It took around 10 minutes by car to reach the main mansion. There were many guards and warriors patrolling around, most of them carried weapons but those with higher levels didn't. Even though they had different attires, the colour of the attire was the same... black. Trees and few other decorations were the only exception to this 'all black theme'.
Under the guidance of the butler, Arnold soon arrived at the lunch hall where he was supposed to meet the mysterious head of the Black Family. The lunch hall felt more like a living room instead, who the hell puts a sofa near the dining table? And not just one sofa... the room was filled with sofas!
"Welcome to the Black Family, Mr Arnold." A voice came from behind one of the sofas. Arnold looked on the direction from which the voice came.
A man was sitting on the sofa in the middle of the room. The man was most probably 5'5"ish, had a dark skinned which gave off a distinctive feeling about him. A particularly notable feature of the man was his crooked smile. He had a large skin tag on his chest and had a lean face with a round chin, a stubby nose, large ears and large lips. His dark blue eyes are narrow, and he had well groomed eyebrows. He was naturally bald but had an impressive beard.
"So you like my beard huh?" The man smiled.
Is this guy a mind reader or what? Arnold thought.
"Yes, it's one of my powers, young lad."
"Holy cow!" Arnold mumbled.
"Mind your language in Father's presence." A man appeared out of nowhere, and was standing behind the 'Head of the family'.
"Oh! I'm sorry sir."
"It's not sir! Call him FATHER!" The man snapped back. This white skinned man had a small wound on his forehead, maybe his brain was damaged and that's why he behaved like a jerk. He had a weird triangular face, a straight nose, and small lips. His light blue eyes were wide set. His shoulder length straight, red hair was neatly braided. He had long arms, a powerful torso, and strong legs.
Father? What kind of weird fetish this man has? Arnold forgot about the Head's mind reading capabilities.
"I assure you that its just a gesture of respect and nothing else." The Head smiled, "I don't think I've introduced myself yet, I'm Nathaniel Black, the head of this family and this is my adopted son, Nathan Black."
"Pleased to meet you. Now if you don't mind could you tell me why have you invited me here?"
"Hahaha... straight to the point. I've already started to like you my boy. Since you asked nicely, I'm gonna tell you exactly why I invited you over - To test your skills in combat. You'll be facing off against Nathan and if you manage to stay on your feet after ten minutes, I'll adopt you as one of my sons. Don't worry, I'll adopt your sister as well, that is if you'd like me to."
"What if I refuse?"
"I don't think you'd like to be thrown out of here, would you?" Nathan smirked.
While Nathan was smiling, Arnold used the [PROBE] skill on him, and Arnold wasn't a fan of the information that was in front of him. Nathan was a rank A brawler... in short Arnold's chances of winning were next to nothing.
He looked at Nathan. "I'm ready. Where do we fight?"
"Right here." Nathaniel snapped his fingers and dozens of servants appeared and cleared the room.
"This wasn't the lunch hall after all..." Arnold mumbled and took out his guns from his inventory. "Even if I lose, I'm not backing down!"
*****
AT AN UNKNOWN LOCATION...
"AAHHHHHHH!"
Muffled screams of a man could be heard inside a dark room. The naked man was strapped to a metal chair electric shocks were being 'administered' to him. The room smelled like roasted meat.
The electric shocks were sufficient to kill an ordinary human being, but wouldn't kill a rank B brawler like Bob.
"I told you Bob... if you fail, you die." The masked leader spoke in a low sympathetic voice, "But not only you failed miserably, now my target knows someone is after them. It does calls for some kind of punishment right?"
All of a sudden he turned the knob to full output and Bob shrieked in pain.
"But you know I'm a generous and forgiving person right? And so I'm gonna give you another chance." He turned the knob once again.
"AHHH!!!!!!"
"But if I gave you the chance now... I know you'll fail again and it'll all be a waste but don't worry I have a proposal for you - Why don't you volunteer in our bionic enhancement project? You won't be our first human test subject either, you do remember what happened to your teammates right?
Some were lucky and just went mad, but the unlucky ones... not only they went mad, their bodies were completely disfigured. One even got turned into human jam. But I have confidence that you'll survive it, won't you?"
Bob violently shook his head, his eyes were pleading for mercy but his boss was heartless, and he knew it.
"I'm sorry to see you don't share the enthusiasm as I do... allow me to provide you some MOTIVATION!" The masked leader turned the knob with such a force that it broke and fell off.
The room was filled with screams. Bob howled with pain and cursed Arnold again and again, it was because of that as*hole he failed the mission and now he was stuck in a situation far worse than death.