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 Ren, a thought

My head snapped upwards.

'There was one...'

fidgeted

thought process...it definitely changed after

never occurred to me before, but, didn't my personality change

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

that

at my previous behavior, the moment prior to meeting the previous Ren, everything I did was completely

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

felt it. I never felt the change...but now that I was looking back at them, from

was forcing traits and different ideologies inside of me. Ideologies that

and crazy theory suddenly pierced through my

My breathing evened out.

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

that. I shook my head repeatedly. It couldn't be. Yeah,

My toes curled inwardly.

TRIIIING—! TRIIIING—!

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

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

"Haaa...haaa...."

eyes, I suppressed all the anxiety inside of me. Taking my communication device, I quickly sent back

[Yeah, that would do.]

sending the message, I shut

"huuuu..."

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

some fresh air

eating away

Ci Clank—!

behind me, I walked down

***

Ding—!

opened his eyes. The first thing he saw as

[Synchronization complete]

Synchronisation : 34%

"Haaa..."

forehead with his hand, he supported his

in the world did I

he

it was because he remembered that at the moment he couldn't

Kevin was able to

me wasn't

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

not something

a vision

Kevin stared at the white

back at the vision

not the future, what else could

more certain he was about his analysis. Whatever he just

"...Fuck."

Kevin's fists clenched tightly.

the thought of Emma dying on him

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

the vision he saw. The features of the figure were obscured

him an idea of

Kevin was sure.

tightly as anger rose

'...He needs to die.'

But there was only one problem, Kevin did not know who the

felt slightly

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

that have been Ren?

head, trying to

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

"It couldn't be, right?"

weakly shook his head. Despite his many attempts at trying to deny what he saw, the confidence he had

started to creep into

"Haaa...What do I do."

with both hands. He really did

***

my footsteps stopped in front of the training

from the 'dream' it was early in the morning.

things, but having walked a couple of steps

"This is good too..."

needed at the moment