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!

snapping me out of my thoughts, Gerrard smiled brightly as he got to the main point

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

soon as Gerrard posed the question,

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

...what's going on?

once again spoke.

said? Please hand me a timestamp. One per person

couldn't help but tilt my head in confusion as I glanced next to me where Leo and Ram were. Lowering my head a little, I

"...what's going on?"

at me, understanding something, Leo pulled me closer to him and

we are gathered here by Gerrard and we are to give him one of the two time-stamps that

was listening, I glanced

"What's a time stamp?"

asked, I couldn't help but curse at my own lack

more research on this place and the

thousand people staying in this building, I should've taken note of all the important people beforehand so that I could've been

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

into handing them

I made a mental

place, from the leaders to the rules and anything that with regards

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

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 to

time, I had to do

this is

a green-colored card from his

from Leo's hand, I calmly observed it. The card seemed to be the same size as a credit card and apart from a few patterns on it, it didn't look anything special. Just like a

corner of my eyes, I managed to spot students taking out a similar colored card and handing

to Leo, we quickly lined up. As I lined up with them, Leo quietly pointed towards the students

new, you don't have to hand them a timestamp, but from next week you must give them

confusion

stamps. to summarize what a time-stamp does, it basically is an access card that enables people to gain access

turning my head in Leo's

"Time regressive machine?"

Frowning slightly, Leo asked

don't know what that

head, I placed my hand on my chin as I

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

A time regressive machine

what it was...a virtual

and through the neuron enhancing liquid provided in the capsule of the time regressive machine, humans were able to develop

strength in a short time. However, there were obvious downsides to

One, they were expensive.