Chapter 16: Is There a Loophole in the Competition Mode?

Su Xin is not stupid; he can naturally see that Tian Yuting interviewing him is because she values his seemingly arrogant answers, wanting to use them to gain traffic and have people watch him make a fool of himself.

And he is intentionally cooperating like this because he actually has the same idea: deliberately creating topics before the competition makes the discussion after winning even stronger and the popularity higher, which is more helpful for him to promote his software.

After all, although Su Xin is no longer poor now, he also knows that with his mere hundreds of thousands in capital, it is simply unrealistic to make a piece of software go viral as quickly as possible.

So he can only utilize the popularity of the Qianlong Cup and then use himself to hype up topics; in this way, releasing the software directly after the competition can maximize the software's visibility at the first opportunity.

If it were anyone else doing this, in the event that they didn't win the championship after the competition, they would definitely be mocked by countless people, and it wouldn't even be impossible for them to encounter cyberbullying.

But Su Xin has absolute confidence in himself, so he naturally doesn't care about talking tough before the competition.

The higher the popularity stirred up, the better.

Sure enough, after Su Xin's voice fell, dense bullet comments immediately covered the entire screen.

"This kid is not just ordinarily crazy!"

"Not only does he think he can win the championship, but he also thinks the program he developed can be launched directly and can pique everyone's interest?"

"This kid probably doesn't understand at all that the software displayed by contestants in the final stage is just to demonstrate technical level, and they won't consider the market at all, let alone consider functionality. Therefore, everyone will only ensure that basic functions are complete, bugs are as few as possible, and finally put some Kung Fu into code optimization and operational logic. Such software is simply not meant to be launched into the market, let alone face competition from a massive number of similar software."

"Let's put it this way: even if this kid's software had a chance to be released on the app market, I would absolutely not download it, and I wouldn't even take a proactive look at it."

"If I download it, the person below me will livestream eating shit."

"Shouldn't it be the person above?"

"You all stop talking; this kid is obviously deliberately hyping up popularity to promote his own software. You are still there happily posting bullet comments, and he is thrilled when he sees it."

"Maybe this kid is a shill hired by the reporter, or was bought off by the reporter with money, deliberately saying boastful things to gain traffic."

"People nowadays have no integrity at all."

Seeing these dense bullet comments, Tian Yuting was simply thrilled, and the look she gave Su Xin was full of goodwill.

But Su Xin no longer had time to pay attention to these, because the host was notifying all contestants to enter the venue as soon as possible.

Su Xin said goodbye and walked away.

In Tian Yuting's livestream room, the bullet comments were visibly fewer, making her feel a sense of reluctance in her heart, wishing she could pull Su Xin back to interview him for a few more sentences.

On the competition field.

A total of fifty contestants were in their respective places.

The cameras of dozens of media outlets on the side were all aimed at the fifty male and female contestants, with the most aimed at the defending champion Xie Wenbin.

On the host stage in front of the contestants, after an enthusiastic opening speech, the host began to explain the competition rules:

"The content of the official competition is very simple. Like previous years, I will send a program to everyone's competition computer in a moment. Everyone must find the vulnerabilities in the program within the specified time, explain the detailed problems of the vulnerabilities in a document, and write down the corresponding solutions. Finally, there is the actual operation to optimize and modify the software."

"The evaluation rules are also very simple: based on the competition time, the number of vulnerabilities found and the corresponding optimization plans, and finally the degree of optimization of the program—these four dimensions will be evaluated comprehensively. The top five with the highest scores will enter the finals."

"Students, please get ready."

"The competition... begins!"

The fifty participating students sat upright, staring at the computer screens in front of them.

At the same time the host's voice fell, everyone's computer received a program.

Su Xin's eyes narrowed:

"Godspeed, Threefold Speed!"

Since he had decided to hype up the topic, he naturally would not show mercy, but was prepared to win the championship with an overwhelming advantage, the kind where others couldn't even see his taillights.

After entering Threefold Speed, he began to check the program's code and quickly performed optimization operations.

A large screen behind the host was connected to all the contestants' competition computer screens. As long as one was selected, the content displayed on that competition computer screen could be enlarged, while the others' screens would be shrunk to the bottom and lined up.

At this time, the host enlarged Xie Wenbin's screen to display it before everyone's eyes.

Everyone was discussing it one after another.

"Xie Wenbin is worthy of being the defending champion; his efficiency is still quite good. Only about ten minutes have passed, and he has already found the first bug."

"Speaking of which, I think the competition mode of the Qianlong Cup has loopholes. If future contestants all learn from Xie Wenbin like this, then those who come later have no point in participating at all; they are all just here to accompany the runners."

"I also think it's unreasonable; in the future, champions should be prohibited from participating a second time."

"Although watching such experts compete is pleasing to the eye, what we want to see more is a hundred flowers blooming, a large group of geniuses competing fiercely, rather than seeing the ending at a glance. That is too boring and has absolutely no sense of anticipation."

At this moment, someone suddenly pointed in the direction of the row of small screens at the bottom, gave a light 'huh', and said:

"Look, everyone, it seems like one contestant has filled up the bug registration document. I estimate he has written at least a dozen bugs."

"And his speed is so fast."

"What number is it?"

"That screen... is number 18!"

"Quick, enlarge number 18 and take a look!"

After the host heard everyone's calls, he decisively switched to screen 18. They saw that a document was being displayed on the screen, and line after line of text was appearing on it at a super-fast speed.

Seeing this speed, many people were stunned.

"Holy shit! Is this for real? Just this typing speed alone beats many people. Could this contestant be a stenographer?"

"Look at his document; he has registered at least a dozen bugs. My god!"

"I see others have only found one or two vulnerabilities, and some are even completely blank."

"It's only been ten-plus minutes, and he has found so many bugs. Is the software used for the competition developed by elementary school students? So many vulnerabilities?"

"That's not all. You see, when he registers bugs, he doesn't look at the code interface at all, which shows that he has very likely finished optimizing the bugs and is finally registering all the content together."

"If that's the case, is he almost finished with the competition?"

"Could this kid be just focusing on speed and writing nonsense there?"

Someone joked:

"The final score will weigh four dimensions; this guy might be trying to rely on an absolute advantage in time to defeat the others."

At this moment, someone on the field said:

"So he is number 18, his name is Su Xin; I just happened to see his livestream online, and he even arrogantly claimed he would win the championship."

"Host, switch the screen! Stop looking at him, he is nothing but a clown grandstanding for attention, switch to someone else's screen to take a look."

At this time, Su Xin was oblivious to everything around him, his heart and mind immersed in the world of code.

The program used for the competition was quite complex; even with Su Xin's Threefold Speed efficiency, it still took nearly ten minutes to find all the bugs and complete the optimizations.

Then, he wrote down the number of program bugs and a brief description in an electronic document, and wrote down the corresponding solutions in text.

After deactivating Threefold Speed, he selected submit, along with the program and the document.

With this, Su Xin's competition was complete.