Chapter 3

Serena suddenly burst into a hysterical laugh. "You're all in on it! You're all teaming up to ruin me—"

Her voice cut off abruptly.

On the main screen, a newly received email notification popped up.

It was a leaked PDF of a secret agreement between Julian Mercer and a private tech conglomerate, promising to sell the "exclusive rights of the algorithm" for ten million dollars once he secured sole ownership.

The sender was anonymous, but at the very bottom of the email was a single line:

“Truth never stays buried. — R.B.”

I froze. R.B.—Richard Bernstein? The legendary, tragic genius who had supposedly committed suicide years ago?

Julian panicked, lunging toward the console to rip the USB drive out, but security tackled him to the ground.

The stage descended into absolute chaos.

Right before the live stream was abruptly cut by the organizers, I picked up my microphone and spoke clearly to the camera:

"Science is not a battlefield of greed. But if you choose to make it one, I will fight you to the very end."

Camera flashes rained down on me like a storm. I closed my eyes against the blinding light.

This war had just begun. And I knew the person who sent that email was watching from the shadows.

Ten minutes later, in the VIP holding room.

My father, who was the Chancellor of our university and a member of the National Academy of Sciences, stood there with a face of pure thunder, glaring at Julian. "Associate Professor Mercer, care to explain?"

Julian’s knees buckled. He looked ready to drop to the floor.

I walked over to a stunned Serena and took the microphone she was still clutching.

"Dr. Vance, you kept screaming that I stole your work,"

I said, my voice deadpan. "Then can you explain why the initial commit of this algorithm was backed up on my father’s lab server six months ago?"

The big screen in the holding room displayed the timestamped backup files from my phone.

Serena's lips trembled, but not a single sound came out.

I turned to Julian. "As for you... I'm genuinely disappointed. I actually thought I had found an intellectual equal."

My father stepped forward, putting a comforting hand on my shoulder before addressing the room.

"The university will launch an immediate, formal investigation. If there is academic fraud, the perpetrators will be expelled and blacklisted.

If there is slander and defamation," he glared coldly at Serena and Julian, "we will prosecute to the fullest extent of the law."

On the security feed, Serena collapsed onto the floor, weeping. Julian was escorted out of the building by campus police.

I adjusted my collar and walked back out to the main hall, standing before the press.

"Thank you all for seeking the truth. The path of scientific research has no room for lies."

After a beat of stunned silence, the hall erupted into thunderous applause.

The flashes blinded me again, but this time, they shone on a young scientist who had successfully defended her integrity.

Serena's distant wailing, echoing from the hallways, served as the pathetic background music to her own downfall.

"Dr. Sterling," the summit chairman whispered to me, "should we postpone the rest of the ceremony?"

I shook my head, my grip tightening on the microphone.

"No. Because this is an international stage, we must show the world that academic integrity cannot be compromised."

Taking a deep breath, I turned to the cameras.

"Since we have a global audience, I would like to take this opportunity to walk you through the actual development process of this algorithm."

I connected my laptop to the main display.

I opened my cloud repository, displaying the raw development logs.

"Here are the daily commits over the past six months, each backed by a verified timestamp."

I scrolled down, and cascade after cascade of green code blocks flowed down the screen.

"Three months ago, Associate Professor Julian Mercer joined the project. Here is his first-ever contribution."

The audience murmured. Professors craned their necks to examine the metadata.

"As for the 'original draft' Dr. Vance claimed to have written..." I opened a new document.

"This is the abstract she submitted to the summit committee yesterday, outlining her 'core formula.'"

I drew a red circle around several variables. "What's amusing is that this formula contains a fundamental syntax error—one that Julian made during our very first brainstorm three months ago."

The room fell dead silent.

The most damning evidence of plagiarism is copying the mistakes along with the work.

Serena’s face went from pale to gray.

"I suggest everyone check the preprint on arXiv," I added.

"My complete paper was uploaded six months ago. Dr. Vance’s paper was submitted... yesterday afternoon."

People in the audience immediately pulled out their phones to verify.

The search results spoke for themselves. My paper predated hers by half a year.

"No... no, that's not true!" Serena screamed, struggling against the security guards holding her. "Those logs can be hacked! Julian can prove it! Julian, where are you?"

She looked around wildly, but Julian was already in the back of a police cruiser.

Just then, my phone buzzed on the podium. A text message popped up on the screen, projected for the entire hall to see:

【Julian: Chloe, I'm so sorry. Serena forced me to do this. She threatened to expose our past relationship if I didn't help her...】