Gojo stood in a corner of the lab, lightly twirling a lollipop between his fingers. A hint of surprise flickered in his eyes.
He'd always known Sumire was an incredible researcher, but he hadn't expected her to pull this off in such a short time.
The speed was honestly a little ridiculous. Ridiculous enough that he couldn't help taking a second look at her.
After all these years, scientists all over the world had never stopped researching the Gastrea virus.
Countless labs had run day and night, and countless researchers had poured their lives into it. But the only real result they had to show for it was the suppressant.
The suppressant could only temporarily hold back the virus's activity. It couldn't solve the problem at its root, let alone reverse an infection.
Even with Gojo as a special example to work from, reverse-engineering a serum was no easy task.
The Gastrea virus mutated incredibly fast and was extremely contagious. One small mistake could cause irreversible damage. That was the main reason the scientific community had been helpless for so many years.
Betty stood to the side with her hands folded lightly in front of her. She looked at the test tube in Sumire's hand, full of curiosity, and asked, "Have you tested it yet?"
A second ago, Sumire had been beaming, clutching the tube of pale blue serum like she was about to announce that humanity had finally beaten the Gastrea virus.
At Betty's question, her expression froze. It was like someone had dumped a bucket of cold water on her excitement, and her voice got vague. "Well..."
She scratched her head and avoided looking at Betty or Gojo. "Not yet," she said awkwardly. "I've only worked out the serum in theory."
Then she quickly added, sounding a little defensive, "If I want to test how well it actually works, I'll have to use it on the cursed children directly."
"But I'm not sure about the effects yet, and I don't want to rush into anything. That's why I came to you guys."
She gave a slightly embarrassed smile, her fingers unconsciously rubbing the side of the tube.
She knew that injecting an untested serum straight into a cursed child could easily put the kid's life in danger.
Before, without Gojo around, she would've had no choice but to grit her teeth and do it anyway, no matter how anxious she was, even at the risk of losing some of those children.
But things were different now. She could just have Gojo help.
If anything went wrong, even if the Gastrea virus suddenly broke out inside a child, Gojo's cursed energy could save the kid right away and keep the damage to a minimum.
Seeing her look so flustered yet hopeful, Gojo chuckled. A playful smile tugged at his lips, and he waved a hand. "So after all that, you just came to ask me for help."
"Fine, let's go. No point wasting time. Don't keep the kids waiting."
He'd never been one to drag his feet. Besides, this was about the fate of every cursed child and the future of humanity's fight against the Gastrea. Of course he wasn't going to say no.
Sumire's face lit up again. She nodded hard, like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders.
She hurried over to the lab's intercom system, flipped the switch, and spoke in a clear, gentle voice. "Please have one class of cursed children report to the main lab immediately. We need their help with something important."
The announcement echoed through the whole cursed children's school. Not long after, the lab door was gently pushed open.
A little over twenty cursed children walked in, lined up neatly. They were all different ages. The youngest was only five or six, and the oldest was just thirteen or fourteen.
The kids looked curious, but also a little nervous. They cautiously looked around at the equipment in the lab, and at Gojo and Betty standing off to the side.
Sumire took a deep breath and pushed down her nerves. She took out the syringes she'd prepared in advance and carefully drew up the serum.
She walked over to the children, crouched down, and gently patted the head of the little girl at the front. "Don't be scared," she said softly. "It's just a shot. It won't hurt much. Once it's done, you'll never have to be afraid of turning into a monster again."
The little girl nodded timidly. Her small hands were gripping the hem of her clothes, but she still bravely held out her arm.
Sumire gently injected the serum, then moved on to the other kids one by one. She was extra careful with every step, terrified of making even the smallest mistake.
Once she was done, she stood up right away and rushed over to the computer. She stared anxiously at the live data on the screen, her hands shaking slightly from nerves.
Every cursed child's data was being recorded clearly, including the activity of the Gastrea virus in their bodies, changes in their cells, and fluctuations in their vital signs. If anything abnormal happened, it would show up on the screen immediately.
Gojo and Betty walked over to the computer too. They watched the screen calmly, but they were paying close attention.
Gojo rested his fingertips lightly on the edge of the desk, ready to use his cursed energy. If anything dangerous happened, he could step in instantly and protect the kids.
The minutes ticked by. The lab was unusually quiet. The only sounds were the soft hum of the computer and the children's steady breathing.
Sumire didn't blink as she stared at the screen. Her palms were sweating, and her heart was pounding. She was hopeful and scared at the same time.
She hoped the serum would work. She was scared that if it failed, these kids could be in danger, and all her years of work would go down the drain.
Luckily, as the serum slowly started taking effect, the data on the screen stayed stable. None of the children had a bad reaction, and none of them looked uncomfortable.
The Gastrea virus that had been running rampant in their bodies seemed to have met its natural enemy. Under the serum's effect, it was quickly cleared out and broken down.
This wasn't the kind of physical removal Gojo did with cursed energy. It was actually wiping out the virus at the cellular level and cutting it off at the root.
On top of that, according to Sumire's live monitoring and repeated checks, once the virus had been destroyed to a certain point, the tiny amount left over went completely dormant.
It was like a recessive gene, lying quietly inside the cells. It showed basically no signs of activity anymore. It was practically dead, and it would never harm the body again.
In other words, once they were injected with this serum, every cursed child would become a normal person in the truest sense!
They'd never be hated or spat on for being cursed children again. They'd never have to live in hiding again, and they'd never have to fear turning into a terrifying Gastrea one day.
If anything, after being changed by the serum, they were more like evolved humans.
They still had the strong bodies and special abilities that normal people didn't, the gifts the Gastrea virus had given them. But the downside of turning into Gastrea was gone. They got all the benefits with none of the risks.
Sumire looked at the stable numbers on the screen and the relaxed smiles slowly appearing on the kids' faces. Tears spilled from her eyes. All those years of work, all that persistence, had finally paid off.
Seeing that the Gastrea virus in the children's bodies had fully stabilized, Gojo started clapping for Sumire. "That's a truly amazing breakthrough."
He meant it from the bottom of his heart. There wasn't anything half-hearted about it. He knew exactly what this meant. It would completely change the fate of the cursed children, and it would change the whole shape of humanity's fight against the Gastrea.
Sumire, who normally loved bragging about herself and was always full of pride, was unusually humble after hearing Gojo's praise. She smiled and waved a hand. "If you hadn't helped, there's no way I could've gotten this far."
As the one who developed the serum, she knew exactly how much she'd contributed, and she knew exactly how important Gojo's help had been.
If Gojo hadn't cooperated with her research and given her his blood samples, and she'd had to do it all on her own, she probably never would've made the serum in her entire life.
Because of Gojo's help, all she'd had to do was some simple reverse engineering. The hardest and most dangerous steps had been skipped entirely.
She even knew that if she hadn't taken this on, any other capable researcher could've reverse-engineered it too. It would've just been a question of how long it took.
Compared to Gojo, who was the real key, what she'd done really wasn't anything special.
Gojo smiled and didn't argue. Instead, he thought about the ordinary people fighting the Gastrea on the front line, struggling in rough conditions. He frowned slightly. "This serum works wonders on cursed children, but what about ordinary people?"
"If an ordinary person gets infected by a Gastrea and takes this serum, would it work the same way?"
Sumire's smile faded a little. She thought for a moment, then said, a bit embarrassed, "Um... I haven't tested that yet. I haven't even thought about it."
"I've been focused on developing the serum for cursed children the whole time, because I wanted to solve their problem first. As for ordinary people, the only way to know would be to find some infected people and test it on them right now."
They all knew that humanity's struggle against the Gastrea wasn't just because Gastrea were strong and hard to kill. The bigger problem was that people fighting them got infected by the virus way too easily.
Once someone was infected, the virus would eat away at their cells in a short time and quickly turn them into a Gastrea. That was something nobody could accept.
And the front line often collapsed because of it. If one soldier got infected, it could drag down the comrades around them, and sometimes put a whole squad in danger.
Otherwise, no matter how hard Gastrea were to kill, the technology of this era could keep them pinned down with sheer firepower. Humanity wouldn't be stuck in such a passive position.
The technology of this era had advanced a lot compared to before the Gastrea virus appeared. There were all kinds of heavy weapons and protective gear. It was just the infection problem that kept them from reaching their full potential.
Gojo thought about it for a moment, and his eyes turned determined. "I'll contact Seitenshi. We'll test it on death-row prisoners."
A lot of those prisoners had committed unforgivable crimes. Testing the serum on them wouldn't hurt anyone innocent, and they could get results quickly. It was the safest option.
Sumire's eyes lit up instantly, and a confident smile returned to her face. "No problem," she said firmly. "As long as I have enough test subjects, making an improved serum for ordinary people shouldn't be too big a deal!"
She was full of confidence. After testing the serum on the cursed children, she understood how it worked even better. With enough test data, improving the serum wouldn't be hard.
She also knew that once the infection problem for ordinary people was solved, humanity would never have to fear fighting the Gastrea head-on again. They might even be able to think about launching a counterattack and taking back the land the Gastrea had occupied.
Gojo nodded, took out his phone, and called Seitenshi. He briefly explained the situation, including what the serum could do and his request for death-row prisoners to test it on.
Once Seitenshi understood what was going on, she was overjoyed. Her voice was even shaking a little. She agreed without hesitation and immediately had a large number of death-row inmates transferred from the prisons.
Many of them had committed serious crimes during the earlier riots. They had blood on their hands and the public hated them. They were the perfect test subjects. Even if something went wrong, nobody was going to complain.
In just two hours, a large group of prisoners was brought to the lab under guard, waiting for the serum tests.
Sumire didn't waste a second. She threw herself right back into intense testing, injecting the prisoners with the improved serum while recording the data in real time, completely focused.
Meanwhile, the other cursed children at the school went to the lab in groups to get their shots, with Gojo watching over them. Everything went smoothly, without a single problem.
At the same time, construction on the Monoliths was moving forward at full speed.