The math professor walked ahead, leading the way. But the whole time, he couldn’t stop thinking about that terrifying moment when Lydia had frozen someone in place with just a single needle. He edged closer to her, voice low and cautious. “It’s not far. We’ll be there soon.”
He thought to himself, No wonder she’s the top scorer in the country. This girl is the real deal.
As they walked, Lydia found out it was a guy named Juan who first suggested she should come solve the problem. Lucinda seconded the idea, and then some judges decided to send for her.
A slight smile tugged at her lips.
She knew exactly what Lucinda was up to. But this Juan… Who was this random troublemaker anyway?
Inside the math department, everyone was waiting for Lydia. Time passed, but she still didn’t show up.
The students started getting restless, whispering to each other.
“I heard Lydia is super arrogant over at Capital Med. Do you think our professor can even convince her to come?”
“Yeah, I heard that too. And didn’t Daisy transfer to our college halfway through because Lydia forced her out?”
“No way, is that true?”
“For real. I even heard someone had to apologize to her on the school forum. There’s always drama around her.”
Lucinda overheard the gossip and couldn’t hide her smile.
Either way, she had the upper hand. If Lydia didn’t show, everyone would say she was stuck-up and looking down on them. If she did show and couldn’t solve the problem, she’d wreck her own reputation as the country’s top scorer.
Right as the chatter hit its peak, the math professor finally came back, almost tripping over his own feet as he led Lydia to the front of the room.
The judges stood up immediately when they saw her.
They clearly respected her and were hoping she wouldn’t let them down.
“Lydia, this is Professor Gartner from our math department. You’ve probably heard of him.”
The other judges looked just as shocked. Honestly, even most of the professors would need some time to work it out.
Lydia barely glanced at it.
She nodded, walked up, and picked up a marker. In a few quick strokes, she wrote out a string of equations on the board.
The first-year students stared, completely lost. Was that even the right answer? She didn’t even show her work—just went straight to the end.
Dr. Gartner looked at her solution and smacked the table, grinning from ear to ear. “That’s right!”
“Incredible! Absolutely incredible!”
“Lydia, you really are the national top scorer!”
“You are so talented. Why did you pick Capital Med?”

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