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..."

right after meeting the previous Ren,

My head snapped upwards.

'There was one...'

fidgeted

process...it definitely

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

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

did that come

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

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

it. I never felt the change...but now that I

and different ideologies inside of me. Ideologies that

theory suddenly pierced through my

My breathing evened out.

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

that. I shook my head repeatedly. It couldn't

My toes curled inwardly.

TRIIIING—! TRIIIING—!

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

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

"Haaa...haaa...."

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

[Yeah, that would do.]

message, I shut off

"huuuu..."

a deep breath, I took my jacket and put on my face mask. Then, I proceeded to head

needed some fresh air to sort out

were eating

Ci Clank—!

door behind me, I walked down the

***

Ding—!

he slowly opened his eyes. The first thing he saw as

[Synchronization complete]

Synchronisation : 34%

"Haaa..."

exhaled deeply. Covering his forehead with his

the world did I just

he saw was

remembered everything that he saw in the vision, and it was because he remembered

up straight, Kevin was able to

me

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

not something he

that have been a vision

Kevin stared at the white

thinking back at the

not the future, what else could it

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

"...Fuck."

Kevin's fists clenched tightly.

thought of Emma dying on him hurt

"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,

already gave him an idea of what had happened. The man had purposely killed

Kevin was sure.

clenched even more tightly

'...He needs to die.'

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

felt slightly

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

Ren? ...No, he wouldn't

to discard such thoughts from

figures bore slight resemblances, Kevin knew Ren. He would

"It couldn't be, right?"

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

to creep

"Haaa...What do I do."

his face with both hands. He really did not know what to believe in at

***

I knew it, my footsteps stopped in front of

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

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

"This is good too..."

needed at the moment was to