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..."

any of the incidents that had occurred right after meeting the previous Ren, a thought suddenly occurred to

My head snapped upwards.

'There was one...'

hands fidgeted all

definitely changed after meeting

didn't my personality change moments after

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

that

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

had I had such thoughts about treating everyone as a chess

put too much thought into it in the past because I never felt it. I never felt the change...but now that I was

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

wild and crazy theory suddenly pierced through

My breathing evened out.

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

I refused to believe that. I shook my head repeatedly. It couldn't be. Yeah, there's

My toes curled inwardly.

TRIIIING—! TRIIIING—!

my communication suddenly rang, snapping me out of my thoughts. Lowering my head, I looked

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

"Haaa...haaa...."

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

[Yeah, that would do.]

message, I shut off

"huuuu..."

breath, I took my jacket and put on my face

some fresh air to sort out

thoughts were eating away at my

Ci Clank—!

behind me, I walked down

***

Ding—!

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

[Synchronization complete]

Synchronisation : 34%

"Haaa..."

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

world did I

he saw was

he remembered that at the moment he couldn't quite grasp what was happening around

was

me wasn't

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

not something he

a vision of the

at the white ceiling

back at the vision made his body

what else

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

"...Fuck."

Kevin's fists clenched tightly.

the thought of Emma dying on him hurt

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

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

the flask in his hands already gave him an idea of

Kevin was sure.

clenched even more tightly

'...He needs to die.'

there was only one problem, Kevin did not know

felt slightly familiar

didn't. There was this chilly air surrounding

have been Ren? ...No, he

to discard such

slight resemblances, Kevin knew Ren.

"It couldn't be, right?"

Despite his many attempts at trying to deny what he saw, the confidence he

started to creep into

"Haaa...What do I do."

really did not know what to believe in at

***

it, my footsteps stopped in front

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

of steps out of

"This is good too..."

at the moment was to clear