249 The Competition
Qiao Yue ignored Oswald’s gaze, kept her head down and turned on her computer.
She had used a fake identity when participating in such competitions abroad. This was the first time she participated in something similar after she came back to C-Country.
The school’s hackathon was mainly to encourage students to study. It wasn’t designed to stump them. So, Qiao Yue didn’t expect the problems to be too difficult.
However, for an expert like Oswald, such simple problems would take him less than ten minutes each to solve.
If the team from St. Faustina’s won the championship on Harvey’s campus, it would be a great humiliation to Harvey’s students and teachers alike.
Qiao Yue planned to observe Oswald before she decided if she would user her real skills in this competition.
As the bell rang, the problem appeared on everyone’s computer screen.
Xu Hao, who was seated next to Qiao Yue, started to sigh.
Xu Hao wasn’t a very bright student. It was already difficult for him to understand the problem, let alone solve it.
Qiao Yue studied the problem and started typing on her computer. It wasn’t a difficult problem. Despite the many traps, the underlying logic was very simple.
Anyone with a solid foundation could solve this problem in half an hour.
Qiao Yue stopped at her last step.
She wanted to see how fast the others were.
On the big screen in the computer lab was an empty ranking table. Names would appear on the board based on the speed each participant solved the problem. Only the first 30 names that appear on this list would make it into the second round.
Ten minutes passed, and the first name had yet to appear on the board.
Qiao Yue was a little puzzled. This wasn’t a difficult problem, why hadn’t anyone solved it yet?
She raised her head to look at Oswald, who happened to be looking back at her with a calm expression.
He looked like he had solved the problem just like Qiao Yue. He just didn’t want to be the first name on the list.
Another five minutes passed, and the first name appeared on the big screen. It was a student from St. Faustina’s, and he used fifteen minutes to solve the problem.
Qiao Yu’s name soon followed and very quickly, a dozen more names had appeared on the list and the atmosphere in the computer lab became tense.
The students who hadn’t solve the problem were busy typing on their keyboards. The sound of people hitting the Enter key rang out in the entire lab.
Oswald crossed his arms and smiled at Qiao Yue.
Then, a line of words appeared on Qiao Yue’s computer screen.
“What are you waiting for?”
Qiao Yue looked at the message and then at Oswald. She quickly typed on her keyboard, and a line of words appeared on Oswald’s computer opposite her.
“What about you? What are you waiting for?”
Oswald shrugged and pressed the Enter key.
Only then did Oswald realize that his computer seemed to be locked, and he couldn’t run the program that he had written.
At this moment, there were only five spots left on the board. Oswald cursed as he leaned in front of his computer and typed frantically.
Qiao Yue hit the Enter key and her name appeared on the list.
Oswald was very fast.
The virus that Qiao Yue had implanted on his computer would only freeze his computer for a short time. It could be resolved quickly.
Qiao Yue didn’t really want to eliminate Oswald. This boy had been acting like he knew everything in front of her, which confused Qiao Yue. She just wanted to test him.
Besides, Qiao Yue had installed a mirroring program in her little virus.
How Oswald cracked her virus would be shown on her computer simultaneously.
Every hacker had their own style, and she wanted to use this to understand Oswald’s style. She wasn’t planning to take the top spot in the subsequent rounds, but she also didn’t want to let St. Faustina’s Institution win.
Oswald cracked the virus very quickly and rushed to submit his solution.
The last person to solve the problem was Xu Hao.
Xu Hao looked at the names on the board and sighed fervently. “This Oswald was too quick. I almost made it before him.”
When Oswald heard this, he shook his head and chuckled.
Xu Hao felt a little indignant. “Why is this person laughing? Isn’t he just a little faster than me?”
Qiao Yue shrugged her shoulders. “He wasn’t just a little faster.”