Chapter 7: The Evidence She Could Not Erase

Holly's scream brought everyone in the room to a standstill.

She stared at my result as if the screen had just announced the end of the world.

"Pass?" someone whispered.

"Dakota actually passed?"

The room erupted into murmurs.

Our mentor stepped forward and looked at the result himself. His expression quickly changed from surprise to approval.

"Dakota, congratulations. You passed the forensic certification exam."

I smiled faintly. "Thank you, Professor."

Holly's face had gone pale.

She suddenly reached for the mouse. "There must be a mistake. Check again!"

She refreshed the page several times, but my result remained unchanged.

"Maybe the system mixed up our examination numbers," she insisted.

I looked at her calmly. "Then check yours."

Her fingers trembled as she entered her examination number.

The result appeared almost instantly.

Failed.

A stunned silence filled the room.

Holly stared at the screen, unable to speak.

Her followers were no longer laughing.

One of them swallowed hard and whispered, "How could Holly fail?"

Our mentor frowned. "The results are generated directly by the certification system. There is no reason to assume there is an error without evidence."

Holly suddenly looked at me.

There was panic in her eyes now.

"Dakota... what did you do?"

I almost laughed.

So this was the moment she finally realized that her little trick had stopped working.

"What are you talking about?" I asked innocently.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about!" Holly snapped.

Her composure cracked completely.

"You must have cheated! You couldn't possibly pass after spending the entire month doing nothing!"

The room went quiet again.

I slowly raised an eyebrow. "Are you accusing me of cheating?"

"I'm saying the result doesn't make sense!" she shouted.

Our mentor's expression darkened.

"Holly, be careful with your accusations. If you have evidence of misconduct, present it formally. Otherwise, stop making baseless claims."

Holly clenched her fists.

She had no evidence.

Because she knew the truth.

She knew I had not studied because she had expected my knowledge to transfer to her.

But this time, the system had not taken anything from me.

Everything I had learned in my previous life was still inside my head.

And Holly had nothing.

The class soon began comparing our results.

I had passed with an excellent score.

Holly had failed.

The same people who had spent weeks praising her natural talent now looked at her with confusion.

I could almost hear their thoughts.

If Holly was truly so talented, why had she failed?

Holly suddenly grabbed my arm and dragged me into the hallway.

"Dakota, what happened?" she demanded.

I pulled my arm free.

"Why don't you tell me?"

"You were supposed to fail!"

The moment those words escaped her mouth, she froze.

I smiled.

"So you were expecting me to fail?"

"I didn't mean that!"

"Then what did you mean?"

She opened and closed her mouth, unable to find an answer.

I stepped closer and lowered my voice.

"You spent an entire month watching me. You bought me study materials. You dragged me back to the library. You kept asking whether I was studying."

Her face became even paler.

"Why were you so interested in my preparation, Holly?"

"Because we're classmates!" she blurted.

"No." I shook my head. "You weren't worried about me. You were worried about what I knew."

For a moment, fear flashed across her face.

Then she quickly covered it with anger.

"You're imagining things."

"Maybe."

I smiled and stepped away.

"But don't worry. We still have the practical assessment."

Holly's expression changed.

The practical assessment.

She had counted on taking everything from me after the written examination.

But now she had another problem.

I knew exactly what she had done in my previous life.

And this time, I was going to make sure every piece of evidence stayed where it belonged.

That evening, I returned to the laboratory.

Instead of studying, I opened the academy's archived experiment records.

In my previous life, every report I had submitted had somehow ended up under Holly's name.

This time, I had already backed up every experiment record, timestamp, laboratory entry, and submission receipt.

I opened the first file.

My name was clearly displayed beside the original submission time.

Then I opened another.

Again, my name.

I smiled.

Holly had erased the paper trail once before.

But she had forgotten that digital records left traces.

I copied everything onto a secure drive and sent another copy to myself.

Then I noticed something strange.

One of the old laboratory files had been accessed earlier that afternoon.

The access record showed a familiar name.

Holly Monroe.

I stared at the screen.

She had panicked.

And panicked people made mistakes.

I closed the file and leaned back in my chair.

For the first time since being reborn, I felt completely certain that the truth would come out.

I didn't need to expose Holly myself.

I only needed to let her keep digging her own grave.

The next morning, the academy announced that the practical assessment would be held in three days.

Holly found me outside the laboratory.

Her expression was strangely calm.

"Dakota," she said softly, "we should talk."

I looked at her and smiled.

"Sure."

She had no idea that I had already found the evidence she thought she had erased.

And she had even less idea that the final assessment would give her one last chance to reveal everything herself.