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..."

of the incidents that had occurred right

My head snapped upwards.

'There was one...'

fidgeted all

process...it definitely

didn't my personality change moments

not noticed it back then, but now that I look back at myself, right after meeting the previous Ren, I started to get

that come

the moment prior to meeting

had such thoughts about treating everyone as a chess

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

ideologies inside of me. Ideologies that I

crazy theory suddenly pierced

My breathing evened out.

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

believe that. I shook my head repeatedly. It couldn't be. Yeah, there's no way something

My toes curled inwardly.

TRIIIING—! TRIIIING—!

communication suddenly rang, snapping me out of my thoughts.

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

"Haaa...haaa...."

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

[Yeah, that would do.]

I shut off the

"huuuu..."

on my face mask. Then, I proceeded

needed some fresh air to sort

eating away

Ci Clank—!

behind me,

***

Ding—!

The first thing he saw as soon as he opened his eyes was a system

[Synchronization complete]

Synchronisation : 34%

"Haaa..."

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

in the world did I

vision he saw

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

was

was me wasn't

and that the name of the black figure

vision he saw, was not something he had

a vision of

back, Kevin stared at the white ceiling

the vision

not the future, what else

was

"...Fuck."

Kevin's fists clenched tightly.

dying on him hurt

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

part in the vision he saw. The features of the figure were obscured and so was his voice, but from what he saw,

an idea of what had happened. The

Kevin was sure.

clenched even more tightly as anger rose within

'...He needs to die.'

But there was only

felt slightly

he had met him before, yet, at the same time, he didn't. There was this chilly air surrounding the man that sent

have been Ren? ...No,

head, trying to discard such

Kevin knew Ren. He would never do

"It couldn't be, right?"

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

to creep

"Haaa...What do I do."

face with both hands. He really did not know

***

knew it, my footsteps stopped in

it was early in the morning. I

things, but having walked a couple of steps out of

"This is good too..."

at the moment was