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 all

definitely changed

me before, but, didn't my personality change moments after

that I look back at myself, right after meeting the previous Ren, I started to get this weird idea that everything around

did that come

meeting the previous Ren, everything I did was completely

treating everyone as a chess piece

too much thought into it in the past because I never felt it. I never felt the change...but now that I

traits and different ideologies inside of me. Ideologies that I had never once thought

and crazy theory suddenly pierced through

My breathing evened out.

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

refused to believe that. I shook my head repeatedly. It couldn't be. Yeah, there's no way something like

My toes curled inwardly.

TRIIIING—! TRIIIING—!

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

Should I come to pick you guys up tomorrow

"Haaa...haaa...."

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

[Yeah, that would do.]

I shut off

"huuuu..."

put on my face mask. Then, I proceeded to head for the

air to sort

thoughts were eating away

Ci Clank—!

me, I

***

Ding—!

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

[Synchronization complete]

Synchronisation : 34%

"Haaa..."

his forehead with his hand, he supported his body with

world did I

vision he saw was

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

Kevin was able to

was me wasn't

fact that he was desperately searching for Emma, and that the name of the black

was not something

a

Kevin stared at the white ceiling

the vision

the future, what else

was about

"...Fuck."

Kevin's fists clenched tightly.

of Emma dying on him hurt his

"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

hands already gave him an idea of what had happened. The man

Kevin was sure.

more tightly as anger rose within

'...He needs to die.'

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

slightly familiar

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

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

shook his head, trying to discard such thoughts from his

resemblances, Kevin knew Ren. He would

"It couldn't be, right?"

at trying to deny

creep into his

"Haaa...What do I do."

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

***

my footsteps stopped in

in the morning.

walked a couple of steps out of my residence, I subconsciously made my

"This is good too..."

needed at the moment was to clear my