The Author's POV

"Interesting..."

Closing the book down, the same figure turned to look in my direction. Our eyes met.

Clank. Clank. Clank.

Taking a step forward, the rattling sound of the chains echoed throughout the room.

Staring at the chains from the corner of my eyes, I was left surprised by the fact that the chains were directly coming from the ground of the room.

Though confusing, I stopped paying attention to this detail as the other figure soon neared me.

Coming to a halt beside Professor Thomas, the other figure slowly raised his head, revealing two deep blue eyes. A slight smile tugged in between his lips.

"So you're telling me that from the very beginning you suspected that I had something to do with this situation?" He asked with an amused look on his face.

"...You can say so."

I calmly nodded my head and replied.

Glancing at Thomas for a brief second, I looked back up at the other Ren.

"Like I've said before, from the moment that something happened with Aaron's dad, I already suspected that something was going on, and the moment that I met Professor Thomas, my suspicions became even more glaring."

Tap. Tap. Tap. Lowering my hand, I began to tap on the armrest of the chair.

"It was right at the moment that Professor Thomas mentioned my name, 876, that I was able to somewhat gauge what you were planning. Of course, since there was the possibility of you possibly reading my mind, I decided to take countermeasures."

Raising my hand, I pressed my finger on the temple of my head.

"If you could've read my mind, then you could've easily been able to tell that I was merely playing along with you. Even though I was having most of my thought processes inside of my chip in order to hide them, you should've still been able to determine my intent."

Taking into account the possibility of Ren being able to read my mind, I decided to take some precautions.

Since whenever I used the chip, my thoughts happened within a fraction of a second, I had a sudden thought.

'What if I use the chip to hide my real thoughts?'

What if the chip was fast enough to hide my real thoughts from the other entity? ...and so that was exactly what I did.

Whenever I wanted to think about him, I just activated the chip.

In that split second that I activated the chip, I would quickly contemplate everything that was happening around me.

"Haaa..."

Letting out a long sigh, I shook my head.

"...Unfortunately, there is a glaring flaw with this method."

Raising my head, I met the other Ren's eyes.

"The flaw is that even though I might be able to hide from you exactly what I'm thinking, it's practically impossible for me to completely hide my thoughts. It just isn't."

Regardless of how fast I was thinking, if the other Ren was truly capable of reading my mind, he should've been able to pick up my intentions, regardless of how small they were.

Still, this was what I wanted to begin with.

I wanted him to find this out so that I could properly gauge whether he could read my mind or not.

However, it didn't seem like he could.

Had he done so, he would've found out that I had already made countermeasures for his plan. And thus, this only meant one thing.

"You can't read my mind..."

Pursing my lips, I asked.

"I'm right, aren't I?"

Though I said that, I wasn't exactly one hundred percent sure.

After all, with everything I went through with him, the possibility of me being purposely misled wasn't impossible.

"..."

Once again I was met with no response. Regardless, I continued.

that you can't read my mind. How are

at the other Ren

quite a while, I came up

I paused.

"...You know the future."

moment those words left my mouth, the temperature

my lips

you think about it,

that without knowing that I would end

fact that he knew about the 'novel' world was probably the biggest clue regarding the possibility of him knowing the

that

about it, the

were possibly fake, the fact that they

other Ren to know about the future, and to be inside of

head. Or at least, he knew who

"Hmmm..."

my arms together,

been curious. Even if you don't answer, I'll

Tap. The sound of my fingers tapping on the armrest

working

I wanted to get proper confirmation

to pretend

"Yes."

that, cutting me off, the other Ren spoke

"Hm?"

raised

would

you finally decided to

sat up

Thud—!

chair and dumped his body on the ground. He then proceeded to

My brows furrowed tightly.

only noticed it now, but he also touched the book before,

that he grabbed Thomas's hair that I realized that he had also been able

made me

no longer just

How did that happen?

started to speak.

to be wary

"What do you mean?"

leaned my body even

don't about the shit that he

hands, the other Ren shook his head. His deep and detached voice rang across

I

eyes began to

is he on

his deep blue eyes, I lowered my head

a lot of things that you've

was about to finish my sentence, the other Ren quickly cut

"I'm not your enemy."

"Huh?"

again raised my head to meet

"You're not my enemy?"

"Yes."

other Ren

"Pft."

I immediately scoffed.

will believe that after everything

news article from before. The one

===

[Breaking news]

that Ren Dover, the missing student from the Lock is in fact 876. Because of his excellent performance at the conference,

---Read More---

===

who is

"..."

staring at my watch for a good couple of seconds, the other Ren took

I've said before, I'm not your

thing. I

"Bullshit."

I irritably replied.

to ever prove to me otherwise? All you've done is messed with my