player POV-Chapter 50: Trap 5

I felt a deep and heavy discomfort after George took a large portion of my money.

It wasn’t just a fleeting financial loss, but a shock I couldn’t easily get over.

The question kept echoing in my mind insistently: how could he ask such an amount from a student who had barely begun to make his way? I felt that there was a clear injustice in this, as if my situation or circumstances didn’t matter to him at all.

Even after my transition to this world, and despite the fact that the Taylor family is considered one of the wealthiest in the Athena Empire, the money I had paid was not small by any measure.

The problem wasn’t just in my ability to pay, but in my sense of the value of the money itself.

From the expression of surprise on George’s face, I realized that he thought what he took wasn’t much, and he was probably fully convinced that his request was reasonable.

Had that expression not changed at the last moment, he might have continued raising the amount without hesitation, and perhaps wouldn’t have stopped until he took the full million.

I began to think about it more deeply, and the more I returned to the calculations, the more distressed I felt.

I tried to estimate the value of the amount I had lost, and when I converted it in my mind to its equivalent in dollars, I felt a slight dizziness, followed by real pain in my stomach.

The number was so heavy that my mind initially refused to accept it.

I recalculated more than once, hoping I was mistaken, but the result was the same each time: more than thirty million dollars.

At that moment, I felt as if something inside me had broken... I remembered my previous life, when I worked non-stop, day and night, moving between jobs and exhausting my body and mind without mercy.

And with all that effort, the largest amount I could collect in a single month never exceeded a thousand dollars.

I used to feel happy when I reached that number, considering it an achievement worthy of the effort.

The comparison between past and present was unbearably harsh.

The idea that such an amount could be taken from me so easily made me feel suffocated.

I realized that continuing to think this way would only lead me to collapse.

My head was full of numbers, and my chest tightened more with every passing second.

For this reason, I decided to stop thinking for a little while.

I couldn’t change what had happened, but I could prevent myself from sinking further into that spiral.

I rose quietly from my bed, trying to regain my balance, and headed toward the training hall...

.....

When I left my room, it was nearly ten in the evening, so there were only a few students in the hallways.

The place was comfortably quiet, and a feeling of tranquility filled every corner, occasionally interrupted by distant footsteps or faint whispers from students passing by.

I didn’t linger long while standing there, feeling that time was short and my mind was crowded, so I continued my way toward the training hall.

Along the way, the moon caught my attention; it was full, shining brightly with white light and giving everything around it a touch of serenity.

I paused for a moment at one of the open windows along the hallway, gazing out for a while.

I tried to describe its beauty in my mind, but every word seemed insufficient; even the word "beautiful" wasn’t enough to convey its magnificence.

It was something more than just a fleeting scene, something worthy of contemplation and silence.

I stood there admiring it for a while, enjoying the calm and tranquility surrounding the place, as if the moon sent a sense of reassurance into my soul despite all the pressures and tensions that had accumulated during the day.

I felt that this moment, simple as it was, gave me a chance to breathe and calm the thoughts that crowded my mind.

After several minutes of silence and reflection, I slowly turned to continue my way toward the training hall...

I felt as if someone was watching me; it was a truly strange feeling.

So I stopped from time to time and glanced back.

Every time I did, I saw no one. Even when I stepped back a few steps to check, the hallways were completely empty, with no trace of anyone, as if the place was silently lifeless. All of this made my heart beat faster, and the heat in my body increased slightly from the tension, even though my eyes saw that everything was normal.

Over time, I began to think that this sensation might not be real, but rather a product of my imagination.

Since coming to this world, the feeling of fear had never left me, and I was always cautious in every move, every step I took.

My fear of death, before I could return to my brother, kept me on edge all the time...

I gradually realized that what I had felt was nothing but a hallucination woven by my anxious and tense imagination.

However, ignoring it was not easy, as I was used to being always ready for any surprise, especially in this new world I had not yet fully adapted to.

....

I walked a few more minutes, but the feeling had not disappeared. There was a strange pressure inside me, as if something was watching every step I took.

I tried to calm myself and convinced myself that everything I was feeling was just my imagination, yet my heart did not settle.

I was thinking of returning to my room, trying to ignore the unsettling feeling, when suddenly something unexpected happened.

— Shhh... shhh —

I moved instinctively, unable to think for more than a moment, before I was caught off guard by an attack aimed directly at my neck.

I jerked my body back quickly, but the knife scratched my face, and I felt blood running down my cheek, before a voice reached my ear saying:

"How did you evade that?"

I raised my eyes slowly, and in front of me I noticed a figure I hadn’t seen a moment ago, standing directly before me.

While I focused on it, suddenly a group of people appeared coming from the front.

I tried to distinguish them quickly, and when I focused on one of them, I recognized him immediately; it was Kar, with a smile on his face as he looked at me with confidence and calm.