The Thorne Heiress Unveiling Shadow novel Chapter 33

The auditorium lights dimmed, and a wave of expectant silence washed over the massive crowd. A spotlight flared to life, illuminating the stage where ten teams of two sat at identical, sleek workstations. On the massive screen above them, the logos of the finalist teams were displayed. At the very top, in bold, imposing letters, was "Team Sovereign." At the bottom of the list, almost an afterthought, was "Team SC."

The host, a slick tech journalist, was hyping up the crowd. "Welcome, everyone, to the final round of the Blackwood Innovation Prize! Our ten final teams are about to face the ultimate challenge: a three-hour, live-build competition to create a revolutionary data encryption model from scratch. The problem, designed by Kaelen Blackwood himself, was just delivered to their secure terminals thirty seconds ago."

On the side of the stage, a long table was set up for the panel of judges. In the center sat Kaelen Blackwood, his expression as cold and impassive as ever. To his right was the visibly excited Professor Albright.

The giant countdown clock on the screen began to tick down from three hours. The competition was on.

Instantly, the members of "Team Sovereign" burst into action. Mark Chen was already at the whiteboard, sketching out a complex architectural diagram, while his teammates' fingers flew across their keyboards, their teamwork a display of impressive, well-oiled efficiency.

"And Team Sovereign is off to a blistering start!" one of the live commentators announced, his voice booming through the auditorium. "No surprise there. They are the clear favorites to win."

The camera then panned to "Team SC." The contrast was jarring. Chloe, looking pale with nerves but determined, was diligently working on the user interface, building the front-end framework with slow, careful precision.

Evelyn, on the other hand, was doing... nothing.

She was leaning back in her chair, her hands resting in her lap. Her eyes were closed.

For a full fifteen minutes, Evelyn didn't move. She appeared to be meditating, completely oblivious to the frantic energy around her. To the outside world, she looked lost, overwhelmed, and out of her depth. The commentators began to openly speculate that she was suffering from stage fright.

But Evelyn wasn't panicking. She wasn't thinking. She was processing.

In her mind, the challenge problem wasn't a page of text. It was a three-dimensional, crystalline structure of logic. She was flying through it, her consciousness moving at the speed of light, examining every facet, every connection, every potential weakness. She wasn't just planning to build what the problem asked for. She was looking for a more elegant solution, a higher level of play that the problem's designers had never even considered. She was looking for the flaw in their thinking, just as she had in the preliminaries.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity to the confused audience, her eyes opened. They were clear, calm, and incredibly focused. She leaned forward, placed her fingers on the keyboard—Aria's bugged keyboard—and typed a single, strange line of what looked like gibberish. Then, she stopped again, her eyes closing once more. The whispers in the crowd grew louder.