Chapter 354: Cold Violence

Bai Lang's foreign language ability was naturally not as good as he imagined; he looked down on the Japanese people's broken English, unaware that his own spoken English was also full of an accent—perhaps a bit better than San Ge's, but only slightly better than the Japanese accent. In short, after guessing and pondering, everyone realized that this person from the ancient Eastern country was introducing himself and expressing goodwill to everyone. Moreover, after Bai Lang restrained his murderous aura and observed carefully, he ultimately was not a Japanese yakuza.

Indeed, if one senses seriously, it is clearly different from the Japanese yakuza; Bai Lang's temperament is more bright and sunny, quite unlike the generally gloomy temperament of ordinary Japanese people. In fact, just by looking at facial expressions and personal demeanor, people from the ancient Eastern country and Japanese can be fairly easily distinguished—Japanese people, even in comedies, are full of an awkward, tense look, and in daily life they are rarely bright and carefree.

Such a temperament greatly lowered the air of a prison inmate; the yakuza's pressure gradually faded, replaced by the impression of a cheerful, big guy. Bai Lang naturally smiled—he was a classically handsome young man, and smiling suited him better than a stern face, which would be too serious. Teacher Xiang Xiushu indicated a spot for him, undoubtedly the last row—given his height, that was the most reasonable.

In the classroom, of course, there were rows of boys and rows of girls, and to Bai Lang's left and right were girls whose figures were considered tall in the class—about one meter tall, what's the point of putting on makeup?

The teacher's lecture in class was basically incomprehensible to him—Japanese, that is; if spoken slowly it's okay, but a bit faster and it becomes troublesome. Math posed no problem, since it's just formulas; with Bai Lang's current logical thinking, picking it up again isn't difficult. English grammar and vocabulary aren't hard either, but the so-called national language (Japanese language) is a bit difficult—just Japanese, and if history is added, Bai Lang has no interest in it.

His communication with classmates wasn't great either—Japanese people generally don't interact much with strangers, and moreover these are Tokyoites known for their aloofness; many of the students already know each other, but Bai Lang, coming from those people of the ancient Eastern country, naturally rarely initiates conversation with them. 'I think it's mostly shyness,' Bai Lang muttered to himself. He couldn't understand what they were saying, and of course if he spoke English they wouldn't understand either; if he spoke Japanese he wouldn't be able to, and speaking Chinese was definitely out of the question.

Written communication might work......

Japanese high schools still finish early, so all over the campus there are clubs recruiting members—new students naturally have to work hard to attract members. Moreover, according to school regulations, the school does not advocate the existence of a home-return club...... Bai Lang had just paid his fees at the school office, had his measurements taken, and was preparing to pick up his uniform when he ran into a group of 'beautiful girls' desperately shouting to attract people under their respective club banners and posters.

Bai Lang looked them over one by one; a guy like him was naturally a prime target for recruitment by sports clubs—specifically the less competitive ones. Clubs like the baseball team, soccer team, karate club, and judo club, which are large, had already scouted and selected the newcomers they needed, conducting targeted recruitment—those who joined these clubs had already stood out in these sports since middle school.

Thus it was the boxing club, tennis club, and similar smaller clubs; Bai Lang's physique was perfect for them. He also smiled, carefully sized up the girls who greeted him, and chose the prettier-looking boxing club to join—of course, afterward he realized that the girl was not actually the boxing club's manager but a manga club member earning extra money...... In this way, after a week all the classmates basically knew each other and began to become familiar.

At this point, Bai Lang observed the so-called darkest side of Japanese high schools—'campus bullying.' He thought to himself, Japanese people seem to have an innate ability to sense their own social standing; this seems like an instinct for reading the air. So a week's time was enough for the boys and girls in the class to be divided into a three-six-nine hierarchy—rankings for males, rankings for females, and then an overall combined ranking......

Given Bai Lang's background, he should have ranked relatively low in the class, but equally because of his background and his physique, he ended up being 'isolated'—meaning most people ignored him, and no one would deliberately bully him; of course he could also bully classmates lower than him in status—this was the unspoken order, and Bai Lang roughly occupied a middle-tier position.

Because of this week, Bai Lang has been smiling faintly, saying nothing and doing nothing, merely observing coldly from the back row. His daily cultivation practice continues unabated, but due to the suppressive nature of this world, he can only deepen his study on certain routines—actually, even in his own world, Bai Lang has only just broken through a bottleneck, lacking a complete, unified plan for the future path, so for now he only needs to research various fighting styles.

This is relatively easy, given how many fighting styles Bai Lang knows from his mind and combat experience; moreover, he tested his ability to control wind and found he can currently only reach the range of a sports field. As for how strong a gale he can stir up, Bai Lang can only say that a wind within a hundred meters is enough for him to kill someone. The apartment Bai Lang lives in is neither new nor old—it's a fairly simple one, with a semi-open hallway.

And the place where he cultivates is merely the open space behind the apartment; he practiced for a while when he found that almost everyone was at work. 'The people living in this apartment I haven't all seen, but there seem to be bar girls?' The neighbors on either side are mostly single, though there are also couples renting; naturally Bai Lang immediately thought of the term 'housing complex wife,' and he smiled at that.

At this moment, Bai Lang saw cold violence being inflicted on the pitiful men and women deemed lower-class—White Crane Academy seems relatively 'civilized,' with no major delinquent gangs; at least Bai Lang hasn't seen overt extortion, nor has he often seen people being dragged to the toilet for a serious talk. What he witnessed were merely verbal attacks and some roughly childish cold violence—such as hiding books, tearing up notebooks, cold sarcastic remarks, and of course the most basic ignoring.

Japanese people cannot be without a group; at least they need a small clique to stick together. Someone like Bai Lang, who is independent and does his own thing, is essentially irrelevant to them, so this cold violence is ineffective.

In Class 4 of Year 1, the males who are oppressed are mainly a few short and thin or short and fat individuals, many of whom wear glasses; they are mostly feeble otaku, and their school bags often contain various two-dimensional publications. These few seem fairly resigned, accepting any beating or bullying—even female classmates of middle rank can freely bully them. Of course, the main thing is various pranks, such as pouring the food from their lunchboxes into their school bags......

As for the female classmates who have become lower-class, that is truly miserable—they have to be extremely careful when going to the bathroom, because Bai Lang has seen more than once sewage dripping onto their clothes as they return to the classroom, and sometimes they can only change into sports uniforms. These girls are generally petite or from single-parent families, and Bai Lang, such a man, keenly noticed that among these female classmates there are actually some who are quite good-looking—the problem is that their glasses block that.