Chapter 222 Vote Fraud?
"Stop! Stop all voting channels immediately!"
Director Saul Pena, wearing his headset and drenched in sweat, rushed straight from the control room onto the stage, his voice distorted with rage and panic.
He barked into his walkie-talkie: "What the hell is the tech department doing! If we let these numbers keep climbing, this national finals will become a complete joke!"
The technicians scrambled frantically, and backstage they emergency-cut the voting system.
On the giant curved screen at center stage, the red data bar belonging to "Amelia" finally froze at an extremely glaring, mockingly absurd number—eight million.
Meanwhile, second-place Isadora had 480,000 votes.
A few minutes later, the technical director, his face ashen, came stumbling over with a printed report in hand.
"Director Pena, we... we found it..."
His voice trembled, and the hand holding out the report was shaking.
"Initial screening shows these votes came from IP addresses using multiple layers of proxies and disguises—very professional techniques—but the growth curve completely defies normal voting logic. This is classic large-scale professional vote manipulation."
He swallowed hard, lowering his voice further: "We tried to trace the source, but they're clever. All leads point to several cutoff servers overseas. Tracking them down would be extremely difficult."
Saul felt his blood pressure shoot through the roof.
This wasn't just cheating anymore.
Someone had written the word "rigged" in blood and smeared it across his face—across the entire competition committee's face.
He spun around sharply, fixing Cecilia with a stern, judgmental stare.
"Amelia! What do you have to say about this technical report?"
Isadora didn't give Cecilia a chance to speak. She grabbed a microphone and began shrieking hysterically.
"Explain? What's there to explain!"
Isadora pointed at that eight-million figure, her hand shaking uncontrollably, though her face showed a kind of sick excitement and satisfaction.
"According to the official competition rules, contestants who maliciously manipulate votes and seriously undermine fair competition should be immediately disqualified! And banned for life!"
Isadora took a few steps forward, turned to face the judges' panel, and added a sob to her voice, performing with apparent sincerity.
"Judges! I admit, Ms. Martinez and I are professional rivals!"
"But I really can't stand it when someone uses such dirty tactics to taint this sacred ground that all of us designers hold pure in our hearts!"
"If this kind of fake result bought with money can be validated, then what are those of us who stayed up countless nights drawing every single line worth?"
"Are we just a big joke?"
Her words were highly inflammatory.
The audience instantly erupted, with angry shouts rising one after another.
"Drop out! It's rigged! Amelia, get off the stage!"
"Amelia is disgusting. I thought she was a genius designer, turns out she's just a puppet of capital!"
"Amelia, get out of the design world!"
Cecilia stood at the center of the storm, with all cameras and all malicious gazes focused on her.
Yet she stood perfectly straight, not retreating but instead stepping forward toward those cameras.
"Director Pena."
The moment Cecilia spoke, the chaotic scene fell eerily silent for an instant.
"Since the technical report says the operation was very professional, with even the cover-up done well."
"Then let me ask: if I really needed to cheat, would I be stupid enough to choose a method that, while professional, is so massive that any random person could see through it?"
She pointed at that huge number, her gaze calmly sweeping across everyone.
"My previous round's work received a perfect score from the professional judges. My ability speaks for itself."
"Why would I risk destroying my future and reputation for a championship I could win on merit alone?"
Isadora let out a cold laugh and immediately retorted.
"Who knows? The logic is simple—greed makes people stupid!"
"Maybe you just wanted to win too badly, wanted to create this false image of crushing everyone, and ended up overdoing it, letting things spiral out of control!"
"Or..."
Isadora paused, the malice in her eyes practically overflowing.
"Or maybe your team made an operational error? Like they meant to buy you 100,000 votes but miscommunicated, added two extra zeros, and ended up buying ten million?"
"This kind of low-level, laughable mistake isn't uncommon in the PR operations of your capital circles, is it?"
Isadora's words were viciously cunning, not only blocking all of Cecilia's explanations but also dragging Stefan and the entire Hensley Group into it, implying that all of this was caused by capital's arrogance and stupidity.
Saul's brow furrowed deeply.
Right, regardless of motive, the fact is Amelia's data is fake.
If I don't deal with her today, the competition's credibility will completely collapse.
He took a deep breath and made a difficult decision: "Amelia, given that the current situation has had an extremely negative impact on the competition, if you cannot immediately provide evidence to prove your innocence, the committee will have no choice but to..."
Saul hadn't finished speaking.
A cold voice carrying absolute authority interrupted him.
"The evidence is right here."
Stefan, who had been silent until now, stood up.
Watching Stefan's tall figure, Cecilia's thoughts instantly returned to last night's hotel room.
At the time, Stefan had found her, his expression serious: "My team intercepted some intelligence. Isadora's people are contacting an overseas vote-manipulation company, and the target is likely your finals votes tomorrow."
He asked: "Do you need me to handle it in advance?"
Cecilia had smiled and shook her head: "No need. Since she insists on giving me this big gift, if we don't accept it, wouldn't that be inconsiderate of her? I want to expose everything when she's at her most triumphant, and make her suffer."
Garth, who had disappeared earlier, strode onto the stage with two technicians in black uniforms with stern demeanors.
The lead technician was holding a running laptop.
"Mr. Hensley, what is this..." Saul was completely confused.
Stefan didn't even glance at Saul, directly signaling Garth to connect the computer to the main screen.
"Since someone likes playing with technology, let's use technology to make this clear."
"Let's all see who actually paid for these eight million votes."
The big screen flickered.
An extremely complex diagram of money flows and IP tracking chains instantly replaced that glaring vote count.
"Our technical team has been conducting reverse monitoring of overseas data service providers contacted by Isadora's team members over the past twelve hours."
Garth pointed to a node marked with a red circle on the screen, explaining in an emotionless, formulaic tone.
"Just moments ago, we intercepted and decrypted their internal transaction instructions."
"These are encrypted cryptocurrency payment records for renting servers and purchasing vote-manipulation services. Although they used professional coin-mixing services to try to hide the source of funds, we ultimately tracked the on-chain behavior and identified the digital wallet that initially funded this transaction."
Garth pressed Enter.
A high-definition photo suddenly appeared in the center of the screen, dominating everyone's view.