Chapter 7: No Loudspeaker Ii (1/2)

The girl registered for Stanford University when she turned fifteen. She failed.

She tried again the next year. Success.

She was reported by the news to be a prodigy.

Of course, she studied computing.

But computing here involved the ancient computers that had long become obsolete.

When the news spread across campus, everyone felt that it was a great pity.

The girl partic.i.p.ated in an interview.

”Why have you chosen to study old computers instead of supercomputers?” people asked.

The girl only smiled.

Two years later, sixty-third Genesis Hacking Compet.i.tion.

The topic wasn't new. Contestants had to attack the Pentagon.

A hacker with the user ID 'gunner' clinched first place with a stable three-point data lead.

And with this score, 'gunner' had successfully broken the world's record from ten years ago.

It must be known that even the best supercomputer might not be able to function with such speed.

Just as the hackers and computer enthusiasts were discussing 'gunner' over tea, the first runner-up denounced the winner.

Reason being that the data was abnormal.

A team must've been working together on multiple computers.

This result couldn't have been achieved alone.

The judging panel located 'gunner' through an IP address.

The panel confirmed that only one equipment had been connected and that the hacker worked from within Stanford's campus.

News spread throughout the entire school and all the teachers made an extra effort in seeking 'gunner' out.

Though, they quickly realized that this ID could be fake since the best supercomputer in the university was apparently off during the compet.i.tion.

Professors recovered some data from the supercomputer and went through them time and time again, confirming that it hadn't been switched on at all on the day of the compet.i.tion.

This strange matter became the talk of the town.

Until the sixth-fourth hacking compet.i.tion.

'Gunner' won first place once again and performed even faster than the previous year.

Such speed was theoretically impossible.

Unless 'gunner' was already employing a more advanced supercomputer.

Of course, the organizers had paid more attention this time and had already recorded the precise location of the computer - a museum in the university.

The results were valid but there was a leak in compet.i.tion data.

Enthusiasts formed teams to investigate the situation, only to realize that there was nothing in the museum.

Portable computers lacked such processing power and there was no supercomputer in the museum.

A hacking enthusiast started looking out for ordinary computers and received disapproving looks.

An ordinary computer was at least a few hundred times slower than a supercomputer, so how could it be?

But in a section within the museum that displayed old computers, they discovered that the computers have been piled together.

The investigators opened them up and found that these computers had been bound together through complex coding and calculations.