?Chapter 684:


    “Keep looking for alternatives,” Ste said, handing back the sheet. “If nothing works, we’ll figure out another n.”


    She then sat down to dig into the problem herself. Afterbing through every possible source, the conclusion was clear—only that one author had ever posted theplete version.


    Problem was, he hadn’t updated his ount in over a year. Maybe he’d run into trouble. Maybe he’d gonepletely offline. Either way, the oue wasn’t good for them.


    Ste spent the rest of the afternoon searching, but came up empty.


    If even she couldn’t find it, the odds weren’t great for the rest of the team. With no other option, she posted on her social media: “Dear onlinemunity, does anyone have the full version of this dataset? I need it urgently!”


    A long shot? Absolutely. But it was the only thread left to tug on.


    Sandra had also been digging for hours, her eyes red from staring at the screen. During a short break, she rubbed her temples and said, “Why don’t we just ask William? He probably has it.”


    After all, William was practically a legend in their field. If anyone could track it down, it’d be him.


    Ste knew Sandra had a point. William might have it. But she wasn’t willing to ask.


    Before, it had been about pride. Now… now it was about something deeper. Knowing what his family had done to her adoptive parents, asking him for help just felt impossible.


    So for the first time, Ste gave Sandra a firm look and said, “Sandra, we need to handle this ourselves. Mr. Briggs isn’t just our senior—he’s also our boss. If we run to him with every little problem, we’ll never grow.”


    Sandra froze for a second—clearly not expecting Ste to be this serious.


    But she recalled Ste had warned her in the past not to always rely on William. It was just that she’d never listened. Every time the team hit a wall, William always seemed to swoop in and save the day. Naturally, he was the first person she thought of now too.


    “I’m sorry, Sylvia… I didn’t mean it like that,” Sandra mumbled, head lowered, feeling a little embarrassed.


    g?lnσν???s?cóm is your escape


    She promised not to run to William anymore whenever things got tough.


    The group kept digging for data until the end of the day. Progress was slow, but not one of them mentioned giving up.


    Everyone quietly packed up theirptops and took their work home, determined to keep at it after hours.


    As Ste got home and opened herptop, a soft ding signaled a new email.


    She clicked it. There it was—the document.


    Her eyes widened in shock. It was the exact dataset she’d been hunting down all day.


    Just as she was about to reply and ask who’d sent it, her phone rang.


    She nced at the screen—Rutherford. After a brief pause, she picked up. “Ms. Gilbert, did you get the email?” Rutherford’s calm voice came through.


    Ste’s breath caught.


    She stared at the screen, then asked in disbelief, “That was from you?”


    Rutherford chuckled lightly. “Didn’t you post for help online? I saw it. Turns out I know the original author, so I asked him to send it over.”


    .<fn8496> Chapters first released on Find[?]ovel</fn8496>


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