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

My head snapped upwards.

'There was one...'

fidgeted

process...it definitely changed after meeting

me before, but, didn't my personality change

may have not noticed 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 and that everything was

that

prior to meeting the previous Ren, everything I

everyone as a

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 within me had been

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

and crazy theory suddenly

My breathing evened out.

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

I refused to believe that. I shook my head repeatedly.

My toes curled inwardly.

TRIIIING—! TRIIIING—!

my thoughts. Lowering

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

"Haaa...haaa...."

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

[Yeah, that would do.]

the message, I shut off

"huuuu..."

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

fresh air

thoughts were eating away at my

Ci Clank—!

me, I

***

Ding—!

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

[Synchronization complete]

Synchronisation : 34%

"Haaa..."

forehead with his hand, he supported his body with his

world did

he

vision, and it was because he

was

was me

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

was not something he had ever experienced

been a vision of the

at the white ceiling

thinking back at the vision

future, what else could it

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

"...Fuck."

Kevin's fists clenched tightly.

thought of Emma dying on him

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

features of the figure were obscured and so was his voice, but from what he saw, the figure was the one

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

Kevin was sure.

even more tightly as

'...He needs to die.'

eyes flashed with hatred as he recalled that scene. But there was only one problem, Kevin did not

felt slightly familiar

same time, he didn't. There was this

been Ren? ...No, he

his head, trying to discard such thoughts from his

two figures bore slight resemblances, Kevin knew Ren. He would never do such a thing

"It couldn't be, right?"

trying to deny what he saw, the confidence he had within

started to creep into

"Haaa...What do I do."

Kevin covered his face with both hands. He really

***

I knew it, my footsteps stopped in front of the

in the morning. I thought about

my mind off of things, but having walked a couple of steps out of my residence, I subconsciously made

"This is good too..."

the moment was to