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..."

incidents that had occurred right after meeting the previous Ren, a thought suddenly occurred

My head snapped upwards.

'There was one...'

hands fidgeted all

process...it definitely changed after meeting

me before, but, didn't

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

did that come

meeting the previous Ren, everything I did was

thoughts about treating everyone as a chess piece and having everything under my

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 within

was forcing traits and different ideologies inside of me.

theory suddenly pierced

My breathing evened out.

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

head repeatedly. It couldn't

My toes curled inwardly.

TRIIIING—! TRIIIING—!

suddenly rang, snapping me out of my thoughts. Lowering my head, I

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

"Haaa...haaa...."

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

[Yeah, that would do.]

the message, I shut

"huuuu..."

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

needed some fresh air to

were eating away

Ci Clank—!

me,

***

Ding—!

eyes. The first thing he saw as soon as he opened his eyes was a system

[Synchronization complete]

Synchronisation : 34%

"Haaa..."

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

in the world did

he saw was

everything that he saw in the vision, and it was because he

straight, Kevin was able to calm himself

me

be. The fact that he was desperately searching for Emma, and that the name of the black figure was 'Kevin', he didn't believe for one second

saw, was not

have been a vision of

head back, Kevin stared at the white

at the vision

what else

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

"...Fuck."

Kevin's fists clenched tightly.

dying on

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

There 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

him an idea of what

Kevin was sure.

clenched even more tightly as anger rose within his

'...He needs to die.'

scene. But there was only one problem, Kevin

slightly

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

to discard such thoughts

Kevin knew Ren. He would never

"It couldn't be, right?"

deny what he saw, the confidence he had within him slowly crumbled

started to creep into

"Haaa...What do I do."

hands. He really did

***

footsteps stopped

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

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

"This is good too..."

needed at the moment was to clear