Outliers

When Wang Ning walked out of the cafeteria, she saw all kinds of booths set up outside, and many clubs had already begun promoting and recruiting members.

Just on the way back, no fewer than five groups had stopped her with enthusiastic pitches.

Xiali Gelian had excitedly gone to sign up for the Detective Club.

Wang Ning even saw some clubs showcasing drones, mini tracking robots, floating flower machines, and many other strange devices—some of which, in her original world, would have been censored as black technology.

“Hello, are you interested in joining the Crime Club?”

“…What does that club name mean, exactly?”

“Yes, it’s exactly what you’re thinking.”

“……”

Wang Ning stared at her in shock.

“Is that even allowed on campus? Or legal?”

The upperclassman promoting the club pushed up her glasses and smiled slightly.

“We publicly claim it’s performance art. While it doesn’t align with mainstream morality and values, and it’s not appreciated by many, we already have a few like-minded friends who’ve joined.”

“…Could you please say something I can understand?”

The upperclassman put it plainly.

“Two have already been incarcerated.”

Wang Ning: …So it’s illegal?! And the members are all potential criminals?!

“What’s your relationship with the Detective Club?”

The upperclassman’s eyes instantly sharpened.

“Did they recruit you?”

“…No.”

She returned to a friendly expression and said kindly, “Junior, those clubs are all scams to earn credit points. Only we offer real, hands-on learning.”

What exactly are you planning to teach?!

Wang Ning walked away speechlessly, with a crystal-clear realization that the people in this world were terrifyingly intense.

She also saw many individuals with beast-like features. The cosplay club seemed to have the highest concentration of them.

After wandering around and broadening her horizons, Wang Ning was about to head back when she bumped into a girl rushing by.

The girl looked even more startled than she was.

She quickly got up from the ground and kept apologizing.

When Wang Ning looked at her, she pressed down hard on her hat to hide her face, bowing her head as if there were a hole below she could escape into.

“…Sorry. Are you okay?” Wang Ning asked.

“I-I-I’m fine. S-s-sorry!” Her voice trembled and stuttered.

Wang Ning thought she might have scared the girl.

Ah, she blamed her overly confident attitude toward her own looks.

She stepped around the girl to leave, when she suddenly felt a tug on her sleeve.

She turned to look.

The girl in the black cat-ear hat seemed to have used up all her courage to make that gesture.

In the next moment, she quickly let go and looked ready to flee.

“Do you need help with something?” Wang Ning held onto the girl who was about to run and asked.

The girl cautiously nodded just a little.

From behind the black mask that concealed her face, Wang Ning managed to catch a glimpse of unexpected beauty.

“U-um, are you interested in the Game Club?” the girl quickly handed her a flyer, as if afraid Wang Ning might change her mind.

Wang Ning looked down at the flyer.

She was intrigued by the game descriptions.

Many of the genres were ones she’d played in her past life, though the gameplay was quite different.

“I’d like to join your club.”

She saw the girl in front of her raise her head in disbelief.

Her emerald-green eyes sparkled.

“Thank you!” she blurted out randomly, then quickly added nervously, “I’ll take you to register!”

“Sure.”

On the way there, Wang Ning confirmed the girl was clearly socially anxious.

She stammered when she spoke and mostly replied with dry little “oh”s.

After registering, Wang Ning put away the pen and saw the black cat-ear hat girl—Jialai’er—breathe a visible sigh of relief.

“Can I ask about the state of the club?” Wang Ning said.

Jialai’er immediately tensed up.

She didn’t know how to explain the dire state of the Game Club, which was on the verge of being dissolved.

Unlike other clubs, the Game Club had to participate in inter-school esports tournaments and even national competitions.

Victory and new recruits were crucial to the club’s survival.

But few students at Alice Academy had any interest in esports.

For them, fighting in the virtual world was far less exciting than battling it out in a real arena.

This made Wang Ning want to laugh.

The martial culture here had ironically stunted the development of esports.

And without any wins, they couldn’t apply for school funding to support club activities.

Without activities or funding, they couldn’t attract new members.

And without new members, they couldn’t cultivate players for tournaments—trapping them in a vicious cycle.

“…So, Wang Ning, you’ve really helped a lot.” Jialai’er said, blushing.

“It’s no problem,” Wang Ning smiled at her.

“I’m really interested in games.”

Before she transmigrated, she had been somewhat of a gaming expert.

To make money, she’d done account boosting and sold characters.

She once stayed up for three days and two nights straight to beat the hardest boss in the entire game, eventually selling the loot for tens of thousands online.

You could say it was a pretty fitting profession.

But Jialai’er had no idea she’d just recruited a former pro gamer.

She was simply happy her club had a chance to survive.

And as someone with social anxiety, she began to relax around Wang Ning.

“You can choose a gaming alias to represent your club identity. What do you want to be called?”

“Lone Wild Crane’s Journey.” Wang Ning thought for a moment and decided to use her old in-game name.

It would make up for the regrets of her youth.

As for other names she’d come up with in her cringier days—like Deserted Emperor, The God of Suspenders and Giant Fish, or Sadomasochist Love: Wind Go You Go—she chose to ignore and decisively bury that dark history.

No one must ever know those names!

No one!

Watching the serious Jialai’er take notes, Wang Ning vaguely recalled a plot segment.

In Alice Girls’ Academy, there had been a girl named Jialai’er.

But since she wasn’t a main character, Wang Ning hadn’t paid much attention to her.

After that one bit of storyline, the character had never appeared again.

Back then, she thought the girl was just a throwaway NPC to move the plot forward.

She never imagined she’d one day transmigrate into the game itself.

Now, seeing a game character walk up and talk to her in person—it was completely different from seeing one of the main heroines.

It made Wang Ning truly realize:

This wasn’t a game.

This was a world governed by logic and science.

These girls weren’t NPCs.

They wouldn’t trigger quest options or follow preset story paths.

Each of them was living, breathing, and vibrant in her own way.

And perhaps to them, she was the one who didn’t belong.

After saying goodbye to Jialai’er, she returned to her dorm.

As she opened the door, she saw a girl undressing from her skirt.

Her top was already off.

From behind, Wang Ning could see her smooth, flawless back and the faint curves of her chest from the side.

Bang!

One foot inside the room was immediately pulled back.

Wang Ning slammed the door shut like it had exploded, her heart pounding wildly in her chest.

What the—huh??

So spicy, so fast?!

Before she could recover, the door opened again.

The girl who had just been changing glared at her.

She looked angry—until she saw Wang Ning’s face and froze slightly.

“What are you doing slamming the door so loud!”