"Would you like to become my own personal grunt?" the mad scientist Victoria "Mad Star" suddenly offered me with an enthusiastic expression.
Yet again, I was taken aback by her, never expecting that she would offer me something out of the blue. "Personal grunt...?" I repeated what she had said with confusion.
"That's right, Grunt No. 703," she briefly confirmed.
I stared at the display monitor showing her visage, her expression brimming with excitement. "What do you mean by 'personal grunt'?" I asked cautiously, trying to gauge her intentions. The idea of working closely with Victoria both intrigued and terrified me.
Victoria's eyes sparkled with anticipation. She lifted her glasses slightly, and the ever-familiar glint shone from them. "As my personal grunt, you would work directly under me. You would receive special tasks and assignments that no other grunt would get. You would have access to advanced equipment and training, and you would be involved in cutting-edge experiments that could push the boundaries of what we know about human enhancement and technology!" She explained her offer with the same enthusiasm as before. She was telling me the gist of the position, as well as the boons and advantages I would get as her personal grunt.
Hearing her explanation left me quite speechless. Honestly... her offer was quite tempting. Working under her meant I would be working directly with what I assumed to be one of the right-hand people of Max Brain, which meant I would be in a pretty high position in his Evil Empire. Not to mention the plethora of support I would get from possibly one of the best scientists in the world.
It sounded as if I was turning into some sort of super-agent... for the evil villain, that is. I was quite tempted to accept her offer immediately, but... I could see the gleam of madness in her eyes, the same one I had seen when she increased the difficulty of the Lightning Grid obstacle. My recent experience with her whimsical cruelty was still fresh in my mind.
"And what's the catch...?" I asked, trying to keep my voice steady. I wasn't about to dive into this offer without understanding the full implications of what she was offering me.
"No catch!" she said with a wide grin. "Think of it as an opportunity. A chance to prove yourself, to grow stronger, to achieve greatness. Under my guidance, you could become extraordinary..." She showed me her clenched fist, signifying the seriousness of her offer. Her intensity was almost palpable through the display monitor's screen, making it clear how much she believed in her own words.
Seeing her determined expression as she tried to get me to accept her offer, I began to mull over her words as I hung my head low. My mind began to race with many thoughts and scenarios of what would happen if I accepted her offer.
On one hand, the offer sounded tempting. Really tempting. The promise of advanced equipment and training, the prospect of being the right-hand man to the right-hand woman of the infamous No. 1 supervillain, Max Brain. If what I was looking for was a high position that could ensure my safety in this superhero versus supervillain world, accepting her offer would lead me to it... but on the other hand...
I looked back toward the Lightning Grid obstacle that I had just gotten through. Its lightning barriers, which I remembered she called the "lightning gate," were still crackling with a large amount of electricity.
Now that I had passed through it, it seemed that she (or most likely her scientist lackeys) had lowered the difficulty. It now had a thinner-looking lightning gate, and the downtime for the said lightning gate was more reasonable to get past. She had only raised the difficulty to an impossible level for me...
I had found out the hard way that she was more than willing to make things difficult for me. If I accepted her offer, I was not just going to be her right-hand man but also most likely the first choice to become her guinea pig for her crazy experiments. Hell, in her offer, she even explicitly mentioned how I would be involved with her "cutting-edge" experiments.
So, my life would become trials after trials of overcoming her experiments and whims if I accepted her offer... Even if my new super grunt body could withstand whatever stuff she would throw at me, I didn't think my heart could handle it...
I grumbled to myself, thinking deeply about whether I should accept her offer or not... The decision weighed heavily on my mind. I thought about the potential glory and the peril that came with it. The vision of becoming an integral part of Max Brain's empire clashed with the haunting images of Victoria's relentless experiments.
Hell, it wasn't just her that I would have to worry about as there might be other villains equally as bad or even worse than her. HELL, the one and only supervillain Max Brain himself might even use me for his own whims... Okay, now the offering sounded less tempting after thinking about it.
I lifted my head and looked back at her serious expression. "I'll need some time to think about it," I said cautiously, putting out an excuse to buy more time. While I did think that the offering was less tempting, it was still one of many paths that I could potentially choose. I thought it was better to have as many options as I could possibly get.
Victoria's expression softened slightly, though the excitement in her eyes remained. "Of course, Grunt No. 703. Take all the time you need. But remember, opportunities like this don't come around often. I'll be expecting your answer soon." She teased me more, trying to entice me with the 'limited-time offer' tactic. Hearing her teasing made me stifle a bit of laughter.
"Yeah, yeah." I waved my hand in dismissal as I turned my back on her hovering drone and faced forward toward the next obstacles in this "Orientation" obstacle course. I heard her giggle at my casual remark as I walked away. However, before I could leave...
"By the way, Grunt No. 703," she suddenly called, halting my advance. I turned my head around to see the hovering drone still displaying her face. But... her expression was one I was quite familiar with... the face that always irked me to no end: a mischievous expression completed with the same mischievous smile. She was planning something quite malicious yet again.
"There is a surprise for you waiting at the finish line~."