My Childhood Friend Turned Yandere in the Apocalypse

Chapter 242: Ch 242: On and Off

Rin ran as soon as the timer started, but there was a heavy feeling under his feet that slowed him down.

He could tell that it would be difficult to make it to the last safe tile in time because of this. But he should be able to make it...

The ground started shaking as soon as Rin thought that, and he managed to make a shield just in time before a snake emerged from below him to bite him. But all it got was a chunk of ice in its mouth.

Rin took advantage of this momentum to keep running forward. He was almost at the finish line, and he could taste his victory...

But the timer was running dangerously low, causing him to break out into a sweat.

’What should I do? I don’t think I am going to be able to make it to the safe zone...’

Rin had one minute left on the clock, but too much ground to cover. Getting to safety was impossible in his current condition.

So he changed his plans, and instead of aiming for the hard-to-reach safe spot, he chose a neutral zone and immediately used Serena’s ice to form a barrier around himself.

He kept reinforcing it until he could not do it anymore.

The first snake collided with his barrier, and then a second and third. There were over two dozen snakes trying to attack him at the same time, and Rin tried to push past them while keeping the shield intact.

’This is...hard to move through.’

Rin needed concentration to keep the shield up, but it was difficult to do when he needed to move at the same time. He could feel the vibrations of the monsters colliding with the shield and getting hurt as well, which added to him being pushed back.

But Rin kept moving, and there was only one reason behind his persistence: he was not sure if these snakes would go away once the timer hit zero.

He just did not want to take any chances with something like that.

[The timer will start now. Please get to the safe zone.]

The system reminded Rin, and he nodded as he kept pushing forward. He had one final stretch to cover. But the snakes were making it impossible to move.

So Rin made a decision.

He decided to jump up but left his barrier intact. That allowed the snakes to keep attacking the barrier while paying him no attention, and he was able to sneak past them and toward the last safe spot.

Some snakes noticed his movement and tried to follow him, but he formed another barrier around himself.

By the time the first one melted and the snakes realized he was not there, it was too late. He had already made it to the last safe spot.

[Congratulations, Rookie. You are almost there. Make sure you look left and right before you take off, alright?]

The system congratulated him and warned him at the same time. But it was not like the system to do such unnecessary things.

Then...there must be a reason behind it.

Rin was willing to bet that the danger was not over yet...and he was right.

He had not even taken ten steps away from the safe zone when the monsters started to crawl toward him.

If he fought these monsters, then he could be delayed from getting to the finish line. But it was not like he could ignore these monsters either, especially since they were blocking his way.

’Is the only way across really blasting these poor monsters that don’t seem to have a will of their own?’

That thought crossed Rin’s mind for a single second before he drove it away.

He could not afford to think like this if he was going to make it through this round.

Rin took a deep breath before he started running toward the end. He knew he needed to make it before he fainted from exhaustion.

’This is too hard! I feel like I am about to collapse.’

He complained, but he kept running despite everything.

The monsters kept attacking him, and he defended against them. But he was the first to admit that his defense was not the best. Because of this, he kept getting unnecessary injuries that were easy to avoid.

Thankfully, he did not break anything and somehow made it all the way to the end.

[Congratulations on clearing the task. New data has been updated. New verdict—the current task was not challenging enough. Need to up the difficulty of the task.]

Rin felt like his soul was leaving his body as soon as he read those words.

"Not difficult enough? Can’t you see the condition I am in right now? What kind of ’not challenging’ do you see in this task?"

Rin complained and got an instant response.

[Please don’t be so angry, Rookie! Didn’t you make it all the way across to the other side without getting seriously hurt even once? Can you truly call a task like this ’dangerous?’]

The system bullshitted again, and Rin could immediately tell that it had no intention of listening to him. It was going to do what it wanted anyway.

"Fine! Make things more difficult. I don’t care at this point."

Rin complained while rubbing his forehead and watching the space around him collapse.

He quickly returned to his room and looked at the system reward window.

[Task 12 completed. Regular reward will be awarded.]

[You are the only one who completed the ’Snake and Ladders’ game on hard difficulty. You will be given an additional reward.]

[You have been awarded a Chaos Core. Please ensure you are in a safe space before you absorb it.]

[Warning: Absorbing the core can cause memory loss, and you may even lose consciousness and experience body pain for a while. Please ensure you are in a safe space before you use this core.]

The warnings came one after another, causing Rin to feel overwhelmed.

He looked at the core in his inventory with a mixture of happiness and hesitation, not knowing what he wanted to do with it.

Was it...truly fine for him to use this core? Even if he had to risk losing his memories, did he...want to try and use it?

Or was it too much for a rookie like him to handle?