Chapter 1522 - Password Cracking

In the deep sky, a small transport ship slowly approached the spaceport hovering over Ceres.

As the shuttle slowly descended, two experts in spacesuits walked out of the landing station, escorted by a group of soldiers wearing exoskeleton armor.

“Welcome to Ceres, I am Yang Wu, the Chief Consultant of the Pan-Asia First Fleet.”

“Nice to meet you.”

Academician Wang Sicheng shook hands with the middle-aged man in front of him. He then nodded in a friendly manner towards the chief consultant.

As an in-service professor at the Jin Ling University information technology department and an academician of the Pan-Asian Academy of Sciences, Academician Wang had quite outstanding research results and academic status in the field of quantum computers and information security technology.

After learning that a quantum computer array suspected of being left by an extraterrestrial civilization was found on Ceres, the Pan-Asian Academy of Sciences immediately issued an invitation to him, hoping that he could provide assistance to the Pan-Asian First Fleet on behalf of the Academy of Sciences and investigate the source of this computer, to figure out what that thing was calculating.

“It’s hard to imagine that someone would build a base in such a place.” After releasing his hand, Academician Wang Sicheng glanced around, and an incredible surprise appeared in his eyes.

The bomb craters and broken mechanical parts could be seen all over the floor, and it was apparent that a great battle broke out here earlier.

Obviously, the scale of this base itself was not small, and the scale of the defense facilities deployed here also couldn’t be underestimated.

Otherwise, the First Fleet will not pour such fierce firepower on the surface of this asteroid.

Yang Wu: “It’s even harder to imagine that there is what is suspected to be the largest array of quantum computers in the solar system... Whose masterpiece do you think this is?”

Wang Sicheng: “I don’t know, a lot of things can only be known after doing research.”

Yang Wu: “What if you had to guess?”

Professor Wang Sicheng was silent for a while. He then said, “If it’s just a guess, I vote for an extraterrestrial civilization.”

“Extraterrestrial civilization... Reminds me of the Human Alliance that fell apart more than half a century ago.”

Yang Wu’s eyes were stained with the color of memories.

The Federation of Human Alliance was probably the first attempt of human civilization to seek global political union under the impetus of external pressure. Although this attempt ended in failure, it provided a lot of inspiration for the birth of the subsequent regional alliances.

The regional alliances such as the Pan-Asian Cooperation, North American Alliance, North Sea Alliance, and Iberian-French Alliance were small-scale communities formed on the basis of specific regions.

As for how the Human Alliance disappeared?

That would be a long story.

With the collapse of The Gates of Hell and the retreat of the expedition, all clues about extraterrestrial civilization were interrupted, and related disputes had gradually withdrawn from people’s attention back into the category of academia.

The Human Alliance, formed in order to fight against extraterrestrial civilizations, lost its meaning of existence...

“Do you think that if this computer is indeed an outpost of an extraterrestrial civilization, or something similar, is it possible for the Human Alliance to be re-established?”

“It’s difficult.” Yang Wu shook his head. “100 years ago, our strongest starship was the Starlight. Now, it might not be as good as a carrier-based aircraft on the Taishan.”

Wang Sicheng asked casually, “Why is it more difficult, now that we are stronger?”

Looking at the devastating battlefield not far away, Yang Wu continued, “Because now, in the face of an extraterrestrial civilization, we might be able to put up a fight.”

...

The specific location was deep in the valley. After passing through the military checkpoint, a group of people quickly entered the base.

Looking at the bullet holes left in the corridor, Academician Wang Sicheng followed Yang Wu and Li Gaoliang, the Third Orbital Airborne Brigade commander, to the computer room.

Looking at the people coming here, Xing Bian’s eyes lit up when he looked at the door of the computer room. He immediately greeted them with a smile.

“Academician Wang, you are finally here!”

“And you are?”

“Xing Bian, the security agent responsible for investigating this incident. This is my business card.” Captain Xing skillfully took out a translucent holographic card and gently pushed it in front of him.

Academician Wang Sicheng frowned and glanced at the holographic card. After hesitating for a while, he accepted it.

This wasn’t because of any bad impression about the captain, it was purely because normal people were more or less anxious when dealing with people from “secret agencies”.

“I have already seen what happened here in the report. In order to facilitate a further investigation, I need to know more specific information.”

Xing Bian: “Everything we know has been written in that report. I believe you have read it. As for the others... I’m sorry, but we know very little.”

Seeing that Captain Xing didn’t seem to be lying, Academician Wang didn’t say anything. He nodded to the student who came here with him, then walked into the computer room.

“Unbelievable...” After looking around the computer room, Academician Wang, who was shocked by the scene before him, was a little lost, but he quickly recovered his composure and told his student, “Prepare to collect the data, let us see what’s going on.”

“Okay, sir.”

The student nodded, walked forward with a suitcase, and opened the combination lock on the suitcase.

Then he took out a round metal button, placed it on the server, and fumbled for a while, like holding a stethoscope.

The electronic screen on his suitcase lit up with a successful connection icon. He stopped his hand, left the metal button in place, and operated the laptop on his suitcase.

“Data connection successful... The utilization rate of computing resources has reached 87%. The program that this supercomputer is running is quite demanding.”

Looking at his student, Academician Wang frowned and said, “Can you find the programs running on the computer?”

“I will try... Nope.” The student continued with a dignified look on his face, “This supercomputer encrypts its programs, it can’t be read at all unless we have administrator rights.”

“I’ll try.”

Asking his students to stand aside, Academician Wang stepped forward and cracked his fingers over the mechanical keyboard before typing off dazzling lines of code.

However, this quantum computer array that occupied the entire underground space completely ignored his series of operations. It kept its secrets tightly locked inside.

Seeing how Academician Wang stopped his movements, Captain Xing couldn’t wait to ask.

“How is it? Is there any progress?”

“No.” Academician Wang said solemnly, “This super-computing security system is powerful, at least I haven’t seen any obvious loopholes... There is only one way to crack it.”

Yang Wu frowned and thought for a moment before asking, “What way?”

“Security key.” Academician Wang pointed to the laptop in his hand with his chin and looked at the flashing dialog box. “Simply put, the administrator password. Unless we know the password, it is impossible to hack it in other ways.”

“What about brute force cracking?” Yang Wu frowned and said, “If you use exhaustive methods, the amount of work shouldn’t be very large, right?”

“After three input errors, the interface will be closed for three years.” After a glance at Yang Wu, Academician Wang Sicheng continued, “And we don’t even know whether the password is in numbers or alphabets... Or symbols that we don’t understand.”

The computer room went silent for a while.

The investigation seemed to have been halted.

“If it doesn’t work... We can physically destroy this supercomputing center.” Li Gaoliang tried to suggest, “No matter what it is planning, as long as it itself becomes a pile of broken copper and iron—”

“In that case, its secret will go to hell with it.” Yang Wu continued, “This may be related to the origin of the ALPHA virus, and it is also the biggest clue we have so far about the ALPHA virus. At the same time, it may be our only hope to solve this trouble.”

Academician Wang looked at Yang Wu and said seriously, “The key now is to find the password... Have you searched for relevant clues from other places? For example, the space station near Ceres.”

Li Gaoliang and Yang Wu looked at each other and shook their heads in unison.

Although some clues were also found on the space station, most of them were useless.

However, Captain Xing, who was standing at the side, suddenly spoke.

“In other words... This password can only be tried three times?”

“It should be.” Academician Wang nodded. “But I don’t recommend that you try randomly.”

Xing Bian: “It’s not just trying randomly... Can I use your laptop?”

Looking at Captain Xing, Academician Wang showed a surprised expression on his face.

“Do you know the password?”

“I don’t know either.” Xing Bian said with a wry smile, “But I have a password, although I don’t know if it is the right one.”

Yang Wu thought of something, and he asked immediately, “Could it be that formula? You have already solved it?”

Xing Bian nodded.

“Technically, Academician Lu solved it.”

Xing Bian walked to the computer. He typed on the keyboard the number that Lu Zhou had given him earlier, then hit the “Enter” button.

Everyone subconsciously held their breath. Especially Academician Wang and his student; their hearts were almost beating out of their chests.

They only had three chances.

If they failed, they would have to wait until three years later.

Fortunately, their worries were superfluous. The light blue cursor flickered on the computer, like a key that opened the door to a new world, and all of the code spread across the screen in an instant.

Academician Wang’s pupils shrank instantly, and a look of ecstasy appeared on his face.

We did it!

The password was correct!

This is amazing!