Bab 24: Observation Story Ended

"If that's the case... then it looks like we need to 'amp' up the difficulty~," Head Scientist Victoria exclaimed with a playful tone. She had a mischievous smile as she came up with something that might make the unusual super grunt, Grunt No. 703, take the Orientation obstacle course more seriously.

"'Amp' up the difficulty, ma'am...?" asked the senior scientist with a concerned face. He understood that she wanted to increase the difficulty of the obstacle course, but he was starting to worry that their head scientist would eventually go overboard with her mischievous and malicious whim, resulting in even more harm to the newly recruited grunts' orientation.

"That's right. Our impudent Grunt No. 703 needs a little bit of 'shock therapy' so that he won't be so reckless~," Victoria added. Hearing her reasoning, the senior scientist now had conflicted feelings about letting her proceed. On one hand, he couldn't really object to her as she was one of Lord Max Brain's assistants, effectively his right-hand woman. But on the other hand, he was really worried that she was going to ruin the Orientation altogether...

At the very least, he needed to make sure to minimize the damage!

The senior scientist cleared his throat, trying to get the head scientist's attention. "Uhm! Excuse me, ma'am? Just to be clear: we are only increasing the difficulty for Grunt No. 703's obstacles, correct?" He inquired once more, deliberately pinpointing Grunt No. 703 as the sole target so that she would only increase this grunt's difficulty, not that of every new recruit.

Hearing the specific question coming from the senior scientist, she couldn't help but laugh. "Hahaha, don't worry~, don't worry~. I'm not gonna bully the other new recruit grunts. Just this naughty little grunt here is enough for me~." She assured the senior scientist, but it only slightly lessened his worry given her odd wording. Nevertheless, he at least got a spoken confirmation from her.

But now he began to remember what Victoria had just said about what she would do to Grunt No. 703: 'Amp' and 'shock therapy.'

He soon realized what she had been hinting at. "Don't tell me... that electric obstacle...!" he muttered in realization. Victoria didn't respond to his muttering as she had gone back to watching the live feed of Grunt No. 703, a malicious grin on her beautiful visage. Coincidentally, said grunt had just arrived at the mentioned obstacle, which she would be raising the difficulty for him only: the Lightning Grid obstacle.

In the feed on the large observation monitor, all the scientists could see that Grunt No. 703 had actually stopped his record-breaking advance. He was currently observing the Lightning Grid obstacle, seemingly trying to plan how to get through the lightning barriers created by the multitude of menacing electrified steel rods.

Victoria grabbed the observation drone's remote controller. She gracefully manipulated it, and the previous auto-tracking observation feed was now moving closer to Grunt No. 703. He quickly noticed the observation drone getting close to him by the sound of its rotor blades.

Victoria moved closer to her personal observation equipment and began to speak into it, "Good work on reaching the Lightning Grid first, Grunt No. 703!" She congratulated him through the drone's speaker with a fake cheery tone. Every scientist in the room who heard her fake cheery tone had mixed expressions and reactions, mostly of disbelief. Of course, she ignored the looks given to her by her underling scientists, as she was more preoccupied with conversing with Grunt No. 703.

Seeing that there was nothing more he could do about Head Scientist Victoria and her new obsession with Grunt No. 703, the senior scientist let out a sigh and turned around, heading back toward the center of the observation room to resume supervising the observation of the other 'normal' grunts, but...

He noticed that most of the observation staff and scientists were watching their head scientist's interaction with the unusual grunt with morbid interest and curiosity, some even standing up and stepping away from their workstations. He couldn't exactly blame them, given the circumstances surrounding the mysterious, 'no identity data' Grunt No. 703, but...

They still had a job to do.

"OI, WHAT ARE YOU SLACKERS LOOKING AT?! GET BACK TO WORK!" the senior scientist yelled at them, prompting a swift scramble as everyone quickly returned to their workstations. Satisfied that everyone got back to their previous positions, he walked back toward the center of the observation room, ready to resume his job of supervising the observations of the other grunts. Specifically, of course, the 'normal' grunts who were still trying to get through the first few obstacles of the course, however...

"Uhm... sir?" A voice called out to him. The senior scientist looked back toward the voice and found it was the junior scientist. He was still standing near their head scientist Victoria with an agitated look, glancing back and forth between him and the head scientist. Meanwhile, said head scientist was still talking to Grunt No. 703 through the large observation equipment, which had once been the junior scientist's small observation workstation before she forcefully took over and changed it into her own personal "observation" equipment.

"We have decided this year to pump up the Orientation obstacle course difficulty!" She cheerfully announced her plan to the grunt. The senior scientist saw through the observation monitor feed how the Lightning Grid obstacle now had its lightning barriers not just denser and wider but also with a faster downtime than before. It was now quite impossible to get through any of those lightning barriers even if this grunt had a super soldier body. The powerful electricity produced now by the amped-up obstacle was powerful enough to hinder even Ultra Guy, let alone a grunt with a bit more muscle to him.

He didn't have any bad blood with this grunt, but once you got the head scientist Victoria's attention, you'll most likely end up in a body bag by the end of the day. The senior scientist gave his condolence to this poor unlucky grunt...

Little did he know though that this poor unlucky grunt would surprise all of them later on with his sheer willpower.

Anyway... the senior scientist then looked back at the junior scientist in understanding. "Oh... yeah..." he sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, trying to ease another headache. "Just... just go support the other observation stations." He waved his hand in dismissal as he resumed walking back toward the center, not wanting to get too involved with whatever whims Head Scientist Victoria was pursuing right now.

Laughter could be heard coming from said head scientist, who was thoroughly enjoying the suffering of Grunt No. 703. But... the senior scientist had firmly decided not to bother anymore.