Chapter 109 - That was short of a public execution. (2)
The time-limited section started and both Gu Xi and Sheng Xiuyan entered into their quiet answering state. One of them started from top down, the other one bottom up. Neither one of them distracted each other.
At the same time, inside the wait area and rest area, the display on the two large screens switched into two columns.
The team number of the 26 participating schools appeared on the left-hand side followed by the numbers "1" and "2".
"What are those?" Many were curious about them.
"Every single school is on there. Are they scores going to be displayed live?" The competition had been switched to paperless now. Scoring would be much faster.
"If that's the case, then the '1' and '2' are the two respective participants during this round?"
"Okay, so what's with the blank area on the other side?"
Everybody was offering up their speculations.
Suddenly, a green dot lit up after each row of numbers and above each green dot was another number.
"Oh shoot! Could that be everyone's current status?" Someone shouted out in surprise.
Each lit-up dot meant a correct answer. And the number above was the number of the corresponding question.
"Oh my gosh. So now we are watching the competition live then??" They could see how each person was doing live time. That was arguably more exciting than watching the text update of a basketball game!
It wasn't only exciting, but also scary.
In addition to the green dots, red dots were beginning to appear.
A green dot for each correct answer, and a red dot for each incorrect one.
Not only could they see how many problems have each individua completed and their speed. They could even see whether they were right or wrong.
Em......
This was the equivalent of a live "execution".
"Oh shoot. That is so exciting......"
The entire competition was broadcasts live and they were able to see how their own school and the competing schools were doing.
At that very moment, everybody's attention was focused on the two large displays in the wait area. Their hearts went up and down along with the green and red dots that appeared like a roller coaster ride.
"Where's 19? 19 is us, right?"
"I think 20 is Houston?"
"Where's No. 7 High school?"
"I think we are No. 5"
.......
The audiences quickly located where their teams were on the screen and also matched up the other schools with the numbers.
"OH! They got one wrong!" Someone saw a red dot behind the number of their school and panicked. Luckily, the red dot turned green shortly thereafter. The participant must have changed their answer.
"Oh good. Oh good."
"Our school is in the lead!"
"Hurry, hurry. Go Lao Hu!"
......
Some of them were happier than others.
"Oh no. Oh no. Why did Zhou Congyue and his partner slow down?"
"How come our school stopped?"
If the row of dots stopped moving, that could very well mean that the participant was stuck on a certain question and not moving forward.
Those in the wait area were anxious. "Don't just stop. You can always just take a guess."
......
That very moment, the atmosphere in the wait area was arguably more intense than that of the actual venue.
"Hey, look. That team is fast!" Someone sudden shouted out loudly while pointing at the screen.
As such, everybody looked over in the direction that the person was pointing at.
"Oh shoot. What's going on? That's abnormally fast, no?"
By this time, a decent-length row of green dots had already lined up behind a certain number and it was still going. Almost another green dot would appear each time they blinked. This speed was faster than watching subways pull into their stations.
"No. 17. Which school is No. 17?"
"17? I think that's HSAU."
"Oh shoot. That is nuts! Are they riding on a high-speed train?"
"No, that's the speed of a rocket!"
As the audiences opined on it, almost everyone's attention was drawn to HSAU.
"What's going on? How come their dots lit up that way?" There was a row going normally from left to right but there was also another row going the opposite direction of right to left.
"One of them is going from the beginning and the other one started from the back up?"
"I guess so."
"Going from the back up. I have been schooled......" said a boy from No. 5 High School – He couldn't say for sure that nobody had done that before but it had certainly never occurred to him before.