"Rin!"
No answer came.
Shelly searched behind every collapsed branch. She searched through the massive crater left behind by the system’s destruction. She even climbed over the broken remains of the glowing roots that had once covered the battlefield.
There was nothing.
Not even a trace.
It was as though Rin had vanished together with the system.
"No..."
Shelly whispered as she continued searching despite already knowing the answer.
"He promised..."
Her breathing gradually became more ragged.
"He said he would come back."
Shelly remembered the smile Rin had shown her just before the system swallowed him whole. She remembered the confidence in his voice when he told her not to worry.
She had believed him.
She had always believed him.
So why...
Why wasn’t he here?
"...Shelly."
A familiar voice quietly called out from behind her.
Kyle slowly walked toward her, his expression much calmer than she expected. His clothes were torn in several places, and fresh blood still stained his sleeves, yet he looked strangely composed as he stopped a short distance away.
Shelly immediately turned toward him.
"What do you want?"
Her voice carried a hint of hope.
"You’ve always been the smart one."
She quickly walked over to him.
"You know something, don’t you?"
Kyle remained silent.
"You figured something out."
"..."
"Tell me."
She grabbed both of his shoulders without realizing how tightly she was gripping them.
"Where is he?"
Kyle quietly looked into her eyes before letting out a long sigh.
"...I don’t know."
Shelly’s expression stiffened.
"But..."
He slowly continued.
"I don’t think there’s any point in searching anymore."
The words struck her like a physical blow.
"What..."
"He made his choice."
Kyle lowered his head.
"He knew exactly what would happen when he let the system absorb him."
Shelly immediately shook her head.
"No."
"He probably knew the chances of surviving were almost nonexistent."
"No!"
"So..."
Kyle forced himself to finish speaking.
"...I think we should respect his decision."
Shelly stared at him in complete disbelief.
"You want me..."
Her voice trembled.
"...to stop looking for him?"
"I’m saying..."
Kyle closed his eyes for a brief moment.
"...that sometimes the hardest thing we can do is let someone go."
For several long seconds...
Shelly simply stood there.
Then she slowly released Kyle’s shoulders before taking a step backward.
"...No."
Her answer came without even a moment’s hesitation.
Kyle looked up.
"I don’t care what anyone says."
Shelly’s eyes had already begun filling with tears once more, yet the determination within them only grew stronger.
"He promised me."
She clenched her fists.
"And Rin has never broken a promise."
Her gaze slowly drifted toward the empty sky where the system had disappeared.
"So until I see proof that he’s gone..."
A faint smile appeared despite the tears rolling down her face.
"...I’m going to keep looking. Rin is going to come back...and if he doesn’t, then I will make sure I bring him back by force."
Because somewhere deep inside her heart...
She still believed...
That Rin would come home.
But since Rin had no intention of showing himself, it was time for Shelly to go and look for him. First, she was going to turn the organization that had caused this mess upside down. It had to have some clues for her.
__________
"What a nightmare. How can the system lose to a single drug? No! I don’t believe it! I won’t let the system go down like this. I need to start repairing it and finding the samples..."
Molly K Jr looked at the remains of the system in front of her. The tree had all but disappeared, leaving behind severed roots, and it had stopped responding to her long ago.
But she tried not to panic. This was still salvageable. Not everything was lost.
A god like the system could not lose to human hands. She wouldn’t let it happen.
"I-I need to get to work. If I do this right, I can make sure things go back on track. W-What else can I do-"
She looked at her broken lab that had crashed due to the system’s overload and immediately began to clean it up. There was a lot she needed to do in order to get it back on track.
She was halfway done when she heard the front door of her lab being slammed open. It made her heart skip a beat, and she decided to check who had come to disturb her.
"Who is it? No one should have been able to find this place-"
Pink hair fluttered in the air, and she had only seconds before her back was slammed against the wall and she was held at gunpoint by Shelly.
"Y-You...? You are Karina..."
"Shhh, there is no need to introduce me. But since you know me, I won’t beat around the bush and waste both of our time. I need your help with something important."
Shelly pointed out as she kept her gun at the ready. She was going to shoot Molly if she so much as breathed wrong.
It made Molly panic, but she quickly calmed herself down a little and gave Shelly a calmer glance.
"Put the gun down, kid. I am sure we can talk our differences out. So, what brings you here?"
She asked, trying to act calm and collected. But Shelly had no desire to humor her at the moment.
"You want to ask what brought me here? There could only be one thing that brought me here—Rin."
Shelly’s voice held no emotion, yet it still frightened Molly. She had a feeling that Shelly had lost her mind.
"Rin...what about him?"
Molly asked, and Shelly let out a giggle of amusement.
"What about Rin indeed. What I want from you is simple—help me bring Rin back to life. You can do that, right? Refusal is not an option for you."
Shelly pointed out, and Molly felt like she should shake her head or something.
Why would she want to bring Rin back of all people? He had already caused her beloved god to be destroyed.
But refusal was not an option either, because if she died, the system would never be able to come back.
Still...she did have a choice in this matter.
"Kid, I can help you, but it won’t be easy. We cannot simply bring Rin back. I can merge him with the system and bring him back this way. But the world will be thrust into another apocalypse. Are you sure about it?"
Shelly would surely refuse. Rin had sacrificed his life to save the world, so surely Shelly wouldn’t allow his sacrifice to be in vain.
That was what Molly believed, but Shelly only let out a strained laugh, making Molly feel as if she was dealing with a ticking time bomb.
"Oh really? Well, I don’t care. All I care about is Rin and no one else. So, let’s do our best to bring Rin back, alright?"
Shelly asked, and Molly let out a sigh. She was afraid of Shelly, but since she was doing what Molly needed in order to bring the system back, she could cooperate this time.
"Alright, I got it. Since we are in agreement with each other, let’s do it. We will do our best to bring both the system and Rin back. And once we are successful, we will go our separate ways."
That was what Molly promised.
But Shelly had plans of her own.
She was going to allow Molly to live for just as long as she was needed. She was going to use her to bring Rin back, and once he was back, it would be time for Molly’s life to end. As for the system...Shelly already had Mira and Kyle looking into it.
Rin would be back one way or another, even without the system. But if the system’s involvement was necessary, Shelly would tolerate it and throw the world under the bus.
After all, all she cared about was Rin.
’In the end, I turned out to be just like you, Mother. I’m also a phantom chasing after something I lost. But I will succeed, and unlike you, I will bring my beloved back. This is a promise.’
And thus, the story would start again, and this time, it would be Shelly’s victory.