Lowering the OSPF cost on the direct R1-to-R2 link is the cleanest way to force traffic for 10.10.20.0/24 to prefer that link. OSPF calculates the shortest path using cumulative interface cost, and Cisco designs normally tune OSPF path selection by changing interface cost rather than administrative distance. Administrative distance determines preference between different routing protocols, not between OSPF paths inside the same OSPF process. Moving the link into another area or creating a multiarea adjacency adds design complexity and does not directly solve the requirement unless the resulting cost still becomes lower. The exhibit states that the architect must use the direct link for traffic from 10.10.10.0/24 toward 10.10.20.0/24. Therefore, the direct link must have a lower total OSPF metric than the alternate path. Configuring the link cost to a value below 30 makes OSPF choose it as the preferred intra-area route. This is deterministic, easy to validate with the OSPF database and routing table, and consistent with Cisco hierarchical IGP design practice. Reference topics: OSPF cost, SPF path selection, metric tuning, intra-area routing.