This is 2008

Uncle John was in a very bad mood today.

Peter, the magician of John's theater, had called this morning to say that he couldn't perform tonight; he had to take care of his ill mother back in his hometown.

Uncle John could do nothing but express his concern for Peter's mother and let the magician take the day off. It wasn't like he could force Peter to perform. However, Peter was the only magician in his theater. He had no idea what to do about the magic show tonight, especially with all the tickets he had sold.

Uncle John walked somberly on the street, wracking his brain about tonight's show. As he wandered about, a man in only underpants suddenly caught his eyes. John wasn't a stranger to vagrants; he had given them food and spare changes when he was in a good mood, but the man in front of him was a little unusual. First of all, the man looked Asian, and the man's body was uncharacteristically cleaner than the vagrants John had seen.

"Hey, wake up, buddy." Uncle John walked closer and squatted down beside the man.

"Where is this? Ugh, my head hurts." Li Yue was sleeping soundly when he suddenly felt someone pushing on him. The dazzling sunlight assaulted his eyes when he opened them; he had to squint his eyes for a few seconds before he could get used to them. Then, an unbearable headache overwhelmed him as if he had worked without rest for three days and three nights.

…that didn't sound right. With Li Yue's current mental strength, being awake for three days straight shouldn't even be an inconvenience for him. Moreover, he had just awakened from sleep.

"Hey, man, just put on these clothes," a voice suddenly spoke to Li Yue, who was still overwhelmed with the headache. The voice was speaking in English—thankfully, Li Yue had studied English quite hard on top of his superpower training for the past year. With his reinforced mental strength and the countless hours of American movies and dramas that he watched, communicating in English was trivial for him.

Li Yue sat up and looked at the source of the voice: a white, middle-aged man with a thick beard and a kind face. The man smiled warmly while holding a piece of clothing; it seemed that he had taken it off his own back. He offered the clothing to Li Yue.

"Thank you, sir," Li Yue thanked the man and took the clothing. Fortunately, the man's large clothing was able to mostly cover Li Yue's body.

"How did you end up sleeping on the street with only your underpants? Did you get robbed?" Uncle John asked curiously after Li Yue finished putting his clothes on.

"I'm also confused. I remember getting to bed at home, so how come I woke up in the big street? And it's not even in my own country. Could I be sleepwalking? I have never been in a situation like this before." Li Yue muttered in his heart. He was even more confused about his situation than the man in front of him. But this wasn't the time to be absorbed in thought.

"Mister, can you take me to a quiet place to rest? I will need to tidy up and find a better set of clothing as well," Li Yue said to the uncle. He had no idea what was going on, but he couldn't gain new information just by sitting around. He helplessly depended on the kind uncle.

"Come with me; I was about to go to my theater." Uncle John gestured at Li Yue to follow him.

It only took them ten minutes to reach their destination. Uncle John filled Li Yue in with more information along the way. To Li Yue's astonishment, they were in Las Vegas, United States.

Of course, Li Yue knew about Las Vegas, though he had never been there. Li Yue had been limiting himself to using his abilities in remote mountains and deep forests, avoiding populated areas, so he hadn't really seen too many places on Earth.

What perplexed Li Yue the most, however, was Uncle John's claim that the current year was 2008. Li Yue clearly remembered going to bed in 2019, so he had traveled back 11 years in time!

"Transgressing time and space to 2008 Las Vegas..." Li Yue had no other option but to silently accept this as a fact.

Li Yue excused himself to the bathroom and secretly used his teleportation ability; the ability activated just fine. He teleported to the forest and mountain where he had trained, but there was no sign of his past training. He tried to teleport to his hometown and his rented house, but the ability could not activate. He guessed that the locations in his memory didn't exist in this world, so the ability could not determine their coordinate.

Out of options, Li Yue could only return to Las Vegas and follow Uncle John to the theater.

The theater was rather small. Uncle John said that his father had inherited the theater from his grandfather; he then, in turn, inherited the place from his father. It wasn't very big, and the business wasn't very good, but he felt that it was his duty to continue running it.

Uncle John led Li Yue to a resting area behind the stage. He then left Li Yue alone, citing that there was a lot of work to do.

Li Yue's head was still hurting. There wasn't much he could do about the things that had happened, so he could only recover his strength by taking a nap. As the saying goes, "let's cross that bridge when we get there."

Li Yue didn't know how long he had been asleep when he was awakened by a bustling noise. He got up and found that the backstage was filled with people—theater performers. They would obviously get noisier as more people arrive, so Li Yue can't return to sleep. Fortunately, he already felt somewhat better, so he walked around backstage.

"John, the magic show is in two hours, and Peter is still not here. Have you found a replacement magician?" A handsome young man anxiously asked Uncle John.

"I haven't, no. I called all the numbers on my contact, but I can't find any magician that could fill in for him; they're either too far away or already occupied in another theater," Uncle John replied helplessly, his face also anxious.

Li Yue, who was feasting his eyes with the young actresses in various dresses around him, coincidentally overheard this conversation.

"Mister John, did something happen?" Li Yue asked.

"Oh, Li Yue, you're already awake. Do you feel better already?" Uncle John turned around to see Li Yue up and around, but he said nothing about his problem.

But Li Yue couldn't ignore Uncle John's problem. He replied, "I'm much better now; thank you for your concern. However, if mister John has a problem, you can tell me; perhaps I can help you."

Uncle John realized Li Yue already knew about his problem, so he explained the full situation helplessly.

Li Yue silently pondered for a bit after hearing the situation. Through the year that he had obtained and practiced his superpower, his mental strength had improved, and that improvement included his memory. His memory was almost photographic at this point.

Among the movies that Li Yue had watched in search of superpowers, some of them included magic tricks, and the mechanism behind them was still imprinted in his mind. Performing some simple tricks shouldn't be too hard, and with his teleportation ability, he could also pull off some more intricate tricks.

Thus, Li Yue gave a proposition to Uncle John, "Mister, to tell the truth, I have learned magic before. I think I can still perform on stage; please allow me to try it."

"Li Yue, can you really do it?" Uncle John asked in surprise. He then added with a serious expression, "It's not that I doubt you, but this theater is my livelihood. If something goes wrong, our business might be impacted. Forgive my caution."

"It's okay, mister, you don't have to be so polite. I haven't even thanked you for the help you provided, and we're strangers to each other. It is understandable that you're skeptical of me. However, there was a saying in my country: 'Try and cure a horse even if it already looks dead.' In the best-case scenario, the show would succeed, and everyone will be happy. And if it failed, well, it could not be worse than not having the show at all, yes?" Li Yue persuaded Uncle John. He was confident that he could perform even without his superpower.

"Alright, it's not like we have other options. Barry, help Li Yue put on a performance costume and show him the props. Also, introduce him to Iris," Uncle John instructed the young man that he had talked to before.

"Li Yue, if you have any questions or need anything, you can ask Barry." Uncle John left in a hurry after saying that. He had much to prepare.

"Li Yue, right? Chinese names are difficult to pronounce. My name is Barry Allen; you can call me Barry. I handled the props for Mr. Peter. It's a pleasure to meet you." The young man offered his hand to Li Yue after introducing himself.

"Hello, Barry. Has anyone told you that you're very handsome?" Li Yue was beyond surprised. If he recalled correctly, Barry Allen was a protagonist in one of the American shows he had watched. Moreover, Barry looked strikingly similar to the actor that played that character, although a little younger. Had he been transported to the world of DC Comic's show "The Flash?" But the profession didn't really match; Barry Allen was supposed to be a policeman in the show. How could he end up here?

Li Yue hid his confusion in his heart. Perhaps time would tell what was going on.

"Let's go and prepare, Barry. We don't have much time. I hope we can amaze the audience tonight," Li Yue said while shaking Barry's hand.

"By the way, can you prepare two boxes around the size of a person? I need them for the magic trick," Li Yue asked while walking to the props room.

"No problem, Li Yue. You can leave it to me," Barry replied confidently.