Project Insectoid: My Hybrid Ascension

"At least all the apple pieces went to me..." Liam muttered to himself as he licked the tips of his fingers, which were still slightly sweet.

The apples might have been sprinkled with dirt, but that wasn't enough to stop him from enjoying his treat.

He was finally free to do whatever he wanted, as long as he didn't break the rules his mother had set for him. The first and most important rule was not to show his real appearance in public, which was understandable but still a bummer.

However, that didn't matter much since his mom also forced him to hide his wings and antennae inside the house, using the excuse of practice to ensure he wouldn't slip up, like today.

The other rules were pretty standard: no causing trouble, informing her when and where he was going if he went out, and so on. But there wasn't much time to hang out outside anyway, thanks to this stupid activity Ella had introduced. It felt like he was in the military.

He sighed and knelt down, pulling out a drawer to grab some clean clothes for a good, relaxing shower. His whole body felt sore after the last sparring session.

"And why do I have to train with Ava..." he muttered, lowering his head in frustration and clenching the edge of the wooden drawer.

It was pure torture, especially since his mom had been giving Ava individual lessons long before she threw him into the fire without any preparation or training.

She had simply come to him two years ago and told him he would be joining her.

The first year was fun because he kept winning, thanks to discovering a new ability—movement prediction. But that became useless after Ava adapted to counter it, and now he was consistently on the losing side.

"I just want to eat and have fun..." Liam muttered under his breath as he walked toward the bathroom, entering with a heavy sigh.

He took off his clothes and tossed them aside, but as he headed toward the shower, he stopped in front of the mirror, staring at his reflection.

Liam's forest-green eyes looked back at him, but beneath them, hidden from everyone, was a hint of sadness that seemed to chain him.

"Hey, looking good!" Liam smirked, making finger guns as he inspected the tall, striking figure in front of him. The most striking detail was his tattoos, which featured dragonfly wing patterns. The strange ink on his skin looked almost alive.

The upper wing pattern covered his scapula, extended toward his shoulders, wrapped around his arms, and ended at his elbows, while the lower wing pattern moved down his back, all the way to his glutes, and similarly wrapped around his legs, ending just below the back of his knees.

"But..." His voice dropped to a whisper as he glanced left and right, fearing someone from his family might see him.

Today was an exception due to another neuralgia attack, but his parents would get angry—sometimes even raising their voices—when he showed his true form.

Letting out a sigh of relief after confirming no one was watching, his antennae finally rose from his scalp.

At the same time, the tattoos began to separate from his skin, expanding to form two pairs of magnificent wings, their span slightly taller than he was.

"This looks better," he said with a soft smile, watching the semi-transparent wings subtly shift from green to blue under the artificial light, depending on the angle.

He struck a few poses and flexed in front of the mirror, admiring the beauty he had to keep hidden. But his eyes eventually fell on the bigger problem he had been trying to avoid. The system message from earlier was still there...

"Man, what am I going to do about that..." He shook his head and ran a hand through his hair, quickly dismissing the problem, hoping it would magically go away.

"Goodbye, my beauty," he said, blowing an air kiss at the mirror before finally stepping into the shower.

His wings twitched the moment they came into contact with the lukewarm water, but they soon adjusted to the new sensation.

He let the water run freely, trying to wash away his thoughts, but his problems came back to haunt him.

"Argh! Not again..." He fell to his knees, placing both hands on his head as the system began to act up once more.

The stabbing, electrifying pain only grew worse, spreading across his entire body. He would do anything to make it stop, even if it meant killing...

[Recalibration complete]

The red screen flickered, its letters constantly shifting, making it difficult to read.

[System Rebooting]

"Argh!" Another, more intense wave of pain surged through his body, just when he thought it couldn't get any worse.

"What does it want from me?" he shouted, clenching his fist and punching the wall, leaving a tiny dent.

[System rebooted successfully]

[System Online]

[Starting Synchronization with host]

[Please stand by]

The messages appeared one after another, and for the first time, the semi-transparent box wasn't red but blue, with an occasional flicker.

"Is it finally done?" Liam asked, breathing heavily as the pain subsided.

He groaned and stood up, leaning against the wall as it felt like something had drained all his strength.

While waiting to recover and for the system to complete its process, he began to wonder what could have caused the sudden change.

Could it have been a hit from Ava? That didn't make sense—he'd taken worse before. Maybe outside interference? There had been sightings of another insectoid ship nearby recently.

[System Synchronization Complete]

[Loading host data]

"User data?" Liam raised an eyebrow, wondering what the system meant.

After a few seconds, his question was answered as hundreds of tiny windows opened around him, playing his memories like a film, from the day he was born to the present.

The screens that caught his attention were the ones from his infancy—a part of his history he couldn't remember due to his young age.

"I came from an egg?" Liam narrowed his eyes at the screen showing him emerging from an orange, round structure. There were a few more eggs around him, but none seemed to have hatched yet.

The left corner of his upper lip curled as his nose wrinkled slightly. The idea of coming into the world like that felt slightly repulsive.

All of this made Liam's head spin. He tried to recall the scenes the system was showing him, but the ones from the insectoid nest—or laboratory?—weren't there.

"How is it doing this?" The things he was seeing shouldn't have been there. Humans couldn't store long-term memories from their first three years of life, but then again, was he even human?

Liam's gaze fell on the other scenes, but as they say, curiosity killed the cat.

The next scenes left him horrified. He could feel the pain just by watching the images.

He saw himself strapped to a table, being cut, stabbed, ripped apart, burned, and more—things he could barely look at.

Afterward, they would provide medical attention to ensure he didn't die, only to wait for the next molt.

"No! No! Make it stop!" His heart raced, and his breathing became rapid.

The gruesome, blood-soaked scenes made his stomach churn, and he felt like he might vomit.

He knew it wasn't real—it could have been made up. There was no physical pain, but he could still feel it as if it were his own.

"Make it stop..." Liam cried out, sitting down and wrapping himself in his wings, using them as a blanket.

While all of this was happening, muffled sounds came from outside, but the young boy didn't respond.

After everything went quiet, the door burst open, now hanging from only one hinge, as his family rushed in.

They had heard something happening, and due to Liam's unique biology, they always had to stay vigilant.

"Liam, what happened?" His mother was the first to speak, quickly approaching him. She ignored the running water and knelt down, placing a hand on his wing. The first thing she noticed was the pulsating, lavender-purple color around his veins.

While Ella comforted Liam, Kevin went to turn off the water, and Ava watched from a distance, her hands clasped in front of her chest.

Ella waited for an answer, but when she realized she wasn't going to get one, she did what any mother would do.

She wrapped her arms around her sixteen-year-old son, pulling him into a tight hug.

"Shhh, it's going to be all right..." she whispered gently into his ear, rocking him slightly from side to side.

Liam hiccuped as he felt her strong arms around him. Her warmth enveloped his entire body.

Without hesitation, he moved his wings and wrapped them around her, along with his arms.

"T-thank you for saving me..." he stuttered, his alien parts and hands trembling at the thought of what he might have become if she hadn't saved him that day...