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..."

at any of the incidents that had occurred right after meeting the previous Ren, a

My head snapped upwards.

'There was one...'

hands fidgeted all

definitely changed

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

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 under my

did that

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

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

past because I never felt it. I never felt the change...but now that I was looking back at them, from this new perspective,

as though someone was forcing traits and different ideologies

and crazy theory suddenly pierced through

My breathing evened out.

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

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

My toes curled inwardly.

TRIIIING—! TRIIIING—!

my thoughts. Lowering my head, I looked

you ready? Should I come to pick

"Haaa...haaa...."

me.

[Yeah, that would do.]

sending the message, I shut

"huuuu..."

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

fresh air to

thoughts were eating away at

Ci Clank—!

the door behind me, I walked

***

Ding—!

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

[Synchronization complete]

Synchronisation : 34%

"Haaa..."

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

world

vision he saw

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

Kevin 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

he saw, was not something he had ever experienced

that have been a

his head back, Kevin stared at the white ceiling

the

future, what else could

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

"...Fuck."

Kevin's fists clenched tightly.

thought of Emma dying on him

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

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 one that killed

the flask in his hands already gave him an idea of what

Kevin was sure.

clenched even more tightly as anger rose

'...He needs to die.'

But there was only

felt slightly familiar

time, he didn't. There was this chilly air surrounding the man that

have been Ren? ...No, he wouldn't

his head, trying to discard such thoughts from

figures bore slight resemblances, Kevin knew Ren. He would never

"It couldn't be, right?"

attempts at trying to deny what he

creep into his

"Haaa...What do I do."

with both hands. He really did not know what to believe

***

footsteps stopped in front of

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

couple of steps

"This is good too..."

at the moment was to clear my