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..."

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

My head snapped upwards.

'There was one...'

fidgeted all

process...it definitely changed after meeting

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

have not noticed it back then, but now that I look back at myself, right after meeting the previous Ren, I started to get this weird idea that everything around

did that

my previous behavior, the moment prior to meeting the previous Ren, everything I did was completely different. My personality was

had I had such thoughts about treating everyone as a chess

in the past because I never felt it. I never felt the change...but now that I was looking back at them, from this new perspective, it really

someone was forcing traits and different ideologies

and crazy theory

My breathing evened out.

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

head repeatedly. It couldn't be. Yeah, there's no way

My toes curled inwardly.

TRIIIING—! TRIIIING—!

suddenly rang, snapping me out of my thoughts. Lowering my head, I

Should I come to pick

"Haaa...haaa...."

my eyes, I suppressed all the anxiety inside of me. Taking my

[Yeah, that would do.]

message, I shut off the

"huuuu..."

deep breath, I took my jacket and put on my face mask. Then, I proceeded to

air to sort

were eating away at

Ci Clank—!

me,

***

Ding—!

loud chime rang inside of Kevin's head as he slowly opened his eyes. The first thing he saw as soon as he opened his eyes was a system

[Synchronization complete]

Synchronisation : 34%

"Haaa..."

forehead with his

the world did

he saw

vividly remembered everything that he saw in the vision, and it was because he

was able to calm himself

was me wasn't

had to be. The fact that he was desperately searching for Emma, and that the name of the black figure was 'Kevin', he

saw, was not something he had ever

that have been a vision of the

stared at the white ceiling

back at the vision made

not the future, what else could it

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

"...Fuck."

Kevin's fists clenched tightly.

the thought of Emma dying on him

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

questioned. There was another part in the vision he saw. The features of the figure were obscured and so was his voice, but from

hands already gave him an idea of what

Kevin was sure.

fists clenched even more tightly

'...He needs to die.'

scene. But there

felt slightly familiar

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

that have been Ren?

head, trying to

knew Ren. He would never do

"It couldn't be, right?"

weakly shook his head. Despite his many attempts at trying to deny what he

creep

"Haaa...What do I do."

his face with both hands. He really did

***

my footsteps stopped in

woke up from the 'dream' it was early in the morning. I

of steps out of my residence, I subconsciously made my way towards the training

"This is good too..."

at the moment was to clear my