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..."

of the incidents that had occurred right after

My head snapped upwards.

'There was one...'

hands fidgeted all

definitely

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

have not noticed it back then, but now that I look back at myself, right after meeting the previous Ren, I

that come

the moment prior to meeting the previous Ren, everything I did

before had I had such thoughts about treating everyone as a chess piece

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 did seem as

as though someone was forcing traits and different ideologies inside of me. Ideologies that I had

crazy theory

My breathing evened out.

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

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

My toes curled inwardly.

TRIIIING—! TRIIIING—!

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

you ready? Should

"Haaa...haaa...."

anxiety inside of me. Taking

[Yeah, that would do.]

message, I shut off the

"huuuu..."

my jacket and put on my face

needed some fresh air

were eating away at

Ci Clank—!

me, I walked down

***

Ding—!

head as he slowly opened his eyes. The first thing he saw

[Synchronization complete]

Synchronisation : 34%

"Haaa..."

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

in the world

vision he

he remembered that at the

Kevin was able to calm

me wasn't

for Emma, and that the name of the black figure was 'Kevin', he didn't believe

was not something he

a vision

his head back, Kevin stared at the white ceiling of the

thinking back at the vision made his

future, what

certain he was about his analysis. Whatever

"...Fuck."

Kevin's fists clenched tightly.

thought of Emma dying on him hurt his

"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 what he saw, the figure was the

flask in his hands already gave him an idea of what had happened. The man had

Kevin was sure.

clenched even more tightly

'...He needs to die.'

as he recalled that scene. But there was only one

felt slightly

the same time, he didn't. There was this

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

head, trying to discard

Kevin knew Ren. He would never do such a thing to

"It couldn't be, right?"

at trying to deny what

to creep into

"Haaa...What do I do."

hands. He really did not know

***

it, my footsteps stopped in front of the training

from the 'dream' it was early in

my mind off of things, but having walked a couple of steps out of my

"This is good too..."

moment was to