11 The University Orientation (3)

Being gently shook awake by one of the nerd servants, Ryker rubbed his eyes while stretching and standing up from his seat.

"Are we there already" yawned Ryker, who had fallen asleep due to the smoothness of the ride and high level of comfort from the seats.

"Yes, glorious leader, we are at the location for the freshman orientation. I hope that your orientation goes well, but I doubt you need our silly hopes seeing how competent you are"

Ryker simply brushed this off, having long made plans to hide away into sea of other students as soon as possible in order to regain anonymity. Hence, he promptly exited the bus.

He even completely ignored the cheers and wishes of good luck from the windows of the back of the bus, resisting the urge to satisfy his ego and bask in the limelight one last time.

"What a shame, but if I am to gain a reputation here and integrate myself I do not want it to be based around something that I have no skill in. There are bound to be more opportunities that are not so violent, hopefully."

With such thoughts in mind, Ryker ignored his fans and broke into a run as fast as his legs would take him. So fast he ran, that even the wind could not keep pace with him, even causing many a woman walking by to hold their skirts down as his tailwind threatened their sanctity.

"This should be my destination, one of the many auditoriums with this one being devoted to the orientation" remarked Ryker inwardly as he approached a large building with glass windows covering the top and redbrick covering the rest.

Joining the stream of other freshmen, he followed the crowd all the way to the reception desks. After writing down his full name, address, and assigned student number that had been sent in the mail he was directed towards the seating area.

"The freshman class is quite big…" gawked Ryker while looking upon the hundreds of students that were filing in and sitting down.

Under his seat was a bag full of informative brochures, the student handbook, as well as some university merch like sweaters and the bag itself.

Ryker absentmindedly flipped through these items as he was waiting for the event to start, even being somewhat intrigued by the unending lists of clubs and extracurricular activities that was listed on one of the info brochures.

"Welcome future students!" rang out a loud voice, reminiscent of every boring high school rally ever hosted.

"Today is the day of your orientation, where we will answer all the questions you might have pertaining to the university. After some quick explanation, you will be broken up into groups based on your major where you will be taken on a short tour of the buildings that are important for said major. The day will end with you heading to the student center to get your student ID card and a quick and easy club recruitment session on the way out" explained the obviously fake cheery voice.

"Now, does anyone have any questions?" asked the voice….which was met with no response.

An awkward laugh was heard over the speakers followed by a few snaps, after which the questions rolled in like magic.

What occurred next was a boring question and answer session, in which Ryker was almost certain that the entire thing was staged since no one ever actually asks any questions in a large public setting like this yet here he was sitting through an hour long event of just that…question and answer…question and answer.

"This is nothing that I have not heard before, it's not my first time going to a university and there is nothing particularly new or revolutionary about this one it seems. What a bittersweet feeling, huh. Should I be happy that its so plain or should I be annoyed that I have seen it all before…I guess there is enough excitement in the rest of my life so something mundane every once in a while is fine."

After the Q&A session was finally over it was time to break into groups based on major, with a row of senior students coming out from the sides of the stage each holding a large white card with a major written on it.

Utterly boring and mundane, with the only highlight being the obviously scripted jokes that was told by the announcer which was only met by scathing silence and confused faces.

"Okay prospective students, row by row get up and line up behind the senior student that is holding the card with your major on it" said the voice, now having lost all of its 'cheer' by this point instead replaced with a dead fish.

Thus each row did as they were told and, surprisingly, neatly and orderly got up row by row and lined up where they were supposed to.

"Hmm, what major am I this time around I wonder. I never actually considered it…" thought Ryker as he looked through his backpack for his registration papers.

"Psychology…just like before. Haha, no. I will be adding another major on top of that for sure. While Psychology is interesting to learn, working in that field is not exactly as interesting. My first job out of college…at the prison…the cannibal homeless is nothing compared to some of the lunatics that I had to deal with on a daily basis in there. The regular fights to the death, the boasting of extremely creative atrocities and the ever-increasing creative ways some of the prisoners found to reduce the prison's many therapists into tears. Worst of all was not those that heckled and jeered, or even outright tried to kill me. But those that just sat there and told their stories, oh how horrific they were."

Setting aside his rather disturbed thoughts, he stood up when it was his row's turn and lined up behind the senior student in charge of his major. He made sure that he was towards the back of the line, so that he did not have to engage in any conversation with anyone.

"Who knows if I will get swept up in some kind of event" thought Ryker, rationalizing his disposition of a loner.

…..

…..

After all the proceedings had finished, having obtained his student card from the student center, he left out the way he came.

Except this time there was a difference in the scenery, as the walkway was lined with small stalls and people holding signs.

"Chess club…swimming club…feet lovers club…is this the club recruitment event that was mentioned?" wondered Ryker as he walked through the middle of it all, noting the eyes of the recruiters that were checking out every limb of his body.

They looked at him like he was a piece of fresh juicy meat and they were long starved carnivores or perhaps a crowd of drunken men paying rapt attention to a thinly dressed curvaceous woman.

"This is unnatural, what are they looking for anyways? Why is that guy just looking at my legs and thighs, was I listed on some kind of escort service without my knowledge…"

The club recruiters, or so Ryker hoped that they were, continued to eye Ryker and the other freshman in front and behind him closely in complete silence. All that could be heard was their heavy breathing and all that could be seen was their excited faces, waiting for who knows what.

A horn suddenly sounded, and like the gate going down at the start of a horse race all the recruiters were off with a gallop.

"YOU, YOU THERE! Your fingers are perfect for knitting and you have the mark of the knitting god on your nose, join the knitting society and we will not treat you wrong" exclaimed one of the recruiters in the face of a young woman.

"Hey, HEY YOU DON'T IGNORE ME. You are clearly overweight and have a dire junk food addiction, join the weight loss club and we will help you!"

"Oh no! Your pulse is weak and your left kidney is cold, I have just the remedy for you but only if you join the herbal medicine research and development group. Why not just give you the medicine you ask? Its an ancient recipe that has been handed down for generations in my family, I am restricted by ancestral law to not give it to any outsider. I can make an exception though…if you join the group!"

Such scenes were repeating again and again by the several dozen recruiters that were making their way through. It went smoothly, although it was incredibly loud and chaotic, in almost all cases except for when multiple clubs wanted the same member…

"I was here first chess club, back off before things get ugly"

"Ohoho, the checkers club…what a smooth brain boardgame to play. Who would wish to play a game that causes IQ to drop in real time?"

"You asked for it…boys get them!"

From the crowd a bunch of members of the presumed checkers club appeared, drawing knives from their pockets whilst laughing menacingly.

"Kekeke, lets see how you pick up your chess pieces when we slice off your fingers"

The chess club member was not fazed, instead shaking his head while chuckling to himself.

"Typical vagrants, unable to even understand that they were already dead"

"WHAT?!??!"

From behind each of the checkers club members appeared a student, each holding a chess piece with a blade sticking out of the end of it against their necks.

"Damn…you win this time chess club. We will not forget this slight against our name!" yelled the head recruiter for the checkers club, as he retreated with his other group members.

"Hmmph, next time we will not be so merciful" scoffed the chess club recruiter, as he walked up to the student that had been the point of contention this entire time with a sign-up form in hand.

"Wow, did that really play out that way? I think I just saw every B movie action scene ever in one interaction just now" thought Ryker in disbelief as he witnessed the showdown.

"Oh crap, I should have used the commotion to escape. I don't want to get dragged into a similar situation."

Tensing his leg muscles, all for a quick burst of speed to get away as fast as possible, he was about to unleash his neigh inhuman speed…right when the earlier scene of a few recruiters looking at his legs closely surfaced in his mind.

"I have made a mistake" was his last thought as a dozen or sports clubs recruiters all pounced on him, trying to be the first to recruit him.