The Author's POV

W.V. pharmaceuticals.

It's been a while since I heard of that name.

Because at that time I was in desperate need of cash, I practically sold most of my stocks. Should I have saved it? Yes, most likely. Do I regret it?

...not really.

After all, it's not like their value shot up by that much.. I would've probably have made a couple of million more U.

Either way, the fact that Gerrard was the son of the current chairman of W.V. pharmaceuticals was a pleasant surprise.

...and when I mean pleasant, I mean it in a very interesting way.

If I played my cards right, I could probably kill multiple birds with one stone.

"Thank you for gathering everyone"

Talk of the devil. Walking up the stairs followed by Noah and two other burly individuals, Gerrard calmly walked towards the middle of the room. There were approximately fifty people gathered here on the second floor, and all of them seemed to be first years as they all had an azure blue blazer.

Calmly observing everyone present, raising his hand, Gerrard tried to gather everyone's attention towards himself.

As soon as his hand raised in the air, the room instantly became quiet. With his three lackeys glaring at everyone present, everyone immediately shut up. Noticing this, smiling at everyone, Gerrard calmly started speaking

"Once again, thank you all for coming this weekend to the weekly meetings I have established. I hope that it doesn't bother any of you as..."

As Gerrard was speaking, every word that came out of his mouth went from one of my ears to the other. The reason why I wasn't paying attention wasn't because I wasn't interested in what he said...well, I wasn't interested but the main reason was because of a particular person in the room.

More precisely a young girl who quietly standing in the corner by herself.

She had a rather petite figure with semi-long hair and bangs that gently covered her eyes. She looked extremely shy as she avoided eye making contact with everyone.

'Ava Leafz...'

...It seems like my trip here wasn't in vain.

Although I was initially put off by Gerrard's forceful show of power, now that I found Ava, my anger subsided a little.

Calmly observing Ava from the side, I thought back at the files that Smallsnake sent me.

According to the files he sent me, Ava Lefaz came from a pretty well-off family. She was the sixth child of the family and the only one with the monster tamer profession. Although she wasn't neglected at home, because of her profession, she developed a sort of inferiority complex over her siblings who in their own rights, were quite talented.

...although the files had a bit more information, those were the key points I took notice of...and observing her from the side, I could tell that the information was accurate.

...from the way she avoided everyone and seemed very shy, it was apparent that she didn't have a lot of confidence in herself.

This was definitely something I could work with.

-Clap!

out of my thoughts, Gerrard smiled brightly

you guys know why I

posed the question,

brow and noticing the strange tension in the room, I soon spotted every student in the room helplessly looking at

...what's going on?

before him, Gerrard once again spoke. This time his

you guys hear what I said? Please hand me a timestamp. One per

word 'time stamp' I couldn't help but tilt my head in confusion as I glanced next to me where Leo and Ram were.

"...what's going on?"

understanding something, Leo pulled me

you're new here you don't know much about what happens here...essentially, each week, same time today, we are gathered here by Gerrard and we are to give him one of the two time-stamps that

listening, I glanced towards Leo

"What's a time stamp?"

I asked, I couldn't help but curse at

probably have done more research on this place and the people living

there were over a thousand people staying in this building, I should've taken note of

considering the fact that there were only fifty people gathered here, I figured that this wasn't the only group

of students, blackmailing them into handing them something important...which in this case seemed

my hand on my chin, I made a mental

to the rules and anything

information would I be able to quickly come up with

going on with Angelica, things just passed my mind. Moreover, with how busy Smallsnake was these past few days, asking him to research all of the people here would be basically asking for him

time, I had to do it

this is

out a green-colored card from his pocket, Leo

same size as a credit card and apart from a few patterns on it, it

I managed to spot students taking out a similar colored card and handing

Leo, we quickly lined up. As

just observe what is happening. Since you're new, you don't have to hand them a timestamp,

slightly, and seeing the confusion

summarize what a time-stamp does, it basically is an access card that

in Leo's direction, I

"Time regressive machine?"

Frowning slightly, Leo asked

know what

placed my hand on my

know. I'm just surprised by the fact that

A time regressive machine

was...a virtual

realism and through the neuron enhancing liquid provided in the capsule of the time regressive machine, humans were able to develop a machine that made time flow much slower

for students looking to increase their strength in a short

One, they were expensive.