I was currently dashing and going through many more obstacles ahead of me, jumping and moving from one platform to another. Obstacles such as those that I had already encountered before—swinging pendulums, rotating sweepers, spinning blades, or dangerous spikes—were prevalent in the last part of the course, and now I was facing them again, but in their harder version.
I even encountered another one or two Lightning Gate obstacles, but fortunately, they only served as optional challenges rather than mandatory ones that required unconventional and painful methods to bypass.
I snorted a laugh, remembering the painful yet glorious experience of overcoming that impossible obstacle. It was a pretty eye-opening moment that reminded me I was no longer the same normal human in a normal world. I was now Grunt No. 703, with the body of a super soldier (or super grunt, to be precise), and I had been reincarnated into a superhero comic book.
Anyway, as I was saying... I was getting through obstacles I was already familiar with, but true to her word, the mad scientist Victoria had made these obstacles harder than they had been before. They all became more challenging because I was too good at getting past the normal difficulty versions of them in the first half of the obstacle course, affectionately called the "Orientation" by them.
Obstacles that I usually could just dodge at the last second now required me to think ahead and forced me to take them seriously. No more of those "styling" shenanigans. I actually needed to pay attention, or else I would end up getting knocked out, swept off the platform, or worse: getting myself killed.
Not only did I have to worry about these familiar obstacles, but there were also new ones I hadn't seen before. One in particular utilized heat elements.
I jumped onto a platform that, for some reason, had a bunch of tiny holes in it. Luckily, my instincts told me not to underestimate these holes, because in the next instant, huge searing-hot flames spat out from them. To get past this, I had to carefully time the activation and downtimes of each flame-spit.
Using my super grunt perception to time the flames' activation and my super grunt agility to pass through them with speed, I managed to get by. Even so... I made a few timing mistakes and got a taste of searing burns on some parts of my body and skin... especially on my rear end. Even though I was protected by my nanobots acting as my GBS suit, the extreme heat of the flames was more than enough to pierce through them.
On that note, this searing heat reminded me of something... That something was that of a certain 'Witch' in the dark alleyway. I still remembered quite vividly how she had forcefully "branded" me with some sort of "token," which I still had no clue about. I theorized that her so-called "token" was this super grunt body of mine, but I felt like it was something else entirely. I thought for sure that the adrenaline of getting through all these dangerous obstacles would be enough to awaken that "token," but... nothing really happened.
Usually, in many fictional stories, that should have been the trigger to activate the secret power inside your body, but it didn't work with me. Either the danger wasn't bad enough, or the trigger wasn't adrenaline to begin with. I was so sure that I would get some super cool power too... Well, I would have to put this "token" power-up idea aside for now.
After going through many dangerous obstacles, I finally reached what I assumed to be the last one. I came across a very long platform. It was... empty. It was just a simple, long path. It was as wide as a normal public highway. While it was empty, it had no safety railing, so the danger of falling was still there.
I had assumed that this was the last obstacle because... in the distance at the end of the long path, I could see an even larger platform. Dominating its center was a grand arch structure with the word 'FINISH' boldly printed across it. How... simplistic.
"Wait... is that... a drawing... of Max Brain?!" I realized that at the top of the arch was a cartoonish drawing of the supervillain Max Brain, smiling and giving a thumbs-up. It was as if he was showing a sign of approval to the newly recruited grunts for finishing his dastardly dangerous obstacle course. I could only blankly stare at his cartoon version, not sure how to react to it.
Moreover, even his cartoonish drawing had his shiny bald head reflecting the light from the clear noon sun.
Moving on... Now for the last obstacle: a simple long path to the final large platform with the finish line. It was quite simple and wide enough to comfortably walk in the middle. I would just need to be careful not to slip and fall into the hard, arid soil below the "Orientation" obstacle course.
I really did not want to fall here though because not only would it hurt real bad to fall from this height, I would have to restart from the very beginning of the obstacle course. I definitely did not want to go through another sandpaper rubbing on my skin just to get through another Lightning Grid obstacle...
So surely, nothing bad would happen here... right?
I started to walk in the middle of the path. At first, I was quite confident walking in the middle of it... but my gut instinct was telling me something...
There was something very dangerous about this simple long path.
Suddenly, I heard the loud sound of mechanical whirring, grinding, and clanking coming from the end of the long path. I looked towards the source of the noise and saw five large boxes emerge from the platform. I was surprised and confused by the sudden appearance of these boxes. But before I could figure out their purpose, the fronts of the boxes swung open, revealing cannon-like tubes protruding from within.
My heart pounded in my chest as realization dawned on me. These were no ordinary boxes...
They were cannons.
"What the-?!" I exclaimed in disbelief.
Without warning, they unleashed a barrage of large steel balls hurtling towards me.