Slime Evolution

Chapter 457 - Example

The Silver Lotus’s silver motorcycles landed in sequence around the Porsche, the sound of the thrusters gradually fading into a soft hum as each member got off their own bikes, still visibly shaken by the adrenaline of everything that had just happened.

Devon was the first to approach, pulling off his own helmet in a hurried motion, and even wearing a mask covering his mouth, like Lohan’s, his face carried a mix of relief and genuine gratitude.

"Halon, seriously, thank you so much," he said, his voice coming out a little choked up. "If you hadn’t shown up, I don’t know what would’ve happened to Sara and Skye once their backup finally got there."

"He’s right," Kai added, stepping up right behind him, still with the plasma pistol hanging in its holster. "We managed to hold them off for twenty minutes, but against real backup we probably would’ve lost both of them to those sons of bitches..."

Jenny, standing a bit further back, just nodded in silent agreement, her eyes still carrying a trace of the fear she’d felt throughout that endless chase.

Lohan kept the biomass mask on, aware there was still surveillance around, as he raised a hand in a reassuring gesture.

"No need to thank me," he said, simply. "I was just doing my duty as your Vice President."

Devon frowned, confused by that answer.

"Duty as Vice President?" he repeated. "Halon, that was way beyond any formal obligation. You risked your own life coming out here."

"And you all risk your own lives too, every time you go hunting with me in Elysium," Lohan countered, calmly. "You join the guild, you actively participate, and on top of that, you bring my clones along on your hunts, which nets me experience and biomass directly without me having to do anything besides sit around processing information and helping you all out occasionally. That’s a huge advantage I get just from you existing in Astralis."

He paused briefly, looking around at all the surprised faces around him before continuing.

"So when something like this happens, when someone from the guild is in real danger, I’m not going to just sit comfortably in my penthouse pretending it’s not my problem," he finished. "That’s a responsibility I accepted along with all the perks of the position. You help me grow, I help you too, that’s how it works."

A heavy silence fell over the group for a moment, each of them processing those words with an intensity Lohan hadn’t expected to stir up.

Devon’s eyes shone in a way he could barely hide, a raw emotion forming there that felt strangely out of proportion given how simple Lohan’s own explanation had been.

’This is the first time in my life I’ve actually felt proud of a boss,’ Devon thought, his throat tightening slightly.

He knew all too well the brutal reality of ordinary jobs, both in the Low Zone and even in the lower rungs of the High Zone. Employees treated like disposable tools, forced to work themselves to exhaustion while the bosses themselves pocketed all the profit generated by that effort, never once getting their own hands dirty with any real risk.

When the whole group had first seen the dark gray Porsche landing in front of their warehouse, weeks ago, that same cynical thought had crossed everyone’s mind at once, an almost automatic distrust that this was just another rich guy playing benefactor for a while before showing his true colors.

Lohan’s words, back then, had planted a small seed of hope, but that was all it was, a fragile, cautious hope.

Now, watching that fully come true right before their own eyes, with Lohan honoring every word he’d said, putting his own body at real risk to protect two people he barely knew personally, that fragile hope turned into something far more solid and lasting.

"That’s the difference between leading with words and leading by example," Devon murmured, more to himself than to anyone else.

Kai, hearing that comment, nodded vigorously, a determined glint replacing the exhaustion in his own eyes.

"After this, I’m training twice as hard in Elysium," he declared, his voice full of renewed determination. "I want to get strong enough to pay this back someday, not always depend on you to handle the most dangerous shit."

"Agreed," Jenny added, finally finding her own voice. "We can’t keep always being the ones getting saved. We need to be able to protect each other too."

Lohan felt a genuine warmth spread through his own chest at that unexpected reaction, but before that moment could stretch on too long, he noticed something that instantly broke his own focus.

Raising his eyes, he spotted several curious silhouettes peering out through broken windows and threadbare curtains of the decaying buildings around that abandoned street, local residents drawn by the crash of the armored vehicle falling and the general noise of that whole mess.

"Alright, everyone, we’d better scatter fast," Lohan said, his voice returning to a more practical, urgent tone. "Before the police decide to show up right when everything’s already over and pin the blame for all this on you."

Devon nodded immediately, putting his own helmet back on in a hurry.

"Good call," he agreed. "The last thing we need right now is explaining to the local authorities why there’s a destroyed MedPharma armored unit sitting in the middle of the street."

The rest of the group nodded in agreement, each of them quickly heading back to their own bikes, the engines starting up in sequence as they got ready to take off.

"Thanks again, Halon," Devon said, right before finally hitting the throttle. "We owe you one."

"You don’t owe me anything," Lohan replied, shaking his head. "Just keep training hard and looking out for each other. That’s payment enough for me."

One by one, the silver motorcycles took off, cutting through the night sky toward the warehouse where Skye and Sara were surely already waiting for news, final thanks echoing over the shared comms before each individual connection cut out.

Lohan watched all of that with a satisfied smile hidden beneath the residual layer of biomass still covering part of his face, feeling a deep, quiet satisfaction that went far beyond the simple biomass gain from that night.

Turning back to the Porsche, he got into the driver’s seat, closing the door with a soft click before starting the engine, the thrusters coming to life with that wonderful purr that was already starting to feel familiar to him.

The car rose smoothly off the ground, cutting through the night air back toward the High Zone, leaving behind the smoking wreck of the destroyed armored vehicle and the abandoned street that would soon return to its own forgotten silence.

As he drove home, the adrenaline of the fight gradually fading, a completely different worry began settling into Lohan’s mind.

’Alright, now I need to figure out how I’m going to explain this to Isabella,’ he thought, a mix of apprehension and amusement forming inside him.

He imagined, almost automatically, the reaction Isabella would have upon finding out that, just a few hours after gifting him that car, he’d already used the very same vehicle to get himself into a dangerous chase against a corporate armored unit, risking both his own life and the generous gift she’d just given him.

’She’s probably going to be furious first,’ he thought, almost able to hear her irritated voice echoing in his own mind. ’"Halon, I gave you a car two hours ago and you’ve already used it to break into an armored vehicle?!"’

But then, knowing Isabella as well as he did, he also knew that initial anger would quickly turn into genuine worry, her golden eyes narrowing in a way he already recognized well, that particular mix of irritation and care she showed whenever he did something too reckless.

’I’m going to have to choose my words very carefully this time,’ he concluded, sighing softly as the lit up skyline of the High Zone began appearing on the horizon ahead of him. ’Or just accept I’m going to get one hell of a lecture before anything else.’

Despite the genuine worry over that inevitable conversation approaching, Lohan couldn’t help a small smile forming on his own face, knowing that, deep down, that lecture would come wrapped in a kind of care he’d learned to deeply value over the past few months.