Five minutes later, he began.
At first, nothing seemed unusual. The crowd, already convinced of the outcome, watched with mild interest. Some even looked bored, as though waiting for an inevitable curtain drop.
One minute passed, then two, passing five.
The expected announcement never came.
Instead, the room grew louder.
"What's going on?"
"Did it start already?"
"Why isn't there any result?"
Confusion rippled through the crowd, voices overlapping, curiosity sharpening into unease.
No one noticed at first but the man in glasses had stopped smiling. His expression shifted, inch by inch, from casual confidence to something far more rigid, his brows furrowed, fingers moving faster now, more aggressively.
Lines of attack were deployed in rapid succession, an entire chain executed with precision.
And yet, every breach attempt dissolved before it could take form. Every exploit collapsed as though swallowed by an invisible net. It wasn't just resistance, it was anticipation.
Those watching the massive screen, especially those fluent in the language of code were no longer merely observing, they were stunned.
Because they knew, they could see it in the structure, the rhythm, the elegance of Yeri's inputs. This wasn't random typing or blind defense, it was strategy and knowledge.
Meanwhile, Calin's socialite circle continued chirping, blissfully out of depth.
"Look at her pretending to be serious," one scoffed. "Does she think this is some 'fake it till you make it' act?"
"Honestly, I'm getting secondhand embarrassment just watching her."
A nearby man let out a short, disbelieving laugh. "I think the ignorant ones here… are you two. It's been several minutes, and that guy still hasn't broken through. Do you have any idea what that means?"
Another added, eyes still glued to the screen, "Just look at the code she's writing. That's not beginner-level work."
The chatter around them shifted. Confidence cracked and doubt seeped in.
If anyone was truly shaken, it was Bryce Gate.
As an expert in the field, he had recognized it instantly, from the very moment Yeri's fingers touched the keyboard. That level of speed, precision, and control over layered defenses wasn't something you learned from "basic practice."
It was instinct sharpened by experience.
"Brother Bryce… what's going on?" Calin asked, her voice tightening as she sensed the shift.
But before he could answer the host's voice rang out.
"Time's up. The winner is… Yeri Zhi."
A thick, suffocating kind of silence.
Especially from those who had mocked her just moments ago, reducing her to nothing more than Shin Keir's pretty fiancée.
"She cheated!"
The shout shattered the stillness.
The man in glasses shot to his feet, all traces of arrogance replaced by agitation. "What do you mean she won?! I was just getting started!"
The host frowned. "You were given fifteen minutes. You chose to delay your attack and even announced you'd give her a head start. That was your decision."
"But—!"
"Yeah, she must've done something!" someone from his side chimed in. "How could someone like her beat a finalist?"
"Does Miss Zhi even have a background in programming? She's not even in college yet. This should be investigated!"
The accusations snowballed, desperate and loud.
By then, Yeri had already stood up. She raised an eyebrow slightly, her gaze drifting toward Bryce Gate before sweeping calmly across the room.
"Is this how things work here?" she asked, her tone light but cutting. "From the beginning, you were the ones who called me out of the audience. Moreover, the computer wasn't mine. The screen is public and there are more eyes here than I can count. So tell me… how exactly did I cheat?"
The man in glasses opened his mouth then closed it again.
Bryce shot him a cold glare, sharp enough to silence whatever protest remained.
Up front, the judges and investors began exchanging looks.
This wasn't some staged entertainment show with paid applause or scripted victories. The room was filled with professionals, veterans, people who lived and breathed this field.
If there had been cheating they would have seen it.
"We were watching closely," one of the senior experts spoke. "Her code was clean, even if she had used tricks, the rules were simple. Defend your system and she succeeded."
Murmurs rippled through the audience.
"Exactly. With this many experts watching, how could she cheat?"
"This isn't something you can fake. It's like asking a random person to solve advanced equations on the spot. If you don't know it, you don't know it."
"She's clearly not a novice… she's the real deal."
Calin's face paled, her thoughts scrambling for footing. This wasn't how things were supposed to go. Yeri wasn't supposed to shine here.
Maybe… maybe it was luck?
Clinging to that fragile excuse, she quickly stepped closer to Bryce and whispered something under her breath.
Bryce's expression was unreadable, like a locked vault.
He looked at her and in that single glance, Calin felt her throat tighten.
A moment later, Bryce stepped forward.
"How about this," he announced calmly, his voice cutting through the lingering noise. "If both parties agree… we reverse the roles. Miss Zhi will take the offensive and someone from the Gate team will defend."
"H-Hacking?" the man in glasses blurted out. "Does she even have that kind of ability?"
The room leaned in, curiosity sharpening into something electric.
Because defending a fortress was one thing.
But tearing one down? That required an entirely different kind of monster.
When no one objected and the decision was set, the man in glasses continued muttering snide remarks under his breath.
Yeri, however, didn't spare him a glance. He was already fading into background noise.
As the second round began, the technician approached her again. This time, his earlier reluctance had vanished, replaced by eager enthusiasm, his words flowing quickly as he explained the system.
Yeri listened but only halfway. Because the moment her eyes landed on the interface she recognized it.
The firewall model she was supposed to breach bore a striking resemblance to the flagship system Bryce Gate had proudly introduced earlier.
The structure, the layering, even the defensive signatures, all too familiar.
Was it just a simulation? Or the real thing?
Her gaze lifted and across the room, Bryce met her eyes.
There it was, a silent provocation. A test wrapped in a trap.
For a product developed by an entire professional team over time, this wasn't just about competition anymore. It was about control.
They wanted her earlier victory to look like luck, nothing more than a fortunate fluke under shallow scrutiny.
Most wouldn't notice, only the seasoned investors and experienced programmers might sense something off.
But in the end, many only cared about results, not the subtle games beneath the surface.
Yeri almost laughed, since they're going all in then she wouldn't hold back either.
On the other side, the man in glasses remained relaxed, even bored. The system he was defending was something he knew inside out.
To him, this was home ground.
But Yeri had never truly been a stranger to this world, her grades may have been average overall, but not in IT. Not in anything related to computers.
If anyone had bothered to dig deeper, they would've noticed it.
Time ticked.
Cold sweat formed on Yeri's forehead. Her fingers, once fluid, slowed just slightly, tension creeping into her joints. She had to admit it, Bryce's company did have capability.
But still, it wasn't on the level of the mafia association's network she had once encountered, not even close.
"One minute remaining!"
The host's voice rang out.
The crowd leaned forward, anticipation building. It seemed the outcome was already decided.
An alarm shattered the air, urgent and unmistakable.
The firewall system lit up in warning and the man in glasses froze, his jaw nearly dropped as realization hit him like a collapsing tower.
She had gained admin access not by luck but by threading through overlooked misconfigurations, slipping past layered defenses like a phantom through locked doors.
For a moment even the host forgot to breathe with eyes glued to the screen, mind struggling to catch up.
It wasn't until Yeri stood up that he snapped back to reality, instinctively glancing toward Bryce.
Bryce's face had gone rigid.
The crowd erupted into murmurs, confusion swirling.
"She barely cracked it!" the man in glasses suddenly shouted, desperation bleeding into his voice. "Time was already up!"
But the protest only made him look smaller, pathetic and foolish.
The judges exchanged displeased glances because what mattered wasn't just when she broke through, it was how.
Perhaps no one was more displeased than Bryce Gate.
Because unlike the others, the investors had noticed.
The firewall Yeri had just dismantled? It was his company's key product.
The very one he had been promoting with pride and now it stood exposed and questionable, enough to raise doubt of it's capability.
And in business, doubt was a far more dangerous virus than failure.
"Yeri Zhi… wins." The host forced the words out with an awkward smile.
Bryce moved, his expression shifted smoothly, as if a mask had been adjusted rather than replaced.
"I must say, I'm truly impressed," he said, his tone carrying admiration. "This was actually a valuable opportunity to test our system's vulnerabilities."
A neat recovery.
He reframed the situation as intentional, as if this had all been part of routine internal testing. After all, even top tech companies conducted such exercises regularly.
Yeri almost laughed, quick thinking, she admitted inwardly.
Whether people believed him or not, the seed of doubt had already been planted.
"Thank you for this opportunity," Yeri said when handed the microphone, her voice calm, even pleasant. "I had a great time. To be honest, I didn't expect Miss Ricci to know programming as well. I feel like I could learn a thing or two from her…"
Calin flinched.
The mention of her name felt like a spotlight snapping on in a dark room. She still hadn't recovered from the shock of Yeri overturning everything so effortlessly.
"Actually," Yeri continued lightly, "if there's still time… how about we try the attack-defense game together?"
Calin "...."
Anyone with even a basic understanding of programming could now see the gap between Calin's earlier "performance" and what Yeri had just displayed.
This wasn't an invitation, it was a challenge.