a knock, the door closed again. Li Xiaoen shrugged helplessly and went downstairs to prepare breakfast.

That was the truth. Daniel wanted to hear his real thoughts, so he said it. We're all grown men, there's no need to be pretentious and insist on saying things like, "Brother, you're already handsome, you'll be even more handsome when you lose weight."

After a quick breakfast, Li Xiaoen slung his backpack over his shoulder and headed back to the lab.

Along the way, many students had already changed into scary costumes and were excitedly running around in twos and threes. In front of the houses, or even looking through the windows, there were scenes of fierce ghosts scratching at curtains or raging fires. Perhaps the only thing left for the real Halloween horror was the arrival of night.

What if a murderer committed a crime on Halloween, using the holiday's scary atmosphere to confuse the public and destroy evidence amidst the crowds?
Or, if the house were really on fire, would people looking inside from the outside think it was a Halloween-themed event?
As he walked toward the laboratory, Li Xiaoen looked around and couldn't help but ponder to himself.

He comes from Yuecheng, Guangdong, a first-tier city in China, but he has hardly ever experienced Halloween before. This is the first time he has experienced a real Halloween atmosphere in the United States.

When he arrived at the lab, to his surprise, his former troublesome partner, Haskell, was already sitting in his seat, staring intently at the computer screen, seemingly deep in thought. There was no other student in the entire lab.

Noticing his arrival, Haskell paused for a moment, then raised his chin in greeting.

Nodding in response, Li Xiaoen lifted his leg and sat down in his seat. Seeing the conflicted look on his face and the hesitant expression, he simply activated his learning halo, bestowing its favor upon the other person, before lowering his head to begin his work.

At one point, upon hearing a surprised exclamation of realization from the other end, Li Xiaoen paused in his coding, shaking his head with interest.

Time flies when you're engrossed in work. Around noon, Li Xiaoen put the current model on the computer for training, picked up his backpack, and headed out the door.

"Sean..."

Haskel looked up and quickly called out, "Are you leaving? Going to celebrate the holidays?"

"Yeah, no one else came, they must have gone to celebrate the holiday."

Li Xiaoen turned around and replied, his gaze towards Haskel carrying a somewhat enigmatic meaning, "Good luck."

"Or, stop and take a walk outside the campus to clear your mind. After all, the school is so lively right now."

After saying that, Li Xiaoen waved his hand and turned to leave.

Perhaps it was a school regulation, but there was no Halloween atmosphere or decorations in the teaching areas such as laboratories and teaching buildings. As always, the color scheme was simple and calm, all white. Li Xiaoen walked out of there and walked to the dormitory area, truly experiencing the difference between two almost completely different worlds.

As time went on, more and more people dressed in Halloween costumes appeared outside. After taking a photo with several curvaceous "Silent Hill nurses," Li Xiaoen arrived at the dormitory of two girls.

The door opened, and a large, pointed, purplish-black hat came into view. The person in front of the door was wearing a dress of the same color and looked up, revealing a delicate and beautiful oval face.

With a smile on her face, she pulled a bright red apple from behind her back and handed it to her.

"Handsome prince, are you thirsty? Here's an apple for you."

Li Xiaoen's face darkened. He looked up and glanced inside the house, then frowned as he looked at the girl in front of him.

"You wretched witch, where have you hidden my beautiful Princess Victoria?"

(End of this chapter)