Chapter 3: New members, new tools!

Jinji was soon at work trying to create gadgets and gizmos for our Guild. His first goal? To create something which helps us to immobilise and capture enemies who might try to infiltrate our Guild or fight against our cause.

After much inventiveness, Jinji finally comes to me with a prototype.

“Behold, Mallow! I call this, the Stinky Self-Destructing Sphere. This portable device expands into a giant stink-filled ball trap to capture and lock up any of our enemies. And once they’re trapped? They’ll be subjected to all of our worst stenches and toxic gas! And to really rub in their torture, the bubble also contains chemicals that continue to generate even more toxins, meaning the stench worsens the longer they’re inside!”

Jinji chuckles evilly, before continuing.

“…However, inside the ball is a detonator. By pressing and holding a big red button for three seconds, the ball will explode, releasing the prisoner but creating a huge mushroom cloud of stench and sludge. The choice for the prisoner, therefore, is whether to suffer alone in order to keep its partners and/or surroundings safe, or to free themselves but unleash widespread disaster. The longer they endure, the worse it gets… and don’t worry, the detonator can be set to only activate after a set amount of time has passed. Just in case we don’t want to let a prisoner out too quickly, gehehe~”

“Magnificent, Jinji”, I respond with genuine excitement. “But are you sure this thing works as well as you’ve described?”

“Heh. That’s why I called this a prototype. At the moment, it’s still untested,” Jinji replies nervously.

“Oh well now, that just won’t do! I would expect my Royal Inventor to have full confidence in their tools before they present them to myself! We should do a test run right this second!”

Jinji gulps. “A… test run? But… how?”

I flash an evil grin. “If you’re so sure in your own creations, you should be willing to put your reputation on the line! I dare you to trap yourself into the Stink Sphere, and show me it’s as effective as you claim!”

…And that’s how Jinji found himself struggling inside an impenetrable sphere of ultra-toxic stench. “Gah! It’s so horrid! I can’t breathe!”

As the stench slowly intensifies, Jinji decides to waste no further time. He immediately picks up the internal detonator, and holds the button intently. But…

“Oh no!” Jinji exclaims between gasps and gags. “This switch I fitted is faulty! It keeps cutting out and flickering off and on!”

“Gahaharb! See, Jinji? This is exactly why we do a test run before we adopt any new tools!”, I respond with a sense of schadenfreude.

Suddenly, I get an evil thought. “Oh, Jinji? Try to keep that detonator intact when you finally free yourself. I think if we had a couple of faulty detonators to fit in these babies instead of working ones, we could really give some of our worst enemies a hard time!”