Second Chances

72%

“You’ve gotta step up your game; don’t let yourself get sidetracked by nonsense, or else, whoops, that 400 thousand dollars scholarship might just end up in my pocket.” As Emma finished, her red lips curled into a smile. With a beep, she powered on the computer.

Vere was instantly fuming, cursing inwardly, ‘That scholarship is my last hope to achieve my life’s dream. How dare that woman to belittle me! I definitely won’t show any mercy later.’

He was overwhelmed by rage and threw himself wholeheartedly into the competition, which took place within a system that allocated various questions randomly based on the contestant’s completion speed and accuracy. In other words, the faster and more accurate the

contestant was, the harder the questions got and the higher the score.

Emma was incredibly fast in working out the questions, and on the other side, Vere’s prowess was fearsome as well.

But just then, someone in the crowd suddenly shouted, “Hey! Vere! Your parents are gone. Aren’t you staying home and mourning? Are you still planning to study abroad? If your parents found out, they’d probably roll over in their graves!” With that, he began to laugh hysterically.

The person was quickly found by the teacher and dragged out. But then someone else shouted, “Vere, forget it! Your parents are gone. What’s the point of studying and making all that money?”

“Hey, gentleman, don’t disrupt the competition!” the teacher snapped.

But the troublemaker kept yelling, “Are you ever gonna have the guts to fly again in your life? What if you die in a plane crash on your way to study abroad, too?”

Sure enough, Vere couldn’t take it anymore and stood up, ready to go down and smash that guy’s face. In his past life, he too had acted on impulse, making one wrong move after another. He lost the scholarship, came in last in the competition, and never got up after the fall.

A cold voice suddenly sounded. “Vere, they’re doing this on purpose. What you should do now is give it your all and beat me!”

Vere’s mind was a mess at the moment. He couldn’t even tell if the voice was really from Emma or if he was hearing things. He could only see on Emma’s screen that the questions were refreshing terrifyingly fast. And she was ahead of him by over 200 points.

Instantly, Vere regained his sanity and sat back down, calculating frantically. This time, the outside noises no longer disturbed him; all his

thoughts were on the questions.

Upon witnessing his reaction, Emma gave a smile in satisfaction. However, as the competition was about to end, she actually stopped and left the competition venue, leaving the onlooking students instantly shocked.

“Why did Emma leave?”

“What’s going on? Did the computer crash?”

“Haha, maybe she couldn’t solve any and gave up early!” the students chattered on.

Over on the other side, the blonde girl who initially mocked Emma disdainfully whistled, saying, “Who is she? How dare she join the Vark Invitational Mathematics Examination! Humph! To bite off more than she can chew!”

With a sharp alert sound, all the contestants stopped. Time was up.

Almost simultaneously, the giant screen was updated with each player’s score. First place went to Vere Hurlbutt, with a core of 107,233 points! When the crowd saw his score, their mouths dropped open in astonishment, wide enough to fit a fist.

“Holy crap, is Vere a human or a computer? Nol-Even a computer doesn’t have a brain as powerful as his.”

“Damn, the second place is actually Emmal” the onlookers went on discussing.

Next, everyone saw the second place, Emma, who had left early. She got 107,232 points, just one point lower than Vere.

Everyone was now looking at Emma with a hint of fear in their eyes.

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Leaving early, she actually came behind Vere just by one point. This made everyone wonder if Emma would have been the champion if she hadn’t left early.

The blonde girl was also stunned when she saw the two’s scores. She and the other contestants all underwent training for the competition, taking mock exams over and over, with the highest score ever being just 9,000 points. While Emma and Vere managed to rack up over one hundred thousand points, and the third place was only 7,009 points, totally demonstrating their intellectual superiority.

After counting back and forth, the blonde girl realized she was dead last. There were no prizes for fifth place and below, and as Emma predicted, she got no prize.

Emma had already taken the second place on the podium.

The blonde girl was so furious that she wanted to confront Emma, but just then, she saw Vere publicly berating Emma.

“What do you mean? Why did you deliberately let me win? Do you look down on me?” Vere’s voice was loud, and quite a few people around

heard it.

However, Emma looked calm and replied, “I couldn’t solve the last question. It was just a waste of time sitting there, so I left early.”

Everyone suddenly got it. But only Vere knew that this couldn’t be true. Emma’s abilities were far beyond his-he had that gut feeling but couldn’t figure out why she would let him win.

After the awards ceremony, Vere got the first-prize scholarship. Emma got the second prize, which was a signed book and some manuscripts from a famous Nobel laureate in literature. She gleefully pocketed them and then went alone to the deck of the cruise to cool off.

Vere followed her out of the cabin.

Under the moonlight, he watched the beautiful curve of her back, elegant and aloof, like a goddess who was above all else, making him lose

focus for a moment. But he regained his composure soon.

He straightened his tie, the sapphire blue suit exuding a deepluster under the moonlight, just like his calm and introverted personality. “Was it you who reminded me during the competition just now?”,

“Yeah.” Emma turned back, staring at him intently.

“You actually knew how to solve that problem, didn’t you? You estimated my final score, so you stopped on purpose,” Vere continued.

“Yes.” Emma didn’t plan to deceive him. They were both smart, and she couldn’t fool Vere anyway. If she deliberately concealed the truth, he

would likely be more suspicious. Besides, she had intended to do him a favor.

“Why did you help me?” Vere questioned.

Emma casually took a sip of juice. “I was helping myself. I’m not short on cash, but I’m really into that author’s manuscript. I only want the second prize.”

“Seriously?” Vere was still skeptical.

Vere was half–doubting. But one thing was for sure: If Emma hadn’t been there today, he would have stormed downstairs to beat the troublemaker up halfway through the test. By then, it would have been too late for regrets. Thanks to Emma’s timely reminder, he could have the scholarship. With this thought, he felt much more relieved, taking out a note from his pocket. “I don’t like owing people favors. Here’s my number. Let me know if you need help.” 

“I have no reason to lie to you.” Emma tried to convince him.