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..."

occurred right after meeting

My head snapped upwards.

'There was one...'

hands fidgeted

thought process...it definitely

never occurred to me before, but, didn't my personality change moments

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

did that come

looked back at my previous behavior, the moment prior to meeting the

had such thoughts about treating everyone as a chess

that I was looking back at them, from this new perspective, it really did seem as though something within

ideologies inside of me. Ideologies that I had never once

and crazy theory suddenly pierced

My breathing evened out.

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

I shook my head repeatedly. It couldn't be. Yeah, there's no way something like that

My toes curled inwardly.

TRIIIING—! TRIIIING—!

my anxiety, my communication suddenly rang, snapping me out of my thoughts. Lowering my head, I looked at

ready? Should I come to pick you guys

"Haaa...haaa...."

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

[Yeah, that would do.]

message, I

"huuuu..."

jacket and put on my face mask. Then, I

air to sort out my

eating away

Ci Clank—!

me, I walked down

***

Ding—!

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

[Synchronization complete]

Synchronisation : 34%

"Haaa..."

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

in the world

he saw was

was because he remembered that at the moment he couldn't

up straight, Kevin 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 didn't believe for one second that the vision wasn't about him,

he saw, was not

a vision

at the white ceiling of the

thinking back at the

what

certain he was about his analysis. Whatever he just saw,

"...Fuck."

Kevin's fists clenched tightly.

of Emma dying on him

"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

flask in his hands already gave him an idea

Kevin was sure.

clenched even more tightly as anger rose

'...He needs to die.'

scene. But there was only one problem,

slightly familiar

didn't. There was this chilly air surrounding

Ren? ...No, he

his head, trying to discard such thoughts

resemblances, Kevin knew Ren. He would never do such

"It couldn't be, right?"

to deny

creep

"Haaa...What do I do."

really did not know what to

***

it, my footsteps stopped in front of the training

woke up from the 'dream' it was early in the morning. I thought about going around

but having walked a couple of steps out of my

"This is good too..."

I needed at the moment was to clear my