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

My head snapped upwards.

'There was one...'

hands fidgeted

thought process...it definitely changed after

me before, but, didn't my personality change

the previous Ren, I started to get this

did that come

my previous behavior, the moment prior to meeting the previous Ren,

before had I had such thoughts about treating everyone as a chess piece and having

too much thought into it in the past because I 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 within me had been forcefully

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?"

shook my head repeatedly.

My toes curled inwardly.

TRIIIING—! TRIIIING—!

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

ready? Should I come

"Haaa...haaa...."

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

[Yeah, that would do.]

the message, I shut off the

"huuuu..."

on my face mask.

air

thoughts were eating away at

Ci Clank—!

the door behind me, I walked down

***

Ding—!

of Kevin's head as he slowly opened his eyes. The first thing he saw as soon as he

[Synchronization complete]

Synchronisation : 34%

"Haaa..."

deeply. Covering his forehead with his

in the world did

he

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

Kevin was able to

was me wasn't

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

he saw, was not something

a vision

at the white

the vision made his body

what else could

the more certain he was

"...Fuck."

Kevin's fists clenched tightly.

dying on him hurt his

"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

flask in his hands already gave him an

Kevin was sure.

more tightly as

'...He needs to die.'

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

felt slightly

yet, at the same time, he didn't.

that have been Ren?

quickly shook his head, trying to

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

"It couldn't be, right?"

weakly shook his head. Despite his many attempts at trying to deny

to creep into his

"Haaa...What do I do."

He really did not know what to believe in

***

my footsteps stopped in front

the 'dream' it was early in the

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

"This is good too..."

I needed at the moment was