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!

once, snapping me out of my thoughts, Gerrard smiled brightly as

I will keep it short. I'm sure you guys know

soon as Gerrard posed the question, instantly silence

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

...what's going on?

him, Gerrard once again spoke. This

guys hear what I said? Please hand me a

stamp' I couldn't help but tilt my head in confusion as I glanced next to me where Leo

"...what's going on?"

Leo pulled me closer to him

about what happens here...essentially, each week, same time today, we are gathered here by Gerrard

I glanced towards

"What's a time stamp?"

help but curse

more research on this place and the people living

should've taken note of all the important people beforehand so that

gathered here, I figured that this wasn't the only group that coerced students into doing something that they

were probably many others with a similar group of students, blackmailing them into handing them something important...which

hand on my chin, I made

the rules and

had enough information would I be able to quickly come up with countermeasures...or at least be prepared for

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

had to do it without relying

is

out a green-colored card from his pocket, Leo showed

observed it. The card seemed to be the same size as a credit card and apart from a few patterns on it,

spot students taking

card back to Leo, we quickly lined up. As I lined up with them, Leo quietly

just observe what is happening. Since you're new, you don't have to hand them a timestamp, but from next week you must give them one of the two time-stamps you receive

seeing the confusion on my face, he calmly

an access card that enables people to gain access

in Leo's

"Time regressive machine?"

Frowning slightly, Leo asked

don't know what that is

my head, I placed my hand on my

know. I'm just surprised by the fact that this building

A time regressive machine

was...a virtual machine that slowed

in the capsule of the time regressive machine, humans were able to develop a machine that made time flow much slower compared to

the perfect machine for students looking to increase their strength in a short time. However, there were obvious downsides

One, they were expensive.