Introduction

As a programmer from Chicago, my little brother Leo's rare illness left us drowning in debt, making the national InnovateNext coding championship our only lifeline. A Stanford scholarship and prize money were his only hope.

But it felt like I was trapped in a recurring nightmare: my rival, Tiffany, always beat me by the exact same, infuriating margin – a flawless twenty points.

Each defeat deepened my despair, the hollow victories mirroring Leo' s weakening breaths. Even my boyfriend, Mark, dismissed my suspicions, openly siding with her. I tried everything – offline coding, decoy functions, an unbuggable keyboard – yet that cursed twenty-point gap remained unyielding.

It was maddeningly impossible. This wasn't just cheating; it felt like a pre-written script, a sinister force guaranteeing her win, pushing me to the brink of losing everything.

Cornered, with Leo's life hanging by a thread, I made a desperate, radical gamble for the final round: I submitted the simplest code imaginable, "Hello, World!" I had to expose whatever unnatural power ensured her impossible triumph, even if it meant professional suicide.