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..."

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

My head snapped upwards.

'There was one...'

fidgeted

process...it definitely

didn't my personality change

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 me was a chess piece and that

did that

meeting the previous Ren, everything I did was completely

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

too much thought into it 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 did seem

was forcing traits and different ideologies inside

wild and crazy theory suddenly pierced through my

My breathing evened out.

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

shook my head repeatedly. It

My toes curled inwardly.

TRIIIING—! TRIIIING—!

me out of my thoughts. Lowering

ready? Should I come to pick

"Haaa...haaa...."

suppressed all the anxiety inside of me. Taking

[Yeah, that would do.]

the message, I shut off the

"huuuu..."

on my face mask.

some fresh air to sort

eating

Ci Clank—!

the door behind me, I walked down

***

Ding—!

inside of Kevin's head as he slowly opened his eyes. The first thing he saw as soon as he opened his eyes

[Synchronization complete]

Synchronisation : 34%

"Haaa..."

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

in the world did I just

vision he

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

up straight, Kevin was able

was me

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

he saw, was not something he had ever

that have been a vision of

head back, Kevin stared at

the vision made his body

future, what

the more certain he was about

"...Fuck."

Kevin's fists clenched tightly.

the thought of Emma dying on him hurt his

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

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

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

Kevin was sure.

tightly as anger rose within his

'...He needs to die.'

flashed with hatred as he recalled that scene. But there was only one problem, Kevin did not know who the

felt slightly

had met him before, yet, at the same time, he didn't. There was this chilly air surrounding the man

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

trying to discard

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

"It couldn't be, right?"

his many attempts at trying to deny

creep into his

"Haaa...What do I do."

hands. He really did not know what to believe in at the

***

it, my footsteps stopped in

in the morning. I thought about going

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

"This is good too..."

needed at the moment was to clear