The True Heiress Is the Top Hacker

I was so furious that I smashed my computer, suspecting it had been infected by a new type of virus that even the security software couldn't detect.

Every year, I received generous scholarships and won various competitions, so I had saved up enough money to easily buy a new computer.

But my mood was exceptionally heavy as I began to blame myself. How could I be so incompetent? Even with a second chance at life, I still couldn't outsmart Sophie.

As I walked down the street, I passed a dessert shop and saw a mother and daughter buying sweets. The mother looked at her little girl, who was reaching for a small cake, with so much love in her eyes.

But I had never seen that kind of affection on Mrs. Smith's face when she looked at me.

In my past life, when I was falsely accused of plagiarism, she ignored me completely and only comforted Sophie, who was claiming to be wronged.

When Mr. Smith kicked me out of the house, Mrs. Smith did try to stop him, but how much of that was genuine?

The thought made me even more agitated. To this day, I still didn't understand where things had gone wrong.

At the computer store, I met an experienced technician who pointed at my wristwatch and said, "Young lady, that's a nice watch. Is it mechanical?"

I nodded absentmindedly, not really paying attention.

After purchasing a new computer, I hurried home with it in my arms.

Checking the date on my watch, I realized there was less than a day left until the competition submission deadline.

I forced myself to stay calm as I installed software on my new computer, scanning for viruses one by one. I was determined not to install any risky software—caution was key.

Once all the programs were set up, I tentatively wrote a couple of lines of new code.

Then I anxiously monitored Sophie's forum, refreshing the page repeatedly to see if she had posted anything new.

I waited for over an hour without any updates from her. My heart raced with excitement—could it really be that my computer had been the problem?!

In a hurry, I dashed downstairs and threw my old notebook as far away as possible; I didn't want it spying on me anymore.

Back in my room, I rolled up my sleeves and wrote a short segment of code before waiting again for Sophie's forum to update.

Another hour passed with no news from her.

Even her adoring fans began to get anxious and asked about her progress, but there were still no updates from Sophie.

I felt a sense of triumph; no matter how deeply she hid her actions, I had managed to uncover them.

But the painful lessons from my past haunted me—I feared making another wrong judgment could cost me my life again.

I raised my hand to check my watch; two hours had passed since then and still no updates from Sophie. A wave of joy washed over me—so it really was an issue with my computer!

With the memories from my past life, I was able to write the remaining code without much debugging, completing it in one go.

However, a nagging feeling of unease settled in my chest, prompting me to reopen Sophie's forum.

What I saw made my heart drop.

[Today's testing went very smoothly, and I've finished all my code. Tomorrow, I'll take my entry to the competition.]

The accompanying image showed the last few lines of my code, punctuation marks and all, perfectly intact.

The comments below were filled with her devoted fans praising her.

[Goddess, you're amazing! No matter what competition you enter, you always come in first. You're a true genius!]

[Hurry and hide your code! I heard that the village girl who just returned to your family is also competing; you need to be careful of her.]

Sophie replied, [No worries! This post is just for fun; no one will take it seriously.]

Then an anonymous user posted a picture that was a screenshot of me browsing Sophie's thread.

As soon as that image appeared, the comments exploded with outrage. [Isn't that a screenshot of that village girl? How disgusting! She actually found the goddess's forum! What if she really plagiarizes?]

Sophie didn't respond but instead created a new post with that same image, [Sister, looking forward to a fair competition with you!]

This post solidified the accusation of plagiarism against me, and my Instagram was flooded with unread messages.

[What a shameful person! That's Sophie's hard work; how dare you steal it!]

[Who do you think you are being Smith's biological daughter? You should have been sent to the mountains forever when you were lost!]

[People like you don't deserve to live!]

...

The feeling of being drowned in online harassment returned with full force.

I sighed deeply and checked my watch; tomorrow was the final day for submitting entries for the competition. No matter what I did now, it would be too late.

I decided to give up and bought a plane ticket to travel instead.

Although I felt reluctant, I couldn't think of any better options.

In my past life, my biggest regret before dying was not taking the opportunity to explore while I was young. Now, I had no choice but to let it all go.

When I arrived at the airport, my phone reminded me that the hacker competition I had previously signed up for was currently being live-streamed.

I immediately opened the stream and saw Sophie standing on stage with a beaming smile as she demonstrated my code.

The camera quickly panned to Mr. Smith, Mrs. Smith, and Kyle sitting in the audience, all looking proud as they watched her.

As Sophie showcased her code, the judges' expressions were varied and intriguing.

One older judge even adjusted his glasses repeatedly as he watched the code closely.

The entire venue was quiet, but the comments on screen were anything but crazy.

[Look at my goddess! Just a few lines of code and she has completely captivated the judges of this hacker competition!]

[My goddess looks stunning today; I can't wait until I see her in person!]

...

A few minutes later, police officers rushed in and quickly apprehended Sophie.