A month has already passed, and I can gladly say my New York empire is well on its way. For a reluctant minion, Yelena is doing a splendid job. I only charmed her not to betray me so it is surprising that she is doing this well.
She has increased my garrison to a decent amount. Of course, they are only loyal to my money, but fortunately, I am rich and I don't even have to worry about them betraying me because they are weak.
My current right hand though is impressive. Yelena Belova, sister of Black Widow. I don't know much about her since I never really bothered to read the comics, but I remember one of my more geekier acquaintances going on about how amazing his waifu Yelena is, and how she is better than Natasha.
I still cringe when I remember him simping about her, but at least he put a decent minion on my radar. Although Yelena's skills are quite impressive, she is still extremely vulnerable to anyone with superpowers or people with equal amounts of skill as her. Fortunately, I am a magnanimous boss and an excellent geneticist.
I guess it's time to give Yelena a reward in the form of a powerup. I wish I could just use sex to reward my female workers, but unfortunately, I wasn't reincarnated in a hentai world and have to give real rewards. It certainly helps that my method of giving her powers will subtly make her loyal.
"Oracle, if Yelena isn't doing anything important, tell her I have something to show her" I inform my faithful AI.
"Affirmative, sir." Came the reply from the earbuds in my ear.
I went to my lab in my penthouse and began working on creating a method in which to get her powers. The lab isn't as advanced as my one on Perfectum, but it will do. My flying artificial planet is reserved for people with a good mind defense and who are trustworthy. Yelena doesn't meet any of the two requirements so I can't improve her on Perfectum.
I take a bit of inspiration from OnePiece and begin designing a fruit with the ability to grant a specific power I infuse it with. The fruit will fuse with the brain of the user, which will cause the power to not be able to be recreated if someone got Ahold of their DNA..
Another few benefits is that I can revive the person if the brain is still intact, and it will cause the person to slowly become loyal towards me. Side-effect number 4 is that it will increase the physique of the user to Captain America levels unless I infuse superstrength. Of course, there are still safety measures so only I can use the fused brain fruit.
By the end of the day I am almost done with the creation process, but I still have to select which power to use. Since Yelena is more of an assassin, a power like shape-shifting or intangibility can be extremely useful. Who am I kidding? I am obviously choosing intangibility since it is one of my favourite powers to use in battles unless I toy with my prey.
There are wards in the room so it isn't a problem when I take out the power stone from my hammer space. My trusty weapon comes flying from my room into my waiting hand and I transform it into a gauntlet to hold the stone. Inserting the purple gem I begin to infuse the power of intangibility into the fruit.
"Sir. Miss Belova has arrived and she hasn't been spotted." Oracle informs me through the speakers.
"Good, give her a route that won't let her encounter Hela. I really don't want to encounter any sort of conflict if Hela figures out I am giving the new girl a superior body to hers. Damn, I should probably get Hela into her main body soon."
"As you wish, sir."
A few minutes later I heard a sound that indicated someone was on the other side of the door. Quickly banishing everything I didn't want her to see, I applied a bit of telekinesis to open the door.
"Welcome my lovely minion. Pleasant surprise seeing you this evening. What is it you need?" I say and stop myself from laughing at her face that suddenly turned worried.
"Your assistant said you wanted me for something. Am I wrong or was the information false?" She replies.
My expression turned faux-serious. "Oh dear, it seems we have encountered an unwelcome situation."
I watch her tense and just stare at her for 5 seconds before laughing. Damn the sadist in me. "I am just messing with you.love. Everything is fine."
The tenseness in her shoulders evaporates." God, you're a dick."
"You are luckier than my brother then. He had to grow up with me and was subjected to years of me toying with him. I just wish I was there to do the same to his son, maybe then the cunt wouldn't be so insufferable. I actually considered that Jormungandr eat him when he thought he was better than me, just because he is a pure warrior." I say and I only got a confused look in return.
I fucked his mom. He should have more respect for me than his father. I sigh at the stupidity of people. Maybe I can mimic 12 year olds on Xbox and tell him I fucked his mom if he irritates me more.
"Nevermind my bantering, I have a gift for you." I said and moved out of the way to show her the fruit. "Don't worry it is not poisoned. There are thousands of easier methods to kill you."
"Am I supposed to eat this? It doesn't look pleasant." She says as she moves forwards and grabs it.
"My simulations show that it doesn't taste very pleasant either." I say with a grin as I watch her eat it with a disgusted expression. I could change the flavour, but unfortunately for her I am a bit of a sadist. I always say it is better to be an S than a M, so I don't try to change that aspect of myself too much, as long as I don't go too far with my loved ones.
Her body starts writhing so I quickly apply telekinesis to stop her from falling on the ground. I conjured a bed and put her down on it. The transformation barely takes 10 minutes before it is done. There isn't a massive outward difference, just her gaining a bit of muscle mass in certain areas and gaining a few inches on her height.
She groggily opened her eyes but quickly got out of her funk and stood up. "Wow. I feel amazing."
"Congratulations you have evolved from the realm of apes and have unlocked your meridians to move forward into the road of cultivation. I am glad you have survived your heavenly tribulation." I say mimicking the weird method of speaking of the cultivation novel young masters.
I truly wish I never discovered those novels a few months ago. My statement leaves the poor girl confused, and I don't blame her, if I was a less intelligent person, I would have stumped myself because of the nonsense terminology, and that everyone in the clan's name is Shi Kii, Shi Pi, Shi Han, Shi Yan. Like how the fuck can regular people even remember these fucking names, they nearly sound the exact same.
I take a deep breath to calm myself. "Don't worry, love. Seems like everything went fine. We can do a power test in a bit to see how well you will handle your new powers."
"New Powers? You could have told me it did that."
"You didn't ask." I said smugly, and she had no choice but to concede.
"Guess that you are so insufferable to work with that I just rush into work without questions. My bad."
"Wow. you just insulted me while offering your lame ass apology." I say.
"Well, you like playing with me so I feel I should be able to do the same once in a while."
"Playing with you does sound fun, but I have two quasi-wifes I can go to if I am in the mood."
"I can't believe you." She says with a sigh before beginning to test her power. I guess she can instinctively use it. "This is breathtaking."
'No, you're breathtaking." I am not even flirting, I am just doing my obligatory job as a former redditor. Damn I couldn't even play the game before I kicked the bucket. Now I am sad. [1]
I just continue to watch as she practices her powers, making sure to memorise the results in case I want to do this again further in the future..
[1] "You're Breathtaking" is a phrase shouted by a Microsoft Xbox E3 2019 press conference attendee Peter Sark during actor Keanu Reeves' presentation of video game Cyberpunk 2077, with Keanu Reeves reacting by calling him and everyone in the audience "breathtaking" in response.
A/N; I am on ch44 on pat.reon/DickMcJones for the people who want to read ahead.