Chapter 30: Fans

Our darkest hour was near. Our society, which officially changed its name yesterday, was on the verge of being disbanded. We might still have one day left to recruit first year students, but from the look of things, the majority of first year students had already found a society they wanted to join. In other words, the chances of anyone wanting to join our society were decreasing…

So much for asking me which society I was in. As I figured, they were expecting me to already be in a prestigious society, not in a new, struggling one.

"We're doomed!" Dong Fang Yue Chu wailed, clutching his head. He also realized that our chances of recruiting members would drop significantly the next day, especially since most of the students would already sign up for whatever societies they were interested in today. "We're going to get disbanded!"

With one guy whining, I felt obligated to be the optimistic one. "There's still tomorrow," I reminded him, trying to suppress the panic in my heart. Forcing a smile, I glanced at the first year students who had gathered around the Holy Saints Society's booth. And there was an even larger crowd around the Black Roses Society.

I felt some pity for a lot of them. It wasn't easy to get into the great societies. They were very stringent with their selection, and at the end of the day, the vast majority of them would be rejected. With the limited spots in the great societies, probably only a quarter of that number would get their wish. The rest would have to lower their standards a little.

Turning to Dong Fang Yue Chu, I attempted a joke.

"Hey, Yue Chu. You wouldn't happen to have a loli cousin from your Assassin clan who would love to join our society, would you?"

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Dong Fang Yue Chu gaped at me, not comprehending. Evidently he hadn't been reading Battle Frenzy. "What loli cousin? And I'm not from the Assassin clan. Actually, what the hell is the Assassin clan? A clan full of assassins?"

"…good question. I guess so."

Dong Fang Yue Chu continued to stare at me blankly, and when I was unable to provide a sufficient answer, he snorted.

"Never heard of them. To begin with, if they really are a clan of assassins, why would they show up in the open? Wouldn't they…you know, hide under the shadows and away from the eyes of the public, or something?"

"You're right." That was the kind of vocation they were in, after all. That said, the term assassin was used these days to refer to a mage class that relied on stealth spells, and high-damage spells that would deliver an almost certain kill. Just like Albert Alain. "You sure you don't have a cousin called Amelia or something?"

"Are you all right?" Dong Fang Yue Chu was narrowing his eyes now. "You seem to have gotten delirious from our lack of success."

"…never mind." I should have known we wouldn't conveniently get a promising new member just like that. Reality wouldn't distort and bend just to conveniently provide the protagonist with whatever he needs. I had to actually work for what I wanted. "I'll go walk around and see if I can pull a few of the first year students in."

There were a couple of clueless-looking first year students who seemed undecided. I might as well draw them over and hoped that they would find the idea of being an underdog society romantic and challenging. It wasn't as if I could rely on a scenario where a super-powerful first year prodigy who was the top of his year would show up and join us. A particularly handsome one whose name was Grayson. Yeah, I wish.

Unfortunately, before I could reach them, members from other societies reached the first year students and guided them to their booths, sharing with them passionately the details and history of their society.

We don't have any history, I realized. That was why we couldn't draw anyone in. We were far too unknown, too precarious and risky. Not for ambitious, realistic first year students.

Even so, I couldn't give up. Not yet.

I was about to venture out further in hopes of finding more stray first year students when I suddenly spotted Harvey Deng leading a couple of guys toward our booth. I stopped and waved at him, and he grinned and waved back.

"Senior Richard!" he called out as he arrived at the booth. He glanced around, looking a little confused. "Where's everybody?"

"Everybody?" I echoed, confused. "Who is everybody? Ah…if you mean members, Dong Fang Yue Chu and I are the only members so far."

"Oh, that's not what I meant." Harvey was blinking as he looked around again. "I thought there would be more people visiting your booth."

"I thought so too, but…eh, well…it is what it is."

I shrugged flippantly, not daring to hope that we had just received the solution to our problem. After all, if Harvey really wanted to join my society, he wouldn't come this late.

As if he had read my mind, Harvey lowered his head sheepishly.

"Sorry, we got sidetracked looking at all the other booths. There's so many societies in Jing Tian Academy that we lost track of time. Before we knew it, it is already this late."

Yeah, I already figured that out. The first year students were free to visit whatever booth they wanted. They had no obligation to look for me just because they proclaimed themselves to be my fans. I honestly didn't care about that. Instead, I nodded and smiled.

"So, have you already decided which society to join?"

Dong Fang Yue Chu's expression twisted a little when he heard my question, but he wisely didn't say anything. He couldn't. He knew as well as I did that we couldn't just strong-arm first year students into joining us. Not only was it unethical, it would also give us a bad reputation.

"Yeah!" Harvey beamed as he studied all my badly drawn sketches. "Oh wow…this is quite interesting. You're a fan of manga and anime, Senior Richard?"

"Yeah." There was no point hiding it. Dad's influence had rubbed off on me, and now I was part of the inner circle of otaku fandom. "A big fan of Serizawa Shiro's manga, as well as Aoki Aoi's anime."

The names obviously meant nothing to Harvey, but he just nodded. Behind him, his friends exchanged a glance. One of them grinned.

"Me too! I love that recent anime that Aoki directed!"

"Ah, Arinoah Zero? I like that too."

"Yeah! The mecha designs were so cool!"

"I should watch it too." Harvey was nodding. "I heard a lot of good things about it, but I'm more of a detective manga fan. Konan has been running for decades now."

Behind the counter, Dong Fang Yue Chu's jaw had dropped and he was watching us. He scowled.

"Hey! The Great Middle Nation is also producing their own animation recently! Have you not watched anything from Tencents?"

"Ah, I did. I'm a big fan of Spirit Fox Matchmaker." I nodded. "And also Yaoguai Mingdan."

"Oh, wow! I watched those too!"

"I'm more of a fan of the martial arts manhua on Tencents, though." Harvey smiled. "And the webnovels on Qidian."

The third guy cleared his throat. "Um, so…I guess that means we should sign up?"

"Oh, right!" Harvey broke out of his rambling and nodded excitedly. "Yeah, that's what we're here for. Don't mind if we join?"

"Of course not! By all means!" Dong Fang Yue Chu enthusiastically brought out his tablet and passed it to them, activating a holographic touch-screen that displayed the registry for our society. "You'll be our very first members!"

"I feel honored," the third guy murmured.

"Hey, this is awesome. I didn't think there would be a manga and anime society in Jing Tian Academy!" the second guy was practically drooling.

"The 'Ultimate Outcasts' – that's a really cool name!" Harvey was gaping at me. Then he frowned and stared at me. "Isn't that the title of a martial arts webcomic?"

"Oh, you've read it too?" I nodded. "I thought the name was awesome, so I took it. If they complain about copyright, then we'll just change it to the Strongest Outcast, or the Greatest Outcast. Just swap one of the word and we should be fine."

"Great. Oh, I should introduce my friends."

I sort of knew them from the combat magic class – I had seen the both of them. Even so, I still hadn't memorized all of their names, so I was grateful for Harvey's initiative. He was probably doing it for Dong Fang Yue Chu's benefit, though.

"This is Wang Fei." He gestured toward the second guy. "As you can see, he's also a big fan of manga and anime."

"I'm more of the sci-fi type, but lately I've been looking at isekai. Oh, and the youkai and yaoguai stuff too."

Wang Fei bowed a little exaggeratedly. He was a bit on the plump side, and wore round-rimmed glasses. Mine were rectangular, so we had both shapes covered when it came to spectacles, which would make for a spectacle.

"And the serious one is Stanley Lee."

Harvey beckoned toward the third guy, who was the tall, handsome type. Not as good looking as Grayson, or as Mary Sue as him, but definitely better than average, especially when compared to the chubby Wang Fei and the plain me. No doubt Stanley would be very popular with girls.

"You can just call me Stan." He offered us a hand and a bright smile. "I also enjoy manga, but not as much as Wang Fei…or you."

"That's fine. Everyone has their hobbies."

"That's true." Stan chuckled and leaned a bit closer, his eyes narrowing a bit. "I'm more interested in your ability, Senior Richard. I hope you'll be able to offer me advice on summoning and combat."

This guy…he was the competitive and ambitious type. It befuddled me why he would choose our little society over the other more well-renowned ones.

"Uh…I hope you won't be too disappointed. I really am not as good as they make me out to be. I've been mostly lucky for this year."

"Heh." Stan clearly didn't buy it. "Luck doesn't win you ten matches in a row and get you two team-kills. Have more confidence in yourself, Senior. You'll be fine."

"Thanks…but I'll just be honest." I didn't want to lie to him, only for him to find out our society wasn't all it was made out to be, and that my reputation was a lie. "If you really want to improve your combat or summoning spells, you're actually better off joining one of the great societies…"

"He tried," Harvey interrupted with an amused grin. "They rejected him."

"…oh." I tried to cover up the awkward silence with a smile. "Don't worry about it. We won't reject you."

"Yeah! We'll welcome all members, regardless of their rankings!" Dong Fang Yue Chu spread his hands dramatically. "We're a haven for the outcasts!"

"That we are," I agreed, without a trace of irony. "That we are."