The workers froze in place; they did not leave but kept their distance. Even they were not sure who this new young boy was, or if he had gone mad.
Julius calmly stepped forward and picked up the whip that had fallen into the mud.
The eunuch finally looked up.
"You! You worm! You dare!"
CRACK!
The whip slashed on his chest, almost hitting his face.
"AAAAH!" He screamed out so loudly that he even made himself scared that he could scream like this.
"You enjoy this, do you not?" Julius said coldly.
CRACK!
Another lash landed as the eunuch raised his arm to protect himself, leaving a deep mark on his arm.
"The screaming... begging... pain of others... right?"
CRACK!
The eunuch tried to climb out of the ditch, but the mud was so wet and slippery he could not even stand up. He could only offer his back as he curled up, trying to shield himself.
"WAIT! WAIT! I AM A PALACE EUNUCH!"
CRACK!
"AAAAHHH!" The pain on his back was even more intense as he screamed out and swallowed filth in the process.
COUGH! COUGH! UUGHHH! VOMIT! COUGH! COUGH!
"You... do you know... what you are doing?"
CRACK!
"Teaching a dog not to bark in front of his master."
CRACK!
"AAAHHHH! You wait... let me return to Head Maid Ursula Graves and then she will peel the skin out of you, every one of you! You all will scream for mercy but she will not stop until you are hanging from her kitchen meat racks!"
Julius stopped, and seeing him pause, the eunuch thought the threat of Ursula Graves had worked. He looked up to see terror and horror, but he only saw Julius smiling at him.
"So you are the dog of that bitch who loves to punish little girls?"
Julius came down and grabbed the eunuch by his collar. "You are lucky, do you know that?"
The eunuch stared at him in confusion as mud dripped from his face. He was in full terror and did not even try to take advantage of this moment to fight back.
"Lucky?" he croaked as he tried not to gag.
Julius pulled him closer. "Yes. Very lucky."
The eunuch was confused but decided to be hopeful.
"You see," Julius continued calmly, "I was originally planning to bury you here in this ditch."
The hope vanished instantly.
"But now you mentioned that bitch's name. Ursula Graves."
Julius smiled like a villain.
"I will let you leave so that you can crawl back to your master."
Julius pulled him out of the mud and slammed down harder on his leg.
"AHHHHH!" He broke one of the eunuch's legs.
"Start crawling or I will break your other leg too, and then your arms. If you become useless to me, then I will bury you alive in this ditch."
"Yes... yes... I will go!" The eunuch gasped, now completely terrorized, and started dragging himself while Julius just stood there. Seeing Julius was not following gave him hope as the eunuch picked up speed.
"System... you have been pinging so much, can you not read the room?"
[Host, your preferences have been noted, I would not disturb you.]
"Relax, do not get moody all the time. Just mute the ringtone, not the visual."
[Okay.]
"It seems I earned a good amount of points, let us see."
The very first notification he opened made his jaw drop to the floor.
"Fifty! Fifty! 50 points!" His throat dried up from the shock. "System, what the hell did I do to get fifty points right off the bat?"
[Kick to the chest.]
"A simple kick to the chest gives out 50 points? If I knew that I would have kicked him more."
[It is the intent which counts; you were very tyrannical at that moment. You looked down at the eunuch like he is not worth anything in your eyes.]
"What a loss! You should have told me the price list of all the actions."
[Host, it is the purity of the intent and the action taken upon it. It has nothing to do with the kick itself.]
"Whatever... keep your secrets."
Then he saw a series of +25 followed by +10 points.
"What are these for?"
[Whipping and cursing.]
"Talk is cheap, huh?"
[It is the intent. Your intent in whipping was higher than your cursing. In fact, your cursing was childish. You have a long way to reach the pinnacle of cursing. You are an infant in front of experts.]
"Okay... okay... do not rub it in."
He kept scrolling the notifications and felt his knees go weak.
"ONE HUNDRED! HOLY 100 POINTS!?"
[Host broke one of that eunuch's legs.]
"LET ME GO NOW AND BREAK EVERY BONE OF HIS BODY!"
[Intent, Host. Intent. You are now full of greedy intent.]
He only took one step but stopped himself.
"You should have been a Greed System."
[Tyrannical Image Established: +25 points.]
"Huh? Tyrannical Image... what?" Before he could understand anything, that same notification spammed 22 times.
"WHAT IS GOING ON!?"
[Host, you successfully terrorized the surrounding workers. Your tyrannical pose and attitude instilled deep rooted fear into their hearts. You earned +25 points for each worker who submitted to your overwhelming presence.]
"Twenty two workers..."
Julius counted them quickly in his head. That was 550 points right there. When he added the kick, the whipping, and the broken bone, the number jumped fast. Just a few minutes ago he was at a pathetic negative nine. Now his balance was close to eight hundred.
He slowly turned his head and looked at the twenty two ditch diggers like they were not humans but his money making machines. The moment his crazy, greedy eyes swept across them, the starving workers flinched together like a frightened herd of sheep. Some even tried to hide, afraid this madman who could whip a eunuch would turn his attention toward them next.
[Tyrannical Intimidation Detected: +5 x 22]
Julius's eyes got even wider.
"Who told you to stop digging?" Julius growled in a low voice.
[Tyrannical Authority exerted: +10 Points x 22.]
The workers panicked and jumped back into motion. They splashed into the foul mud, grabbed their old rusted shovels, and started digging again. No one dared speak. No one even dared breathe too loudly.