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..."

back at any of the incidents that had occurred right after meeting the previous

My head snapped upwards.

'There was one...'

fidgeted

definitely changed

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

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

that

previous behavior, the moment prior to meeting the previous Ren, everything I did was completely different. My personality

everyone as a chess piece and

change...but now that I was looking back at them, from this new perspective, it really

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

wild and crazy theory

My breathing evened out.

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

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

My toes curled inwardly.

TRIIIING—! TRIIIING—!

out of my thoughts. Lowering my

are you ready? Should I come to pick

"Haaa...haaa...."

the anxiety inside of me. Taking my communication

[Yeah, that would do.]

sending the message, I

"huuuu..."

I took my jacket and put on

fresh air to sort out my

eating away at my

Ci Clank—!

behind me, I walked down

***

Ding—!

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

[Synchronization complete]

Synchronisation : 34%

"Haaa..."

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

in the world did

vision he saw was

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

Kevin was able

was me

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

was not

been a

his head back, Kevin stared at the white

thinking back at the

not the future, what

he was about his analysis. Whatever

"...Fuck."

Kevin's fists clenched tightly.

Emma dying

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

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

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

Kevin was sure.

clenched even more tightly as anger rose within

'...He needs to die.'

But there

felt slightly familiar

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

have been Ren?

head, trying to

knew Ren. He would never

"It couldn't be, right?"

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

creep into his

"Haaa...What do I do."

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

***

it, my footsteps stopped in front

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

steps out of my residence, I subconsciously made my way towards the training

"This is good too..."

moment was to