At a hacker competition in my past life, the fake daughter of my family submitted a program that was identical to mine.

With a pitiful expression, she pleaded, "Sister, I've returned our parents to you. Why are you still copying my code?"

Our wealthy parents cried out, "It's all our fault for losing our child back then. This is why she has no upbringing and resorts to plagiarism!"

My older brother was furious, "Had I known this sister was so morally corrupt, we should never have brought her back. Now she's embarrassing us and tarnishing the family name."

Their harsh words crushed me. I became the target of online harassment, and the wealthy parents kicked me out of the house. I was now a pariah, hunted by everyone.

Meanwhile, the fake daughter used this competition to get close to a wealthy heir from the elite circle. The wealthy heir, seeking revenge for his beloved wife, vowed to tear me apart.

But then I was reborn—back to the day before I submitted my program. Without hesitation, I packed my bags and decided to travel the world.

However, my usually gentle wealthy mother called me in a rage, "You ungrateful little brat! If you don't come back and work on your programming, do you want our whole family to starve?"

——

As I opened my eyes again, I was greeted by the lavish decor of this grand house. I glanced at my wristwatch and saw it was already 2 AM.

The entire family was silent, so I quickly shut down my computer and prepared to go to bed.

Suddenly, the nanny appeared behind me. "Emma, going to bed so early today?" she asked.

I jumped in surprise and patted my chest. "Yeah, I'm just tired today."

The nanny nodded and stepped back, allowing me to continue tidying up before heading to sleep.

Just then, Mrs. Smith rushed down in a silk nightgown. "Emma, what's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?"

Mr. Smith followed closely behind her from upstairs. "I'll call the family doctor right now! You can't be sick before the competition, Emma!"

I couldn't help but let out a cold laugh.

Growing up in an orphanage, I had longed for the warmth of a family. When I was first recognized by them, they took great care of my health, and I naively thought how wonderful it was to have a family that cared for me.

But everything changed during the hacker competition when the fake daughter, Sophie, presented a program identical to mine. That was when I realized that my family's decision to bring me back was part of a scheme.

Sophie had cried on camera, looking pitiful as she said, "I've returned our parents to you, sister. I don't understand why she still wants to copy my code."

She even produced snippets from previous forum posts to prove that every step she took was done independently.

Mrs. Smith rushed out in tears, pleading with the judges, "Please give Emma another chance! She's been lost for so long, growing up alone in an orphanage. It's normal for her to have such behavior; she's still young. I'll take her home and raise her properly."

Kyle Smith was furious. "I knew from the start she was a jinx! We should never have brought her back. With her moral corruption and plagiarism, she's brought shame upon our family!"

"But I didn't plagiarize at all..."

Before I could finish my defense, Mr. Smith slapped me across the face.

"How dare you argue? We shouldn't have brought you back! You think you can act like our true daughter and steal Sophie's code? Get out! We Smiths will never allow someone like you in our family!"

I was stunned by the slap and momentarily at a loss for words. I even started to doubt whether I had actually copied Sophie; otherwise, how could our codes be identical?

But then I noticed Sophie leaning against Mrs. Smith's shoulder with a provocative look in her eyes. It all became clear.

This was Sophie's scheme. She resented me for coming home and taking away her family, but everything that belonged to them originally belonged to me.

With my biological parents and brother's words echoing in my mind, I felt crushed; everyone believed I was the one who plagiarized.

Online harassment intensified against me as people wrote hateful comments like: [Look at how pitiful Sophie is crying! Is it because she's not biological that she's destined not to be loved? After living together for so many years, isn't that enough?]

[This Emma really is ungrateful; how heartless of the Smiths to abandon their daughter they raised with care just because they want this morally corrupt person!]

[Maybe it's the Smiths who made Emma copy Sophie's code; after all, Emma is the true daughter!]

In the end, the entire internet demanded that the Smiths kick me out.

Mrs. Smith clung desperately to my legs, begging Mr. Smith not to do this, but he replied coldly, "Having such a child is misfortune for our family!"

Finally, Kyle pulled Mrs. Smith away while several servants threw me and my belongings out onto the street.

Because of this plagiarism incident, I faced insults and stones thrown at me while walking down the street; finding a job to support myself became impossible.

Eventually, with no other options left, I had to hide under a bridge begging for food until Sophie's fiancé—a wealthy heir from an elite circle named Ehan—found me.

To appease his little darling Sophie, he planned to dispose of me at the border.

Now that fate has given me another chance at life, I hurriedly packed my things and prepared to escape once more.

I glanced down at my watch; it was already 3 AM. Taking advantage of the fact that the Smith family was sound asleep, I slung my backpack over my shoulder and left.

I found a nearby hotel to stay in.

Since high school, I had been passionate about programming, teaching myself multiple programming languages.

When I went to college, I resolutely chose a computer science major and developed a strong love for hacking techniques.

I had prepared extensively for this hacker competition, and I certainly wasn't willing to give up so easily.

After the plagiarism incident in my past life, I was immediately kicked out of the Smith household. I had repeatedly checked my computer under the bridge where I had been living, and there was nothing wrong with it. So, I suspected that Sophie must have installed surveillance in my room.

Now that I was in a strange hotel, I didn't believe Sophie could steal my code again. I pulled out my laptop and began coding furiously.

With the experience from my previous life, I debugged at lightning speed and quickly completed the first step.

Looking at the program's output on my screen filled me with a sense of accomplishment, and I stretched out lazily.

Just then, Mrs. Smith called me. "Emma, why did you leave without saying anything? I haven't even compensated you properly yet."

I felt a bit helpless, but since everything was still unclear, I had to continue pretending. "I'm just a country girl; I really can't get used to such a nice house, so I decided to stay somewhere else."

After hanging up the phone, I logged onto the forum to see what Sophie might be posting now that she couldn't access my code.

But when I saw her new post, chills ran down my spine. She had included a screenshot of the last line of code from what I had just completed.

I couldn't believe it was real. Rubbing my eyes vigorously, I compared it over and over again—it was exactly the same, down to the last detail.

Trembling with fear, I looked back around the room, wondering if this hotel also had hidden cameras. In a panic, I began searching everywhere but found nothing.

I checked my computer again but still found no signs of tampering.

All I could do was reopen the webpage and scrutinize Sophie's post for any clues.

Her post read, [Today's ideas became so much clearer.]

The comments below were filled with her sycophants fawning over her. [Goddess is indeed a goddess; she managed to solve such a difficult problem in such a short time!]

[Even though she isn't Smith's biological daughter, with her skills, she'll be sought after anywhere!]

[I heard that the true daughter of the Smiths moved out today; could it be that her absence allowed our goddess to progress so quickly?]

Sophie only replied with one line, [Please don't say that; after all, it was the Smith family that raised me. They've done me a great favor. Regardless of what the true daughter wants, my adoptive parents and I will compensate her. Plus, she's participating in this competition too; I hope she can achieve good results.]

Sophie's post painted her as a kind-hearted yet pitiful young lady, giving off an impression of being both strong and tragic.

In my past life, she had used these posts to crush me completely. But after years of studying programming and consistently winning awards in competitions each year, how could I just admit defeat now?

I felt like an ant on a hot pan, sweating with anxiety.

I kept replaying the situation in my mind, trying to figure out where things had gone wrong.

Since there were no cameras in the room, the issue had to be with my computer.

I couldn't believe that Sophie was also a skilled hacker. But if she could steal my code without me noticing, why didn't she just write her own and compete fairly?

I pushed those thoughts aside for now. I added an extra layer of login authentication to my code and then set up a trap using some hacking techniques.

Next, I continued coding along the lines of my previous life's strategy. If she wanted to steal my code, she would need to bypass the new permissions I had set up. Any login attempt would leave a trace, allowing me to track her down through her IP address.

After completing these tasks, I couldn't help but feel like a genius. I logged onto Sophie's forum to see if she would try to copy my new code.

During this time, Mrs. Smith called me again, still crying on the other end. "Emma, please come back! Mom misses you; I haven't even compensated you properly yet."

Her words made me incredibly impatient, and I rolled my eyes three times.

In my past life, Mr. Smith, Mrs. Smith, and Kyle never gave me a chance to explain; they just pinned all the blame on me. I always felt that they were involved in this whole mess too.

Even though Mr. and Mrs. Smith acted like they were taking care of me after I returned home, my gut told me they had ulterior motives.

Frustrated, I bit my nails and made an outrageous demand, "If you want to compensate me, then write me a check for 5 million first to prove your sincerity."

Mrs. Smith gasped at the other end of the line, and then Kyle quickly snatched the phone away from her. "5 million? Who do you think you are? If you come home now, we'll pretend nothing happened. But if you keep causing trouble, don't bother coming back—we'll act like you never existed!"

"Fine! That's what you said! Don't call me again!"

With that, I hung up and refreshed the webpage again to check Sophie's forum.

Her post had been updated as if it were a direct challenge to me; the code in the image was identical to what I had just written.

She captioned it. [My sister has run away from home; seeing our parents so downcast makes me sad too. This is probably all I can write today.]

[PS: Everyone help me think of ideas! My sister has run away from home, and I don't want our parents to be sad. What can I do to persuade her to come back? Do I really have to leave?]

[Since Mr. and Mrs. Smith didn't let you leave, why don't you just stay there? Why is Emma being so dramatic? Does she even understand what it means to prioritize those who came first?]

Soon after, someone commented anonymously, [What if she wants to win the championship in this hacker competition?]

Sophie didn't reply.

But her sycophants couldn't hold back.

[How shameless! She still wants to win the hacker competition? That's our goddess's hard work!]

[I heard that the true daughter of the Smiths just returned and is competing in this hacker competition too; they say she plans to learn everything in 30 days—how ridiculous!]

[Oh my gosh! Does that anonymous commenter know some insider information? Goddess, be careful! Don't update anymore; protect your hard-earned results!]

People began digging into who this newly recognized village girl from the Smith family was and why she was so malicious.

Slowly but surely, some started suspecting it was me while others defended that I had always been at the top of my department and had no need to plagiarize.

But immediately someone countered that being at the top of the department didn't mean much; this was a national competition after all—who knew if I had plagiarized?

No wonder everyone was so convinced it was me who plagiarized after the incident in my past life; it turned out there had been constant subtle manipulation behind the scenes.

Thinking back to when Ethan took me to the border and how the cold steel of a blade sliced through my skin sent chills down my spine.

I felt exceptionally restless; without realizing it, my palms were sweaty.

In a hurry, I checked the trap I had just set up—it clearly showed that only I had logged into my computer with no traces of anyone else.

My heart sank as confusion washed over me. How on earth did Sophie manage to steal my code?