Apocalypse System: The Disabled Doctor

Chapter 6. Shadow Behind the Mist

"Kill that crippled bastard right this instant!"

​Bryan hurled his crystal glass of red wine against the wall of the underground bunker. Shards of glass shattered, soaking the expensive silk carpet inherited from his father. The handsome surgeon's face was now flushed deep red, consumed by explosive rage.

​The giant monitor screen in front of him displayed the CCTV footage from the ground-floor hallway of the Central Hospital. The camera lens was half-covered in the thick blood of his own elite guard.

​"How the hell did that crippled janitor survive being surrounded by those walking corpses?" Bryan violently slammed his fist down on the intercom button on his control desk. "Explain to me exactly how our elite guard was slaughtered by a man who mops floors!"

​The security operator on the other end swallowed hard. He sounded absolutely terrified. "We are detecting an unnatural body temperature anomaly from the target, Young Master. Based on our movement analysis, the speed and precision of the target's left hand have increased by thousands of percent, vastly exceeding the anatomical limits of a normal human."

​Bryan's eyes widened in sheer disbelief at the report. His mind raced, desperately searching for a rational answer. His medical logic flat-out rejected the facts. Permanent peripheral nerve paralysis simply could not be cured without dozens of hours of highly complex neurosurgery.

​One utterly horrifying possibility struck Bryan's brain like a sledgehammer.

​"That damn prototype chip!" Bryan slammed his hands onto the metal desk in front of him. "That wretched bastard must have swallowed my father's highly coveted biometric chip right before those monsters pounced on him. The nanotechnology inside that chip has forcibly rewoven his DNA and nervous system."

​Bryan realized that this biological apocalypse had just birthed a monster far more lethal than the dozens of walking corpses outside. Zac now held the absolute key to evolution, the very thing the Scorpion clan desired most. If Zac was allowed to live, that crippled young man would become the deadliest thorn in the side of his mafia empire.

​"Contact Captain Viktor!" Bryan issued an absolute command into the microphone. "Deploy the Black Cleanup Squad to that hospital right this second! Bring me that boy's head and spine completely intact! I want that prototype chip ripped out of his corpse tonight!"

​"The assault helicopter has already arrived at the location, Young Master," the operator replied swiftly. "The Black Cleanup Squad has just breached the roof of the hospital."

​In the ground-floor hallway of the hospital, a red laser dot glowed brightly right in the center of Zac's forehead.

​Zac's predatory instincts reacted far faster than the speed of sound. The system pumped pure adrenaline directly into his bloodstream. His right calf muscle contracted, kicking hard backward against the tiled floor. His body launched backward into the air, slicing through the empty space.

​Three high-caliber bullets punched through the concrete wall exactly where his head had been a fraction of a second prior. Cement shrapnel flew outward, grazing the tip of his rubber boot.

​The deafening roar of automatic assault rifle fire shattered the dead silence of the hallway. Hot lead zipped rapidly through the air, obliterating the glass windows of the registration desk and chewing away the support pillars all around Zac.

​"They are using armor-piercing ammunition." Zac landed smoothly behind a massive concrete pillar. "These are no longer low-level guards. The Scorpion clan sent their absolute best hunting dogs tonight."

​[The system detects five military-grade automatic-firearm-equipped entities. Their helmet visors are equipped with thermal body temperature sensors. The calculation for direct physical confrontation currently yields a ninety-eight percent probability of failure.]

​The system flashed a critical warning across Zac's retinas.

​"I do not need your cowardly calculations." Zac stared at his reflection in a cracked mirror on the hallway wall.

​Five heavily built men clad in all-black combat gear fanned out across the main lobby area. Thick Kevlar bulletproof vests protected their chests. Their military tactical formation was incredibly tight, meticulously covering every single blind spot. The barrels of their rifles never lowered, aggressively tracking every dark corner of the room. Their thermal goggles blinked green, piercing through the thick dust kicked up by the shattered glass roof.

​"The target is moving toward the east wing corridor," Captain Viktor's heavy voice rumbled from behind his protective mask. "Form a clean-sweep formation. Shoot to kill any moving object in front of you. The target is a highly valuable biological asset. Do not destroy the head if it can be avoided."

​Zac pressed his back tightly against the concrete pillar. Attempting to use pure physical strength to attack five heavily armed soldiers in a wide-open area was absolutely ridiculous suicide. The pistol he had acquired from the previous guard was left far behind near a puddle of blood. Zac's only weapon was his silver scalpel, which had a striking range of less than one meter.

​He had to use his tactical brilliance to completely turn the tables.

​"Show me the absolute fastest evacuation route to the medical records room at the end of this corridor." Zac issued a rapid instruction to the system inside his head.

​[Evacuation route mapped. Second-level warning. The host's movement will generate an incredibly clear heat signature on the enemies' thermal goggle displays. Attempting to evade without a visual thermal cover carries a highly critical risk of instant death.]

​"I will manufacture my own thermal cover." Zac narrowed his gaze, locking onto a red fire extinguisher hanging on the wall directly across the hallway.

​The distance between his protective pillar and the dark hallway leading to the records room was exactly ten meters. That distance felt impossibly far when he had to cross it under a hail of armor-piercing bullets.

​Zac took a deep breath. He twirled the silver scalpel expertly between the fingers of his left hand. He threw the silver metal with all his might toward the opposite wall.

​The blade zipped through the air and struck the lever of the fire extinguisher with absolute, pinpoint precision.

​The metal pressure lever snapped off instantly. High-pressure carbon dioxide gas sprayed out with incredible force. Plumes of freezing white smoke filled the hallway in a matter of seconds. The ambient temperature in the corridor plummeted drastically, instantly ruining the initial calibration of the Black Cleanup Squad's thermal goggles. The green screens in the assassins' eyes completely whited out.

​"The target is using a fire extinguisher to disrupt our sensors!" Captain Viktor barked, issuing a firm command. "Fire blindly into the white mist! Do not let him slip away!"

​Dozens of bullets spewed from the barrels of the assault rifles, shredding the tiled walls and wooden doors all along the east corridor. The explosive sounds of the ammunition echoed deafeningly, bringing down the remaining neon light fixtures from the ceiling.

​Zac did not waste a single second. The moment the first bullet was fired, his body had already launched across the floor. He crawled at lightning speed, diving straight through the freezing carbon dioxide mist. The thick white smoke flawlessly masked his body's heat signature from the enemies' sights.

​Live rounds whizzed a mere inch above his back, tearing through the fabric of his shirt. Zac completely ignored the minor scratches on his skin. He successfully pushed through the dark hallway and slipped inside the medical storage area. As he passed the fire extinguisher, his hand swiftly yanked his scalpel free from where it was embedded in the wall.

​"One to zero in favor of my cunning." Zac smirked faintly, leaning his back against the thick wooden door of the records room.

​[The host's kinetic energy has depleted by two percent due to high-speed reflex movements. Remaining power capacity is currently at fifty-eight percent.]

​The system reminded him yet again of the rapidly ticking countdown clock on his life.

​"Exactly how long will it take for that white mist to evaporate completely?" Zac stared into the pitch-black hallway ahead, rapidly formulating a plan for a counter-massacre.

​[Estimated evaporation time for the carbon dioxide gas is forty seconds. The enemies will immediately recalibrate their thermal sensors once the ambient air temperature stabilizes within normal thresholds.]

​At the end of the corridor, Captain Viktor gave a closed-fist hand signal to his four squad members. The barrage of gunfire ceased instantly, leaving only the sound of empty brass casings clinking as they hit the ceramic floor.

​"The target has infiltrated the medical records area." Captain Viktor twisted the dial on his thermal goggles, resetting the infrared temperature calibration. "He is incredibly cunning and agile. Do not underestimate him just because he is unarmed. Activate heartbeat trackers. We will hunt him down like a rat in the sewer."

​Zac heard those tactical instructions with absolute clarity. His hearing had been drastically sharpened by the medical system in his brain. This squad was truly a pack of high-class, professional killing machines. They did not panic upon losing their target; instead, they immediately escalated their hunting methods to be far more lethal and calculated.

​"Heartbeat trackers..." Zac murmured softly, deeply analyzing his current greatest weakness.

​His heart had literally just been shocked back to life by a five-million-volt current mere minutes ago. His current heart rate was pounding far faster and harder than a normal human's. His heart was working overtime, frantically pumping blood to supply kinetic energy to every muscle in his body. That thumping rhythm would absolutely light up like a distress beacon on his enemies' advanced radar screens.

​[Advising the host to execute advanced biological camouflage. The host must drastically lower their external body temperature and muffle the sound of their heartbeat using an external dampening medium.]

​Zac racked his genius brain, desperately searching for a way out. His eyes scanned the pitch-black medical records room. This room was adjacent to the hallway of the infected corpse quarantine block. The metallic stench of fresh blood was still wafting strongly through the shattered air vents.

​A brilliant yet utterly disgusting idea flashed through Zac's mind.

​Humanity was entirely dead tonight. Zac would not hesitate to commit even the most grotesque act if it ensured he made it out of this assassin squad's encirclement alive.

​"I am going to turn this hunt completely upside down." Zac twirled his silver scalpel, stepping slowly toward the air vent that connected to the hallway of the walking corpses. "They want to hunt a terrified rat. I will give them a bloodsucking nocturnal apex predator."

​The stomping of the Black Cleanup Squad's steel-toed combat boots echoed closer and closer, slicing through the dead silence of the east corridor. Their tight formation flawlessly sealed off every possible avenue of escape. Red laser dots swept over every single inch of the floor and walls, hunting for even the slightest suspicious movement.

​Zac had to work at an impossibly fast, logic-defying speed before the wooden door of this records room was violently kicked open from the outside. A brutal physical confrontation was now entirely unavoidable. The Scorpion clan was about to find out they had made a fatal error by waking up the wrong demon tonight.

​The red laser dot from the barrel of a sniper rifle began to sweep the gap under the wooden door where Zac was hiding. Absolute death was now merely five steps away from his cold face.