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..."

of the incidents that had occurred right

My head snapped upwards.

'There was one...'

fidgeted all

definitely

never occurred to me before, but, didn't

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

did that

I looked back at my previous behavior, the moment prior to meeting

I had such thoughts about treating everyone as a chess

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

different ideologies inside of me. Ideologies that I had

theory

My breathing evened out.

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

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

My toes curled inwardly.

TRIIIING—! TRIIIING—!

out of my thoughts. Lowering my head, I looked

are you ready? Should I come to

"Haaa...haaa...."

of me. Taking my communication device, I quickly sent back

[Yeah, that would do.]

the message, I shut off the communication

"huuuu..."

put on my face mask. Then, I proceeded

air

were eating

Ci Clank—!

behind me,

***

Ding—!

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

[Synchronization complete]

Synchronisation : 34%

"Haaa..."

Kevin exhaled deeply. Covering his forehead with his hand, he supported his body with

in the world did I

he

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

was able to calm himself

was me wasn't

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 that the vision wasn't about

saw, was not something he had ever experienced

that have been a vision of the

at the white ceiling of the

back at the vision made his

future, what else

he was about his analysis. Whatever he just saw, it was the

"...Fuck."

Kevin's fists clenched tightly.

Emma dying on

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

features of the figure were obscured and so was his voice, but

gave him an idea of what had happened. The man had purposely killed

Kevin was sure.

clenched even more tightly as anger rose within his

'...He needs to die.'

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

felt slightly

had met him before, yet, at the same time, he didn't.

Ren? ...No,

quickly shook his head, trying to discard such thoughts

Kevin knew Ren. He would never do such a

"It couldn't be, right?"

deny what he saw, the confidence he had

creep into

"Haaa...What do I do."

really did

***

I knew it, my footsteps stopped in front of

it was early in the morning. I thought about going around

having walked a couple of steps out of

"This is good too..."

at the moment was to