Chapter 204: Presenting a Gift (1)

Anubi’s birthday had finally arrived.

Without question, this was a special occasion that everyone kept a close eye on. No Ravager knew what kind of crazy spectacles would appear at Anubi’s celebration, but none of them had any expectation that it would be even remotely normal.

This was because, according to past experiences, he would always inevitably come up with all kinds of huge, unexpected surprises.

On Anubi’s previous birthday, the Crazed Monarch had ordered every official in his governmental chamber to hand over their wife. Even though Sachar, who had still been alive at the time, had managed to stop most of the wives from being delivered to Anubi’s bedchambers, there were still a few that slipped through his fingers. This was where the recently deceased Alicia had come from.

The year before that, Anubi had set his own residence on fire. His reasoning was that he wanted to confirm that he was still the emperor and that he had the ability to do whatever he pleased. By the time Sachar had managed to arrive on the scene, most of the house had already burnt down and collapsed. Sachar had flown into a rage and "attacked” the monarch, pinning him to the ground and beating him up. Anubi had guffawed with laughter the entire time.

The year before that, Anubi had actually been reasonably well-behaved for his standards. All he had done was that he had chosen to personally fight a Demonic Beast. That in itself wasn't so bad, but after the battle, he had chosen to “mount” it from behind.

Yes, he had done it with a Demonic Beast, right in front of all the nobles watching in the gladiator arena.

Sachar was so mad that he had almost gone crazy, but it was obvious that while he could control most aspects of Anubi's life, he couldn't control Anubi's appendage. That fell under the domain of Anubi's "personal matters".

For this reason, everyone was already used to Anubi trying to pull some kind of inconceivable stunt on his birthday.

This was the first birthday that Anubi was going to have after Sachar's death. What would he do? Everyone was curious.

Su Chen arrived at Anubi's palace early in the morning.

As the head of the internal servants, Su Chen had some duties of his own to handle. Of course, his main responsibility was still to amuse Anubi. While training Le Feng and the others, Su Chen had also given them a few tips on things they could do in order to satisfy Anubi's penchants.

To Su Chen, this was not very difficult.

Actually, someone like Anubi wasn't that hard to understand.

As the emperor, he had seen and done nearly everything. When everything was at your fingertips, then everything became tasteless.

As such, Anubi was just constantly pursuing different novelties and all kinds of unconventionalities just so that he could experience something new

The Ravagers’ limited creativity made it very difficult for them to satisfy Anubi’s demands, but for Su Chen, this wasn’t a problem — at least in the short term.

Even if it wasn’t a particularly grand ceremony, just a few small changes here and there would give Anubi this kind of sensation that he was searching for.

At this moment, Su Chen entered Anubi’s room, ignoring the charming and beautiful scantily-clad maidens sprawled all over the ground. He bowed to Anubi respectfully and greeted him by saying, “Your Majesty.”

“Oh, Lontu, my dear head of internal servants. You’re finally here,” Anubi chuckled. “I was watching your Recording Disk just earlier. Well done.”

“Just a few toys I got from the humans, Your Majesty. As long as you enjoy them, then it is good,” Su Chen replied.

“Why do you have things that belong to the humans?” Kenwo asked shadily from the side.

“Perhaps he got it from selling out other Ravagers again,” someone else said from the side. He was Kenwo’s personal aid, so he naturally knew what to say to compliment Kenwo’s verbal jabs.

“These items did come from the humans, esteemed Chief Imperial Officer, but I didn’t need to sell anyone out to get them. I just gave them some food to tide them over for a bit longer,” Su Chen replied. “Actually, those humans were the ones I got from you, Sir Kenwo.”

Kenwo was stunned. “Those human gladiators?”

Su Chen nodded. “I asked them to exchange their valuables for better treatment. We all know that the human race’s ability to invent things is second only to the Arcanists’. Their minds are very quick. Wasting them on a battlefield like this is a bit too much of a waste. What I’m trying to say is that, at least before we extract everything we want from their brains, we shouldn’t be in such a hurry to kill them off.”

Anubi nodded. “That’s a smart way of looking at it.”

Kenwo still wanted to say something, but Anubi waved his hand. “Kenwo, I know you don’t like Lontu, but don’t use such lowly methods to try to undermine him. Take this guy out and behead him.”

The Ravager who had just hypothesized about Su Chen selling out other Ravagers was immediately dragged out.

Kenwo’s expression shifted slightly, but he didn’t dare speak out anymore.

Anubi then said, “Oh, these humans must be the surprise you were talking of, right?”

Su Chen replied, “Partially, but not entirely.”

Anubi laughed loudly. “I knew it! I knew that you weren’t someone who would do the bare minimum necessary to satisfy me. Tell me, what other pleasant surprises have you prepared for me this time?”

“Surprises don’t have to be the only items on the program. There are some events whose impact won’t be diminished even if I divulge their details to you now,” Su Chen replied.

Anubi curiously said, “Oh? Tell me more.”

Su Chen said, “How about having those humans present you with a gift? How does having them kneel before your feet and surrendering their loyalty to you as praise sound?”

Kenwo laughed. “That’s not possible. There’s no way those stubborn humans will capitulate so easily.”

Any human that could fight against a Ravager force was absolutely an elite individual. Even if they were captured, there was no way that they would surrender easily. This was obvious given how only three of them had originally given up when Su Chen was testing them.

Not to mention that Su Chen was planning on having them personally denigrate themselves and praise Anubi.

They would need to throw their entire being into it. It would be hard for them to put on a good performance if they had any trace of unwillingness left in their being.

Su Chen said with a slight smile, “See? Witnessing things that no one else can achieve can also be entertaining. I’m sure that their praising of Your Majesty will be a great glory to the Inferno Tribe.”

“Hahahaha! That’s quite an innovative way of thinking about it,” Anubi guffawed. Just like what Su Chen had said, if this really panned out, it would be a great glory to them since he would receive something many others could not. Indeed, not everything needed to be a surprise to be entertaining.

“If that’s the case, then what are we still waiting for? I can’t wait to see your present!” Anubi yelled as he stood up. “Go, my underlings. Bring me to the gladiator arena so that I can personally see these humans grovel before me!”

“ROAR!”

It was impossible to pinpoint the first cry that responded to Anubi’s command. Hundreds of Ravagers suddenly swarmed the palace as they howled and cheered with excitement.

At the same time, Anubi walked out of the room half-naked, completely lacking the majestic and imposing presence an emperor should normally have.

Su Chen wasn’t really that surprised. He knew that this was essentially a kind of tradition for the Ravagers. They used this kind of gaudiness and recklessness to display their fearless, unrestrained way of life and inner heart.

They all surged towards the gladiator arena, preparing the strongest wine to pair with the most brutal battles. They howled and jeered, releasing all of the pent up excitement and energy in their bodies.

Another extravagant day of fighting began.

And because it was the emperor’s birthday, the quality of the battles was also extremely high.

The “Gladiator King,” Shtuck Slaughteraxe, took the stage first to put on an extremely bloody show for Anubi. Immediately afterwards, two Death Warriors from the Dark Highlands were pitted against each other. These creatures were dark-skinned, bloodthirsty abominations. Their preferred method of killing was cleaving their opponents in two, then using the opponent’s blood to wash themselves. This kind of a barbaric, violent battle caused the noble spectators to yelp with excitement.

Battle after battle unfolded in such a manner. In the blink of an eye, seven battles had gone by.

On the eighth battle, Su Chen’s humans finally took the stage.

Thirty gladiators marched onto the stage in an orderly fashion, full of fighting spirit.

They walked over to the gladiator arena’s wall, then knelt down and declared loudly, “Greetings to our glorious chieftain. Your most loyal soldiers are here to fight until the death for you with no regrets!”

Their declaration seemed to soar into the heavens, immediately rendering all of the Ravagers present speechless.

These damned humans were actually bowing to a Ravager?

If it were just one or two scaredy-cats, this wouldn’t have been such a big deal. But for tens of soldiers to kneel simultaneously in an orderly fashion and announce such a rehearsed declaration, not to mention that their gazes were filled with emotion and resolution......

This was not something that just the fear of death could accomplish.

This required a firm conviction and acceptance coming from the depths of their hearts.

How was this possible?

The Ravagers were only good at killing people, not at subduing and convincing them.

Had they been brainwashed?

“Hahahaha!” Anubi howled with laughter. “As you said, they’re kneeling! They’re worshipping me!”

Even though announcing it earlier had lessened the surprise factor, it had increased his expectation.

Anubi felt incredibly elated when that expectation of his was finally fulfilled.

Hanbull’s analysis had been spot on. If Su Chen was serious about pursuing this career, then no one else would have been able to ever take his spot.

A moment later, an earth-shaking commotion began to take place in the gladiator arena.

All of the Ravagers exploded with discussion at this moment. They yelled with excitement, as if they had managed to completely conquer the entire continent.

Le Feng watched all of this coldly as he sneered in his heart, Jump and laugh all you want. Revenge will be ours sooner or later.

These Ravagers didn’t know that they weren’t kneeling to Anubi, but rather to Su Chen.

He was their true leader.

He was the one that they were laying down their burdens and swearing their loyalty to.

If the spectators were human, they might not have been satisfied with the soldiers not mentioning Anubi’s name explicitly, but this simple declaration was enough for the Ravagers. Their savage brains wouldn’t ever think that deeply into it.

Most importantly, they never thought about how others felt. It was good enough as long as they themselves were happy.

After paying their respects, the thirty humans retreated to prepare for battle.

Paying respects was important, but they still needed to make adequate preparations.

Su Chen had thought carefully about this aspect as well.

The opposing door slowly creaked open. A massive shadow lumbered out of the dark doorway.

It was a massive humanoid figure roughly fifteen meters in height. In its hand was a metal hammer covered in black flames, and heavy iron chains were wrapped around its entire body. At the center of its head was a single large eye.

“ROAR!” A violent howl reverberated through the entire arena like a shockwave.

“Single-Eyed Giant Demon!” Anubi yelled. “It’s a Single-Eyed Giant Demon! Lontu, how could you be willing to pit the soldiers that you’ve trained so hard against one of these things?”

“Perhaps the opposite is true, Your Majesty.”