[Half an Hour Ago, the 24th Ward]
"Injecting something like this, I can really eat like a human?"
Touka extended her white slender arm, rolled up her sleeve, and asked with some doubt.
The 24th Ward had already developed food that ghouls could eat. Being able to eat like humans, she was still very much looking forward to it.
She could finally taste the food made by Yoriko.
Shinobu smiled. "Really oh, but to maintain the effect of the drug, it needs to be injected once a year."
Injecting the azure-blue liquid into Touka's body through the syringe, Shinobu straightened up and said, "It's done, Touka-chan."
"That's it?" Touka was half-convinced, picked up the bread placed on the table, and with difficulty brought it to her mouth.
However, after chewing twice, she immediately spat it out.
Shinobu smiled and waved her hand. "Ara, ara, you were too impatient, the medicine takes at least fifteen minutes to take effect."
"You should've said that earlier!"
Shinobu handed over a tissue and reminded, "By the way, to avoid accidents, don't eat heavily flavored food at the start."
"Un…understood." Touka wiped her mouth, looked at her, turned her face aside, and a bit shyly said, "Tha…thank you all, for helping us so much all this time."
Although the 24th Ward was underground, they ghouls no longer needed to live like sewer rats hiding in the shadows as before.
With the food problem of ghouls solved, they could finally live with dignity.
Someday, not only humans in the 24th Ward, but even humans outside would surely accept them.
Shinobu smiled without saying a word, opened the door and prepared to leave.
Touka hurriedly said, "You're not going to work again, are you? You really are a workaholic. At least give yourself some rest."
In her impression, Shinobu spent at least eighteen out of twenty-four hours in the lab every day.
Though she admired that kind of spirit in her heart, she also didn't want the other party to overwork too much.
"Thank you for your kindness, but I've already gotten used to it."
Jotaro, with the goal of completing the system's tasks, was rapidly advancing the work progress in the 24th Ward. Shinobu could sense that he was eager to leave this place as soon as possible.
Although she didn't know what made him so anxious, whatever Jotaro wanted to do, she hoped to help him as much as possible.
"Ghouls being able to eat like humans, this technological breakthrough should be able to solve a lot of trouble. Even if the technology is not yet mature, there's no need to be in such a hurry."
"A short break is no big deal."
Touka still hoped Shinobu would care about her own health, and she kept trying to persuade her.
"Touka-chan, now is not the time to rest." Shinobu's expression became a bit serious, "Compared to the small matter of ghoul eating, the mutation of Rc cells in your body is what I truly care about."
"Rc cell mutation? What's that?"
Touka looked puzzled, this was the first time she had heard this term.
"As is well known, the reason ghouls can quickly recover from injuries is the rapid division of Rc cells in your bodies."
"But no matter how powerful Rc cells are, they can't divide infinitely. Their division has a limit. If that limit is exceeded, the cells will die."
"This is also the reason why you ghouls, like humans, will age."
Shinobu raised her index finger, and then explained, "Just like ordinary cells can mutate into cancer cells, Rc cells can also mutate."
"Once that happens, Rc cells can divide infinitely."
Touka curiously said, "Infinite division? Does that mean we can become immortal?"
"Do you have any medical knowledge at all?" Shinobu said annoyed, "Cell division requires energy, and the energy needed for infinite division is incalculable."
"It will not only consume all the energy in your body, but may also harm others."
Touka thought for a moment and said, "But up to now, hasn't such a situation never appeared in history?"
Shinobu said, "The probability of Rc cell mutation is indeed very low, but it's absolutely not zero!"
"Especially under certain man-made conditions! At least a year ago, under specific conditions, I caused Rc cells to mutate."
In order to study the ghoul species, dealing with Rc cells was inevitable, and Shinobu accidentally discovered that once Rc cells mutated, they could proliferate infinitely like cancer cells.
Mutated Rc cells formed strange things like monsters.
As long as nutrients were provided, it could keep growing.
If someone discovered this characteristic of Rc cells and used it to do something dangerous, then the consequences would be unimaginable.
'If we want the world to return to peace quickly, it's very necessary to prevent this situation.'
As early as a year ago, Jotaro invested heavily in developing technology to counter Rc cell mutations.
Now, this technology finally had some breakthroughs, but it was still far from enough.
Shinobu hoped to perfect this technology as soon as possible, so that Jotaro would have no more worries.
She looked at Touka, smiled and said, "Anyway, right now I can't rest yet. Thank you for caring about me, Touka-chan."
"Ugh..."
Touka stared at Shinobu's gentle eyes, turned her face aside shyly, and looked out the window.
The next second, her face was full of shock, and she cried out, "Tha…tha…that's what!"
Shinobu turned her head to look, and saw the ground of the 24th Ward was cracking, and a large amount of black matter was gushing out from below.
'That kind of monster…'
Shinobu didn't have time to think. With a loud rumble, the ground had already begun to collapse.
On the black monster's body, countless eyes opened.
It had gone berserk.
"Touka!" Shinobu steadied her body, leapt to Touka's side and supported her, "Quick, leave here!"
BOOM!
A huge black tentacle struck a high-rise building, and the building directly broke from the middle, the top part quickly disintegrated, and the lower part also began to sway and collapse.
"Get out quickly!" Shinobu reminded.
Staying inside the building now was extremely dangerous.
Even an S-class ghoul could be killed if hit by steel and concrete. If buried under the ruins, the survival rate would be even lower.
Touka was a Ukaku, having some advantage in the air. As long as she escaped through the window and reached the ground, with her swift speed, she could completely evade the monster's attacks.
Under Shinobu's reminder, Touka quickly realized this.
She pushed open the nearby window, sat on the edge, stretched out her hand and urgently said, "Give me your hand!"
Shinobu hesitated for a moment, then suddenly stretched out her hand and pushed Touka down.
"What are you doing!" Touka was shocked, and immediately released her kagune, forming Ukaku, and glided downward.
She wanted to turn back to save Shinobu, but Ukaku simply couldn't achieve free flight.
Although Touka had killed people, her nature was kind.
Shinobu knew this very well, which is why she pushed her down and forced her to leave.
If she herself didn't leave, the other party absolutely would not abandon her.
But right now, she could not leave this building.
Looking at the monster wantonly destroying outside the window, Shinobu's eyes were full of worry.
"The product of Rc cell mutation, how could it be…"
In the shaking and collapsing interior of the building, Shinobu moved at the fastest speed toward the direction of the lab.
All the research data for dealing with this situation was in there.
If it was destroyed, then a year of hard work would be completely wasted.
Of course, she could reproduce it, but that would take a long time.
Jotaro had been troubled by some matters recently, although he didn't show it, she could still feel it.
She didn't want to add to Jotaro's worries because of herself.
Quickly entering the passcode, entering the lab, Shinobu searched rapidly among the piles of data. Anxiously, sweat had already beaded on her forehead.
"Got it!"
She breathed a sigh of relief.
Though the technology wasn't yet perfect, it was already seventy or eighty percent complete.
In the subsequent handling of the 24th Ward's emergency, it would definitely play a miraculous role.
Shinobu hurriedly stood up, intending to leave the crumbling building with the data.
But just at this moment, from the ground with the building as the center, an even larger black monster surged out.
The already dilapidated building was directly shattered into countless pieces under its impact.
Touka stood not far away on the street, and saw this cruel scene.
This monster was even bigger than imagined. What emerged earlier was only part of its body.
"Want to eat! Want to eat!"
Horrible tentacles full of mouths and eyes, at the moment of contacting humans, swallowed them into its body.
Touka's body trembled slightly, and she said in a daze, "Shinobu hasn't come out yet!"
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