As he stepped into the next room, Lester saw, on one wall, a large mirror. On the other side of it, would be the people he needed to impress with his powers. His score at the moment was seven, and he needed at least twelve to become a true villain. He would need, for this power presentation, a D-rank, which was 3 points, just to keep himself in the game.

  "Move to the center of the room, please," Lester heard a female voice through a speaker. It was no longer the normal impersonal announcement. This time there would be people evaluating his performance.

  Lester walked to the center and faced the mirror.

  "You are able to turn your body into liquid, correct?" the voice said.

  "Yes." Lester nodded. "When enough force is applied, my body will turn fully or partly into liquid. And I can control the threshold of the force needed to trigger the change."

  "Show us."

  Keep it cool, Lester thought. He took a deep breath focusing on wanting his hands to turn liquid. Then he slammed his fists together, and they turned to water up to his elbows, holding a somewhat deformed shape of his hands. After a second, the water turned back to his arms.

  "Show us that you can control the effect like you said."

  Lester took a deep breath, turning his focus from wanting to liquify to not wanting to liquify his hands. Again, he slammed his fists together, sending out a loud thud as his hands stayed solid.

  "Can you move the parts of your body at the time they are in liquid form?"

  Lester thought of the answer. He could lie. But he would probably have to prove his claims anyway.

  "No," Lester said.

  "Can you turn your whole body into water?"

  "If enough force is applied?"

  "Can you turn your clothes into water?"

  "No."

  There was a silence, during which Lester guessed the judges were pondering. Likely trying to decide if they needed to see the whole body thing. Then again they already knew that he couldn't turn his clothes into water, and that, if he attempted the full-body thing, there was a large chance of him ending up naked. So, they might just want to skip that part. But in the case they asked, he would definitely try his best.

  "We have made our decision," the female voice said through the speaker. "Your power is E-rank."

  Lester realized what it meant. E-rank power was only one point. But his power wasn't E-rank. It was really useful. He could turn into water.

  "But—" Lester started to protest.

  "Before you start complaining," the voice interrupted. "We would like to remind you that you still have a chance of becoming a villain."

  Lester stood there mouth open.

  The voice continued, "Since your power is of a damage-mitigating type, it is possible that you can achieve C-rank in the damage resistance test."

  Lester blinked, remembering there was still one more test. The damage resistance test. But C-rank meant one would be able to take a lot of damage, and even the panther that had had the similar power to him had died in the end. And he'd never actually tested his power against anything really lethal. And people sometimes died in the damage resistant tests.

  The impersonal voice said, "Your special power is E-rank. Your overall score is now 8. Proceed to the next area." A door opened.

  Without a word, Lester headed toward the next test.

  The final room had two devices and a thin man in a lab coat. One of the devices sat on a table. It was a white half-meter by half-meter square with a round cavern leading deep inside it. The other device looked like some kind of a large laser cannon, which was pointed at a slab of steel, which rested against the wall. The guy smiled and said, "Welcome to your final test." He moved toward the table and pointed at a chair there. "Just come here and take a seat."

  Lester did as instructed, but he felt hesitant. The cavern in the square was just next to the chair where he sat down. He really didn't want to find out what would happen if he put his hand inside. But that was likely the whole purpose of the device.

  "Now, put your hand inside the chamber, and we can begin the process."

  Lester looked into the device. It was all white inside. No sign of anything that would hurt his hand. Then he glanced at the guy, who had a broad smile on his face.

  Lester sighed, resolving to go with the task. He put his arm inside the hole up to the sleeve of his t-shirt.

  "Good, good." The man was still smiling. "Now, since you have a power related to damage resistance, let's first test without the power. So try to keep your power off."

  Lester nodded, focusing on not becoming liquid.

  "That's great." The man pressed a button on top of the machine. "You will feel a slight sting."

  Lester felt a tiny tingle on the back of his hand. It was like an insect had taken a bite out of his flesh, but he kept focusing on being solid.

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  "This will hurt slightly," the guy said.

  A shock ran up Lester's arm, breaking his concentration, and his arm turned to water for a moment. When it turned back, Lester pulled his arm out and examined it. There was a slight bruise on the back of his hand.

  The man was still smiling as he said, "It seems there is a point where the liquefaction happens despite what you want."

  "I guess so," Lester said.

  "Now, we can proceed to test with the power. Just put your hand inside and let it turn to water when force is applied to it."

  Lester noticed himself calming down. This damage resistance test wasn't actually that bad. He'd suffered through a lot worse in his journey here. People probably just exaggerated the whole thing.

  Lester focused on letting his hand turn into water.

  "I don't actually know if this will sting, but let us proceed anyway." The guy again pressed a button on the machine.

  This time Lester only felt a slight tingle, and he saw his hand turn into water again. The test was repeated and then done once more. There wasn't really any pain. His power seemed to be working perfectly.

  "Okay, that was excellent," the guy said, still holding his smile.

  "Was that it?" Lester said.

  "If you are willing to accept a damage resistance of D-rank then yes." The man pointed at the device that looked like a laser cannon. "But if you are aiming higher, there's a small bit of enduring ahead of us."

  Lester knew he would have to go on. He needed at least four points, which meant his Damage Resistance had to be at least C-rank—nine points. Only then would he be able to become a true villain.

  Lester got up from the chair and walked to stand in front of the cannon. "Okay, let's shoot."

  "That's the spirit," the guy said with a smile still stuck on his face. "But you would likely want to remove your t-shirt first. Otherwise, the annihilation beam will surely ruin it."

  Lester took the shirt off, and the cannon was now pointing at his chest. Lester felt his heart beat faster and faster. What if his whole body turned into water, and he ended up naked? Or what if he actually got annihilated? That would certainly be bad. Ending up naked would also be bad. But not as bad. But still bad.

  Lester focused on wanting to only turn his chest into water. Please work.

  "Everything will be just fine," the guy said, all the time smiling.

  Then Lester heard the cannon start humming, like loading up for a really big shot, and the world suddenly shifted slightly.

  "Excellent," as he heard the guy's voice, Lester looked at himself. He hadn't seen what had happened, but he still had pants on, which was a good thing. The humming had also stopped. He had survived a shot of whatever annihilation it was that he had been shot with.

  "Was that it?" Lester said.

  "Couple of more small pinches and we're done."

  Warning: Your energy level is low. Restore your energy by sleeping.

  Seeing the text, Lester realized the danger. He would die if he ran out of energy. He could, of course, quit. But there was the fact that he would end up back as a henchman. That was a fate he really really wanted to avoid.

  "Okay, I'm ready."

  As he stood still, Lester heard the cannon start its hum. Maybe he could only take a single shot. After that, the next shot would kill him. Unless he somehow preserved energy.

  Lester shifted his mind, desperately wanting only the part in his chest where the gun was pointing to liquify. And the weapon fired, a zap of a yellow beam cutting into his chest, turning it into water, and exploding it across the room.

  My head must still be solid, Lester thought as he saw the yellow beam where his body should have been. Then the beam disappeared and his body reformed.

  Warning: Your energy level is critical. Restore your energy by sleeping.

  Lester looked at the text, feeling tired. The word critical was actually a really bad-sounding word. It probably meant that he should stop doing what he was doing. He should maybe call a stop right now, or he would die.

  "One more time," the guy in a lab coat said, and Lester saw a smile on the guy's face. The fellow seemed to be really enjoying it, eyes gleaming with that permanent smile plastered on his face. It was definitely not a reassuring smile.

  One more time, Lester thought. Maybe I can take it just one more time. He said, "Okay."

  As he heard the gun start to hum, Lester tried to concentrate. But what was it he was supposed to concentrate on? The world was so sleepy.

  The gun fired, the beam again cutting through Lester. But this time, only a part of his chest—a twenty-centimeter diameter cylinder from front to back—exploded in a watery splash. And there it was, a hole that went right through him. It stayed somehow, his organs and blood not falling off. Lester stared at it in shock. The guy in a lab coat still had the same smile on his face, as he, eyes gleaming, peered into the empty place. And in the end, after Lester had already realized that this was where he died and it was a really stupid way to go out, the water flowed back, filling the hole and becoming flesh.

  Warning: Your energy has been depleted. Sleep is imminent.

  As the world seemed to be fading away into darkness, Lester heard a joyful voice say, "I thank you from the bottom of my heart. You truly were an excellent test subject."

  ***

  Lester woke up, and he looked around. He was lying on a bench in the waiting room. The only other person here was the woman. The one with the big glasses who had the ability to tell if he was lying.

  The woman, the evaluator, approached him and said with a professional tone, "You're finally awake. So let's be quick about this."

  As Lester got up from the bench, she handed him a bunch of papers held together by a clipper and said, "Here are your results."

  "Okay," Lester said looking at them. There was a logo on the front page. It was a snake biting into a human skull.

  The woman continued, "It's already past villain hours, and the heroes will be coming in soon. It's time for you to leave." She pointed at the door. "The exit is that way."

  Still a bit out of it, Lester turned and walked toward the exit and out from the building, which housed the power tests for both supervillains and superheroes.

  As he went, Lester flipped through the pages and he came across his results.

  Test results (points in brackets):

  Strength: E (1)

  Speed: E (1)

  Damage Resistance: C (9)

  Mental Resistance: E (1)

  Melee Combat: E (1)

  Ranged Combat: D (3)

  Power: E (1)

  Overall point score: 17

  Overall rank: C

  Lester's gaze went to the final line. It was C. And it meant that he was a supervillain now. A supervillain. No longer a regular henchman. He had made it.

  Holding onto the paper, Lester lifted his hands up and he broke up into laughter, which had a not that small amount of madness in it.

  Quest Completed: Upgrade your status in the Guild of Calamity and Woe to Villain.

  1 point gained.