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, a thought suddenly occurred to

My head snapped upwards.

'There was one...'

fidgeted all

thought process...it definitely changed

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

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

did that come

meeting the previous Ren, everything I did was completely different. My personality

had such thoughts about treating everyone as a chess piece and having everything under my control.

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 them, from this new perspective, it really did seem as though something

different ideologies inside of me. Ideologies that I had never

wild and crazy theory suddenly pierced through my

My breathing evened out.

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

my head repeatedly. It couldn't be. Yeah, there's no way something like that

My toes curled inwardly.

TRIIIING—! TRIIIING—!

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

Should I come to pick

"Haaa...haaa...."

eyes, I suppressed all the anxiety inside of me. Taking my

[Yeah, that would do.]

sending the message, I shut off the

"huuuu..."

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

air to sort out my

eating away at my

Ci Clank—!

behind me, I walked down the

***

Ding—!

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

[Synchronization complete]

Synchronisation : 34%

"Haaa..."

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

the world did

he saw

he remembered that at the moment

straight, Kevin was able to calm himself

me

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

not something he had

been a vision of

stared at the white ceiling of the

thinking back at the vision made his body

what else could it

he thought 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 hurt

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

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

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

Kevin was sure.

fists clenched even more tightly as anger rose within

'...He needs to die.'

But there was only one problem, Kevin did not

slightly

him before, yet, at the same time, he didn't. There was

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

shook his head, trying to discard such thoughts from

the two figures bore slight resemblances, Kevin knew Ren.

"It couldn't be, right?"

his many attempts at trying to deny what he saw, the confidence he had

started to creep

"Haaa...What do I do."

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

***

knew it, my footsteps stopped in front of the

the time I woke up from the 'dream' it was early in the morning. I thought about going around

steps out of my residence, I subconsciously made my

"This is good too..."

needed at the moment was to clear