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

My head snapped upwards.

'There was one...'

fidgeted

thought process...it definitely

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

that come

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

had such thoughts about treating everyone as a chess piece

I never felt the change...but now that I was looking back at them, from this new perspective, it really did seem as though something within me had

though someone was forcing traits and different ideologies inside

crazy theory suddenly

My breathing evened out.

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

I shook my head repeatedly. It couldn't be.

My toes curled inwardly.

TRIIIING—! TRIIIING—!

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

tournament will begin tomorrow, are you ready? Should I come to pick you

"Haaa...haaa...."

inside of me. Taking my communication device, I quickly

[Yeah, that would do.]

message, I shut off the communication

"huuuu..."

I took my jacket and put on

fresh air to sort out my

were eating

Ci Clank—!

door behind me, I walked

***

Ding—!

loud chime rang inside of Kevin's head as he slowly opened his eyes. The

[Synchronization complete]

Synchronisation : 34%

"Haaa..."

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

world

he

he

straight, Kevin was able to calm himself

was me wasn't

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

saw, was not something

a

head back, Kevin stared at the white

thinking back at the vision made his body

the future, what else could

it, the more certain he was about his

"...Fuck."

Kevin's fists clenched tightly.

dying on

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

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 one that

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

Kevin was sure.

clenched even more tightly as anger rose within his

'...He needs to die.'

eyes flashed with hatred as he recalled that scene. But there was

slightly

didn't. There was this chilly air surrounding the man

have been Ren? ...No, he

his head, trying to discard such thoughts from his

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

"It couldn't be, right?"

weakly shook his head. Despite his many attempts at trying to deny what he saw, the confidence he had within him slowly

creep into his

"Haaa...What do I do."

covered his face with both hands. He really did not know

***

knew it, my footsteps stopped

time I woke up from the 'dream' it was early in the

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

"This is good too..."

at the moment