Chapter 33

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Protagonist:

Chen Yi

At the Wisconsin Supercomputer Center, staff were tensely debugging programs.

"Siren" had endured a terrible weekend, and its maintainers had experienced what amounted to a nightmare.

Not to mention the massive data loss, just restoring the abnormally shut-down system to normal consumed two working days. Let alone disassembling hardware, resetting functional sectors, and other trivial matters.

Professor Hack practically ate and slept at the center, busy as a freshly started little bee. And he knew perfectly well in his heart that no matter how much effort he expended, the honey he gathered could only be consumed by others. He would most likely spend his remaining days in some experimental building under the title of Tenured Professor.

Despite this, Hack still insisted on staying here, hoping to make up for his lack of talent with effort — although relative to ordinary people, he had long been among the world's most top-tier talents.

But the principle that there is always someone better, the more world-class a person is, the more they understand it.

Standing at the peak, one knows how high the sky truly is.

"Get me a cup of water." Hack, having stared at blueprints for two hours, stretched out his hand and called out, rubbing his eyes at the same time.

Within his field of vision, some red lights suddenly flickered on, then quickly went out — representing information exchange with external existence. Startled at every shadow, he immediately stood up and waved his hand: "Is there a problem?"

Then, he seemed to recall something and roared: "Has it connected to the external network?"

A staff member replied loudly: "Already connected to the Auxiliary Center, whether to connect to the external network……"

The Supercomputer Auxiliary Center is an extension of the supercomputer; it itself remains an intranet with strict firewalls and other security measures. The external network includes the intranets of other schools and research institutions — only by connecting to them does the enormously expensive supercomputer have a place to be useful. As for the Internet in the narrow sense, they would never actively connect to it.

In the vast operation hall, there seemed to be an echo.

Hack felt something was wrong, wanted to abort but couldn't give a reason, so he could only say: "Recheck all security settings, notify me of any changes, any changes at all."

Several experts rolled their eyelids and agreed. They could understand Hack's immense pressure, but were unwilling to check the same things once, twice, three times.

Professor Hack busily began searching for the problem; a supercomputer differs from an ordinary home computer — even the temperature of a single integrated circuit board can theoretically be monitored — but vast as a mountain, the machine occupying an entire building produces monitoring data that is always too much, never too little.

Ultimately, with the federal officials' deadline pressing, Hack had no choice but to order the restoration of "Siren's" normal working state.

At this point, 36 hours had passed since "Poseidon's" attack.

Rows of red lights began to flicker; Hack sank deep into his chair, surprisingly feeling a sense of fear.

He recalled what Clinham had said before leaving. If "Poseidon" really had embedded a small program and entered the deepest part of "Siren" through the reboot, what method did he have to find it?

Unless Siren was shut down for over a week, there seemed to be not the slightest method — such a condition itself meant impossibility; half of North America's research institutions could not tolerate a week of stagnation. Especially for some baseless speculation.

But Hack knew very clearly that in history, such things were not without precedent. It was just that predecessors' aims were mainly to obtain the massive data and materials inside supercomputers. Poseidon was different; from his previous performance, from the initial stage he frantically wanted to obtain "Siren's" control rights, the so-called Administrator Privileges.

Hack powerlessly continued thinking: if "Poseidon" really had already obtained Administrator Privileges, as long as that hypothetical small program truly existed in the supercomputer, what he could do might be even less than the other party.

Don't look at the huge supercomputer sitting right before you; aside from a few limited hardware functions, what authority do you have?

"Didn't expect I'd end up in Clinham's original predicament again." Hack almost muttered to himself: "If Poseidon succeeds, we naturally won't know, because it's a backdoor program; if Poseidon fails, we also won't know, because no backdoor program exists. Looks like I'm doomed to lose."

"Siren's" dim red lights continued to flicker.

Outside everyone's surveillance, a command from afar entered the supercomputer's interior.

Inside the Jiangning Computer Association, Chen Yi let out a light breath: It actually connected.

I actually have a supercomputer!

And without spending money, with dedicated personnel maintaining it.

Chen Rongxi, sitting opposite hugging another notebook, staring at Second Brother's weird expression, finally couldn't help asking: "Did it succeed?"

"Succeed at what?" This time it was Chen Yi's turn to stare blankly.

"Hack them…… did it succeed?" Chen Rongxi mouthed the words, her hand making a slicing motion across her neck.

Chen Yi went "Oh," laughing without a trace of worry.

The existence of a supercomputer is like a heavy machine gun in the Stone Age; whether beating a mammoth or hunting a saber-toothed tiger, you can ignore the existence of intelligence and just charge straight ahead.

He briefly recalled his pitifully scarce computer education, as well as the experience accumulated over the past few days, first connecting to the Jiangning University Computer Association's host, then……

Using the supercomputer to brute force crack!

Computer security experts most love to use promotional phrases like "cannot be brute force cracked in 100 years" to describe their powerful security defenses. But in fact, their so-called "100" years are forever 100 years without development, just like the "oil will run out in 50 years" law that has been promoted since the 1960s.

Those "millennium un-crackable" password defenses made in the early 90s are now yesterday's news; many home computers can complete brute force cracking tasks. And in today's 10 years later, an ordinary computer club host composed of students is even more unable to withstand a single blow before a world-top supercomputer.

Especially with the hacker dictionary provided by Chen Rongxi, the cracking speed became even more astonishing.

Ten minutes later, Chen Yi obtained the 12-digit password and handed it to his little sister: "For you."

"So fast? What zombie computer did you use, aren't you afraid of being discovered?" Chen Rongxi was astonished beyond words; she had already prepared to wait half a day.

"Shh……" Chen Yi raised a finger to his lips.

Every supercomputer is specially designed; the "Siren" that the US Government expended so much effort to manufacture, if it couldn't crack some student's ordinary password, that would truly be a waste of life. Even the gentlemen at the Wisconsin Supercomputer Center didn't notice anything from it. Once "Siren" opens, demands from all sides come one after another; its resource allocation also strives for maximum efficiency operation; the few minutes of being occupied, no one noticed at all.

Chen Yi closed his notebook with a grin, letting Chen Rongxi beautifully use her personal PDA (palmtop computer) to connect to the Association host.

Little sister trotted off to the front; Chen Yi followed leisurely behind, only to see her like a child who just got a toy — turning off the air conditioning, opening doors and windows, busy with great joy — connecting all equipment to the network is sometimes not a good idea.

A few minutes later, wind carrying the scent of fallen leaves and lake water whooshed in.

Xiao Yu shivered from the cold, then immediately glared angrily: "Who opened the windows, close them quick."

"The computer's not listening." Another student kept fiddling with the remote; the Computer Association, to be unique, had deliberately made the windows very high and large during the renovation of this house, and electronically controlled — this was once their key showcase to the school Leaders, claiming "Future Technology Perfects Life."

Only, once hacked, even if life is ruined, those windows so high still need a ladder to climb up.

"The air conditioning stopped too, the host kicked all administrators out." Someone reported while trembling.

The lonely little building, quiet it was quiet, but also fiercely cold.

Xiao Yu felt he had lost face, hurriedly crouched before the host to operate, result naturally nothing worked.

"Let me." Little sister suddenly stepped forward.

"No need to trouble you……" Xiao Yu resisted unwillingly, simply refusing to let Chen Rongxi touch the computer. He glanced at Chen Yi's innocent face, a bad premonition rising in his heart.

Chen Rongxi seized the opportunity and said solemnly: "As the Executive Vice President of the Association, I have an inescapable responsibility."

A group of people all looked at Xiao Yu with strange eyes, and some slow to react even called out: "Yu God, you lost?"

They all knew about the bet between the two. After all, Little Sister is only middle school age; if not for a chance coincidence, how would she have the opportunity to come to Jiangning University's Computer Association.

Comrade Vice President's face was full of shame, and he said: "I lost, call me Xiao Yu from now on."

Stanik asked in a foreigner's unique tone: "What's going on? Didn't expect the Computer Club to be this interesting too, can I join?"

Simultaneously, Association member Lin Xiuli briefly introduced him in two sentences, then asked: "You want to join the Computer Association? We usually only accept Jiangning University students."

"Of course, I've already transferred to Jiangning University." Stanik once again revealed a lethal smile, and said: "I also joined the Fencing Club and Swimming Club."

The girls trailing behind let out various exclamations of admiration, their eyes turning even greener.

……