Act of Defiance and Show of Aggression.

The mine shaft was lit brightly and workers of a variety of species were all hammering away at red ores. Looking around, Li Zhong found an empty place where there were a few blood stones. He walked over and started mining away. Li Zhong thought, 'I can't be mining at blood ores forever! Is there any way I can absorb these? Maybe that voice in my head will help me again.'

[Found a way to absorb blood ores at host's request, please choose your technique.]

A screen appeared in Li Zhong's mind. It was weird to explain, but it looked just like menus from MMORPGs he had played in the past. Mining while looking at the technique list, Li Zhong decided to choose the first one.

[Ore Strengthening selected.]

Out of nowhere, information flooded Li Zhong's head. Grasping his head, he slowly breathed in and out. Out of the corner of his eyes, nobody was looking at him. Sighing, he started to use the Ore Strengthening technique. Other miners were keeping their mined blood ores close to them, so Li Zhong assumed that there was a daily quota. As for how many blood ores per day? Li Zhong had no clue.

Li Zhong decided he would use one blood ore per day to strengthen himself. Then once he was able to mine more, he'd increase that to two ores. A voice sounded out behind him.

"Newcomer, where is your uniform?" Looking behind him, Li Zhong found a very police-like man holding a sharp sword and staring coldly at him. It was the type of coldness that made you want to shiver, but it wasn't cold enough to shiver. The type of coldness to see through every word you said and every action you made. Unbeknownst to him, sweat started to form on Li Zhong's back.

"Leader Green didn't give me any uniform." Li Zhong fought against the pressure of this enforcer and said what he thought was a good answer. Reaching into his pocket for something, the enforcer pulled out a long whip.

*CRACK*

A test swing sounded in the air. A mocking voice came through the other side of that whip, "Did I allow you to speak, newcomer?" The enforcer looked at Li Zhong as if he was prey in the wild, and Li Zhong wasn't the hunter..

'I'm tired of being so weak! Why is everyone here so ruthless, do they not have a shred of empathy in their bodies? Picking on the newcomer, how shameless. I swear I'll get revenge one day.' Sounded Li Zhong in his head. Thoughts raced his head on how he could get out of his situation, alive. Seconds passed by, the enforcer's face had a cold smile creeping up. "Are you still listening? You probably don't know the punishment for not listening... do you?" The enforcer's voice reminded Li Zhong of the situation he was still in. Gritting his teeth, Li Zhong said, "What's the punishment for not listening?"

"Well, I'll tell you. The punishment for not listening is... a hundred whips." The enforcer stressed every word and tried to make Li Zhong as scared as possible. It was the most entertainment he could get anyway, internally shrugged the enforcer. "Whip me." Was all that sounded out from Li Zhong. An even bigger grin was on the enforcer's face. "Well, you told me to! Don't have any complaints once it hurts." Said the enforcer with glee.

Skillfully using his sword, the enforcer cut Li Zhong's shirt in the middle. "Turn around, newcomer." The enforcer said, anxious to hear Li Zhong's screams. Li Zhong turned around obediently with his back exposed. Finally, the moment had come. The enforcer placed his whip in his right hand and..

*CRACK*

"AHHH." The screams of Li Zhong were heard throughout the hall. By now, a few of the miners had already met their daily quota and stayed behind to watch the show. "It sucks, but didn't we all go through that?" A miner said to his other friends. They all agreed that, while it hurt to get whipped, if Li Zhong didn't make any more mistakes, he would never get whipped again. It was a kind of initiation to get whipped on your first day. "Still, to be so eager to receive those whips.. Do you think he... likes it?" The second miner in the group said softly, afraid of being heard by the enforcer. The enforcer hated when people liked to get whipped. But surprisingly, Li Zhong didn't receive the enforcer's hate. Maybe it was because of the broken spirit Li Zhong had when he had to obey.

"Say, you think Enforcer Ge is going too hard? A hundred whips? We only got.. ten? Does Enforcer Ge have some family bloodline hatred going on?" A talkative third miner nudged his way into the conversation of miners."

"AHHH." Still, while the miners were chatting, Li Zhong's screams could be heard. "Ninety! Ninety-one!" Enforcer Ge started to count down. That only served to fuel Li Zhong's hatred for him. 'Did I hear your name was Enforcer Ge? I'll remember that. I'll remember that name forever.' A voice in Li Zhong slowly started to form, making him go a little mad.

"Ninety-nine.. One hundred!" Enforcer Ge was satisfied with the result. Another one initiated. Although Enforcer Ge felt he was going a LITTLE hard on the newcomer, Li Zhong's body looked pretty strong, he'd probably be able to walk the injuries off after a few days.

[Immense hatred for {Enforcer Ge} has caused you to grow in strength. Please decide when to inject this strength in your body, as you will be unconscious for a few hours.]

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{A/N: Not exactly 1000 words.. I just wanted to have a cool ending for this chapter.}