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,

My head snapped upwards.

'There was one...'

fidgeted all

process...it definitely changed after meeting

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

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

did that

meeting the previous Ren, everything

as a chess piece and having everything

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

forcing traits and different ideologies inside of me. Ideologies that I had

crazy theory suddenly pierced through

My breathing evened out.

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

head repeatedly.

My toes curled inwardly.

TRIIIING—! TRIIIING—!

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

begin tomorrow, are you ready? Should I come to pick you guys up tomorrow

"Haaa...haaa...."

I suppressed all the anxiety inside of me. Taking my communication device, I quickly sent back a

[Yeah, that would do.]

I shut

"huuuu..."

on my face mask.

needed some fresh air to sort

thoughts were eating away at my

Ci Clank—!

door behind me, I walked down

***

Ding—!

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..."

his forehead with

world did I just

he

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

up straight, Kevin was

me

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

not something he had ever

a vision of

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

back at the vision made his body

not the future, what

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

"...Fuck."

Kevin's fists clenched tightly.

of Emma dying on him hurt his very

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

the figure were obscured

an idea of what

Kevin was sure.

even more tightly as anger rose

'...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

the same time, he didn't. There was

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

his head, trying to discard such thoughts from

Ren.

"It couldn't be, right?"

at trying to deny what he saw, the confidence

to creep into

"Haaa...What do I do."

his face with both hands. He really did not know what to believe in at the

***

I knew it, my footsteps stopped in front of the

'dream' it was early in the morning. I thought about

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

"This is good too..."

the moment