Chapter Thirty-Three: Foreigners

  The staff at Wisconsin's supercomputer center are frantically debugging programs.

  "The Sea Witch" had a terrible weekend and its maintainers went through what seemed like a nightmare.

  A large amount of data was lost, and it took two working days just to get the system back up and running after an abnormal shutdown. Not to mention disassembling hardware, resetting functional areas, and other trivial matters.

  Professor Harker almost lived in the center, busy as a newly started bee. And he was also very clear that no matter how hard he worked, the honey he collected could only be consumed by others. He would likely spend his life under the title of permanent professor in some laboratory building.

  Despite this, Hack continued to stick around here, hoping to make up for the lack of talent with hard work - although compared to ordinary people, he was already one of the most talented in the world.

  There is a reason why some people are better than others, and those who are at the forefront of the world can understand this.

  Standing at the summit, one can see how high the sky is.

  "Give me a glass of water." Hark, who had been staring at the blueprint for two hours, stretched out his hand and shouted, while rubbing his eyes.

  Within his line of sight, some red lights suddenly flashed and then quickly went out, indicating an exchange of information with external entities. He immediately stood up, waving his hand: "Is there a problem?"

  Then he seemed to remember something and roared: "Have you connected to the external network?"

  "A staff member responded loudly: 'Already connected to the auxiliary center, whether to connect to the external network...'"

  Supercomputer-assisted center is an extension of the supercomputer itself, which still has a strict firewall and other security measures. External networks include internal networks of other schools and research institutions - only by connecting them can the expensive supercomputers be useful. As for the narrow sense of the Internet, they will not actively connect to it.

  In the vast operating room, there seemed to be an echo.

  Hawk felt it was wrong and wanted to stop but couldn't come up with a reason, so he said: "Re-check all safety settings again, notify me of any changes, any changes."

  Several experts nodded in agreement. They could understand Hack's huge pressure, but they were not willing to check the same thing over and over again.

  Professor Harker busily began searching for the problem. The supercomputer, unlike ordinary home computers, could theoretically monitor even the temperature of a single integrated circuit board, but the massive machine that occupied an entire building generated too much data to monitor, not too little.

  In the end, faced with the federal officials' ultimatum, Hack had no choice but to order the restoration of "Sea Witch" to its normal operating status.

  It has been 36 hours since Poseidon's attack.

  Rows of red lights began flashing, Hack sank deep into his chair, and he felt a sense of fear.

  He recalled what Klinham said before he left. If "Poseidon" really embedded a small program and entered the deepest part of "Mermaid" through reboot, how could he find it?

  Unless the mermaid is shut down for more than a week, it seems that there is no way - this condition itself means that it is impossible. Half of North America's research institutions cannot tolerate a one-week shutdown, especially for some unfounded speculation.

  However, Hack was well aware that in history, such things had not occurred. It's just that the predecessors' goals were mainly to obtain the vast data and materials within the supercomputer. Poseidon was different, from his previous performance, he had been crazily wanting to gain control of "Mermaid" since the beginning stage, so-called administrator privileges.

  Hacker thought weakly, if "Poseidon" really got the administrator privileges, as long as that hypothetical small program really existed in the supercomputer, what he could do was even less than the other side.

  Don't just look at the huge supercomputer in front of you, but apart from a limited number of hardware functions, what other rights do you have?

  "I didn't think I'd end up in the same situation as Klinhham. "Hawk muttered to himself, 'If Poseidon succeeds, we won't know because it's a backdoor program; if Poseidon fails, we also won't know because there is no backdoor program... looks like I'm doomed to lose."

  The dim red light of the "Mermaid" continued to flicker.

  Out of sight of everyone, a command from afar entered the supercomputer.

  Inside Jiangning Computer Association, Chen Yi let out a soft cry: It actually really connected.

  I actually have a supercomputer!

  And it's free, with dedicated maintenance personnel.

  Hugging another notebook and sitting opposite Chen Rongxi, staring at the expression of his second brother, he finally couldn't help but ask: "Succeeded?"

  "What is success?" This time it was Chen Yi's turn to be stunned.

  "Did they... succeed?" Chen Rongxi mouthed, his hands constantly tugging at his neck.

  Chen Yi let out an "oh" and smiled without a care.

  The existence of supercomputers is like the heavy machine guns in the Stone Age, whether it's a mammoth or a saber-toothed tiger, they can ignore the presence of intelligence and just rush forward stupidly.

  He vaguely recalled his poor computer education in the past and the experience accumulated in recent days, first linking to the host of Jiangning University Computer Association, then...

  Crack it with supercomputer!

  Computer security experts often like to use propaganda language such as "cannot be cracked by brute force in 100 years" to describe their strong security defenses. However, the so-called "100 years" they refer to is forever a stagnant 100 years, just like the law that was promoted starting from the 1960s that "oil will be depleted in 50 years".

  Those "millennium-proof" password defenses made in the early 1990s are now yesterday's news, and many home computers can accomplish brute-force cracking tasks. And today, ten years later, a mainframe from an ordinary student computer club is no match for the world's top supercomputers.

  Especially with Chen Rongxi's hacker dictionary, the cracking speed is even more astonishing.

  Ten minutes later, Chen Yi got a 12-digit password and handed it over to Xiao Mei: "Here you are."

  "So fast? What kind of meat chicken are you using, aren't you afraid of being discovered?" Chen Rongxi was shocked and puzzled, she had already prepared to wait for half a day.

  "Shh..." Chen Yi raised his finger.

  Each supercomputer is specially designed, the "Kraken" manufactured by the US government with so much effort, if it can't crack a ordinary password of some student, then it's really useless. Even the gentlemen at the Wisconsin Supercomputing Center didn't see anything from this. Once "Kraken" was opened, various demands poured in, and its resource allocation also strived for maximum efficiency operation, the few minutes occupied were not even noticed by anyone.

  Chen Yi smiled and closed his notebook, letting Chen Rongxi connect her PDA to the association's mainframe.

  Little sister ran to the front, Chen Yi followed behind leisurely. She seemed like a child who had just received a new toy, closing the air conditioner and opening doors and windows, busy with joy - connecting all devices to the network, sometimes not a good idea.

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

  Xiao Yu suddenly shivered and glared angrily: "Who opened the window? Close it quickly."

  "The computer is not listening." Another student kept fiddling with the remote control, and the Computer Association had deliberately installed high and large windows in this house during the renovation, which were electronically controlled. This was one of their highlights when showing off to school leaders, touted as "perfect life with future technology".

  Once blackened, life is ruined, and those high windows still need a ladder to climb up.

  "The air conditioner has also stopped working, and the mainframe has kicked out all the administrators." someone reported while shivering.

  The small building stands alone, quiet as it is, but also cold and severe.

  Xiao Yu felt his face had been utterly lost, and he hastily lay down in front of the host to operate, but naturally nothing was useful.

  "I'll go." The little sister suddenly stood up.

  "Don't bother..." Xiaoyu reluctantly resisted, not letting Chen Rongxi touch the computer. He glanced at Chen Yi's innocent face and had a bad premonition in his heart.

  "As the deputy chairman of the association, I have an unshirkable responsibility."

  A group of people stared at Xiao Yu with strange eyes, and some even reacted slowly and shouted: "Yu Shen, you lost?"

  They all knew about the two betting things. After all, Xiao Mei was only in junior high school, and if it wasn't for a coincidence, she wouldn't have had the opportunity to come to Jiangning University's computer association.

  The deputy director's face was full of shame, and he said, "I lost, from now on call me Little Yu."

  Stanik asked in a tone peculiar to foreigners: "What's going on? I didn't expect the computer club to be so interesting, can I join?"

  At the same time, club member Lin Xiuli briefly introduced him in two sentences and immediately asked: "Do you want to join the computer association? We usually only accept students from Jiangning University."

  "Of course, I've transferred to Jiangning University." Stanik flashed a killer smile again and said, "I've also joined the fencing club and swimming club."

  The girls who followed behind let out all sorts of exclamations of admiration, their eyes turning greener and greener.

  ……