The young man waspletely thrown off. Normally, even if he had a hundred lifetimes'' worth of courage, he wouldn''t dare say something like that.


    Getting a perfect score at the University of Maple Grove? That was just ridiculous.


    He couldn''t keep his cool after watching the video Aisha had shown him. He was convinced that President Grant was ying favorites.


    Everyone around exchanged confused nces, trying to make sense of what the young man had said.


    Was there some kind of connection between Flora and President Grant?


    Jules''s eyes showed a brief flicker of surprise, but then he smiled and admitted straightforwardly, "Yes, I''ve known Flora for a long time. She is, indeed... the person I admire most." The room went silent for a beat, then erupted like a kettle on the boil.


    Mr. Jurado chuckled, "No wonder President Grant made that unexpected trip to the lounge earlier."


    It was all for her.


    Brianna stared at Flora, her mind reying their previous conversations.


    Flora had said she knew Jules, but Brianna hadn''t believed her, thinking she was just boasting. And now, at lunch in the lounge, it turned out Jules hade to see Flora...


    Brianna had naively thought Jules was there for her. They must all beughing at her behind her back.


    On the judges'' panel, the three judges had a collective moment of realization.Contentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDra/ma.O(r)g!


    No wonder...


    No wonder Jules had treated Flora so specially, even going as far as to open the database for her.


    It turned out they had known each other for a long time in private.


    Jules squinted slightly, "Even though Flora and I are close friends, she genuinely deserves the title of ''perfect scorer.'' It seems many of you are still skeptical, so to prove that the universitypetition ispletely transparent and fair, we''ll present undeniable evidence."


    He picked up his phone and made a call, speaking softly.


    Through it all, he maintained an air of openness and integrity, winning over the crowd. After all, the president of the National Computer Society wouldn''t risk his reputation by ying favorites in such apetition...


    A few minutester, a staff member came up with a USB drive and plugged it into aputer.


    Therge screens around the gymnasium lit up with the same video.


    It was surveince footage from backstage, showing Flora.


    The footage clearly showed the judges being impartial, demanding that Flora provide the basis for her form, or they would give her a zero.


    "Just use proof by contradiction," Flora said in the video, looking slightly impatient.


    Then Jules had someone open the database.


    The surveince footage showed Flora''s form being entered into the database, and after repeated checks, verifications, and calctions, it yielded the exact correct answer she had written on her paper. Several forms were verified, checked, and recalcted multiple times.


    And the results were all correct.


    The database contained the most authoritative and urate data, which couldn''t be wrong.


    So...


    Those seemingly bizarre forms that Flora hade up with were all correct.


    How old was she...


    To be writing her own forms already?!


    And she was a medical student.


    Computers were just a hobby for her. Was she even human?


    The young man who had spoken first looked ashen,pletely convinced, and apologized to both Jules and Flora.


    After the second round ended, there was a half-hour break.


    Jules stood up and made his way toward the University of Maple Grove''s section.