My Childhood Friend Turned Yandere in the Apocalypse

Chapter 259: Ch 259: You are just like me

"Rin-"

Shelly’s voice echoed inside Rin’s ears, and his first instinct was to turn around and head toward her. After all, she was not supposed to follow him in here.

[Rookie, do not turn back now. If you do, then you won’t get another chance to grab the core. Please focus all your energy on the core.]

The system snapped at him to get to work, and Rin gritted his teeth but decided that it was better to listen to the system at the moment.

Getting the core and putting an end to this calamity were the most important things right now.

The walls threatened to cave in around him, but Rin kept running toward the center. He had only one goal in mind—to grab the core and get out.

But the second he tried to touch the core, it repelled him.

"What is happening? Why is it repelling me like this?"

Rin asked in a serious voice.

This had never happened to him before, so he was not sure how to deal with it. But the system seemed to know what this meant.

[The core has issued you a challenge to see if you are worthy of using it or not. Please accept the challenge in order to prove your worth.]

Rin took a deep breath before he nodded and took on the heavy burden. He reached toward the core again, and it started to burn his hand.

But Rin kept pushing until his hand grabbed the core.

"Is it over?"

He questioned, letting the tension bleed out of his body. But that was a mistake on his part.

The core pulsed in his hand before it started to swallow him. Rin let out a pained yell as he felt his consciousness being pulled into the core.

There was a blinding flash of light, and when he opened his eyes, he was no longer inside the calamity but in a room with a table.

"Am I...supposed to sit at that table?"

Rin questioned, but there was no answer. In fact, the system did not even respond when he called for it. It all felt a little too much for him.

"Ugh, where am I? And what am I supposed to do here?"

Usually, the system told Rin what he was supposed to do and how he was supposed to handle the situation. But he was not totally useless without the system either. So he decided to head toward the table and sit down.

He sensed another presence as soon as he relaxed, and he noticed another humanoid figure sitting beside him at the table.

"Who are you?"

The faceless silhouette asked Rin, and he wondered if he should lie here.

But there was no benefit to lying, so Rin decided to tell the truth.

"My name is Rin Kalos. I am just an ordinary human here to take the core of the calamity. What about you? Who are you, and what are you doing here?"

Rin asked the faceless man, trying to get some answers. But the entity remained silent for a few seconds.

That featureless mass of black looked at Rin, and he had a feeling he was being judged at the moment.

So he sat still and allowed the other side to look at him as much as they wanted.

Finally, the faceless entity decided to speak once more. But its words were not something Rin expected.

"Hmm, so you are the one my daughter Shelly is obsessed with? I do see the reason behind it. You are a charming young man who is also resolute."

The entity spoke, and Rin felt his breath hitch in his throat at the declaration.

He opened and closed his mouth, not knowing what to say anymore.

After all, seeing Shelly’s father like this was not on his list of things to do. Moreover, he did not even know if he believed this person. He had never even seen Shelly’s father before.

His shock must have shown clearly because the faceless entity chuckled in amusement.

"Are you that shocked that I know about Shelly and keep an eye on her? Karina kept telling me all about how she was going to have a baby, after all. I might have been half-dead, but the system kept me alive just enough to know what she was saying."

With the system involved, anything was possible. Suddenly, Rin had a feeling he knew how this man had survived for such a long time.

"Anyway, that is not important. You are here to take my core now, and I have deemed you worthy of it. So follow me. I will take you to my core now."

The entity stood up, and Rin felt compelled to follow that command. He entered the next room with the faceless entity, and the core was right in front of him.

"Go on! You are free to take the core back with you."

The entity told Rin, but the way he spoke left a lot to be questioned. It also made Rin nervous, almost as if he was not supposed to be here. But he forced these thoughts aside and kept walking.

The entity disappeared at some point, and the room turned dark. But Rin was not afraid of the dark.

What frightened him was when someone grabbed his arm and tried to pull him back.

"Rin, don’t take that core. You will lose yourself to the system if you take that core."

A soft and unfamiliar voice whispered in his ear, and Rin felt like he needed to stop and turn back.

"I cannot turn back now. Stop telling me what to do!"

Rin yelled, and that helped him break free of the voice that was calling out to him. He took a few more steps when more and more hands started to clutch at him.

"Don’t go!"

"You cannot do this!"

"You will lose yourself! Don’t give up your humanity!"

The voices demanded, their presence urging Rin to turn back before it was too late. But it was already too late for that.

Rin reached the end of the darkness and wrapped his hands around the core.

"I am sorry. I don’t think I was ever human to begin with."