The Final Push

The next day.

When Li Mu Chuan woke up, Li Qingxiao was still asleep.

She had probably been too exhausted these past few days, and her concern over the computer's results had kept her nerves constantly on edge.

Li Mu Chuan carefully got up and glanced at the computer. The progress bar had not yet reached the end.

Just as Li Mu Chuan was about to wash up, he saw Li Qingxiao climb straight out of bed and take a few quick steps to the computer.

"This verification seems to be taking even longer than the last two."

Seeing this, Li Mu Chuan spoke up. At this point last time, the progress bar had already passed ninety percent.

This time, however, it was only at seventy percent. It really was much slower.

Li Mu Chuan did not know whether this slower speed was a good sign, whether it meant this attempt was highly likely to succeed.

Li Qingxiao looked somewhat distracted at the moment.

By the afternoon, the progress bar had finally begun to slowly approach one hundred percent.

Li Qingxiao widened her eyes and stared fixedly at the screen before her.

The progress bar vanished, and a moment later, a window popped up.

It was still the same bright red as before.

The moment Li Mu Chuan saw the red border, his heart sank. Still unwilling to give up, he carefully read the words inside.

"Mismatch!"

The same familiar three words utterly crushed Li Qingxiao and Li Mu Chuan's last hopes.

Li Qingxiao was dazed. She did not understand why it had failed again. What exactly had gone wrong?

Including this time, she had already failed three times.

She had been confident before, but now she had begun to doubt herself.

"It seems impossible to develop a serum relying on myself alone."

A trace of bitterness appeared on Li Qingxiao's face. The sky had never seemed so bleak.

Without a serum, humanity was doomed to perish.

If they were not infected by zombies, they would starve to death.

The water sources outside had been contaminated across a vast area, and resources were rapidly dwindling.

"With your abilities, you can definitely develop a serum. Didn't you create an incredibly powerful serum all by yourself?"

Hearing this, Li Mu Chuan hurriedly said.

In his eyes, Li Qingxiao was so capable. If even she could not develop a serum, then who could?

Li Qingxiao glanced at Li Mu Chuan and remained silent.

This kind of blow could not be eased by a single word of comfort from Li Mu Chuan.

"I've already tried every method. None of these approaches work. I have no other options left to try."

After a long while, Li Qingxiao shook her head.

"Could there be some other method you haven't tried?"

Li Mu Chuan asked cautiously.

He did not know much about this field, so all he could do was try to get her to pull herself together and continue her research.

Li Qingxiao shook her head, indicating there was not.

"I once watched a movie about zombies. Those zombies had a trait: when they sensed that a host was unhealthy, they would avoid that host. The reason those hosts were unhealthy was because they had been infected with a disease."

"When I watched it, I thought that part was pretty interesting. What do you think?"

Seeing her like this, Li Mu Chuan thought for a moment and told her about the zombie movie he had watched.

Li Qingxiao froze when she heard this. The line of thought Li Mu Chuan mentioned did sound somewhat interesting.

After thinking it over carefully, inspiration suddenly struck Li Qingxiao. There really was something she could draw from Li Mu Chuan's idea.

With that thought, Li Qingxiao hurriedly buried herself in the workbench, doing who knew what.

But Li Mu Chuan could clearly see that Li Qingxiao was extremely excited now.

Half a day later, Li Qingxiao emerged from the workbench and began running the program.

This time, however, things were a little different. When Li Qingxiao entered the data and proposals, she entered them a full eighty-one times.

The computer screen now displayed eighty progress bars as well.

As a result, the computer was clearly running beyond its capacity, and even the fans were roaring loudly.

"Will it work this time?"

Watching this, Li Mu Chuan could not help swallowing.

"It should. I picked more than eighty proposals that I'm fairly confident in. There are still plenty of others I haven't entered."

Li Qingxiao was somewhat nervous as well.

Hearing this, Li Mu Chuan immediately fell silent. Had Li Qingxiao's inspiration exploded this time?

The progress bars on the computer advanced extremely slowly.

Two days later, when night fell once again, Li Mu Chuan finally saw the progress bars nearing one hundred percent.

Seeing this, Li Mu Chuan hurriedly called out to Li Qingxiao.

Li Qingxiao quickly sat up and rushed over to the computer.

"Ding!"

A pleasant chime rang out, followed by a rapid succession of similar sounds.

"Ding ding ding..."

Countless progress bars finished loading, and then countless pop-up windows began appearing. Bright red boxes were the first thing to catch their eyes.

Yet when the two looked closely, they saw an unusual patch of white within those bright red boxes.

White represented success!

Li Qingxiao's heart jolted. She immediately closed all the pop-up windows, revealing the final results for every plan in the upper-right corner of the page.

"Plan One: No match."

"Plan Two: No match."

"Plan Thirteen: 70% compatibility."

"Plan Fourteen: No match."

"Plan Twenty-Eight: 31% compatibility."

"Plan Forty-Six: 81% compatibility."

"Plan Eighty-One: 98% compatibility."

Looking at the data on the computer, Li Qingxiao was trembling with excitement.

After carefully tallying them up, there were two plans with compatibility above 90%, and six above 50%.

There were five plans above 10%!

These results gave Li Qingxiao immense confidence. It meant there was hope for developing the serum.

Li Qingxiao was beside herself with excitement. "Next, we just need to return to the Biological Laboratory and begin the final cultivation and development."

The conditions here were inadequate, so she had no way to conduct the final experiments.

But the Biological Laboratory had sufficient facilities, as well as its own backup power system.

They only needed to go there and activate the backup power system. According to the laboratory's original specifications, it could supply the lab with electricity for a full month without any problem.

And if she were the only one using it, it could probably last several months without any power crisis.

"We're just one final step away. How hard could that be?"

Li Mu Chuan was also overjoyed as he looked at the various compatibility rates displayed on the screen.

If they could develop the serum, then humanity in this world would not perish.

As a human himself, Li Mu Chuan did not want to see a world where humanity had gone extinct.

But Li Qingxiao seemed to have thought of something. She bit her lip lightly, her expression turning conflicted and uneasy.

They were only one step away, but that final step would not be so easy to take.