My Wife is a Hacker (Nicole Riddle and Jared) novel Chapter 1855

"Won't you just look at who's on my team?" Gary said from the bottom of his heart.

Ryder thought that Gary was talking about him, and so, he mustered an affectionate smile. "You jerk. You've finally come to your senses. Don't you worry, I'll do my best to bring you guys to the next round."

Gary was stunned as he realized that Ryder had misunderstood what he just said.

He was about to explain himself, but Ryder had already put on his pair of earphones, prompting Gary to shake his head and give up on the idea.

'I guess it's good for him to regain some of his confidence first,' he thought to himself.

Nicole was already by then, casually waiting for the contest to begin.

Then, Ryder said, "Even though our opponents aren't from Northon Institute, they're still very capable. So, we can't underestimate them. I'm going to be very aggressive in the beginning. All you guys have to do is support me."

Gary looked at Nicole awkwardly. 'It's sad that Ryder still doesn't know what's going on.'

However, he figured that it was not his place to tell Ryder about Nicole's real identity, and thus, he said, "Okay."

Ryder thought that Nicole agreed with him, as she was just keeping mom. Then, she looked away from her.

Shortly after, their opponents came over and sat directly across them.

There were no rules in forming a team, so every contestant who wanted to win could chose the people who were good at computing to be a part of their team.

There were nineteen contestants who had made it to the semi-final. Zeke had already advanced into the next stage, and half of the remaining contestants were going to be eliminated from the contest.

Nicole, Ryder, and Gary were from the same school. Similarly, their opponents had formed teams with their own schoolmates to maximize their chances of winning.

Nicole studied her opponents from head to toe. They saw her and began gossiping about her in mocking fashion. "Ryder is the best among them. The Finley brothers truly are something, but they have a rookie among them. I guess our chances of winning are pretty high."

"Come on. I'm all set to take this victory," the three people sitting opposite her tittered and jeered.

A grimace appeared on Ryder's face as he jabbed, "Teasing a girl like this is such a shameless thing to do."