Chapter 2

02

"Leo, we still have time to change the design!"

"This isn't just about the money. The winner gets a full scholarship and a spot in the elite labs. We can't just quit," Wyatt said, his face pale after the organizers ignored our complaint.

"I'll do the modifications myself. Wyatt, you keep talking to the officials," I said firmly.

This time, I didn't trust anyone. Not even my best friend.

In my last life, my girlfriend, Ivy Rivers, had stayed by my side the whole night I worked. Later, I saw her leaning into Gabriel's arms.

There was no doubt about it. She was the one feeding him my data.

But Ivy didn't know the first thing about coding or mechanical engineering. Even if she gave him the files, she couldn't explain the core logic of the operating system.

Gabriel and I had been rivals since freshman year. I was always his shadow. Every idea I had, he somehow executed first.

I never even walked on the same side of the street as him. There was no way he could have physically seen my progress.

So how did his code match mine line for line? Even after being reborn, I couldn't wrap my head around it.

Thinking of Ivy made my heart ache. We were childhood sweethearts. We were planning a life together.

And yet, at the most critical moment of my life, she pushed me into the abyss.

I slapped myself hard across the face to snap out of it. I had work to do.

I began tearing the robot apart, rewriting the neural networks from scratch.

When I first designed this bot, I had an upgraded version in mind. I hadn't used it because the performance was slightly unstable.

I had been confident that the conservative version was enough to win. But now, I had to gamble everything.

An hour later, I stared at the new code and took a shaky breath.

I was alone in the lab. Unless Gabriel was a literal god, there was no way he could know what I just did.

I wiped the sweat from my forehead. Just as I was about to upload the new parameters, Wyatt burst through the door.

"Leo! Gabriel just updated his public project files. Look!"

My heart dropped. I snatched the laptop and watched the new video.

"No way..." I whispered.

The data Gabriel just uploaded was the exact same unstable upgrade I had finished minutes ago.

I watched the video of his robot moving with fluid, lifelike precision. The comments were already flooded with praise.

Gabriel had posted a status update: "I thought my first version was enough to win. But looking at the competition, I decided to push the limits. It's a bit unstable, but if I can get some feedback from the pros, it's worth the risk..."

Cold sweat poured down my back. The core of this upgrade was a specific algorithm I had dreamed about.

I treated that code like a gift from heaven. No one else could have known it.

Was Gabriel using a world-class hacker? Was he watching me through my own webcam?

I had a terrifying feeling that the truth was even darker than that.

"Leo, what do we do? The whole internet is calling for your head," Wyatt said, his voice trembling.