Chapter 638 - 622 Invasion

For the base, New Year’s Day of 2018 was anything but peaceful.

It had only been two or three hours since "Departing Fire" sent back the alarm signal, yet that brief period had already set the entire space department and high command into motion.

By 1 a.m., all the executives who could make it had already gathered in the underground computing center.

The latest generation of Stellar III supercomputer was originally designed to work with the OGAS 2.0 System, utilizing tens of thousands of X32055 and X32065 chips. In terms of both processor count and computational power, it surpassed the previous supercomputers wholly, its theoretical performance ranking first in the world.

But for a supercomputer, its architecture is the most crucial aspect. Leveraging the unique architecture of Stellar III, the "Mountain and Sea" AI had undergone countless iterations, far surpassing the current world.

Its superior performance was not about chatting with humans, but rather its silent but pervasive penetration into the internet. Although the base had no intention of controlling the global web, it was steadily consuming important server networks through the global satellite network at an unhurried pace.

This stemmed from "Mountain and Sea’s" specialized study of the Internet of Things during the rollout of the OGAS System. The base’s many processing devices still came from suppliers around the world, and to achieve full automation, it was imperative to connect all devices. The biggest hurdle in the implementation of OGAS was precisely this.

At this point, nearly all connected devices in the world lay exposed before "Mountain and Sea," with only a very small minority being safe, either isolated by physical means or protected against breaches in principle.

For example, multi-digit numerical encryption is safe as long as the user leaves no password traces on networked devices. Apart from quantum computers, no method could brute-force such encryption, and Stellar III was certainly no match for that.

Therefore, it was impossible to directly hack into the Pentagon’s servers, but using AI’s powerful capability for collections and filtering, it was easy to monitor important figures’ emails, text messages, and chat records.

After all, those elite officials, being of a certain age, were unlikely to learn complex online security measures. This might have been manageable before – for instance, the previous leader Xiaohei simply used feature phones. However, the current officials could never sever their ties with the network, no matter what.

"How much longer?"

Ye Changsi frowned at the motley array of screens before him. They didn’t display the blue and green patterns typical of science fiction movies, but rather seemed like a chaotic mess of ancient windows, not allowing for an easy gauge of progress through a progress bar.

"Uh... still more than half of the database left, at least another hour and a half."

The person in charge offered a rough estimate of time. "Mountain and Sea" was selecting potentially related individuals based on their input requirements, then scrutinizing the private data from their last 14 days, one by one. The scope was tens of thousands of subjects, and precision required time.

Moreover, secrecy was of utmost importance. Even though it was unlikely to trace back to the base if discovered, caution was always a good idea.

The machine room, usually maintained at 20 degrees by the air conditioning, had warmed by three degrees in a short time. Even through the closed iron door of the control room, one could hear the exhaust fans running at full speed; the supercomputer’s instantaneous power surged rapidly.

This environment only made Ye Changsi more irritable. He managed to keep his composure and ask Xiao Okada:

"How is it going... How far have we come?"

He intended to ask if they had been detected, but since "Departing Fire’s" AI had issued a BBB-level alert, the high specificity indicated by the trigger conditions meant the threat was likely substantial.

"It’s not certain yet, but they probably haven’t pinpointed us, given that ’Departing Fire’ has only traveled halfway theoretically... However, it’s probably not related to Zero Plain."

Xiao Okada was mainly concerned with Zero Plain. If the suspicions were directed toward ’Departing Fire,’ that would be preferable. But if America had discovered the secret of Zero Plain first, that would truly be disastrous.

"Departing Fire" also closely monitored the eight artificial satellites around Mars for its safety, choosing gaps in their coverage to send signals and logging their transmissions.

Xiao Okada reviewed the logs from the last two weeks and noticed that NACA’s probes had been especially active ten days prior, their actions not likely aimed at Mars’s surface, as most of their time was spent on space exploration.

"Departing Fire" had already sent back what it deemed valuable, and the base had no intention of risking awakening it. The people could only anxiously wait for "Mountain and Sea’s" results.

As it neared 3 a.m., the ambient background noise seemed to diminish significantly; "Mountain and Sea" had completed the data gathering, and the summary results appeared on the screen.

The head of the computing center rushed forward to see "Mountain and Sea" list key words, suspicious individuals, and communication records in a meticulous fashion. Most notably, it had not triggered any countermeasures, marking a perfect covert infiltration.

"Key word: ’M’, occurrence: 264, personnel coverage: 55, association degree: 84.354%;

Key word: ’signal’, occurrence: 1054, personnel coverage: 287, association degree: 81.021%;

Key word: ’Misfortune Office’, occurrence: 12, personnel coverage: 3 (Level A personnel), association degree: 77.198%;

..."

"Mountain and Sea" meticulously listed all relevant suspicions, marking suspicious targets in red to signify they warranted a more detailed investigation.

The dense information was organized into an intuitive table, easy to interpret and analyze even for non-professionals in intelligence.

This was the first time "Mountain and Sea" had shown its potential in this other role, leaving everyone in awe.

While security agencies in various countries had experts capable of stealing this information, only "Mountain and Sea" could manage such widespread coverage combined with autonomous analysis and organization.

Shocked by its capabilities, the people swiftly analyzed the data, linking the dots in just a few minutes to approach a truth:

The frequent activities of NACA’s Mars probes originated from the "Misfortune Office," likely a codename that could represent a department or an individual. The "Misfortune Office" was highly associated with "M," which appeared to replace "signal" as inferred from the context, indicating these two keywords referred to the same event based on communication records.

Looking at the suspicious NACA employees, two from the public "Group A" were reassigned after receiving a task, with evidence of tampering in seven days of their communication logs.

"So... they’ve discovered an anomalous signal, and it’s very likely the ’Departing Fire’ signal, but it’s unclear who it is."

"Not only that, but have they also made contact with aliens?"