XG 101 -  Infertility side effect

"My elder brother has the gene too, but his ability is too strong. He's advised not to do it unless there's no other choice, or at least until Director Choi's research team comes up with a better nutrient pill."

Suzie Yap had told them that after Chen YiWen had activated his gene, he was bedridden for nearly a month. His body was awfully thin and it was a miracle he was still alive in that dry husk state. He had to eat a lot to regain his mobility, which was difficult at that time when food was scarce.

It was truly different than now where they had people with the luxury to think up of ways to grow food and succeed.

"I would be more useful if I have an ability." Chen Yibo wanted to be strong in order to protect his family.

"But… no one had tested it yet. Why would you volunteer as part of the first batch?"

"There is not much difference between volunteering now or later." Chen Yibo shrugged. "Doing it now would allow me to help guard the base when others started to Awaken their genes and be in an unguarded state."

Wong Xue Guo's heart moved. "Doing now also avoids facing the risk of food reduction." With an increasing number of people awakening their genes, their food storage will definitely take a great hit.

Look at Vihaan, he still needs to eat a lot to recharge himself after using his ability too much.

Thinking to that extent, Wong Xue Guo also signed up as a volunteer. Besides, she was also curious about what her ability would be that the enemies would be wary of to purposely go out of their way to kill her.

After that, she stayed inside the laboratory as she waited to be called.

"Guo Guo." Suzie Yap entered the training room Wong Xue Guo had occupied. It was her tone and serious expression that told Wong Xue Guo there was something wrong. Plus, her mother usually called her 'baby' lately.

"Mother," Wong Xue Guo greeted and her gaze fell onto the person following behind Suzie Yap.

It had been more than five days since the last time Wong Xue Guo had seen Chen Yibo. Who would have thought the sentence, 'absence makes the heart fonder' would be true?

Wong Xue Guo's EQ was not bad, and she has gradually realized her change of feelings towards Chen Yibo. Even after recognizing it, she refused to accept it, as she only had a change of heart because Chen Yibo treated her well.

There was no way she could let herself fall so easily and cheaply.

But the more she tried to undermine Chen Yibo's attributes, the more she discovered they were merely trifling worries which she no longer held the same degree of dislike for them as she did long ago.

Chen Yibo was the type of innocent, upright, and caring guy that many women would want in their stable, fulfilling and lasting relationship.

Suzie Yap did not notice her daughter's unnatural stance. "I'm here to pick you up for the briefing with other volunteers."

Wong Xue Guo's eyes lit up, just as nervousness grew. Briefly making herself presentable after her training, she followed her mother out of the training room and to where the briefing would be held.

When they entered the room, there were already people inside and waiting. They were actually the last to arrive.

Randomly counting, there were around twenty volunteers, and all of them were either station guards or Charles Wong's gang members. Hong Yan and Lan Yan had wanted to volunteer as well, but both of them did not have the gene.

It was surprising that the gang members would show such great support to their boss while none of Suzie Yap's bodyguards volunteered. Her assistant, Aurora, unfortunately, does not have the gene.

Chen Yibo gestured to Wong Xue Guo to follow him to take a seat with others.

Suzie Yap stood in front of the room, her presence alone enough to bring everyone's attention to her without needing to purposely do it. "All of you had volunteered to do a trial experiment to activate your Alpha genes. The trial date will be exactly one week from now and today I will be doing a briefing on what to expect, including some side effects we recently discovered."

Without Wong Xue Guo’s prompting first, Chen Yibo had already leaned closer and whispered to her ears, translating what Suzie Yap said from Crocus language to English. Ignoring the slight itch from his breath, she regulated her breathing and focused on what he said.

Hearing the word side effects, most of the volunteers started to waver. Even Wong Xue Guo, who had finished listening to the translation from Chen Yibo, was a little worried. But if her parents still choose to be a volunteer, it should not be something dangerous, right?

"As we all know, we will need a lot of food during the activation process, which the lab will provide for the volunteers of the first trial. Our early participation will also help the researchers' gather more information about the Alpha gene. As this is a trial, we had to expect there would be some that failed the gene activation.

"What will happen if the process fails?” Someone raised his hand and asked after getting permission to speak.

“You will be a ‘failure’, or ‘zombie’, as most of us call them.”

The guard that asked the question shivered in fear, likely had the mind to pull out his name from the volunteer list.

Suzie Yap gazed around the group of volunteers. “We will definitely kill those that failed the process, so you can all be assured that your zombie self will not harm anyone.”

That was not a good assurance at all!

“Will our family still be allowed to stay in the base if… we failed?” Someone tentatively asked.

“Before you will join the experiment, you will be asked to sign a consent form. One of the clauses includes taking care of your immediate family members for five years after your death. After five years, they are required to leave the base if they could not contribute anything to the base.”

The one who asked the question pursed his lips, assured that his family would still be allowed to stay after his death, but worried that they could only stay for five years. Five years was short, but in this apocalypse era, five years was now considered long.

“Would the apocalypse end after five years?” Wong Xue Guo heard someone whispering the question from behind her, but no one answered.

“Moving on.” Suzie Yap gets everyone’s attention back to her again. “The second change we will see after activating our Alpha gene is losing a lot of our weight, in exchange for gaining more strength with sharper senses and slightly faster self-healing ability. You will also have a unique ability. Do take into account that those benefits will need to be maintained with great food consumption. Food storage isn’t something we will need to worry about for now, because we have a team that is working hard to create more food by planting and growing them on our large land. As long as we do our part, no one will short charge our food intake.”

The second point was already known by everyone so no one raised any question about it.

“Third, one of the latest side effects we discover is infertility. It is normal for us to raise the number of our population once the contagious infection is under control, and our infertility will not affect it because there are more people without the gene than those who do. They could help us raise our population.”

A female volunteer quickly raised her hand and asked anxiously, “Is the infertility side effect confirmed? What if infertility only happens to certain people?”

“It’s confirmed, and happens to all awakened people.”

“... No way.”

“Those that activated their gene naturally will not suffer the infertility side effect, but the fertility rate will still be reduced. However!” Suzie Yap raised her voice when the woman’s face recovered from her gloom. “Activating your gene using that method will depend on a person’s physiological bottom line. We are not clear on how to have it triggered on the first try and it will inflict mental trauma from experimenting with it. Please understand that the researchers will take no part in advising anyone in using this dangerous and untested method.”

Suzie Yap’s words cleared the minds of those volunteers that momentarily considered activating their genes naturally.

“Is there a way to cure the infertility issue?” the same woman asked.

“Do you think we will place priority on solving it now? Are you that confident in protecting yourself and your newborn child at the same time?" Suzie Yap challenged.

“... No,” the woman answered reluctantly. In fact, some even hoped they would not get pregnant in this dangerous era!

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