Chapter 274

Friday afternoon. The team's progress presentation.

Dahlia stood at the podium, laser pointer in hand, gesturing at the proposal on the big screen—one she'd stayed up multiple nights to finish.

"...And that concludes my optimization plan for the second-phase architecture of the neuromorphic chip. I'm confident this will improve operational efficiency by fifteen percent."

Scattered applause broke out below.

Dahlia straightened her spine, instinctively glancing at Royce seated in the front row.

But before Royce could say a word—

Lucinda's cool voice cut through from the corner.

"First, your bidirectional bus design ignores high-frequency interference. After three hours of operation, the chip will overload."

"Second, your logic gate count is redundant by twenty percent. That'll cause power consumption to spike exponentially."

"Third," Lucinda lifted her eyelids, her gaze indifferent, "the most critical issue—your underlying algorithm logic is from an open-source library. This architecture would get demolished the second it faces an advanced overseas firewall. One-sided annihilation."

Three sentences. Every word landed like a hammer blow to Dahlia's face.

The conference room fell into dead silence.

Royce slapped his knee, eyes gleaming with approval. "Brilliant! Straight to the point!"

Dahlia stood onstage, the laser pointer nearly crushed in her grip.

Her face went from white to green, then green to red.

Unwillingness.

Deep, suffocating unwillingness threatened to swallow her whole.

The results she'd painstakingly prepared—in Lucinda's eyes, they were nothing but error-riddled trash.

That night, in the standard dormitory block.

Dahlia locked herself in the cramped bathroom, staring at her own face in the mirror—twisted with jealousy—and pulled out her phone with trembling hands.

[Violette, I can't take it anymore.]

She typed frantically, tears streaming down her face.

[Today in the group meeting, she called out my proposal in front of everyone. Made me look like a clown onstage! Why does she get to steal all the spotlight the second she shows up?]

The reply came quickly.

[Sweetheart, I told you already. You can't beat her on talent.]

[But in the research world, what's most taboo isn't mediocrity—it's moral failure.]

[Since she's riding high right now, let's push her even higher. The higher she climbs, the harder she'll fall.]

Dahlia's heart jumped. [What do you mean...?]

[Next week is the institute's annual achievement conference. She'll definitely be presenting as a representative.]

[I have a draft of unpublished foreign research from three years ago. If we accuse her of plagiarism at the conference...]

[In front of the world's top scientific authorities, Lucinda will become an academic fraud everyone wants destroyed. She'll be expelled from the institute. Even the Douglas family will be disgraced because of her.]

[And you'll naturally take her place. You'll become the Douglas family's one and only pride.]

Staring at the seductive lines of text on her screen, Dahlia's breathing grew rapid.

An accusation of plagiarism.

In the research world, that was enough to destroy someone's entire life.

She was scared. But the moment she closed her eyes, the image of Lucinda's condescending gaze from earlier pierced her nerves like needles.

No.

She didn't want to be a background character anymore. She didn't want to be Lucinda's supporting role.

[Alright.] Dahlia took a deep breath. [Violette, I'll do what you say. I'll ruin her.]

One week later.

International Research Institute. Annual Achievement Conference.

This was the scientific community's yearly feast. The hall was packed with top scholars from around the world.

Every seat filled.

"Next, we invite the lead researcher of this year's neuromorphic chip project, Ms. Lucinda Wipere, to present her work."

As the host's voice fell, thunderous applause erupted.

Lucinda had changed into a black women's suit, her hair pulled back high. She looked sharp as a blade.

She strode onstage and stood before the massive projection screen.

"The 'BlueWave Tech neuromorphic chip' we've developed utilizes an entirely new quantum entanglement algorithm architecture..."

Her voice was cool and steady. Every word rang clear.

As she explained, the 3D chip structure on the screen continuously reorganized and iterated. The unprecedented advanced technology had countless research giants nodding in approval. Some even stood up in excitement.

Perfect.

This was an impeccable, top-tier scientific showcase.

Just as Lucinda finished her presentation and entered the Q&A session—

The host, who had been smiling, glanced at his tablet. His face changed instantly.

His movements grew stiff. He looked nervously at Lucinda onstage, then at the dean below, and spoke in a trembling voice. "Um... Ms. Wipere, my apologies. Before we begin the Q&A, we've just received... a signed anonymous report."

The host swallowed hard and forced himself to read the message that had appeared on his screen. "Someone... has accused Ms. Wipere's BlueWave Tech neuromorphic chip of plagiarizing the underlying algorithm from an unpublished, classified foreign paper. Not only is the core logic highly identical, even the variable names in the code are exactly the same!"

The room erupted instantly.

Plagiarism!

At a global achievement conference, in front of the world's media, accused of academic theft!

This was the biggest scandal in the institute's hundred-year history!

"My God, plagiarism?"

"I knew it—how could a newcomer produce something this groundbreaking!"

"Shameless! Academic fraud!"

The murmurs below were deafening.

Dahlia sat in the audience, fists clenched tight.

Though her face wore a mask of shock, her eyes were filled with satisfaction.

'Lucinda, you're finished now.'

As countless whispers filled the air, Lucinda stood center stage. She didn't so much as blink.

She simply stood there and let out a cold laugh.

"Plagiarism?" Lucinda's red lips parted slightly. Then she strode directly to the main control console. "Since someone's gone to the trouble of delivering such a gift, it would be rude not to accept it, wouldn't it?"

Her slender fingers flew across the keyboard. "I'll only take five minutes of everyone's time."

The screen shifted abruptly.

What appeared wasn't the chip structure from before—it was a cloud-based database.

"This is my personal research log." Lucinda's cool voice echoed through the hall. Her fingertips moved, and the code on the screen began rapidly scrolling backward. "Every iteration of the code, along with the fourteen thousand two hundred and twelve derivations I've performed on this chip over the past three years—all timestamped."

"The first complete version was finalized three years ago, on February 14th. At that time, the paper mentioned in this accusation probably didn't even have an outline yet, did it?"