Chapter 54: The Serum
The days slipped by one after another, and in what felt like the blink of an eye, fifteen days had passed. A lot had happened in that time.
For instance, Japan's Self-Defense Forces had dispatched a special task force into H City's zombie quarantine zone.
Apparently, they wanted to gather critical intelligence.
Intelligence on the zombie virus.
The result: they'd barely made it inside before someone fired a shot, which promptly attracted several thousand zombies from the surrounding area. And since zombies could only be killed by destroying the brain, there was no way the SDF operators were landing headshots on every single round.
What followed was almost farcical.
The entire squad—over a dozen strong—became the newest recruits in H City's zombie army.
It was the kind of outcome that left you at a complete loss for words.
Not sure what to even say.
Were they overconfident? Or were they just asking for it?
During that same period, a number of blond-haired, blue-eyed faces had shown up as well—presumably the foreign research teams mentioned in the earlier news broadcasts. Though those researchers hadn't dared venture inside. The SDF task force was a cautionary tale still fresh in everyone's minds.
Some voices even advocated deploying the SDF in force to purge every last zombie.
But that proposal was swiftly and harshly condemned by the international human rights community.
They argued that these zombies were still human beings.
Their lives could not be trampled upon—to do so would constitute a massacre.
Left with no other choice, Japan had to settle for maintaining the quarantine. They'd even begun constructing massive walls of rebar, concrete, and brick around the entire perimeter. Every waterway, every storm drain, every sewer access—all sealed shut.
Ryū and the others had watched all of this unfold, naturally.
But none of them were particularly concerned.
After all, Wolffy's serum research had reached a critical juncture.
Progress had been remarkably smooth.
The reason, of course, was the traverser's blood sample. Within it, Wolffy had discovered a host of bizarre anomalies—the very things that had made Meyu Inkyo immune to the zombie virus.
It was from that blood sample that Wolffy had found his crucial breakthrough.
And from that breakthrough, he'd thrown himself into round-the-clock research.
Now, roughly fifteen days later, the serum was at its most critical stage.
Just a few final micro-tests remained.
Tests that would prove whether this serum actually worked.
* * *
"What I need now is a fresh sample of zombie virus taken directly from a zombie. Then I combine the serum with the virus and observe the reaction."
Wolffy slowly exhaled a lungful of stale air, rubbing at the massive dark circles under his eyes.
"Serum Trial Number 34… begin!! This time, it has to work!"
Wolffy was the Dimensional Chat Group's sole scientist, which meant neither Ryū, Kaguya, nor Yukari could offer much hands-on help. None of them knew the first thing about laboratory research.
Yukari was marginally more useful—her breadth of knowledge was genuinely impressive, at least.
Over the course of the serum's development, she'd been able to offer the occasional meaningful suggestion.
Ryū and Kaguya, on the other hand, were purely along for the ride.
Though to be fair, they'd chipped in with ideas at key moments.
The research wouldn't have progressed this quickly otherwise.
As for the matter of leeching Points off someone else's work… that was well on its way to becoming one of the Dimensional Chat Group's proud "fine traditions."
* * *
The minutes ticked by. Roughly thirty minutes later—
Wolffy let out a sudden shout, his voice urgent.
"Admin-dono! The serum—the one that can suppress and even eliminate the zombie virus… it's a success!"
Ryū startled, then asked in surprise:
"How effective is it?"
Wolffy answered:
"Better than expected!"
He paused, then continued:
"A tiny amount of this serum is enough to annihilate a massive quantity of viral agents and completely break down the zombie virus's structural integrity. The question now is how to deploy it."
How to use the serum to neutralize the zombie virus across this entire area—that was, admittedly, a headache. The virus was practically everywhere. Tens of thousands of zombies roamed the zone. Were they supposed to stick each one with a syringe?
Yeah, right. That kind of operation was physically impossible with their numbers. Where would they even get that many syringes?
And more importantly, it was just way too much hassle.
They'd need to think of another way.
Ryū frowned, pondering in silence for a moment. Then something clicked. He turned to Wolffy.
"Does the serum have to be injected into the body to destroy the virus?"
Wolffy shook his head.
"Skin contact is sufficient."
Ryū followed up immediately:
"What if you dilute it with water? Still effective?"
"Only a tiny amount is needed to break down the virus's structure, so dilution is fine. You just have to get the ratio right."
Hearing that, a grin spread across Ryū's face.
"Those zombies will swarm toward any loud noise—every last one of them. Remember the SDF squad? One nervous soldier fired a single shot, and thousands—close to ten thousand—came pouring in."
"Mix the serum into water, then rig up some kind of mist dispenser…"
Ryū hadn't even finished his sentence before Wolffy's eyes lit up.
"Say no more, Admin-dono! Leave it all to me! Forget a mist dispenser—I'll strip down my equipment and see if I can build a proper fog generator."
This was the beauty of working with someone brilliant—or rather, somewolf brilliant. You didn't even have to finish laying out your half-baked idea before the other party had already refined it into something workable.
Judging by Wolffy's expression, he seemed to find the approach genuinely viable.
In that case, Ryū was happy to let Wolffy keep tinkering.
They'd only used about fifteen of their allotted days so far.
The quest's time limit was several dozen days total, leaving them well over a week of buffer.
Ryū, for one, was in absolutely no rush.
* * *
Looks like this Group Quest is going pretty smoothly too. Though compared to the last one, the difficulty is way higher. If Wolffy hadn't been here, the only way to stop the virus would've been to kill every zombie and then destroy all the evidence.
After that bit of internal monologue, Ryū pulled his consciousness into the Dimensional Chat Group.
The group's membership now stood at eight.
Once it crossed ten…
He'd need to appoint a Moderator.
No point leaving those Moderator slots sitting empty forever.
Better to wait until membership broke double digits, then hand one of those positions out.
☆☆☆
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