The door finally exploded inward under Gao Tianfang's boot, sending their makeshift barricade flying across the clinic.
Su Jin abandoned his focus on Cheng Du, violently swinging his right arm toward the splintered frame.
He intentionally dragged his wrist across a jagged, deformed piece of the metal bedframe, ripping his flesh open to the bone.
A thick spray of arterial blood shot directly into Gao Tianfang's face.
The crimson splatter instantly coated the monster's eyes, momentarily blinding him.
Seizing that microsecond of distraction, Su Jin sprang backward, instantly coiling the kinetic energy in his legs!
With a feral shout, he launched himself horizontally, driving a brutal dropkick directly into Gao Tianfang's bloody face.
Another direct hit!
However, against a behemoth with Gao Tianfang's apocalyptic stats, the kinetic impact was utterly useless.
The monster merely staggered two steps back before firmly planting his boots.
Just as Su Jin scrambled to grab a bedsheet to smother the monster's head and bleed the clock for an escape—
"Boss! Run!"
Cheng Du, who had been bleeding out on the floor, suddenly lunged. Howling in agony, he threw his arms wide and tackled Gao Tianfang's lower half.
"Cheng Du, don't!"
"AGHHH!!!"
Su Jin's frantic warning froze in his throat.
It was immediately drowned out by Gao Tianfang's agonizing shriek.
Cheng Du hadn't had the strength for a full tackle, so his face had slammed directly into Gao Tianfang's groin.
Operating purely on primal instinct, he unhinged his jaw and viciously clamped his teeth dead center onto the monster's crotch.
"HRRRGH!" Cheng Du's eyes rolled back with the ferocity of a rabid dog, violently shaking his head left and right to tear at the meat.
Before the behemoth could process the crippling pain, Cheng Du hooked his arms behind the monster's knees and violently wrenched upward, sweeping Gao Tianfang off his feet.
Riding a terminal surge of adrenaline, Cheng Du planted his feet against the splintered doorframe and launched them both out into the corridor.
They hit the tiles hard—Gao Tianfang flat on his back, Cheng Du kneeling between his legs.
Another guttural roar tore from Cheng Du's throat. Keeping his jaws clamped down in a death grip, he locked his arms tightly around the monster's knees.
FWOOSH! A massive, roaring pillar of flame erupted directly from Cheng Du's rear... acting as a rocket booster that propelled them both down the hallway like a suicide bobsled, shooting straight for the elevator banks.
Su Jin stumbled out into the corridor, his face twisted in absolute disbelief.
Cheng Du's willingness to sacrifice himself was profound, but this horrific "rocket-propelled crotch-bite" maneuver was seriously testing Su Jin's sanity.
"Cheng Du! Hit the brakes!" Su Jin roared, sprinting after the flaming, sliding spectacle.
But Cheng Du had clearly committed to a kamikaze strike, burning out his remaining life force with zero hesitation.
Battered and exhausted, Su Jin couldn't close the gap.
He could only watch as the tangled mess of Cheng Du and Gao Tianfang rocketed down the hall... before violently smashing through the heavy steel elevator doors and plunging directly into the open shaft.
It was a VIP elevator, likely left jammed open on this floor during the initial outbreak.
The shaft was a void of endless, echoing darkness.
A flickering trail of fire plummeted into the abyss, reflecting in Su Jin's horrified eyes.
"Cheng..." A suffocating wave of grief washed over Su Jin's face.
But less than a second later, a wet, crushing impact echoed from the shaft.
Cheng Du was violently hurled back out of the open doors, a geyser of blood trailing behind him as he cratered into the linoleum.
Su Jin's heart stopped. He sprinted forward, dropping to his knees beside the broken man.
Cradling Cheng Du's head, he saw the man's eyes rolling back. His ribcage was completely caved in, emitting a horrifying, wet rattle with every agonizing gasp.
"Cheng Du, stay with me! This is a hospital... just hold on!"
Cheng Du was rapidly fading into the void, his body entirely limp as Su Jin hauled him up and carried him back into the wrecked clinic.
Dropping Cheng Du onto a blood-stained mattress, Su Jin stared in absolute panic.
What could he do?! What the hell treated a crushed chest cavity? Pure epinephrine? Did they even stock that here?! What else was left?!
As his manic brain scrambled for a medical miracle, Cheng Du's trembling, blood-soaked hand reached up. "Boss... he stopped his fall inside the shaft... he's not dead... go now... I'm a write-off..."
"If there's a next life... I want to be your brother again..."
"Shut your damn mouth! Don't you dare try to manage this department!" Su Jin barked, frantically digging into his tactical pouch.
He pulled out the Emergency Suppository. Staring at the phallic, silicon-like capsule in his palm, Su Jin's face twisted in horrific internal conflict.
The company had issued this item. He had kept it on him as a last resort.
But the sheer design of it felt like a sick, twisted prank by whatever cosmic HR department ran this nightmare.
No sane human would voluntarily utilize something like this.
But he was out of options. It was time for a desperate, unspeakable Hail Mary!
Su Jin violently killed his own sense of shame and aggressively grabbed Cheng Du's hip, rolling him over.
The movement ground Cheng Du's broken ribs together. He gasped in agony, his eyes snapping open. "Boss... what are you doing..."
Su Jin was panting heavily, his eyes darting toward the corridor.
A terrifying, metallic screeching was echoing from the distance...
Inside the dark shaft, Gao Tianfang had wedged himself between the walls. Using his armored limbs, he was violently parkouring straight up the vertical drop like a feral spider.
Concrete dust and shredded elevator cables rained down into the abyss with every cratering impact of his boots.
....
"No time! Cheng Du, keep your mouth shut!"
With Cheng Du completely face-down on the mattress, Su Jin grabbed the waistband of his tactical pants and viciously yanked them down.
Cheng Du hacked up a lungful of blood, his voice cracking in sheer terror. "Boss... I know you value my loyalty... and I'm super flattered... but right now... right now really isn't the time for this!!"
"No, right now is the ONLY time!" Su Jin snarled. Gripping the Emergency Suppository tightly, he lined up the angle and ruthlessly shoved it down.
Cheng Du thrashed weakly against the mattress, tears of panic streaming down his face. "Get out of here! What are you doing?! No, no, no... it doesn't work like this... I'm a top! It's backwards! You've got it all backwards!!"
"It's not fucking backwards! There is no backwards!" Su Jin screamed back, his hands shaking violently as he applied maximum pressure to force the Emergency Suppository all the way in.
Based on the agonizing resistance he was feeling, Cheng Du clearly hadn't been lying about his bedroom preferences.
At that exact, cursed second, Gao Tianfang—radiating apocalyptic fury—stomped through the splintered doorway of the clinic.
Su Jin delivered the final, forceful shove, and violently whipped his head around. His eyes locked perfectly with the armored behemoth's.
"Huh!?"
"Huh!?"
Time seemed to completely stop as the two men stared at each other in utter, paralyzed disbelief...
"HRRRGH... FUCK!! It's burning! What the hell is that?!" Cheng Du wailed in violation and pain.
"You disgusting perverts... right before you die?!" Gao Tianfang's facial muscles twitched in pure revulsion. He immediately aimed a devastating kick straight at the thrashing Cheng Du.
He had already deemed these corporate rats utterly pathetic, but engaging in sodomy on their deathbed?! He should have sterilized them an hour ago.
Breathing the same air as them felt like a biological hazard.
Especially the screaming bottom on the bed!
But Su Jin had anticipated the immediate aggro.
Ducking low, he grabbed the heavy metal frame of the bed and violently hauled it sideways, simultaneously launching a sweeping kick at Gao Tianfang's knees.
The leg sweep was like kicking a concrete pillar. Gao Tianfang didn't budge an inch. He simply pivoted and threw a lethal haymaker down at Su Jin's skull.
Su Jin tucked into a desperate roll, dragging the hospital bed with him as he scrambled deeper into the room.
Just as Gao Tianfang cracked his knuckles to pursue and finish the job, Cheng Du violently spasmed and bolted upright on the mattress!
The horrifically caved-in crater of his chest had completely popped back out, reforming into flawless musculature.
Gao Tianfang froze mid-step, his eyes widening in total bewilderment.
"HOT! SO FUCKING HOT!!" Cheng Du shrieked, frantically fanning his face as thick, suffocating plumes of white smoke began billowing from his throat.
Unable to contain it, he vaulted off the bed, threw his head back, and released an ear-splitting roar.
A geyser of roaring, superheated plasma erupted from his maw, blasting the ceiling tiles and spreading into a canopy of pure fire.
The mutation was cascading. The liquid fire spilling from his lips began to rapidly ignite his skin, cascading down his jaw, chest, and limbs.
Crouched behind the bed, Su Jin stared up at the spectacle in absolute, slack-jawed shock.
Within seconds, Cheng Du's entire physical form was engulfed in raging plasma. He had become a living, breathing inferno—a literal Fire God descending into the apocalypse!