A Little Guessing Game

"There is a surprise for you waiting at the finish line~," the mad scientist Victoria suddenly announced to me through her drone. The drone itself was showing me her ever-familiar irksome, mischievous expression.

"... huh?" I replied dumbfoundedly to her sudden announcement. Her words left me confused and almost speechless. However, I quickly realized what she was implying. A frown formed on my face as a whole lot of scenarios crossed my mind about the implications of a "surprise" from her, and pretty much all of them were bad. "What are you planning...?" I asked cautiously, already anticipating the worst from whatever surprise she was talking about.

Seeing my frown and cautious expression, the mad scientist seemed to find it amusing as she let out a mischievous laugh. "Hehehe, my, don't be so on-guard, Grunt No. 703," she tried to reassure me, but since she said it with the same mischievous expression she always had, it didn't really assure me much. In fact, it only served to agitate me more.

"What is this surprise you are talking about then...?" I inquired in a cautious tone. "Did you rig the other obstacles to make them harder for me?" I shot out the accusation, already suspecting that the surprise was just tougher challenges for me to deal with personally.

Hearing my accusation, she let out another laugh. "Haha, I did indeed make the obstacles ahead of you harder." She openly admitted her actions, which only served to annoy me more. "But that is not the surprise that I was talking about." She refuted my guess about what the surprise would be.

I scratched my head in confusion and annoyance after hearing her refute. "Then what is it...? Some kind of reward for me after impressing you or something?" I guessed again, jokingly suggesting that I might get a reward. Considering that I just saw her throwing out a whole bunch of congratulations for my effort to get through her impossible version of the Lightning Grid obstacle, it wouldn't be far-fetched to think she might reward me with something.

But then again, she did offer me a straight-up promotion to be her personal grunt, so that could count as a reward by itself... which made me think that it was unfortunate that I did not just accept it right away, considering that maybe accepting her offer would have me get out of this ridiculous obstacle course immediately that they called "orientation".

"Close, but not exactly that!" Victoria teased me, which raised my eyebrow a bit and made me kind of intrigued about what her surprise would be. At the very least, the surprise had something to do with a reward for me, but it wasn't that specifically. "Curious to what it is, Grunt No. 703~?" She continued her teasing at seeing my interest.

"I would be lying if I said that I'm not interested, boss." I jokingly admit, which earned a giggle from her.

"Well... I'll give you just a hint since you're so interested," she purred, her tone dripping with playful malice. "There are a few people that would like to meet with you there. In fact, one of them you would know quite well and would like to give you your reward personally~." She finally revealed the surprise that she was talking about.

Hearing what her surprise would be left me confused, "Wait... really?" I asked with a mixture of surprise and skepticism. I began to mull over what she had said about me knowing full well of the person waiting at the finish line.

I didn't think there were people already wanting to meet me in this new reincarnated life of mine, let alone people that I knew well. The only people that I had in mind that were relatively close to me just recently were either Grunt No. 704 or Grunt No. 711... or even Grunt No. 702 could possibly be one of those people close to me, but unfortunately, he had been avoiding me so I didn't think he was that quite close to me.

Realistically, it couldn't be any of those three to begin with, because I was quite sure that they were still way behind me, trying to get through the first few parts of the obstacle course themselves. It couldn't be someone from my original world either because it would be quite improbable for that kind of thing to happen... or maybe it could?

'No, no, don't think too much about it,' I tried telling myself not to worry too much about my original world inhabitants actually going out of their way to meet me. Not only would it be a bit too much of a coincidence, but it would also be impossible for anyone to recognize me anymore. Not only had my body turned into this hulking grunt body, but I was also covered from head to toe with a skin-tight suit that was entirely made of nanobots. Not to mention... I had never told anyone that I was from another world...

A world where there were no superheroes nor supervillains, and in this world that I had reincarnated into was, in fact, just a comic book series. I would be branded crazy if I spouted out any of these statements... then I realized the irony of me thinking about that because I had already branded myself as insane many times.

Then... who was it?

Seeing me mulling over the identity of the person awaiting at the finish line, Victoria let out a mischievous laugh that broke me out of my mulling. I was now being cautious again after hearing her apparent amusement toward me. "Well, you just have to find out for yourself~," she teased me once again, "Good luck~," and then bid her farewell as her drone finally lifted into the sky, leaving me behind with my own thoughts.

Seeing the leaving drone with her amused face was honestly a bit irksome... but then I let out a sigh. I realized now that there was no point in trying to mull over this supposed surprise person. The only thing that matters now was finishing this "Orientation" obstacle course and just getting this over with.

I readied myself once again, "Whoever you are that awaiting me at the finish line... I would gladly accept your gift with an open arm!" I exclaimed with determination!

I dashed forward, resuming my advance against more obstacles ahead of me.