Chapter 20 — Guess, MVP Heiress Has Returned

The screen lights up. The first line of text appears: "Technical analysis — Match log on the seventh day — Verification of three independent sources."

Bach Khang held the microphone, his voice echoed clearly throughout the room. "This is an analysis by an independent data expert, carried out at the official request of the VCC tournament technical council."

The timestamp chart image appears, the phase difference line is clearly circled in red. "The log attached to the anonymous complaint against player Luc Yen Chi shows signs of digital editing — a phase difference of several milliseconds compared to the official system's standard timestamp. This is not original data."

Murmurs arose in the crowd of reporters.

"Next," Bach Khang said, moving to the next slide, "is the result of verifying the IP address of the account that posted a question about the technique of exploiting logging system vulnerabilities, which matches the IP address of Anh Kim Group's office."

Lam Dac Uy stood dumbfounded, his face pale.

"And here," Yen Chi continued, her voice hard, "is a signed report from my teammate, Dinh Quoc Bao, confirming that he accidentally saw the content of a text message between Y Nhi and a person named Long, mentioning 'next week's plan' and 'match data' — exactly ten days before the complaint was sent."

Y Nhi took half a step back.

"Finally," Bach Khang said, his voice slow and heavy like a final blow of a hammer, "is a copy of the communication data between Bui Dac Long and the phone number registered under the name Luc Y Nhi, legally collected by the technical council during the course of an extensive investigation. The content clearly confirms: the plan to edit the match log to create fake evidence of cheating."

The screen displayed a message partially covered with sensitive information but still clear enough to read the core content: "Finished editing the log of the match on the seventh day. Wait two weeks then send anonymously."

The entire press conference room was shocked. The sound of cameras clicking continuously sounded like showers.

Y Nhi stood still, still holding the microphone, her face pale. She looked at the screen, at her sister, at the crowd of reporters pointing their lenses at her, and in that moment, all the "weak victim" facade she had built up over the past weeks crumbled to pieces.

"That's enough," she burst out, her voice no longer a fake tremble but a genuine brokenness. "That's enough! Do you want to hear the truth? Okay, I'll tell you!"

The whole room fell silent.

"Since childhood, I have never been myself!" Y Nhi screamed, this time her tears were no longer acting. "Every time I do something, my parents just say 'try your best, try as hard as your sister'. Every time my sister is praised, I have to stand behind and listen to people cooing. I was not born to be her shadow, but the whole world keeps treating me like that!"

"I understand that feeling," Yen Chi replied, her voice softening but not backing down, "because I was also taught that I must always give in to you, as if my needs were not as important as yours. We are both victims of the same wrong parenting, Y Nhi. But that is not a reason for you to destroy my career, my honor, even my life."

"You always have a reason to say what's right for you," Y Nhi said, her voice shaking with resentment. "You were given over to become a strong person, and I was protected to become a useless person! Do you think I don't know that I'm weaker than you in the mid lane position? I know! But knowing doesn't mean I can accept it. For twenty-two years, I've watched you get everything — talent, recognition, and now that man who believes in you absolutely — and I only get pity. I hate that pity more than I hate my own failure!"

The room was silent listening to that confession. This is not the excuse of a simple villain, but the cry of someone who has lived his whole life in the darkness of comparison, to the point of no longer being able to distinguish the line between the desire for justice and the desire for destruction.

"If you had told me that from the beginning," Yen Chi said, her voice choked up, "if you had just been honest for once instead of scheming, maybe we could have found another path together. I am not your enemy, Y Nhi. I have never been your enemy. But you turned me into that, just because you didn't have the courage to face your own limits."

Y Nhi could no longer respond, just stood there, her shoulders shaking, tears falling endlessly, a collapse completely different from the carefully calculated tears before.

At that moment, Luc Thanh Nam and Hoang Thi Nga managed to squeeze into the door of the press conference room, in time to fully witness the final part of the confrontation. Hoang Thi Nga covered her mouth with her hand, tears spilling out uncontrollably when she clearly heard every word her youngest daughter had just screamed. Luc Thanh Nam stood dumbfounded, his hand clutching his wife's shoulder, his face pale as if someone had just slapped him with the truth that he had been trying to avoid for the past twenty years.

He walked closer, standing between his two daughters, his voice trembling. "Y Nhi... did you really do these things?"

Y Nhi looked at her father, no longer able to deny or play any more roles. She just collapsed, sobbing, not because she was exposed in front of the camera, but because for the first time, she had to face her true self directly under her father's eyes.

"You're not dead!" Y Nhi shouted, not understanding the deep meaning of her sister's words.

"Yes, I haven't died in this life," Yen Chi said, her eyes flashing with a deep pain that no one in the room could fully understand. "But you tried your best to make it happen, with a meticulously calculated plan over many weeks, colluding with a bribed technician and a sponsor willing to threaten both my life and the team manager's life just to protect his investment."

She turned to Lam Dac Uy, her eyes cold. "So are you. You know clearly that this is an illegal act, but you still participate, because to you, an advertising investment is more important than fairness, more than the rules of the game that an entire e-sports industry is trying to build."

Lam Dac Uy opened his mouth to refute, but not a single word came out. Around him, the eyes of reporters and representatives of the tournament organizing committee all changed from suspicion to clear contempt.

In the corner of the room, a tournament security officer approached Y Nhi and Lam Dac Uy and whispered something. The head of the organizing committee stepped up to the podium, his voice solemn. "Based on the evidence just presented, and in coordination with the technical council's investigation conclusion, we will temporarily detain player Luc Y Nhi and representatives of Anh Kim Group to further clarify the incident, and officially restore player Luc Yen Chi's playing status immediately."

Scattered applause rang out from the back of the crowd of reporters, then quickly spread into a continuous round of applause.

Yen Chi stood still in the middle of that noise, looking at Y Nhi who was being taken away. Her sister's eyes looked back at her one last time - no longer cold and calculating, only the naked despair of a child who had lost himself long before realizing it.

She did not feel gloating. I only see a deep sadness, mixed with the feeling of relief of someone who has finally been freed from the shackles that have haunted him for two lifetimes.

Bach Khang put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed gently. "It's done," he said, his voice unusually gentle. "You did it."

Yen Chi turned to look at him, a light but genuine smile appeared on her lips. "We did it," she corrected, "together."

The clock on the wall ticked twenty minutes until the official final match time.

"Can you compete?" the organizer asked, his eyes full of worry.

Yen Chi took a deep breath, feeling all the burden of the past few weeks disappearing from her shoulders. She looked towards the main stage, where the lights were waiting.

"I can," she replied, her voice firm and without hesitation. "I was born to stand on that stage."

She turned around and strode out of the press conference room, heading straight towards the hallway leading to the main stage. Behind her, the cry of her sister, the whispers of the crowd of reporters, the hurried footsteps of the security staff escorting Lam Dac Uy, all gradually subsided, giving way to the heroic background music resounding from the final stage. Yen Chi walked, step by step, her back straight, her eyes pointed straight ahead - towards the most important match of her life that was waiting for her.