My Wife is a Hacker novel (Nicole)

Chapter 1850
Edwin slammed the 'defeat' button at once. At that juncture, Nicole immediately became the first person to secure a victory in the
first round. This surprised the audience, who glanced at Zeke before turning back to look at Nicole.
"Who is she?"
"I don't know...but one thing is for sure, she's really good. Her opponent seems to be Edwin Bradford."
"Yeah, he got fifth place last year."
"I think so, but why did he admit defeat so easily?"
People were talking among themselves; they could not shake off how amazing Nicole was, and some even went as far as to
think that Edwin might have regressed.
Yet, nobody present was aware that Edwin's technology and skill had progressed to great heights. He had thought that if he
could secure a winning spot in this competition, he would be able to attract enough attention to promote his company and recruit
fresh graduates along the way. He had not foreseen the idea that he would be crossing paths with Nicole and getting himself
eliminated at such an early stage in the competition.
Edwin went over to Nicole before leaving the stage, "The company's reputation solely depends on you now."
Nicole gave him a helpless look. "Gotcha."
'To be up against Nicole, anyone pitted against her stands no chance. I should just consider myself unlucky,' he thought.

Director Monroe had breathed a sigh of relief as Nicole sauntered off the stage. Edwin was also a student at Royal Creek
Institute, but Director Monroe had inexplicably thrown most of her support at Nicole. Between the two of them, Director Monroe
had directed the bulk of her attention to Nicole due to the fact she was only a high-schooler.
Director Monroe then waited for the two of them to come back, after which she comforted Edwin before asking Nicole, "Why did
you launch your counterattack after ten minutes?"
"I allowed him to have a head start," Nicole said plainly.
"Huh." Edwin was ashamed.
With just a single sentence from Nicole, he felt as though he had been played like a fiddle. Director Monroe then realized that
Nicole had gone easy on Edwin.
'She...she really is that formidable of a competitor. Otherwise, how could she keep her composure at a time like this, right?'
At that moment, Zeke and Rowdon were up, competing against each other on stage. The both of them were in the state of
having each other in deadlocks, both starting off strong, attempting to suppress one another. Rowdon had attempted to take
Zeke down from the very beginning and had utilized every professional method in the book to hold Zeke down. As the audience
spectated the competition, they were frowning in anticipation.
"This is disrespectful, bullying high school kids with professional techniques..."
"Yeah! Even if Zeke is a professional hacker, this can be way too challenging for him, especially because he is facing a real
hacker."
"Maybe... let's keep watching..." the audience murmured while sharing disapproving glances.

On the stage, Rowdon did not bother with what others had to say. All he wanted was to finish what he had started, which was to
teach Zeke a lesson. However, at this moment, Zeke was scrutinizing and testing Rowdon's strategies carefully.
It was not long before the thought of victory entered Rowdon's mind, and he cockily typed into his keyboard, saying, "Kid, what's
the matter? Are you too much of a coward now that you're faced with a professional hacker? Weren't you running around trying
to show your skills off earlier? I guess it's nothing but a faqade, huh?”
Zeke glanced at Rowdon indifferently, capturing Rowdon's flaw just in time, and that was when he smirked. "Dude, you haven't
changed one bit. The stuff you've placed here are not much of a challenge, and your ability to attack my firewall is still as weak
as before. It's teeming with loopholes!"
After Zeke had spoken, he darted his fingers across his keyboard. While Rowdon had broken through 60% of Zeke's firewall,
Zeke was able to turn the tables around instantly, dwarfing Rowdon's speed by a wide margin. As it turned out, Zeke had swiftly
penetrated Rowdon's weakest code before expanding his range of attack to erase Rowdon's firewall easily, removing one layer
after another in a fashion akin to peeling onions.
"D*mn it!" Rowdon screamed, scrambling to fix the damage caused by the attacks.