Chapter 33: No Graduation Allowed
"Completely screwed."
"Thoroughly played out."
"I won’t be nailed to death on stage, will I...?"
"They won’t even give me a chance to escape."
Surrounded by over a dozen of the gang’s high-ranking members and walking onto the high platform, Chen Yu looked down at the "dark mass" of people below, feeling an urge to pee washing down from his pituitary gland into his bladder.
"Must be a lot of people, right?"
"This brokering gang, having so many followers..."
"They could really chop me into mincemeat for dumplings."
Through the reflection of a broken factory window, Chen Yu saw his title of "Useless Otaku" fading above his head. He even had his last words ready.
His current title wasn’t just a title anymore.
It was the countdown to his doom!
Right now, hundreds of people in this factory were waiting for his title to change back to "Number One Murderer," so they could start living the high life with him.
But once time was up and his title changed to "Mr. Nice Guy"...
Wouldn’t that be a direct provocation?
From the bald Gang Leader down to the showy gang sister, everyone would tear him apart.
"Gurgle."
Swallowing his saliva with difficulty, Chen Yu turned his head and hoarsely said to the bald Gang Leader next to him, expectantly, "We don’t need such a big scene, do we?"
"We do! Absolutely!" The bald man, rubbing his forehead excitedly and hopping around, exclaimed, "This is the most historic moment for our Iron Blood Gang to soar, pivot, and rise! We have to make a big deal out of it!"
"But..."
"There’s no ’but.’" The bald man slapped Chen Yu on the shoulder enthusiastically, "You’re our Gang Leader now; you need to get used to being in the spotlight."
Chen Yu: "..."
"Gang Leader, at most five minutes, my boss’s title will change," said a captain next to them, rubbing his hands excitedly, "The inauguration ceremony can start now."
"Good!" The bald man nodded vigorously, immediately turned to the crowd below, and waved his hand, "All branches ready? Hurry and bring up the sacrificial pig."
"Gang Leader, all set."
"Sharpening the knife, coming right away!"
"Down with human tyranny, the world belongs to..."
"It’s you again. Just wait a moment to shout."
"Oh..."
Half a minute later, four strong men carrying a "squealing" pig came to the center right below the platform.
While suppressing the pig’s struggles, they chorused to the bald man, "Gang Leader, the pig is here."
"Good." The bald man, delighted, hugged Chen Yu and shouted, "Then I declare the Iron Blood Gang’s Gang Leader inauguration ceremony has now started! Blood oath! Raise the flag!"
"Blood oath!"
"Raise the flag!"
The hundreds of people shouted simultaneously!
The momentum was quite staggering!
So staggering that Chen Yu was about to bolt.
"Pfft—"
Then, at the moment when the shouting ceased, a bare-bodied man fiercely thrust a sharp knife into the pig’s throat, powered by his bulging muscles!
The pig immediately struggled fiercely: "Aaaah you motherf*cker Aaaah—"
"Pfft—"
The knife was withdrawn, and a gush of fresh blood instantly drenched the pig killer.
"Gurgle."
Chen Yu swallowed another mouthful of saliva and shakily said to the bald man, "Did... did it just swear at us...?"
"What swearing? Who swore?" the bald man was taken aback.
"That pig..."
"Hahaha, Mr. Chen, you’re so funny; how can an animal talk?" The bald man, ignoring the question, continued to lead the chant, "Blood oath! Raise the flag!"
The crowd: "Blood oath! Raise the flag!"
Then, Chen Yu saw the robust man suck on the pig’s wound!
Next, he filled his mouth with blood, stood up with a pole wrapped in white cloth, and forcefully spat!
"Pff—"
The red blood instantly speckled the white cloth.
"Thud!"
The flag was fiercely driven into the ground, marking the completion of its erection.
The gang members at the scene suddenly burst into a cacophony of cheers.
Chen Yu didn’t understand what these people were playing at.
He just stared at the pig struggling and convulsing on the ground, which increasingly resembled his future self...
Meanwhile, the "Useless Otaku" title above Chen Yu’s head was also disappearing simultaneously.
The bald man noticed it, his spirit sharpened, and he immediately raised his hands high, roaring with all his might, "Now, I declare! Mr. Chen is the new Gang Leader of our Iron Blood Gang!"
"Hail the Gang Leader!"
Below the stage, a few hundred people bowed together, their heads lowered towards Chen Yu.
"Hail the Gang Leader!"
The bald man, the trumpet leader, and the stage cousins also bowed down to Chen Yu. Almost at a ninety-degree angle.
For a moment, the abandoned factory was solemn and tranquil.
In the midst of hundreds of people, it was so quiet one could hear a pin drop...
Chen Yu: "..."
Swallowing hard for the third time, Chen Yu’s legs trembled.
Through the reflection in the glass window, he had already seen the change in the title above his head.
From "Useless Otaku"...
it transformed into "Punisher of Evil and Promoter of Good"...
’...’
’Fuck your mom!’
Chen Yu let out the same scream internally as that pig.
But unlike the pig, the "butchers" before him hadn’t yet stood straight up to deliver the blow...
"All right! Ceremony concluded!" the bald man maintained his bow, shouting out and then straightened up to see what Chen Yu’s new "title" had become.
But before he could stand up, a hand reached out and pressed down on his head.
Chen Yu: "Don’t conclude."
As he spoke, the several hundred gang members who were about to straighten up bowed again.
"Allow me to savor this," he added.
"Huh?" the bald man, still bent over, wore a puzzled expression.
"I still have a few words to say," Chen Yu’s indifferent voice resonated in the not-so-empty factory.
"Gang Leader, please speak!" the bald man immediately bent further down a few degrees.
"Hmm. The ancients said, a beauty rolls up the pearl curtain, all paths of human trace vanish. On both shores, the incessant cries of apes, the surprising chorus of frogs."
Bald man: "?"
Trumpet leader: "?"
All gang members: "???"
"The ancients also said, two orioles sing amidst the green willows, a line of egrets ascends the blue sky. The window frames Western Ridge’s eternal snow, seeming like the Milky Way falling from the heavens."
The bald man, utterly confounded, instinctively tried to rise to inquire but was again pressed down by Chen Yu.
"Don’t conclude."
Bald man: "..."
"Tonight, the sunshine is bright, tonight, from cloudy to clear. Tonight I..."
"Gang Leader, what exactly are you trying to say?" the bald man stood up.
"Thud."
He was pressed down once more by Chen Yu.
"Don’t conclude."
Bald man: "..."
"We’re getting to the main point."
Bald man: "..."
"What I want to say is simple. Our gang, currently, still lacks discipline. Hmm. For instance... the guy down there on the left, almost lifted his head! Dammit!
Bow down! What a disgrace!"
...