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..."

occurred right after meeting the previous

My head snapped upwards.

'There was one...'

fidgeted

thought process...it definitely

occurred to me before, but, didn't my personality

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

behavior, the moment prior to meeting the

had I had such thoughts about treating everyone as a chess piece and having everything under my control. It

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

different ideologies inside of me. Ideologies

and crazy theory suddenly pierced through my

My breathing evened out.

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

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

My toes curled inwardly.

TRIIIING—! TRIIIING—!

my thoughts. Lowering my head, I looked at the message. It was

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

"Haaa...haaa...."

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

[Yeah, that would do.]

message, I

"huuuu..."

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

some fresh air to sort out my

eating

Ci Clank—!

door behind me, I walked

***

Ding—!

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

[Synchronization complete]

Synchronisation : 34%

"Haaa..."

up straight, Kevin exhaled deeply. Covering his forehead with his hand, he supported his body with his

the world did I

vision he

vividly remembered everything that he saw in the vision, and it was because he remembered that at the moment he couldn't quite grasp what was happening around

up straight, Kevin was

was me wasn't

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

saw, was not something he had ever

been a

his head back, Kevin stared at the white ceiling of

back at the

not the future, what else could

more he thought about it, the more certain he was about his

"...Fuck."

Kevin's fists clenched tightly.

of Emma 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,

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

Kevin was sure.

tightly as anger

'...He needs to die.'

flashed with hatred as he recalled that scene. But there was only one

felt slightly familiar

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

that have been Ren? ...No, he

his head, trying to discard such

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

"It couldn't be, right?"

trying to deny what he saw, the confidence he had within him slowly

started to creep into his

"Haaa...What do I do."

hands. He really did not know what to

***

stopped in front of the

it was early in the morning. I thought about going

a couple of steps out of my

"This is good too..."

needed at the moment was to clear