Chapter 357: I Evolved into a Flying Bad Decision

My next body looked like somebody had poured a red sports car into a snake mold and given the result wings because subtlety had filed a complaint.

I studied the preview in the apartment while the girls helped clear space around me. Harden remained secured at the service berth under the contractor’s recovery guards, and I had told them not to move him before I returned.

The contractor wanted its missing payment. I wanted a different conversation, but the evolution came first because I refused to have it happen accidentally beside the milk counter.

[System: Scarlet Slimewing Serpent, Rank B, mate. Hot-rod red, black wings, and enough floating tendrils to look like a car wash developed criminal intent. You’ve finally become the suspicious stain with its own flight plan.]

I liked the color before you started interviewing it for a job.

Bridget asked whether the black wings changed my travel limits, and the description confirmed they supported flight without making me immune to every pressure or injury. Cherry wanted to name the new shade Financially Irresponsible Red. Lyra preferred the ordinary color description, although she admitted it matched the sort of vehicle men bought when they wanted strangers to know something had gone wrong at home. I objected that things at home were going very well until the reviews began.

The preview kept my snake head and long body. No legs appeared, no human chest arrived as a surprise, and nothing tried calling me a dragon to make the description sound expensive.

Glossy red slime held a clean, firm shape instead of dripping everywhere. Narrow tendrils lifted from the main body and drifted around it, connected to me rather than separate pets with separate brains. The wings were deep black and folded along my dorsal line when I didn’t need the display.

My normal length remained six feet four, with the longer twelve-foot travel size available for swimming or flying. Existing flight, water breathing, thermal vision, smoke use, and Current Sense remained usable, while the new form added its own functions.

Lyra asked the question I should have asked first. "Do your existing injuries simply disappear?"

I checked, then told her they didn’t. The form change altered how my body held itself, but old pain and recovery needs carried through rather than becoming free healing because the paint looked better.

Bridget smiled at the preview. "At least this one should fit the furniture without pretending the apartment was designed for a parade float."

Cherry asked whether the tendrils could hold snacks. I decided that was the most supportive response and mentally awarded her a completely imaginary point.

The evolution consumed the hundred thousand earned EXP. My new bar began at zero of two hundred thousand, while four hundred thirty-five IP stayed untouched because changing form wasn’t a shop purchase.

I settled in the cleared area and accepted.

My body softened without falling apart. The red deepened, my fins shifted beneath the forming wings, and the floating tendrils lifted around me while I tried not to panic about temporarily feeling like a drink with opinions.

Lyra kept speaking from beside the marked space. She described ordinary things, the garden date and the stupid puzzle, giving me something familiar to follow while my own shape stopped feeling familiar at all.

When I steadied, Cherry put a mirror where I could see it.

Cherry set the sailor hat from our market trip on my new head, judged the result, and removed it again. Apparently the evolution looked expensive enough that the hat now made me resemble a criminal selling boat insurance.

I looked absurdly good, which was going to make modesty even harder than usual.

[System: Two innate abilities with the form, mate, so they don’t eat your equipped slots. First one’s Bollocks Detector, because apparently the family kept leaving too much of the stuff unattended.]

It registered a knowingly false literal statement spoken directly to me within ten meters. A lie produced a clear warning; uncertain wording or unclear intent could return an uncertain result. It didn’t read thoughts, reveal omitted facts, prove somebody’s mistaken belief wrong, or turn sarcasm into evidence.

Bridget tested it by telling me she had hated our quiet dinner.

The warning appeared immediately. She laughed at my pleased expression, then explained that she had enjoyed watching me try to pay attention without making a speech.

Lyra said she hadn’t missed me while I was away. The same warning flashed, and I went quiet long enough for her to touch my face.

We agreed I would announce any deliberate tests instead of turning the apartment into an interrogation room. Knowing when somebody lied was useful; making the women I loved feel watched wasn’t a clever way to use it.

The second ability was Devour. Through ten seconds of continuous contact, I could absorb a dead or fully incapacitated hostile organic target no larger than twice my own mass. It didn’t let me swallow an active fighter, steal memories, copy skills, or cash the same reward twice. Its cooldown lasted ten minutes.

[System: You can eat the enemy, mate, but not their personality, so don’t lick a clever bloke and expect qualifications. I’ve met your judgment and it needs supervised training.]

I had been considering practical cleanup, although your concern about my academic future was touching.

The girls received the usable functions through our established sharing while keeping their own bodies. They didn’t become slime snakes or sprout my wings. We checked that distinction with simple movements and spoken tests before anybody tried something ambitious.

Later, at the secured service yard, the crew brought out a small grafted attack creature that had died during the convoy assault. I confirmed what it was before testing Devour, and the absorption took the full contact period instead of deleting it from across the room.

There was no bonus EXP panel. The quest had already paid for the operation, and eating its remains didn’t print another receipt.

Harden watched from behind the berth partition as I returned in my new body.

He told me he had never intended anyone to hurt Lyra, and the first thing my new evolution did for our family was make the lie impossible to miss.