What if there was no reason? What if there was no ideal testing being done? What if they were just meant to outsmart each other to win?
This and many more thoughts tugged through Derek's mind as he kept thinking. After about two hours, Derek decided to just push the thought away and study.
---
Lucy entered her room quickly, her mood not the brightest. Once in, she quietly shut the door and moved to her bed. She casually laid on it, her mind lost in thought.
Was she just going with the plan back there in the hallway, or was she actually moved?
Lucy smiled at the thought. I guess I'm a good actor then, she thought, smiling lightly.
The panic on his face… his pleas… Lucy couldn't help but smile harder than before. Maybe he actually had feelings for her, if even just slightly.
Immediately, Lucy deleted the thought from her mind. She loved Michael, and she had no time for other men—or rather, love triangles.
Lucy, quite excited, reached out for her phone to inform Maxwell of the microscope improvement she had made.
But just as she reached for the phone, she remembered everything she had experienced from the phone calls.
After hanging her hand in the air for some time, she gently retrieved it. The smile on her face clearly vanished. Maybe he has just been busy lately, she thought, then sighed tiredly, as though she hadn't just been happy a moment ago.
---
After a while, Derek checked the time on his reading desk again. It was already past 10. Derek instantly panicked—he had to get enough rest for tomorrow's test.
Added to that, he also needed to wake up as early as possible to wrap up his studies for the said competition.
Derek quickly arranged his desk and moved off to his bed, where he lay for several minutes. His thoughts ran through the various events of the day.
His thoughts finally came to settle on the next day's event. He really didn't know what it was about, but all he knew for now was that it might be a dirty one.
How would only one person win when we're grouped into teams of seven? Derek thought, still racking his brain. It just wasn't making sense to him.
Maybe I just have to play this round a little more cunningly, he said. But deep down, he was still unsure. He was tense.
What if it's a trap? What if they were actually testing for mannerisms, not necessarily knowledge?
Although this sounded far-fetched to him—well, this was the 30th century.
Anything could happen, he thought, as doubt thickened around him. Derek calmly laid his head on the pillow, and within minutes, he was asleep.
*****
It was a beautiful morning, as the sun stood ever bright in the earthly sky.
Everything seemed normal—apart from the tension hanging deceptively in the air.
Derek had woken up as early as he could to prepare and put final touches on his studies before finally stepping out.
Soon enough, the hall began to fill with candidates and audience members.
Though this time, the seats allocated to the candidates were just 70 in number.
Audience members strolled into the hall until there were no seats remaining.
Every nook and cranny of the hall had been filled up.
This amount of crowd was expected by the organizers.
Given that the news had been all over the media for the past week, it had drawn many public comments.
Although at the beginning of the event not everyone knew about it, now it was more like a worldwide thing.
There was literally no one you could walk up to on the street and ask about the Mind Grid who wouldn't have something to say.
The crew had added an extra 20,000 seat spaces in the hall, hoping it would account for the extras expected to show up for the day.
In fact, according to the show's crew, based on the tickets sold and the actual size of the hall, those extra 20,000 seats shouldn't have even been filled up.
But to their surprise, the chairs were not only filled up—they had made the highest ticket sales on the very morning the show was set to begin.
They had actually sold out all the tickets within two hours of opening.
The queue for the tickets was so long that people began creating black-market stores and selling tickets at higher prices. Some people even got scammed out of their money.
Soon enough, the hall was full to the brim. Everyone was seated, having side talks about their anticipation and opinions on the show. And then, suddenly, Miss Elizabeth finally spoke through the mic, signaling the start of the show.
"First of all, I want to thank you all so much for purchasing the extra tickets.
This was more than expected, and we extend our gratitude to every single person who has been able to make their way here.
" Miss Elizabeth gazed through the room, hoping she was still on the right track, before she continued.
"Also, we would like to inform you that because of the controversies that occurred during the last trial, the board of leaders has decided to also review the results."
Miss Elizabeth threw a glance through the crowd, hoping they understood the implication of this.
Her eyes suddenly landed on a figure in the crowd, and she instinctively withdrew them and began scrolling through the blue screen in front of her to retrieve the results from the board review.
Mr. Lucian was still present in the crowd, in the same VIP seat he had occupied last time. He definitely knew how big of a competition this was.
He knew how much money in revenue would come by the end. After all, that was exactly why he was sponsoring it in the first place.
His big black heart symbol still glared on his hat. Lucian had almost made it a habit to appear in all black—down to his hat.
"According to the board, the results have been completely scrutinized, and they found no tangible mistakes in the ranking or positions given by the Mind Grid AI rating system. In fact, they claim it to be at least a hundred percent accurate," Miss Elizabeth said, as though dropping a gigantic bomb on her audience.
There were lots of chatters all around the room, as the audience—most especially Thompson's fans—expressed surprise and disbelief over what Elizabeth had just announced.
Miss Elizabeth stood quietly, waiting for the audience to calm down. After a while, when everything had settled, she began speaking again.