Chapter 257: Mutation Serum

From Brian’s words, Michael was able to learn that mutants were just as he had previously understood. They were humans who had undergone genetic modification.

Of course, there was the type of mutation where it was accidental due to exposure to radiation, and sometimes, it was usually detrimental instead of beneficial to the body.

But according to what Brian had heard, it seemed that the issue regarding the mutation had occurred due to a meteor that had fallen from outer space.

This was actually something that Michael knew about. A few years back, when he was still in elementary school. At that time, there was some news about a meteor that had fallen in the central province.

According to the information at that time, it was clear that it had fallen inside a forest, killing quite a number of animals. Luckily, the surrounding area did not have a huge population.

The cities, towns and villages nearby were only affected by tremors, and nothing major happened.

But for some reason, after the news had been reported on that particular day, it seemed that people had stopped talking about that meteor. So it seemed that the government had found something about it, which was why they restricted it.

The reason why Michael could remember all this was because of the evolution serum, or maybe due to the system. After all, for some reason, the memories of the events that had happened during the time that he was still young, were becoming more and more clear to him.

Anyway, according to Brian, the mutation occurred first on a scientist who was exposed to a rock fragment that was extracted from the meteor.

That scientist had been doing a research, but he ended up being cut by that meteor rock fragment. At first, nothing happened. But a few days later, he began feeling some changes.

And later on, he experienced a mutation. His head suddenly grew big, to the extent that it was disproportionate to the body.

At first, it was barely noticeable. But as time went on, others also began noticing it. As apart from the enlargement of the head, the scientist began experiencing frequent mood swings. And sometimes, his temper went out of control, that he would end up destroying a lot of things in the lab.

In the end, he was tested, and the other scientists realized that some of his genes had undergone mutation.

It was then that they finally realized that this was going to be a breakthrough on the study of genetics. And so, the research began, with the area where the meteor had fallen being completely restricted.

It was to the extent that it was wiped out from the map, and since that area did not have anything noticeable, most of the people did not realize that it had disappeared from the map.

And in fact, if one checked them up, they would realize that there was a place that was blank. It was as if that part of the map did not exist, even though features around that place were given on the map.

But according to Brian, that place was restricted, and soldiers were stationed there.

By now, over 10 years had gone by since then. It was no wonder that they had already made a breakthrough, to the extent that they had begun producing something called a mutation serum.

It was just that, this serum still had problems, and had not yet been perfected. So, sometimes, people who took the serum might end up dying instead of experiencing mutation.

And sometimes, instead of gaining an ability, they could end up having their bodies mutating in different ways, such as suddenly having an extremely long little finger, or growing more toes.

Still, there was a categorization of the mutation serum in terms of grades. They arranged from grade E, all the way to grade SSS.

This was the categorization that was decided upon by the group of scientists that were in charge of the research. And until now, according to what Brian had heard from his father, the highest grade of the available mutation serum was only at grade A.

The higher the grade of the serum, the higher the chances of the mutation towards granting someone a special ability or superpowers.

But of course, with the higher the grade of the serum, the lower the chances of fatalities during the mutation. And more than that, the abilities or superpowers that someone could awaken with higher grade mutation serums would always be powerful as compared to those from the lower grade serums.

At the moment, research was still ongoing, trying to find methods of improving the grade of the serum. Additionally, the production of the serum was quite slow, as the process itself took quite a lot of time.

So, despite over 10 years going by since the meteor struck, only a small batch of mutation serums had been produced. But even then, they were completely controlled by the government.

But of course, it was impossible for the government to be able to completely control something like this. So sometimes, the mutation serums would leak to the market, and they would be purchased by those with power.

That was especially for those who were very rich, but old. They thought, if they could experience a mutation, they might be able to extend their lives.

Anyway, even blood reapers syndicate had only gotten their hands on 4 vials of the mutation serums. As for the exact grades of the serums, Brian was clueless as he was not informed by his father.

Michael had already anticipated the possibility of blood reapers syndicate acquiring the serum, the moment that it was mentioned. After all, it was one of the biggest forces in the nation.

Even though it was considered to be the dark side of the world, but even then, the syndicate had quite some influence. It was inevitable that they would have some connections within the government as well.

For them to acquire 4 serums, it presented the possibility of the blood reapers syndicate having 4 mutants.

Of course, this was just a possibility. After all, even grade A mutation serums had a fatality rate of 42%! This was almost a 50/50 probability, with high chances of someone dying instead of successfully awakening an ability or superpower.

If completely unlucky, there was even the probability that blood reapers syndicate did not even have a single mutant. After all, the 42% fatality probability was extremely high.

It took quite a while for Michael to process all the information revealed by Brian. It was just that, Michael understood that this was not all there was.

Even if the blood reapers syndicate was a big organization within the country, they would inevitably be kept in the dark about one thing or two.

But even then, something that made Michael feel concerned was that, the issue regarding the mutation serum had been kept a secret.

Even the availability of mutants was something that had never been mentioned anywhere. In fact, in the news, there was no any mention of anything supernatural, or someone completing something that was supposed to be impossible.

Most probability, the government had extremely tight control over the mutants. And considering the low number of mutation serums produced so far, the number of mutants could not be too high.

Additionally, why would the government hand over the serums to the people that they did not have control over? Instead, they might just give them to those that they trusted the most.

In any case, this time, Michael realized that there was much more than he had anticipated.

Still, he had quite some confidence. After all, he had the system. With the presence of the system, as long as he had enough SP, he could purchase almost anything from the system store.

Additionally, he thought of another possibility. Could it be possible that the system had appeared together with the meteor?

But why did it not appear for all those years, and only became active several years later when he was busy learning about accounting?

If it was waiting for him to read, so that it could activate, it should have done so when he was still in elementary school, or even in middle school. After all, at that time, he had read quite a lot.

Or there was a possibility that there was much more than what they knew out there. Most probably, there were other civilizations that existed outside this planet.

It was just that, it was impossible to be able to tell if that was the case or not for the time being. But if it was true, then there was a possibility that the system came from another civilization out there.

And if that was so, it would imply that there was a great possibility that the presence of the system here was a scheme by some civilization. But if that really was true or not, Michael could not tell for the time being.

Additionally, even if he knew, what would he do about it? As civilization that could create something like a system, how could the current world that he lived in compete?

If that civilization decided to deal with this planet, it would be quite simple. So, Michael decided not to think much about this, and instead, just focus on his own growth.

Now that he knew about the existence of the other side of the world that he was previously unaware of, he decided to start making arrangements. He had to prepare, so that in case of anything, he would be able to deal with it.

Thinking about the arrangements, he decided to first access the system store, to search for something.

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