The Author's POV

Splash—! Splash—!

Splashing water onto my face I stared at my haggard figure in the mirror. Glaring dark circles bagged beneath my eyes as my mind felt numb.

Glink—!

Turning off the tap, I turned around.

My eyes paused on a certain book in the middle of the table.

My heart remained calm as I stared at the book...or rather, my head was too numb to process what was happening around me. Nothing excited nor stimulated my emotions.

Closing my eyes, I sat down on my bed and leaned forward.

"...Just what happened?"

Ever since waking up, I've been trying to make heads or tails of what had just occurred to me.

My head really hurt.

'For starters, the world I was in not too long ago was definitely not my own world...or did that world even exist in the first place?'

From the fact that I had no recollection of my parent's faces, my own name, and the fact that the prestigious university I wanted to go to was called 'Unversity A,' a name which itself seemed far too generic to make sense.

Putting everything together everything that I previously thought that I knew no longer started to make sense inside of my head.

"Aghhh."

'My head hurts.'

Grasping my head with my hands I ruffled my hair into a mess.

Everything was a mess. A mess I couldn't quite figure the answer to.

"There's also him..."

The previous Ren.

Just thinking about him spread uneasiness throughout my whole body.

There was definitely something odd about that guy. How did he know about the fact that the world was a novel? I never gave him the password of my laptop so it shouldn't have been possible for him to figure out that the world I was in was that of a novel I wrote.

Furthermore, how did he know to ask the right questions?

Like what my name was, whether I recalled my parent's faces and the name of the university I wanted to go to.

The order of the questions didn't really make sense...it was as though he already knew about my answers beforehand.

"Haaa..."

I suddenly stood up.

My head throbbed even more fiercely.

Pacing around the room, I started to think back to my first interaction with the previous Ren in search of an answer.

This wasn't hard, I had only interacted with him once throughout my whole life so I could still vividly remember what had happened.

It was the time he was showing me his past experiences with Matthew and what was going on with his parents...my parents.

I remember that time clearly.

I could see just how sad he was.

Was that a facade or was that really him? At this point, I no longer knew.

"Ugh."

I groaned.

Massaging my head, I thought even further.

'Ever since meeting him, did something strange ever happen to me?'

My brows knit tightly.

Placing my hand on my chin, I fell into deep thought.

"Something strange happening after meeting him..."

My brows which were knit together suddenly jumped up in shock.

"Wait...hold on..."

back at any of the incidents that had occurred right after meeting the previous Ren, a thought suddenly occurred

My head snapped upwards.

'There was one...'

hands fidgeted

process...it definitely changed after meeting

to me before, but, didn't my personality change

but now that I look back at myself, right after meeting the previous Ren, I started to get this weird idea that everything around me was a chess piece and that everything

did that come

prior to meeting the previous Ren, everything I did

a chess piece and having

felt the change...but now that I was looking back at them, from this new perspective,

different ideologies inside of me. Ideologies that I had never

wild and crazy theory

My breathing evened out.

"....It can't be, right?"

repeatedly.

My toes curled inwardly.

TRIIIING—! TRIIIING—!

snapping me out of my thoughts. Lowering

you ready? Should I

"Haaa...haaa...."

anxiety inside of me. Taking my

[Yeah, that would do.]

sending the message, I shut off the communication

"huuuu..."

and put on

some fresh air to sort out my

were eating

Ci Clank—!

door behind me, I

***

Ding—!

eyes. The first thing he saw as soon as he opened his eyes was a system

[Synchronization complete]

Synchronisation : 34%

"Haaa..."

up straight, Kevin exhaled deeply. Covering his forehead with his hand, he supported his

world did

he saw was

was because he remembered that at the moment he

Kevin was

was me

of the black figure was 'Kevin', he

he saw, was not something he had

that have been a vision of the

his head back, Kevin stared at the

at the vision made his

the future, what else could

about it, the more certain he was about his analysis.

"...Fuck."

Kevin's fists clenched tightly.

dying on him hurt his

"Haaa..haaa...who was that man?"

The features of the figure were obscured and so was his voice, but from what he saw, the figure was the one

an idea of what had happened. The man had

Kevin was sure.

even more tightly as

'...He needs to die.'

eyes flashed with hatred as he recalled that scene. But there was only one problem, Kevin did

slightly familiar

the same time, he didn't. There was this chilly air surrounding the man that sent shivers down

that have been Ren? ...No, he wouldn't

head, trying to discard

resemblances, Kevin knew Ren. He would

"It couldn't be, right?"

shook his head. Despite his many attempts at trying to deny what he saw, the confidence he had within him slowly crumbled

creep into his

"Haaa...What do I do."

face with both hands. He really

***

it, my footsteps stopped in front of

it was early in the morning. I thought about going around the

get my mind off of things, but having walked a couple of steps out of my residence, I subconsciously made my way towards the

"This is good too..."

the moment was to clear my