At the same moment, the data on Luke's computer began fluctuating wildly. Behind his glasses, his eyes lit up sharply. "The virus file's been destroyed!" Before he even finished speaking, his fingers were already flying across the keyboard, clearing out all the remaining virus fragments. "What's she trying to do?" Tristan couldn't sit still any longer, his voice thick with barely restrained anxiety. "Thora's points are dropping!" Shirley suddenly cried out in alarm. Everyone immediately turned to look at the leaderboard—the score that had been firmly locked in first place was now plummeting at a dizzying speed, hitting zero in the blink of an eye. "What the hell's going on?" Shock was written across every face.Luke froze for a second, then explained, "It's probably the penalty for destroying the game's original data without authorization. Basically, she tampered with and destroyed internal game data as a player, so the system wiped her points." The moment he said that, everyone's eyes locked onto him, their expressions clearly asking the same thing—you've tampered with data too, so how come nothing happened to you? Luke pushed up his glasses, putting on an air of mystery. "I'm a hacker. And I'm holding the highest-level access to the game's core program." Everyone was instantly speechless—hackers really were just built different. But the real problem now was what would happen to Thora. She'd dominated the top of the leaderboard, and now her score had hit rock bottom. If she got eliminated because of this... A complicated mix of emotions churned through everyone.Luke hit the enter key and continued purging the virus remnants, his eyes fixed on the progress bar as his own nerves wound tighter. He had a pretty good idea that the boss was currently trapped in a sea of monsters. The faster he finished the cleanup, the sooner he could take control of the creatures and give her a chance to catch her breath—and time to escape too. Ashley suddenly spoke up, "Once the game's back to normal, everyone can keep farming for points. But I'd imagine quite a few players are close to collecting all 12 cards by now, right?" She smiled, the implication hanging unspoken in the air—if someone finished collecting the cards after the game recovered and chose to end it early, Thora's current score would guarantee her elimination. Unless whoever completed the set was willing to wait for her to farm enough points to stay safe. The Blue Star Military Academy only admitted the top 50. That was an ironclad rule.Tristan and the others were surprised. They hadn't expected Ashley to speak up on Thora's behalf. Her words hadn't been direct, but everyone caught the underlying message. Still, this woman had always shown interest in Thora while remaining impossible to read—nobody could tell if she was truly friend or foe. Draven glanced at Luke's computer screen, his pupils contracting, then shifted his gaze toward the area beyond the perimeter fence. His expression turned grave. ... Outside the game. "The virus has been destroyed!" In the game assessment hall, a staff member shouted with excitement. The entire hall erupted instantly. Everyone let out a collective sigh of relief, nearly breaking into cheers—with the game back to normal, no one else would die because of this."But Number 230's points have been wiped!" Jeremy reminded them, his voice low and serious. "What?" Everyone's attention snapped back to the screen. Sure enough, Number 230's score now displayed a flat zero—dead last on the leaderboard. "This is..." Jeremy looked toward Valen, worry creeping into his tone. If Number 230 got eliminated because of the point reset, Valen probably wouldn't take it well either. Valen said nothing. He just stared intently at the game footage, and only after a long moment did he speak in a low voice. "Who says she's definitely getting eliminated?" Jeremy looked confused. Was the notoriously strict and unforgiving Valen actually planning to pull strings for Number 230? "The game isn't over yet. People with real ability can always achieve their goals within the rules." Valen's tone was absolute, his meaning crystal clear—he wasn't going to give Thora any special treatment. Whether she got in or not was entirely up to her own skill. Jeremy grew even more worried. Not just about whether Thora would get in, but about whether she might have already met with disaster...