My Childhood Friend Turned Yandere in the Apocalypse

Chapter 264: Ch 264: New Reforms

Rin had meant to investigate what was happening in the settlement, but he soon got busy looking after other matters. But that did not stop the agitation from rising all around the settlement.

In fact, the situation got so bad that someone ended up throwing a rock at his office window.

The window did not break since it was reinforced, but just the attempt was enough to make Rin sigh and turn toward Collin.

"Is there something going on that I should be aware of?"

Rin asked his butler, and Collin instantly denied his concern.

"There is no need for the young master to worry about anything. We have this whole situation under control. Please do not worry—"

Collin was midway through speaking when another rock collided with the window. It was clear that the thrower had no intention of stopping.

So Rin waited for a third rock to come, but it never did. When he looked out of the window, there was no one outside.

"Young Master, please don’t worry about what is happening. I will take care of it. You can focus on the task at hand."

Collin promised, and Rin felt like he should be doing something. But he left it all up to Collin in the end. His butler could handle this mess...

And if not, then Rin could step in and help him out.

...

The situation around the settlement was tense. Because Rin was gone for longer and longer periods of time, unrest had begun to spread among the people. And some people decided to take advantage of these cracks to stir up trouble.

One such person was Victor, a hunter who had never really amounted to anything. But with his speech-related skill and the sudden unrest, he saw this as his chance to rise.

Victor had never been anything special.

Even before the apocalypse, he had always been someone who blended into the crowd. His grades were average, his work performance was average, and even after becoming a hunter, he remained average.

People like him were forgotten, and Victor hated that.

’Why should people like Rin get everything? Just because he awakened a better power than me? I am just as capable as he is.’

Victor clenched his fists as jealousy bubbled inside him.

He had come to this settlement and had not even gotten a chance to prove that he was worthy of a leadership role.

But with the recent events, he finally had a chance.

With the free medical care gone, people who had depended on it to save money were furious and had started cursing Rin out. Soon, it would spread to even more people.

It would be easy for these tired masses to be manipulated by him.

Victor stood on top of a wooden crate in the middle of the marketplace and looked around. Quite a few people had already gathered there.

Some came because they were curious. Others came because they were angry. But they all served the same purpose for him.

Victor smiled.

"This settlement has changed. We came here because we wanted safety. We wanted someone who would protect us."

His voice echoed through the crowd, and several people nodded.

"But what do we have now?"

Victor raised his voice.

"Our leader keeps leaving whenever he wants."

"He changes the rules without asking anyone."

"And now he has even taken away free treatment from the medical wing."

The crowd became restless. Victor noticed their reactions and immediately continued.

"I understand that resources are limited. I understand sacrifices have to be made."

He paused dramatically.

"But should ordinary people be the ones paying the price every single time?"

Someone shouted from the crowd.

"That’s right!"

Victor smiled internally.

One supporter was enough to start a chain reaction.

"Think about it. What happens if your child gets hurt? What happens if your elderly parents become sick? Will you now have to choose between buying food or buying medicine? What even counts as an emergency?"

The expressions around him became darker. None of them noticed that Victor had carefully exaggerated everything.

Rin had never said treatment would stop. He had only prioritized serious injuries. But Victor deliberately omitted that part.

After all, half-truths were much easier to believe than outright lies.

"I am not saying Rin is evil. I am only saying that perhaps...he has forgotten what ordinary people need. And it is time we remind him of that."

Victor spread his hands innocently, and murmurs spread throughout the crowd.

Someone crossed his arms.

"I heard he’s barely even inside the settlement anymore. How can he look after this place if he is never here?"

Doubt was beginning to creep into people’s minds. The peace of the settlement had clouded their judgment about their own safety and how they had ended up in this settlement.

Once people began questioning Rin’s decisions, they would naturally become less willing to follow him.

And once enough doubt accumulated...

Victor could step forward as the alternative.

He stepped off the crate with a satisfied smile, and several people immediately surrounded him.

Victor felt incredibly lucky to be alive at this moment. And the system seemed to agree with him as well because it flashed before him.

[You have been chosen as a calamity. Would you like to receive incredible power and become a pioneer of the new world?]

Heck, even the system agreed with him at this point. His victory was all but assured.

Unfortunately for Victor, not everyone in the crowd had been convinced. One of the listeners quietly slipped away before the speech had even ended.

The young hunter hurried toward the administration building.

His expression was conflicted.

He had agreed with some of Victor’s words, but something about the speech had felt...wrong.

Victor had only talked about the bad parts. He had ignored the fact that the settlement had grown safer. And he had completely skipped over the monster attacks that Rin personally dealt with.

The hunter hesitated outside Collin’s office before finally knocking.

"Come in."

Collin’s calm voice answered, and the hunter stepped inside nervously.

"Sir...I think there might be someone trying to stir up trouble inside the settlement."

Collin slowly looked up from the documents on his desk.

His expression remained perfectly calm.

"I see."

He folded his hands together.

"Please tell me everything you heard."

The hunter repeated Victor’s speech from beginning to end.

Collin listened without interrupting even once. Only after the story had finished did he close his notebook.

"So...it has finally begun."

He let out a quiet sigh.

Collin had anticipated this.

The moment Rin started making unpopular but necessary decisions, someone was bound to take advantage of the dissatisfaction.

What surprised him was not that someone had acted, but how quickly it had happened.

Collin stood up and adjusted his gloves.

"It seems I have allowed too much vermin to accumulate around the settlement. It is time for me to start cleaning this mess up."