Don't Mess with the Girl with Candy novel Chapter 479

“What is this…” the judges huddled together, their faces grim as they whispered amongst themselves.

“Maybe there was a mix-up.”

“Where are the original questions?”

“This is a global live broadcast. How can we check the originals now?”

Besides, the new questions seemed perfectly legitimate. Changing them on the fly would undoubtedly arouse suspicion. Their reputation was more important than getting their preferred candidates in.

After a quick deliberation, the judges decided to proceed. After all, of the six finalists, three were from their own country. Surely the other three couldn't outperform their handpicked choices.

“Contestant, please begin,” one of the judges announced.

The contestant stared at the screen, utterly baffled. These weren't the questions he had memorized. He had never seen them before! The sudden change rattled him. He stammered through his response to the first question and got it wrong.

Juniper couldn’t suppress a delighted laugh.

Shanley turned to look at her, a smile touching his own lips. She was such a little devil.

Fifteen minutes later, the contestant had answered only nine questions correctly, performing worse than the man from Rustica Country. With that score, there was no way he would make the top three.

Realizing something was wrong with the question bank, the staff tried to restore the original files, but the system seemed to be locked down, making it impossible to tamper with.

Next up was the third contestant, a thirty-year-old from Tenovia Country, a nation neighboring Orient Country in Yonderland. He seemed earnest and capable. He drew the third set of questions, and while his answers weren't perfectly smooth, he did remarkably well, answering eighteen out of twenty correctly. For now, he was in second place.

Only two contestants remained: one from Moralia Country, and Harold.

Harold was the fifth to go. He drew the first set—the one intentionally made the most difficult to filter out the Yonderland candidates. The judges felt a sliver of relief. With such tough questions, he was bound to fail. Even if they couldn't get all three of their candidates in, two would still be a victory.

But as Harold began to answer, their hopes dwindled. He responded to each question with precision and thoroughness. After the first five correct answers, the judges began to look uneasy. By the tenth, they were panicking. When he finished the final two questions, his answers matching the official key word-for-word, they slumped in their chairs, utterly defeated.

How could Orient Country produce such a talent? Unless… had Harold somehow altered the questions himself and seen the answers?

“One moment,” the committee chairman said, standing up after Harold had answered all twenty questions. He clapped politely before revealing his true intentions. “Dr. Houston, your theoretical knowledge is truly impressive,” he said with a smile that didn't reach his eyes. “We have a few more questions for you, if you don’t mind.”

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