Chapter 4

I forced a smile and said, "Thanks."

But it felt like shards of glass were lodged in my throat.

Even the security system had already programmed my name for them.

At three in the morning, I gathered all the original evidence into a compressed file. The filenames were simple.

They were "Proof of Original Ownership", "Unusual Access Logs", "Risk of Tampering with Signatures", and "Pre-Defense Backup."

Just as I finished saving, my roommate Ada Carver walked in.

She was about to ask why I was still awake, but when she saw the stack of documents on my desk and the look on my face, she thought better of it.

"Did something happen?" Ada asked.

I nodded and, without a word, played the recording for her.

I only played the key bits. Benjamin's voice sounded.

"I know her computer password, server permissions, and where her lab records are stored."

"Tomorrow's demo will only have just the two of us."

"Make sure she has an 'accident,' so she can't show up."

Ada's expression changed instantly when she heard it.

"Holy shit," she muttered. Ada's quiet curse hit harder than any words of comfort.

"Don't try to shoulder this alone," she said, locking the door and dragging a chair over. "Just tell me what you need me to do."

"I need you to do three things," I said, keeping my voice steady. "First, make another backup of all the evidence. Second, if my phone suddenly dies or my computer acts up tomorrow, send the zip file to Elaine Brewer, my advisor's assistant. Third..."

I paused, then placed an old USB drive on the desk.

"Can you put this back next to the shared computer?" I said.

Ada gave me a look and got it right away.

"The fake version?" she asked.

I replied, "Yeah. On the surface, it runs fine, and the PPT presentation won't have any issues. But if the judges dig into the core parameters or do a live test, the critical flaws will show up instantly."

Ada raised an eyebrow. "You left them a trap on purpose?"

I said, "They're the ones trying to steal, aren't they? Let them have something to steal."

I poured a lot of effort into this decoy version.

The interface looked even slicker than the real one, everything ran smoothly, and I even re-edited the demo video myself.

But under the hood, I quietly swapped out a set of training parameters and slipped in a delay bug during data preprocessing.

Unless someone really dug it, it was impossible to spot.

When someone ran it for a bit, it might even look slicker than the official version.

But the moment someone dug deeper or switched to real-world data, it would fall apart in front of everyone, like a glass tower shattering right on the spot.

I copied the decoy to the usual folder on the shared computer and put the same file on the old USB drive. I even named it the way they always do, "Final Defense Version. Seriously. Don't Touch It Anymore."

That was how Benjamin always liked to name my files.

Benjamin always used to say, "Leyla, you tweak things way too much. No wonder you're always worn out."

But he never got that every extra revision was me trying to keep control of my own destiny.

Now, I was using his favorite habit to hand him the weapon he'd be most comfortable wielding.

By the time the sky started to lighten, I got in touch with three people I could actually count on.

First was Elaine, the one my advisor trusted most. She was careful, kept things to herself, and most importantly, never picked sides.

I just sent her one message: [Elaine, if anything comes up about the files before the defense tomorrow, please don't say anything yet. Just keep a timestamped backup for me.]

She replied almost instantly. [Got it. Doesn't matter who speaks up first. I only go by the evidence.]

Next was Samuel Bernard, a senior in the lab.

He and Benjamin weren't exactly friends, but Samuel had zero tolerance for academic fraud. Last year, a junior tried to sneak his name onto a paper, and Samuel shut him down so hard the guy looked genuinely scared.

I sent him a snippet of the server's abnormal logs.

He replied: [Don't worry. I'll be right there at the defense.]

The third was my friend Darren Clark from the lab next door. He specialized in network security.

He still owed me for helping him with a big project, so as soon as he saw the backend screenshots I sent, he immediately set up an extra safeguard for me.

Darren wrote: [I've mirrored the logs and set up hash verification. Anyone who tries to delete or tamper with anything will be caught. Don't hold back this time. Go all out.]

I stared at his message for a couple of seconds, then replied: [Got it.]

By the time the sun came up, I finally wrapped everything up.

Ada had fallen asleep at the desk, her computer still glowing, three empty coffee cups sitting on the table.

I washed my face. In the mirror, I saw dark circles under my eyes, but my expression was strangely calm.

That calm wasn't from moving on.

It meant the knife was sharpened, ready to strike.

At 7:40 am, Benjamin called me.

I stared at the screen for a couple seconds, then picked up.

"Leyla, are you up?" His voice was as gentle as ever, a little hoarse from staying up late. "I just grabbed you some breakfast. I'm downstairs at your dorm."

I put the phone on speaker and kept organizing my files.

"Yeah," I replied.