Liu Dong

The doctor held a chainsaw. Half his white coat was stained with blood, and his face was as pale as a corpse.

Wang Long froze when he saw him. "Liu? H-how did you end up like this?"

Liu Dong had been Wang Long's close friend in college. As students, they had been known as the medical school's two prodigies. They had taken the graduate entrance exams together, pursued their doctorates together, and even joined the same hospital after graduation.

After they started working, Wang Long had become a department chief at a remarkably young age.

But now, Wang Long could already tell something was wrong with his old friend.

Liu Dong usually called him "Wang." He only called him "Chief Wang" when he was joking.

This clearly wasn't the time for jokes, though, and Liu Dong looked very strange!

"Wang, you know what? I've been waiting for this day all along. I knew it would come sooner or later," Liu Dong said with relish, madness in his eyes.

"What are you talking about? Put the chainsaw down! We can handle this. Come with us. Someone can protect us." Wang Long held both hands out, trying to calm him down as though he were dealing with a terrorist.

Liu Dong sneered twice, his expression twisting viciously. "Hah! You can handle it again! You've been like this since college. Always you can handle it, you can handle it! You're a genius! So what if you're a genius? Does that make you so damn special?

"Do you know what those people said behind our backs while calling us the medical school's two prodigies to our faces? They said all I could do was memorize books. They said I was a dumbass who couldn't handle relationships!

"You're so amazing! You pick everything up right away, while I have to stay up all night memorizing books and go over things again and again just to reach your level. You understand everything. You know perfectly well I'm nowhere near as good as you. So why do you keep pretending I'm your equal?

"Hah! Is it because every pretty girl needs an ugly friend, and every genius needs a bookworm beside him?"

"Liu, what the hell's gotten into you? What are you talking about?"

"You even gave our advisor gifts on holidays... yes! Your family has money. You can give gifts whenever you like, and when they come from a genius student like you, how could our advisor not like them?

"But why did you have to drag me into it? Why did you have to give our advisor gifts on my behalf?

"Did I need that? Did I ever ask you to help me?" Liu Dong roared. "You had real ability, but you still pulled that kind of crap! People like you are the ones who ruin the rules!"

The tirade left Wang Long's head buzzing. He barely recognized the friend in front of him.

The Liu Dong he knew was hardworking, modest, and grounded. He had always dismissed other people's gossip and would never have said anything so hurtful.

Wang Long hurriedly turned to Xia Shou. "Xia Shou, give me a little time! He probably isn't an Anomalous Entity yet. He's just not thinking straight."

"He is still human, but he's no longer the person you knew."

Xia Shou watched Su Weiyu circle behind Liu Dong and press her katana against his neck. Liu Dong remained completely unaware.

Since he couldn't see Su Weiyu, that meant he still counted as human, but...

Xia Shou used his mirror to check the anomalous patient behind them, the one reduced to a torso. The patient was no longer trying to approach them. Instead, he writhed frantically, trying to get away from Liu Dong, as though the doctor holding the chainsaw were something utterly terrifying.

"There's not much time left... just one more, and I can become a full-fledged doctor! Just one more! Hahahaha!"

The chainsaw roared to life. Like the killer from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Liu Dong raised it high and charged at them, laughing wildly.

Su Weiyu timed her move and tripped him, then drove her blade straight through his knees with two thrusts.

Liu Dong hit the floor. The chainsaw flew out of his hands and slid to Xia Shou's feet, where Xia Shou pinned it beneath his shoe.

"He's so weak," Su Weiyu said, puzzled. "Why does that patient seem so scared of him? He's no stronger than an ordinary person."

"No idea, but he just said he was running out of time and only needed one more. Is he trying to meet some quota within a time limit?" Xia Shou walked over to Liu Dong and crouched in front of him.

Wang Long hurried over beside him. "Liu! Snap out of it. Something happened to you, didn't it?"

Liu Dong spread his lips in a chilling, crazed grin. He stared at Wang Long with wild eyes. "Wang! Wang, you've always helped me. Help me one more time! I'm begging you. I want to live! I only need one more. Let's take him over there, and I'll make you my trainee assistant. Then you can live too!"

After saying that, he looked at his palm. There was a clock design on it that looked like a tattoo, but its second hand was moving. The minute hand was almost at twelve. Just a few more revolutions of the second hand would bring it to the twelve o'clock mark.

"Wang, there's something I need to tell you. Come closer. I'll tell you this place's secret." Liu Dong's smile suddenly faded, and the madness left his eyes, replaced by a furtive, unsettling look.

Wang Long leaned closer in a daze. The instant he approached Liu Dong, Xia Shou reached out and yanked him back.

"Watch out!"

In the next second, the hand Liu Dong had kept pinned beneath his body whipped out like lightning. A sharp scalpel flew from between his fingers and skimmed past Wang Long's neck. A fraction closer, and it would have sliced open his carotid artery.

"Fuck! Fuck! There's no time! I'm out of time! Just die!"

Liu Dong roared madly, stretching both hands forward with all his strength, trying to reach Wang Long's neck.

If Su Weiyu hadn't kept her foot planted on his back, he might have strangled Wang Long to death.

Seeing his old friend like this left Wang Long utterly petrified. He stood rooted to the spot, mouth hanging open, unable to move.

At the same time, the second hand on Liu Dong's palm completed its final revolution. The minute and second hands overlapped at twelve, and his arms fell limply. His crazed eyes suddenly cleared, and his expression was no longer vicious.

Liu Dong looked at Wang Long with a wretched, apologetic smile. Cracks spread across his face like shattered porcelain. When he spoke, his voice was gentle. "Wang, I'm sorry. Those things I said just now... I really did think them before, but I've always considered you my best friend. I..."

As though realizing he no longer had time to apologize or express his feelings, Liu Dong abandoned his final words and went straight to the most important information. "There's no time. The exit isn't here. It's on the other side... and don't become a doctor! Whatever you do, don't become a doctor."

The instant his final word left his lips, his entire body broke apart into hard, brittle fragments.

"Liu! Liu!" Wang Long reached out with trembling hands and picked up the fragments from the floor.

They were hard and brittle, like broken porcelain, crumbling at the slightest squeeze.

Xia Shou patted Wang Long on the shoulder and stood up. "Doctor Wang, we need to go. Don't let Doctor Liu's final effort be for nothing."