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..."

that had occurred right after meeting the previous

My head snapped upwards.

'There was one...'

hands fidgeted

process...it definitely changed after

never occurred to me before, but, didn't

back then, but now that I look back at myself, right after meeting the previous Ren, I started to

that

at my previous behavior, the moment prior to meeting the

everyone as a chess piece and

that I

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

wild and crazy theory suddenly pierced through my

My breathing evened out.

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

believe that. I shook my head repeatedly. It couldn't be. Yeah, there's no

My toes curled inwardly.

TRIIIING—! TRIIIING—!

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

Should

"Haaa...haaa...."

of me. Taking my communication

[Yeah, that would do.]

message, I shut off

"huuuu..."

on my face mask. Then, I proceeded to

needed some fresh air to sort

eating away

Ci Clank—!

the door behind me, I walked

***

Ding—!

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

[Synchronization complete]

Synchronisation : 34%

"Haaa..."

with his hand, he supported his body with his other

in the world

he saw was

vision, and it was because he remembered that at the moment he couldn't quite grasp what

was able

was me wasn't

had to be. The fact that he was desperately searching for Emma, and that the name of the black figure was 'Kevin', he

saw, was not something he had ever experienced

been a

his head back, Kevin stared at

thinking back at the

what else

thought about it, the more certain he was about his

"...Fuck."

Kevin's fists clenched tightly.

dying on him hurt

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

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

gave him an idea of

Kevin was sure.

more tightly as anger rose within his

'...He needs to die.'

with hatred as he recalled that scene. But there was only one problem, Kevin did

felt slightly familiar

time, he didn't.

been Ren? ...No, he

trying to discard such

two figures bore slight resemblances, Kevin knew Ren. He

"It couldn't be, right?"

at trying to deny what he saw, the confidence he had within

to creep into his

"Haaa...What do I do."

face with both hands. He really did not

***

my footsteps stopped in front of the training

was early in the morning.

but having walked a couple of steps out

"This is good too..."

I needed at the moment was to clear