The Tycoon's Odyssey

After everyone left, Evan's eyes darted through the window.

Outside, the sight of a vast starless cry mirrored the emptiness in his eyes.

The night was quite dark as if mocking him with the thought that his future would be as dark as the starless light.

Time seemed to freeze a Evan, leaving him suspded in a suffocating silce. His heart which had always beat with excitemt hoping for better times to come, now felt heavy and cold, drained of vitality and hope.

The colors a him seem to have faded to shades of gray, sounds muted into eerie quiet, and the vibrant flavors of life turned tasteless and bland. The world became a bleak, colorless canvas painted with the bitterness of betrayal.

Memories flickered like distant stars in a foggy sky, each one tinged with the ache of sorrowful recollection of memories.

He knew people were unreasonable and resorted to dirty means, but…

He felt as if he had just watched a movie.

At this momt, he understood one thing.

Power...Control...Backg.

Only with these can you act unbridled.

Without them, you must bow and compromise.

But despite all the measures, if you get too much ahead, people will burn with jealousy. If they can't compete with you and follow you in the race, they will use every possible means to just kill the race.

A perfect example that reflected this was Nikola Tesla.

A man with a vision beyond gerations, yet crushed to dust by the passage of time.

If you lay low, they will act fridly a you until you have served your usefulness and if you act nightly, they will use the governmt, cops, and ev all types of shady means to wipe you out.

So, you need to bow your head, beg and lick everyone's shoes until you reach the top and th act as you please.

If you don't want to, th…

_____

Day and night seemed to flash before Evan.

Every day, Aria would come to plead for forgivess, but Evan, like a statue, would just stare at her. It wasn't that he was angry; he just couldn't find any words to speak.

What she did was fair. She can't sacrifice her parts just for this. Evan had expected such situations, which was why he hadn't bound Aria and others a him with a contract.

Making them sign the contract would have be tantamount to death. They wouldn't harass lower-level people, as it was common for them to not know much, but wh it comes to the upper level, they won't let them go.

Other than Aria, Suri would also visit Evan every day.

Though Evan totally ignored her, she would make sure to sit for a while and talk with him.

With her resources, she found a small link leading to Richard. The driver of the truck had escaped and fled, hiding somewhere, but Suri had used her connections to get call recordings, proving that Richard was the one who wanted to kill Evan.

Attacking Richard wasn't simple. Still, she was prepared but waited for Evan's confirmation, seeking his opinion. However, Evan just listed to it carefully but didn't say anything except shaking his head to signal her to stop.

In fact, the news didn't shock him anymore; rather, it felt quite normal.

_____

On June 5, 03...

It had be 6 days since Evan's accidt.

His physical condition had shown remarkable improvemt, surprising ev the doctors, but their concern was now focused intsely on his mtal state.

As Suri emerged from Evan's cabin, Aria spotted her and hurried over, clutching Suri's hand in desperation.

"Did Evan say anything?" Aria's voice trembled with worry.

Suri's eyes, usually bright with optimism, now held a deep sadness as she shook her head slowly.

Aria's heart sank. She could feel the weight of the silce like a heavy stone in her chest.

"Suri, we need to act quickly. I'm terrified he might..."

Aria's voice stopped in her throat, unable to finish the stce, but Suri understood her concern.

"Suri, you may not know this, but Evan has be through something like this before. He used to be withdrawn and distant, just like how he is now. But back th, after he started seeing the psychiatrist, he slowly began to op up. I think we should..." Aria spoke while gasping for breath.

"What! He has be through this before?" Suri interrupted, her voice betraying her shock.

"Yes," Aria nodded solemnly, her eyes pleading with Suri to understand the gravity of the situation. "But it was never this severe. That's what worries me the most..."

Suri took a momt to digest the information. It seemed like Evan was more miserable than she initially thought.

Witnessing Evan's growth, she had thought of him as a strong, prideful person, but it seemed that behind the tough exterior lay hidd the grievous painful wounds of his past.

Ev she wasn't able to bear the customs of her parts, who were forcing her to abide by their commands, and trying to control everything. So how would it be easy in Evan's case?

She didn't know how much cruelty Evan had suffered and how many times his will had be brok down, but she had tak a glimpse of scar marks on Evan's body wh the doctor operated. Initially, she thought they might be due to previous accidts, but according to doctors, all these marks came from harsh abuse.

The image crafted by Evan in front of her shook a bit but not in a wrong way. Instead, it served as motivation about how such a person dared to walk forward hopefully wh all kinds of chains had dragged him down.

If she were in his shoes, Suri knew that she would have thought of dying, after all, it was better to die than to suffer every day with pain and hope of better times to come, only to find the next day worse than the previous.

As she and Aria fell into deep thoughts, they spotted a nurse hurrying into Evan's cabin.

"What happed?" Suri and Aria asked in unison, panicked.

"I got a call from that room."

Hearing this, Suri and Aria's expressions changed and they followed the nurse into the cabin where they saw Evan ripping off the needles and ssor attached to him, and taking a seat beside the bed.

Suri and Aria's breathing halted as they saw a darked, lifeless gaze devoid of any emotions.

Noticing the sound of footsteps, Evan stared at the group and muttered in a desperate tone.

"I want to go back..."

"I want to return to BBSR..."

"This place...It feels too suffocating."