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 after meeting the previous Ren, a

My head snapped upwards.

'There was one...'

fidgeted

process...it definitely changed after

never occurred to me before, but, didn't

right after meeting the previous Ren, I started to get this weird idea that everything around me was

did that come

at my previous behavior, the moment prior to meeting the previous Ren, everything I did was completely

such thoughts about treating everyone as a

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

theory suddenly pierced

My breathing evened out.

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

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

My toes curled inwardly.

TRIIIING—! TRIIIING—!

my thoughts. Lowering my head,

you ready? Should I come to pick

"Haaa...haaa...."

all the anxiety inside of me. Taking

[Yeah, that would do.]

the message, I shut off

"huuuu..."

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

some fresh air to

thoughts were eating

Ci Clank—!

the door behind me, I walked

***

Ding—!

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

[Synchronization complete]

Synchronisation : 34%

"Haaa..."

Kevin exhaled deeply. Covering his forehead with his hand,

world did

he saw was

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

Kevin was

me wasn't

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

not something he had ever

that have been a

his head back, Kevin stared at the white ceiling of

at the vision made his

what else could

was about his analysis. Whatever he just saw,

"...Fuck."

Kevin's fists clenched tightly.

the thought of Emma dying on him hurt his very

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

of the figure were obscured

an idea of what

Kevin was sure.

clenched even more tightly as anger

'...He needs to die.'

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

slightly familiar

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

Ren?

quickly shook his head, trying to discard such

knew Ren. He would

"It couldn't be, right?"

deny what he saw, the

to creep into

"Haaa...What do I do."

really did not know what to believe in at

***

my footsteps stopped in

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

having walked a couple of steps out of

"This is good too..."

at the moment was