"Shelly! Don’t look at its face! That’s not me!"
Rin called out, his voice echoing across the battlefield.
The illusion slowly turned toward Rin before letting out a soft laugh.
"Why should she believe you?"
It spread its arms as if presenting itself.
"I’m standing right here."
Its calm smile never wavered.
"You are the fake one."
The words caused Shelly’s breathing to become even more ragged.
She knew they were lies. She knew the real Rin was standing behind her.
Yet the system had recreated him so perfectly that every instinct she possessed screamed at her not to swing her sword.
Meanwhile, the battle surrounding them continued to worsen.
Without their abilities, the hunters were steadily being pushed backward by the endless tide of monsters. The monsters themselves were not overwhelmingly powerful, but they no longer needed to be. Their sheer numbers were enough to exhaust even the strongest hunters.
Kyle barely managed to drive away a massive beast using nothing but his spear before shouting toward Rin.
"Rin! We can’t stay here much longer! If we don’t destroy that core soon, everyone outside is going to be overwhelmed!"
His voice was nearly drowned out by the sounds of battle.
Explosions shook the battlefield.
Steel clashed against claws.
The cries of wounded hunters echoed from every direction.
Rin clenched his fists.
He understood the situation better than anyone else.
Behind the illusion, the glowing core suspended within the tree continued pulsing rhythmically. Every pulse sent another wave of monsters pouring from the countless roots spreading beneath the earth. The longer they remained trapped there, the more impossible the battle would become.
The system seemed to notice his growing impatience.
[Emotions truly are fascinating. This unit has calculated that Shelly Pinrose possesses a 99.98% probability of refusing to inflict harm upon you. Therefore, reproducing your appearance was determined to be the optimal defensive measure.]
Its emotionless explanation almost made Rin laugh.
"So that’s your conclusion?"
[Correct.]
"You really don’t understand us, and that is going to be your downfall."
The illusion tilted its head.
[Please elaborate.]
Instead of answering immediately, Rin slowly walked toward Shelly. Every step he took caused the illusion to watch him carefully, as though trying to predict what he intended to do next.
When he finally reached Shelly, he gently lowered the tip of her trembling sword with one hand.
Her entire body was still shaking.
Tears had begun gathering in the corners of her eyes, yet she stubbornly refused to look away from the fake Rin standing before her.
Rin quietly wrapped his hand around the sword’s hilt before slowly raising it once more.
"She might have no desire to harm me, but that does not mean she won’t do it if push comes to shove. Let me prove it to you."
Rin told the system as he stepped closer to Shelly. His movement caused Shelly to turn toward him with a wide-eyed expression.
"Rin-! I-I cannot. He has your face, and I-"
"I know, Shelly. That’s why you don’t have to bear the burden. Step back with everyone else and defend the core. I will take over from here."
Rin promised, and this time Shelly did not argue. She looked behind him once to make sure the target was still there before she hurried back to fight the monsters.
The system’s impersonation looked at Rin with its head tilted in a questioning manner.
"Is this your brilliant plan? To send her away-"
Rin hit the illusion, causing it to flinch. But Rin had no mercy left for that thing. He used the small amount of drug Mira had given him, and the illusion fell apart at the slightest touch.
"Looks like this illusion is just as flimsy as I expected. Now, shall we head toward the main body?"
Rin asked, and the system suddenly became active.
[!!!!!!]
[Rookie, what did you do? How did you take that body down so quickly? Is there a trick? Hurry up and tell me!]
The system demanded, but Rin had no desire to give away his secret. Not when he was so close to his end goal.
[Synchronization has completed. The system will take full control over the host body.]
[Resistance is futile.]
The system told Rin, but he was not worried. Instead, he started taking the drug that Mira had given him and kept downing vial after vial.
"You want to take control over me? That’s fine. You can absorb me while you’re at it. I won’t blame you for it at all."
Rin promised as soon as he reached the main body. He could feel his body wanting to break down, but the drug in his system hurt so much that the pain kept him awake.
He reached the main body, and branches started to surround him in order to absorb him. But he did not mind.
Rin welcomed it all with open arms and a smile on his face.
"Come! Take me away from this mess. And once you do, it will be the end for both of us."
Rin told the system, but it was too far gone to stop. Rin’s body was starting to break apart, and he decided to make one last leap of faith.
He pushed his body against the system, waiting for the thing to open up and absorb him. And that’s exactly what happened.
The system opened its mouth and started to absorb Rin.
"W-What is going on?!"
"RIN, NO!"
People noticed what was happening a little too late, and they tried to get to him. But it was too late.
Rin did not reach back toward the people worried for him. Instead, he flashed them a small smile, wanting to reassure them that everything would be just fine.
"Don’t worry. I will be fine, and I will come back. You... just make sure you take care of yourselves."
Rin told Shelly and the others before he was swallowed by the system. The last thing he saw was Shelly’s hand reaching out to grab him, only to fall short as she cried out in pain.
__________
Rin expected pain.
He expected the moment the system swallowed him whole to be accompanied by unbearable agony, as though every cell inside his body were being torn apart and remade from scratch.
After everything the system had put him through since the beginning of the apocalypse, he had prepared himself for the worst possible outcome.
Yet, contrary to every expectation he had, no pain came.
Instead, silence descended upon him.
The chaotic battlefield disappeared without warning. The deafening explosions, the clash of steel against monsters, and the desperate cries of the hunters all faded away as though someone had suddenly erased every sound from existence.
Even Shelly’s scream, which had been the last thing Rin heard before the system swallowed him, slowly drifted farther and farther away until it became nothing more than a distant echo before disappearing altogether.
Only endless darkness remained.
There was no ground beneath his feet, nor was there a sky above his head.
Every direction looked exactly the same, making it impossible for Rin to tell whether he was standing still, floating through empty space, or simply existing inside an endless void where the concepts of distance and direction had lost all meaning.
For a brief moment, an unsettling thought crossed his mind.
Had he already died?
The silence lingered for several more seconds before a familiar mechanical chime echoed throughout the darkness.
[Ding.]
Immediately afterward, countless blue system windows burst into existence around him.
[Host successfully retrieved.]
[Assimilation sequence initiated.]
[Host synchronization rate: 100%.]
[System Administrator privileges restored.]
[Preparing replacement of current consciousness.]
The messages appeared one after another at a speed Rin could barely follow. Before he finished reading one notification, three more had already taken its place.
The blue windows multiplied continuously until they completely surrounded him, forming an endless sea of floating messages that stretched far beyond his field of vision.
[Beginning personality overwrite.]
[Removing unnecessary memories.]
[Preserving combat experience.]
[Deleting emotional interference.]
[Replacing independent decision-making.]
[Calculating optimal administrator template...]
Rin stared at the notifications for several long moments before quietly shaking his head.
"So it has finally come to this. I expected this day to come."
His own voice sounded strangely distant, almost as though someone else had spoken through his mouth instead.
Even so, the single word was enough to make every floating window pause for the briefest of moments before they resumed moving once again.
[Resistance detected.]
[Corrective measures authorized.]
The darkness surrounding him suddenly began to ripple.
From somewhere beyond his vision, countless glowing branches slowly extended toward him. They moved with unnatural elegance, almost as though they possessed a will of their own.
Hanging from every branch were hundreds of impossibly thin silver threads that shimmered like strands of moonlight.
They wrapped themselves around his wrists first.
Then his ankles.
His waist.
His chest.
Finally, several threads coiled around his neck before tightening just enough to remind him they were there.
He was finally caught and now it was a matter of fight. Would he die first or would the system find the resistance to the drug he had in his body first?
[Warning: Foreign substance found...System is in danger from inside! Retreat!]
"Tsk, as if I will allow you. If I am going to die, I will take you with me."
Finally, the drug was beginning to work. It was time for this system to die with Rin.