Once the mood was set, it naturally came time for someone to suggest a name for the club.
"Brother Qiang, I've already thought of a name for the club. Let's call it 'Buried Love Clan'! How domineering, how melancholic! It totally fits our vibe. We'll be the premier nobility of the University District."
"Buried Love? What does that even mean? Sounds weird. I think 'War Hall' is way more badass!"
"You don't know shit! This is what's trending! Buried Love—burying love, focusing on our cause! Get it? Can you even write in Martian script?"
"Shorty Wang, have you played too many damn video games? What's the point of giving a club some gaming clan name?"
"......."
Brother Qiang raised his hand to quiet them, putting a stop to the naming session that was about to devolve into infighting.
"Brothers, calm down. The name can be discussed later. The key is we need to have that ambition! Think about it, if those freshmen from the Grain & Economics College can make something of themselves, why can't we? Our Vocational College is full of hidden talents. Wasn't everyone here a somebody back in their hometown?"
"Like Brother Ji, former top dog at XX School!"
"Brother Niu, the one-on-one champion of County No.3 High!"
"And you, you, you... I can see it, none of you are ordinary folks!"
With Brother Qiang piling on the flattery like this, these eighteen or nineteen-year-old non-mainstream youths immediately felt their blood boiling, feeling like they had finally found their tribe.
"You flatter us, Brother Qiang!"
"Brother Qiang is right!"
"If we unite, we'll be unstoppable!"
"Crush the Vocational College, flatten the University District!"
"Grow big and strong, achieve new glory!"
Seeing the fervor was about right, Brother Qiang spoke up again, settling the club name.
"So, I propose we officially establish the club today! Let's call it 'Dragon Gate'! It symbolizes the carp leaping over the dragon gate. We, this group of flood dragons, will eventually leap over everyone and dominate the University District!"
"What do you think, brothers?"
"Dragon Gate? That name works!"
"Good! That name has authority!"
"I think it's pretty good too. Way better than names like 'Ten Thousand Dragons', 'Black Dragon', or 'Nine Dragons' from those novels. Those are just dragons, but we're the Dragon Gate they have to leap over. Clearly way cooler!"
"I agree! Brother Qiang really knows how to pick a name."
"I agree too!"
"From now on, we are Dragon Gate!"
".........."
With the name decided, the next natural step was to roughly plan the club's direction.
Brother Qiang already had ideas on this point.
"Our first step is to consolidate the freshman power within our Vocational College. Once that's done, we'll deal with the upperclassmen. Anyone who doesn't submit, we beat them until they do! Second step, suppress those freshmen from the Grain & Economics College. Can't let them get ahead. We need to show them who's the real boss of the University District freshmen! Third step, naturally, is to deal with the other schools—Science and Tech University, Finance University... In short, we want every school to tremble at the mere mention of our Dragon Gate name!"
"As long as we walk these three steps steadily, we can eat whatever we want on Snack Street, play whatever we want in the internet cafes. See someone we don't like? We'll use our fists to reason with them!"
"By then, we'll be the underworld overlords of the University District! All those damn seniors, all those punks, they'll be trash! We'll do whatever we want!"
Such domineering words instantly sent the group's enthusiasm soaring to its peak.
"Dragon Gate rules!"
"Brother Qiang rules!"
"Flatten the University District!!!"
".........."
With the announcement of the new club's formation, these Vocational College freshmen suddenly felt immensely confident, instantly inflated, as if the heavens were first, and they were second.
The security guards at the school gate and the passing senior students looked at these freshmen arrogantly shouting slogans. After a moment of surprise, peculiar expressions appeared on their faces.
Truly, newborn calves aren't afraid of tigers.
Do these freshmen really think they can just form a group and become kings of the school, of the University District?
They should really do their homework on why, in the entire University District, even in Pearl City, aside from the Righteous Union Society, there isn't a single decent club.
That's because of the Ten Thousand Dragons Society!
And the Ten Thousand Dragons Society's headquarters is located not far from the University District.
These seniors could almost foresee the future fate of these freshmen, yet not a single one stepped forward to warn them.
On one hand, they wanted to see them make fools of themselves.
On the other hand, they also knew that freshmen at this age, like newborn calves, are prone to arrogance. And, of course, they found them irritating.
So let them run headfirst into a wall. Otherwise, they'll never know how high the sky is or how thick the ground is.
The freshmen also noticed the strange looks from some passing seniors and couldn't help but ask, "Why are those old-timers looking at us like that? Feels like they're laughing at us."
Brother Ji, standing next to them, flicked his bangs and interjected, "Pfft! Isn't it obvious? They're jealous! They probably wanted to do the same back in their day, start a club, but didn't have the guts. Now they see us setting up, and it pisses them off!"
"Brother Ji is right. We're doing what they couldn't back then. Of course they're pissed off and look at us sideways."
They'd been at school for almost a month and had done some asking around. For instance, the upperclassmen at their school didn't have clubs, and it was the same at other schools—no one had any.
So they roughly came to a conclusion: those seniors weren't united enough, not driven enough, or lacked a big brother who could carry the banner to unite them. That's why they were so scattered and disunited.
Without unity, how could you possibly run a club?
The truth was, it wasn't that the seniors didn't want to form clubs. It was that all those clubs had been forcefully flattened by a certain woman.
Besides, so much time had passed, and large-scale fights had almost completely disappeared from the University District. Everyone gradually grew accustomed to this way of life, so tales of the Ten Thousand Dragons Society's past deeds were rarely mentioned anymore.
After all, constantly bringing up the same old thing gets boring!
This is why the freshmen had no clue about the real situation in the University District.
They might have heard of the Ten Thousand Dragons Society, but they probably genuinely thought it was just the 'Ten Thousand Dragons Supermarket' in the University District.
A legitimate... supermarket in their eyes.
In any case, they were quite happy with this situation. At least they believed it was very advantageous for them. If those seniors had already formed clubs, it would have been much harder for them freshmen to gather like this.
Heaven was helping them, giving them the chance to grow big and strong!
"Don't worry about how they look at us. We'll do our own thing."
"Once we've consolidated the Vocational College, beaten the Grain & Economics freshmen into submission, and swept through the other universities, then our Dragon Gate will be the sole authority in the University District!"
"We'll show those seniors a fact: times have changed! What the seniors didn't dare to do, our Dragon Gate will do! The banner the seniors didn't dare to carry, our Dragon Gate will carry!... Daring to fight, daring to strive—that's Dragon Gate!"
"Dragon Gate rules!"
"Dragon Gate rules!"
"........."
