My Childhood Friend Turned Yandere in the Apocalypse

Chapter 286: Ch 286: Last Warning

Rin felt as though he had fallen into an endless dream.

His surroundings had disappeared completely. There was no battlefield, no settlement, and not even the familiar system windows floating before his eyes.

Instead, he stood inside an endless white world where everything was silent. The silence was so absolute that it almost felt oppressive.

"...Where am I?"

His own voice sounded distant, as though it belonged to someone else.

Instinctively, Rin tried to take a step forward, only to discover that his body would not obey him. His legs refused to move. Even raising a single finger felt impossible.

A strange sensation brushed against his wrist.

Rin lowered his gaze and immediately froze. A thin silver thread had wrapped itself around his arm.

It was so delicate that it almost looked invisible, yet the moment he noticed it, another thread quietly coiled itself around his other wrist. Then another appeared around his ankle, followed by one around his neck.

Before long, more and more threads emerged from the empty white space surrounding him.

They wrapped around his elbows.

His shoulders.

His waist.

His knees.

Even his fingers.

Within seconds, every joint in his body had been claimed by those shimmering strings.

"What..."

Rin frowned before instinctively trying to pull his hand free.

[Initiating first take-over. Running simulation test to check for accuracy of the task.]

The thread immediately tightened. His arm rose into the air without his permission. His fingers slowly unfolded before curling back into a fist.

His own body had stopped listening to him.

"No..."

Rin gritted his teeth and forced his arm downward with all the strength he could muster.

For a brief moment, it worked.

His hand trembled before moving several centimeters against the thread’s pull.

A small sense of accomplishment flashed across his face.

’I can still resist.’

That thought had barely crossed his mind when dozens of new threads suddenly emerged from nowhere.

Every thread connected itself to his body with frightening precision.

The moment Rin resisted once, ten more appeared. When he resisted those ten, another hundred followed.

It was as though the dream itself was adapting to his struggle.

"You..."

Rin continued pushing against the invisible restraints, refusing to surrender no matter how many strings appeared around him.

The silver strings slowly disappeared beneath his skin until they looked less like ropes and more like veins connected directly to his body.

Pain spread throughout every part of him.

His muscles screamed. His bones felt as though they were being crushed.

Still...

Rin refused to stop struggling.

"If you think...I’ll just give up...

He muttered through clenched teeth.

[Resistance is futile. Your will shall be crushed]

The threads around his chest suddenly contracted.

His words immediately stopped and his lungs refused to expand.

Rin desperately tried to inhale, but nothing happened.

It felt as though someone had wrapped chains around his ribs before squeezing them tighter and tighter.

[Calculating future actions. Probability of the future correction will now begin.]

The system was no longer hiding its presence and it was openly controlling Rin. It felt like his body was on fire as he tried to fight against it.

Dark spots gradually appeared before his eyes as his strength began to fail him.

’So this...’

His thoughts were becoming sluggish.

’...is how it plans to break me...’

Just as his consciousness began slipping away, a warm golden light appeared within the endless white world.

Rin slowly lifted his head.

Standing several dozen meters away was the enormous golden tree he had seen before.

No...

The system was not taking any chances. Digital numbers began floating around Rin as the system began to calculate its next course of action.

One of its branches slowly stretched toward Rin.

The movement was gentle, patient and almost affectionate. As though it had all the time in the world. The branch stopped only a short distance from Rin’s face.

Golden leaves lightly brushed against his forehead.

The moment they touched him, countless system windows suddenly appeared around him.

[Subject #00 synchronization progress: 96.4%.]

[Predicting future.]

[Calculating possible outcomes.]

The windows multiplied faster than Rin could read them.

One after another.

[Future A: Subject willingly accepts integration.]

[Success Rate: 99.97%.]

Another window replaced it almost instantly.

[Future B: Subject continues resisting.]

[Success Rate: 0.00008%.]

Another.

[Future C: Forced assimilation.]

[Success Rate: 100%.]

The predictions continued endlessly. And the more Rin saw, the more he felt like he knew nothing about the system and his own self.

He wanted to say that he won’t give up so easily, but the system had yet to be wrong about these things.

’I cannot hesitate. I cannot give the system an opening to deceive me.’

No matter which calculation appeared before him, every single one ended with exactly the same conclusion.

[Host acquisition successful.]

[Individual consciousness erased.]

[System restored.]

Rin’s breathing grew heavier despite the threads preventing him from inhaling properly.

"So...you’ve already decided my future. Do you think I will roll over and allow you?"

He slowly looked toward the shining branch.

The branch gave no answer.

Instead, another notification quietly appeared before him.

[Resistance detected.]

[Correction process will continue.]

[Subject happiness probability after integration: 100%.]

Something inside Rin finally snapped.

"Happiness?"

He laughed bitterly.

"You call becoming your puppet happiness?"

His voice echoed throughout the empty world.

The threads immediately tightened once again, crushing his bones and making him feel pain like he had never felt before.

And yet, Rin refused to break because he knew that if he did, it would all be over.

"I’ve spent this entire apocalypse protecting everyone..."

His voice became steadier with every word.

"I fought until I couldn’t stand."

"I watched people die."

"I watched others sacrifice themselves."

"And now..."

His eyes narrowed.

"...you expect me to hand everything over because your calculations say I should?"

The system clearly did not care, but it also stopped bothering Rin after that. It happily moved his body as it needed.

Then...

Something changed.

Buzz.

A strange distortion spread across several system windows. The calculations suddenly paused. Another electronic buzz echoed throughout the dream.

Buzz.

Several notifications flickered violently before breaking apart into countless fragments.

[Error...]

[Unknown interference detected.]

The golden branch stopped moving.

For the first time...

The perfect calculations hesitated.

Rin immediately noticed the opportunity. One of the threads around his wrist had loosened which was barely enough to notice.

But it was enough.

Without wasting a single second, Rin forced every remaining ounce of strength into his arm.

The threads dug deeper into his skin causing blood to slowly trickle down his wrist.

His muscles screamed in agony as his body protested the injury and told him that he needed to run or attack the intruder back.

The calculations began glitching faster.

Entire rows of predictions disappeared.

[Recalculating...]

[Recalcula—]

[Erro—]

The thread around his wrist finally snapped. And his body fell to the ground. Rin felt like he was free, and his whole body rejoiced in pain and pleasure as he was allowed to feel his own flesh and will.

But the system was still present in the corner, causing Rin to feel agitated.

"I..."

Another thread snapped.

"...am..."

The calculations collapsed into meaningless symbols.

"...not..."

The golden branch cracked down its center.

"...your..."

Every remaining thread shattered simultaneously.

"...vessel!"

The entire dream collapsed around him.

The white world fragmented into countless pieces, and the last thing Rin heard before his consciousness returned was the system desperately trying to restore itself.

[Critical Erro—]

[Host Connection Lost—]

[Recalculati—]

Everything went black.

[Host rejection has been noted. Next time...there would be no breaking free.]

It was a promise and the system finally disappeared, leaving him alone. The next moment, Rin’s eyes flew open as he desperately gasped for air.

His lungs burned as though he had truly been suffocating.

Cold sweat soaked every inch of his body, and his heart hammered wildly inside his chest. His blurred vision slowly focused until a familiar face appeared before him.

Reina was kneeling directly in front of him.

Her breathing was uneven.

One of her hands was still raised in the air, while the other gripped his shoulder tightly.

A stinging pain spread across Rin’s cheek.

Only then did he realize that she had slapped him hard enough to leave a bright red handprint across his face.

For a brief moment, neither of them spoke.

Then Reina’s expression crumbled.

"Thank goodness..."

Her voice shook despite her obvious attempt to stay composed.

"I thought... I thought you weren’t coming back this time. Care to tell me what happened?"

Reina looked shaken but she was holding herself back remarkably well. But even if she was worried, Rin had nothing to tell her.

He did not want her to know what was going on with him because he was afraid Reina would become too focused on saving him to look after what she needed to.

"I...think I am not getting enough sleep and my body has started to protest. I will head back to my room and go to sleep now."