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,

My head snapped upwards.

'There was one...'

hands fidgeted

thought process...it definitely changed after

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

may have not 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

that

at my previous behavior, the moment prior to meeting the

had such thoughts about treating everyone as a chess piece and having everything under

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

was as though someone was forcing traits and different ideologies inside

crazy theory

My breathing evened out.

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

refused to believe that. I shook my head repeatedly. It couldn't

My toes curled inwardly.

TRIIIING—! TRIIIING—!

snapping me out of my thoughts. Lowering my head, I looked at

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

"Haaa...haaa...."

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

[Yeah, that would do.]

message, I shut off the communication

"huuuu..."

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

some fresh air to sort out

thoughts were eating away

Ci Clank—!

door behind me,

***

Ding—!

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

[Synchronization complete]

Synchronisation : 34%

"Haaa..."

his forehead with

the world

vision he

because he remembered that at the moment

straight, Kevin was able to

me wasn't

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

he saw, was not

have been a

stared at the white ceiling

thinking back at the

the future, what else could

more certain he was about his analysis. Whatever he

"...Fuck."

Kevin's fists clenched tightly.

of Emma dying on

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

were obscured and

and the flask in his hands already gave him an idea of what had happened. The man had purposely

Kevin was sure.

even more tightly

'...He needs to die.'

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

slightly

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

have been Ren? ...No,

head, trying to

knew Ren. He would

"It couldn't be, right?"

trying to deny what he saw,

creep into

"Haaa...What do I do."

both hands. He really

***

it, my footsteps stopped in front of the training

'dream' it was early in

having walked a couple of steps out of my residence, I

"This is good too..."

moment was