The lowest odds on offer were for Phantom Immortal Technology lasting less than one minute: a payout of one for every hundred wagered.
Next came two minutes, three minutes, and so on, all the way up to an hour.
The odds for an hour were much higher, reaching ten to one.
At the very end was a laughable option offering ten thousand to one: betting that Phantom Immortal Technology would win this contest, single-handedly holding off the entire world.
Everyone thought the organizers had deliberately included it to mock Phantom Immortal Technology.
After all, in the hacking world, experts certainly mattered, but the advantage of numbers was just as obvious. Being able to enter more commands than an opponent in the same amount of time was an advantage in itself.
Of course, those numbers did not include typists who could only hammer randomly at keyboards. They meant people with genuine offensive and defensive cybersecurity skills who could launch effective attacks.
How big was Phantom Immortal Technology, anyway? It was an industrial company with nothing more than an IT department responsible for repairing computers and maintaining its website. How could it possibly take on the entire world?
Many people bet on Phantom Immortal Technology lasting less than a minute. The payout might be low, but even a little money was still money, right?
Others bet on two or three minutes. They figured that, since Phantom Immortal Technology dared to do this, it must have some confidence in its chances.
In an incredibly short time, the total wagers climbed to a billion dollars. There was no denying that these hackers were quite wealthy.
It also showed just how much of a sensation this had become. Countless people were following the affair.
But just as betting was about to close, an anonymous account