Chapter 62: A Turning Point—Part 2

"Don't misunderstand; I've told you before that I have my own selfish motives in doing this. You see, while the zombie vaccine is nearing success, its efficacy will never be one hundred percent. That is why I want to use the opportunity of treating you to see if I can develop a serum for those already infected. Even if the vaccine fails, as long as there is a targeted serum available, the infected will have a chance at survival before they turn." Tu Hongye added pragmatically, "Once such a serum succeeds, it will bring me both fame and fortune. Anyway, enough of that; hurry back to your quarters. Director Xiong will likely want to chat with you about your life here shortly."

"Understood, Director Tu. Rest assured, I know what should be said and what should remain unspoken."

Xiong Xiaolu left on her own, leaving Tu Hongye to stare at the experimental records with a furrowed brow. As a housewife in her thirties, Tu Hongye certainly wasn't worried about her understanding the data. In truth, these data points did not reflect the activity of the zombie pathogen within Xiong Xiaolu's body at all; rather, they described the physiological changes in her body after receiving a physical enhancement serum.

Yes, from the very beginning, Tu Hongye had no intention of creating a therapeutic serum. He remained obsessed with crafting a safer, more effective human enhancement agent.

Moreover, this time, Tu Hongye had completely shifted his approach.

The serums previously injected into test subjects like Wang Chen were essentially nothing more than performance-enhancing drugs found in the worlds of bodybuilding and sports. They stimulated the human body to achieve enhanced physical fitness without years of grueling exercise. While they were more precisely formulated, more potent, more stable, and had fewer short-term side effects than the varied substances on the market, they naturally inflicted greater damage upon the body.

Fundamentally, the final function of these agents was to force cellular division. As is well known, there is an upper limit to human cell division; the more times cells divide, the greater the degree of senescence. While the serum-induced divisions rarely reached the biological limit, they were far more unstable than those triggered by normal exercise. Put simply, no matter how good the drug is, if you take too much, no constitution can withstand it.

Tu Hongye had always focused on enhancing the human body at the cellular level. He had, of course, envisioned the possibility of modifying the human body at the genetic level using the zombie pathogen. Not only had he envisioned it, but he had also made some preliminary attempts. Beyond working with embryos, the benefits of somatic genetic enhancement were self-evident. At a molecular level, it could maximize repair, slow down cellular aging, and even strengthen the cells themselves, preventing the sudden collapse caused by frequent gene fragment transplantation and drug-stimulated division. Furthermore, it allowed for more precise control of the enhancement, targeting specific sections, or even specific muscles or bones. When such control reached a high enough level, self-repair, limb regeneration, and autonomous organ regrowth would no longer be dreams.

At that point, humanity would finally pivot away from the opposition of industrial civilization, information civilization, and nature itself. By starting a new evolution based on our own characteristics—enhancing biological capabilities and returning to nature—we could slow the Earth's environmental retaliation against human civilization. Only then could humanity turn back from the brink of extinction, securing enough time to develop and step into the cosmic era as an interstellar civilization.

Tu Hongye's ideals were noble, but unfortunately, China in the first decade of the 21st century lagged far behind Europe and the United States in genetic manipulation. With his status, Tu Hongye was still a long way from top-tier genetic research, let alone human enhancement at the genetic level. Thus, many of his concepts could only remain hidden in his mind or scribbled haphazardly on paper, with no way to start.

Now, the situation was completely different. In terms of equipment, the forward base possessed the nation's top-tier genetic experimental apparatus. In terms of materials, regardless of their relevance to the research, they were supplied to the limit. In terms of subjects, various variants of the zombie pathogen were available in petri dishes for immediate use. Coupled with his outstanding contributions to vaccine development, as long as he didn't burn the forward base to the ground, he could do almost whatever he pleased.

If Tu Hongye didn't seize such an opportunity, he would be wasting his high intelligence.

With everything in place—even having Xiong Xiaolu as the key—it stood to reason that by using the original zombie pathogen, which acted as a multi-functional gene fragment carrier, he could easily develop a corresponding enhancement serum with minor adjustments. Even if the serum were slightly off, causing harm or turning a normal person into a zombie, injecting it into the Harbin test subjects—who already lived in symbiosis with the zombie virus—should have neutralized the zombie effect and triggered a physical enhancement response.

Yet, reality was the exact opposite of Tu Hongye's judgment. Xiong Xiaolu's body accepted the serum without rejection, but there was no reaction at the cellular level to suggest genetic enhancement.

Tu Hongye repeated his calculations, simulations, and re-analysis throughout the night. By morning, he had gained nothing. The new serum he had configured in the latter half of the night and injected into a monkey resulted only in a dead animal bleeding from its seven orifices.

Watching the monkey die miserably in its own filth, Tu Hongye let out a long sigh and slumped into his chair. Disappointment aside, he hadn't forgotten the time he needed to board the flight back to the capital base. He tidied up briefly, preparing to return to his room to wash up; he couldn't afford to lose his composure, could he?

As Tu Hongye cleared the monkey's carcass and waste into the specialized medical waste bin, he stared blankly at the contents. Among them was Xiong Xiaolu's vomit from earlier. Suddenly, he understood and slapped his forehead hard.

He had been so distracted by the news of Ruxi's pregnancy that he had made such a simple mistake. In the end, it was a lack of medical experience and an overly rigid application of knowledge. He had actually forgotten the most basic human rejection response!

Genetic drugs entering the human body through the bloodstream were intended to act on specific tissues, using transgenic carriers to alter the corresponding cell nuclei and stimulate the division of cells containing new genes. In a sense, this method of replacing cell genes with transgenic carriers was identical to how a virus functioned. It was no wonder the body's immune system reacted! Tu Hongye had considered rejection before, but he assumed that since Xiong Xiaolu's body already coexisted with the zombie virus, the transgenic carrier—which shared the same origin—should not be rejected. However, the experimental results refuted his prediction.

Vomiting: the body's most direct rejection response!

It appeared that Xiong Xiaolu's body not rejecting the zombie virus did not mean it wouldn't reject the genetic serum. It was highly likely that after its grueling battle with the zombie virus, Xiong Xiaolu's immune system had an even more intense reaction to a homologous but different genetic agent. In that light, it was no wonder the genetic serum had failed to have any effect, even when injected directly into the bloodstream.