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..."

had occurred right after meeting the previous

My head snapped upwards.

'There was one...'

hands fidgeted

thought process...it definitely

me before, but, didn't my personality

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

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

had such thoughts about treating everyone as a chess piece

put 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

ideologies inside of me.

and crazy theory

My breathing evened out.

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

that. I shook my head repeatedly. It couldn't be. Yeah,

My toes curled inwardly.

TRIIIING—! TRIIIING—!

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

are you ready? Should I come

"Haaa...haaa...."

anxiety inside of me. Taking my communication device,

[Yeah, that would do.]

sending the message, I shut off

"huuuu..."

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

fresh air to

were eating away

Ci Clank—!

door behind me, I walked

***

Ding—!

opened his eyes. The first thing he saw as soon as he

[Synchronization complete]

Synchronisation : 34%

"Haaa..."

straight, Kevin exhaled deeply. Covering his forehead with

in the world

vision he saw

remembered everything that he saw in the vision, and it was because he remembered that at the moment he couldn't

was able to calm himself

me

was desperately searching for Emma, and that the name of the black figure was 'Kevin', he

not something he

a vision

head back, Kevin stared at the

at the vision made

future, what else could it

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

"...Fuck."

Kevin's fists clenched tightly.

thought of Emma dying on him

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

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

his hands already gave him an idea of

Kevin was sure.

fists clenched even more tightly as

'...He needs to die.'

But there was only one problem,

slightly

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

Ren? ...No,

trying to discard such thoughts from

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

"It couldn't be, right?"

attempts at trying to deny what

creep

"Haaa...What do I do."

covered his face with both hands. He really did not

***

stopped in

in the morning. I thought about going around the city to explore

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

"This is good too..."

at the moment was to clear