But what could she do?
She had no choice but to drag this dead weight across the finish line.
Unable to state her true intentions outright, Isabella opted for a roundabout approach. "Bianca, all those competitors treat Serena like a literal god right now. Are you sure any of them would actually take your money?"
Bianca's expression faltered, the bitter truth hitting a nerve.
"Besides..." Isabella sighed softly. "Tomorrow is the absolute final day. Even if you managed to buy someone off, there's no guarantee they could finish the physical experiment and write a complete, polished report in under twenty-four hours. We just don't have the time."
Bianca groaned in frustration. "This won't work, that won't work—then what are we supposed to do?!"
Isabella glanced around. The stretch of beach was completely deserted.
Her eyes shifted calculatingly before she leaned in. "Bianca, Arthur said that as long as we win, we are allowed to bypass conventional methods..."
"Earlier, Serena practically bragged that they would finish every single stage of their experiment tonight! Once midnight strikes, The Hope Initiative will be the first team on the island to complete the challenge."
Bianca's eyes darted wildly. A sudden realization seemed to strike her, and her gaze darkened as she muttered to herself, "That's right... If conventional methods won't work, why can't we think outside the box?"
"If they finish everything today, and my dad finds out, he'll literally kill me."
"But what if... the first team to finish all the experiments is me? What if it's The Dreamscape Initiative?"
"Yes! The first one to finish the experiment should be me! It has to be us!"
"We are the ones who deserve to win!"
The more Bianca spoke, the more a manic excitement took over.
She grabbed Isabella's hands, her eyes burning with a deranged light. "Isabella, we're in the same boat now. If The Dreamscape Initiative loses, my dad will destroy you too! Sebastian is completely paralyzed now he can't protect you, and he definitely wouldn't even if he could."
"We only have one way out of this, and that's... winning this competition!"
"Since that bitch Serena already completed all the data... what if that data magically became ours? Then we'd be the winners."
Seeing that Bianca had finally taken the bait-understanding the trap she had painstakingly laid-Isabella felt a surge of satisfaction.
But she feigned a moment of hesitant fear before giving a firm nod. "Okay. I'll follow your lead."
A toxic, venomous smirk slowly
curled onto Bianca's lips. She
clenched her fists, her eyes
hereyes
swimming with a bottomless sea of hatred. "Let's go! We're heading to the Apex Research Hub right now!"
The night was pitch-black, the winds howling off the ocean.
The two women crept through the shadows, slinking their way to the perimeter of the Apex Research Hub.
They had been strategizing on how to peek inside to figure out where The Hope Initiative might hide their finalized data.
To their surprise, the moment they arrived...
They noticed a window left wide open, the curtains violently flapping in the sea breeze.
Yet the people inside seemed entirely oblivious to the vulnerability.
They were too swept up in their own triumphant celebration.
"This is incredible! We finally finished everything!"
Lydia was practically vibrating with excitement. "We're definitely the very first team
to clear the entire board!"
Caleb pushed up his glasses, his
face glowing with unmistakable pride. "This dataset is absolutely flawless. I've been running lab work
for years, and lye never se
seer.
seen
numbers this beautiful
Jasper rubbed his hands together,
practically bouncing on his heels "Once we submit all our data and the final report tomorrow we're
guaranteed to shatter world records!"