Slime Evolution

Chapter 458: 458 - Discovery

Lohan’s consciousness returned to Elysium with him savoring the incredible feeling of lightness that came with being back in his Slime body, the weight of the human body dissolving instantly as his perception realigned with the gelatinous, translucent structure of his own body, which at that point was closer to being his main body than the one in the real world.

And the first face he found, already waiting for him standing right in the center of the office, was that of a white fox with an expression that could only be described as deadly.

‘Ah,’ Lohan thought, his own internal processing speeding up instantly at that sight. ‘She knows.’

He didn’t need any further confirmation beyond that fixed, icy stare. Somehow, something had reached Lisa’s ears, and given the intensity of that expression, it definitely wasn’t something small.

Her ears were standing completely upright, while her tail stayed frozen behind her, every detail of her own posture signaling a heavy tension he’d already learned to recognize easily after so much time spent by her side.

‘Okay, let’s take it easy,’ he thought, quickly organizing a mental strategy before even opening any channel of communication.

Quickly calculating what would be the best possible approach given that situation, Lohan formed his two fluffy white eyes in the center of his own gelatinous mass, complemented by a small, smiling little mouth, with an innocent expression he was hoping would soften her heart in that moment.

“Good morning, Lisa,” he said, through the guild’s mental link, his voice carrying a deliberately casual tone. “How was the night with your mom?”

Lisa stared at him for several more seconds, her deadly expression not so much as wavering at that obvious attempt to steer the subject away.

“Intense,” she finally replied, her voice coming out cold and cutting. “But obviously not as intense as your night, Halon.”

Lohan felt his own jelly contract slightly, a nervous, embarrassed laugh escaping him.

“How did you find out?” he asked, trying to inject a bit of fake indignation into his own voice. “I was going to tell you personally, but apparently, someone beat me to it.”

Lisa watched him suspiciously for a moment, but something in her own posture seemed to relax slightly, as if that answer brought a small, but genuine relief, though her anger was still simmering underneath.

“Pretty ironic, actually,” she said, her voice taking on a mocking tone. “I woke up this morning, sat down for coffee, turned on the TV, and guess what the top story was? A gang fight in the Low Zone that resulted in hundreds of thousands of credits in damages, a vehicle belonging to a company called MedPharma completely destroyed and abandoned in the middle of the street, and, according to the reports, three people missing with no explanation.”

She paused deliberately, letting that information sink in before continuing.

“And the funniest part of all,” she added, “is that according to the security camera footage from the Low Zone itself, that whole chase involved six illegally modified sport bikes, all silver, and coincidentally, a matte black Porsche 911 with no visible identification, which for some very ‘strange’ reason looked exactly like the one I gave you last night.”

Lohan felt his initial smile falter, quickly turning into a far more embarrassed expression. A small jelly hand formed automatically on the side of his own body, rising up to scratch behind his head, a spot that, technically, didn’t even exist on a Slime, since a Slime didn’t even have a head, or anything to scratch.

“Well,” he began, his voice coming out hesitant. “About that…”

“Explain yourself,” Lisa cut in, both her tails swaying slowly back and forth, making the situation even tenser.

Lohan sighed internally, deciding that the best approach, at that point, was to simply tell the whole truth with complete honesty.

He explained about Devon’s emergency call, about his original intention to just let Lohan know what was happening, without expecting any direct intervention. He explained about his decision to go anyway, knowing that his own presence, or the lack of it, could mean the difference between Sara and Skye escaping safely or being captured by that company.

He mentioned the electric weapon that had nearly hit him, the risky maneuver he’d pulled to get close to the armored vehicle, and finally the decision to form the small clone and unleash the full digestion inside the enemy vehicle.

As he recounted every detail, Lisa’s expression gradually shifted, the initial cold fury giving way to something more complex.

As soon as he finished the account, Lisa stepped forward quickly and gave a light, but irritated headbutt against the side of his body, making his jelly shake.

“You idiot,” she said, her voice trembling with an emotion she was clearly trying to control. “I knew you’d pull some stupid stunt like that. I just knew it.”

“You were with your mom,” Lohan tried to justify, his voice coming out weaker than he meant it to. “I didn’t want to interrupt that moment.”

“Screw that,” Lisa shot back, even letting out a rare curse word, her anger spiking instantly. “What if something had happened to you? You think I’d have felt better having had an ‘amazing’ time with my mom, knowing you hid this from me on purpose?”

Her voice trembled slightly as she said those last words, a subtle vulnerability slipping out from beneath her anger, and that hit Lohan far harder than any shouting could have.

He felt his own guilt intensify rapidly, realizing, with total clarity, just how selfish that decision not to warn her beforehand had been.

“I’m sorry,” he said sincerely. “You’re completely right. I should have told you, even if it was just a quick message. It was stupid of me to assume I was protecting you from worry, when really I was just taking away your choice to decide for yourself.”

Lisa stared at him for a moment, her tails still swaying, but the stiffness in her own body gradually softened in the face of that genuine apology.

“You got really lucky, you know,” she said, finally, her voice losing much of its earlier harshness. “Since that car was bought through my company, it has a few privileges that regular vehicles don’t. If it weren’t for that, the police probably would have already shown up at your door in the middle of the night, having tracked it through the city’s security cameras.”

Lohan felt a shiver run through his own jelly at that piece of information, quickly processing the real implications of it.

‘If the car had been registered normally, I’d probably be in serious trouble right now,’ he thought, a new appreciation forming for the discreet protection that Isabella’s fortune and influence provided.

Thinking more carefully about that, Lohan realized something even more interesting about the city’s own structure.

‘Maybe I could even hide out for a while in the Low Zone, given the general chaos and weaker surveillance down there,’ he concluded. ‘But the moment I came back to the High Zone, I’d be right back on the radar of whatever security system was monitoring that area.’

The difference between the two zones wasn’t just one of wealth or infrastructure, but of intense surveillance and security.

The High Zone genuinely made an effort to protect its own residents through almost total control over every movement recorded there, a luxury the Low Zone simply couldn’t afford, even if it wanted to.

‘Interesting,’ he thought, filing that observation away for future reflection. ‘Basically, the richer you are in this world, the more protected and more invisible you become at the same time. That’s quite the irony.’

With nothing more to add in his own defense, Lohan moved closer to Lisa, wrapping her in a soft embrace with his own jelly, the gesture carrying all the sincerity his words had already tried to convey.

“Next time,” he murmured, “I promise I’ll warn you before doing anything reckless.”

“‘Next time,'” Lisa repeated, a trace of irritation returning to her own voice at that particular phrase, but she didn’t pull away from the embrace, letting her own body relax against his gelatinous surface. “Like you’re ever going to stop getting into trouble.”

It was at that exact moment, with the two of them still locked in that silent embrace, that the office door opened abruptly, without any warning.