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

My head snapped upwards.

'There was one...'

hands fidgeted all

process...it definitely changed after

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

right after meeting the previous Ren, I started to get this weird idea that

did that come

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

a chess piece and having everything under my control. It was

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

was as though someone was forcing traits and different ideologies inside of me. Ideologies that I had

and crazy theory suddenly

My breathing evened out.

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

I shook my head repeatedly. It

My toes curled inwardly.

TRIIIING—! TRIIIING—!

snapping me out of my thoughts. Lowering my head, I looked at the message. It was

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

"Haaa...haaa...."

the anxiety inside of me. Taking my

[Yeah, that would do.]

sending the message, I shut

"huuuu..."

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

air to sort

eating away at my

Ci Clank—!

me,

***

Ding—!

head as he slowly opened his eyes. The first thing

[Synchronization complete]

Synchronisation : 34%

"Haaa..."

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

world did I

he saw was

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

straight, Kevin was able to calm

me wasn't

had to be. The fact that he was desperately searching for Emma, and that the name of the black figure

he saw, was not something he had ever experienced

have been a vision of the

stared at the

back at the vision made his

what else could it

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

"...Fuck."

Kevin's fists clenched tightly.

dying on

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

questioned. There was another part in 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

hands already gave him an idea of

Kevin was sure.

fists clenched even more tightly as anger rose within

'...He needs to die.'

hatred as he recalled that scene. But there was only one problem, Kevin did not know who the

slightly

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

Ren? ...No, he wouldn't

trying to

Kevin knew Ren. He would never do such a thing to

"It couldn't be, right?"

his head. Despite his many attempts at trying to deny

creep into

"Haaa...What do I do."

Kevin covered his face with both hands. He really did not know what to

***

knew it, my footsteps stopped in front of the

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

couple of steps out of my residence, I subconsciously

"This is good too..."

the moment was to clear my