Chapter 67
Chapter 67
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 67
Chapter Title: Hacker's Beaver Rescue Challenge
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“Good morning, Seo-ha!”
Brad, who ran the fruit stand, lightly tossed an apple toward Seo-ha.
Tak!
“Thanks!”
Seo-ha caught it deftly while pedaling his bike.
The school was a fifteen-minute walk away, but most students around here got around on bikes. Seo-ha had received an old one as a gift from a researcher who was leaving MIT.
It had been just a month since they arrived in America, but Seo-ha's family was adapting smoothly to life there.
The house MIT had provided was a small townhouse with three bedrooms.
It was a typical American two-story wooden home, complete with a lush lawn out front.
Seo-eun took one look at the grass and, true to her country-girl roots, kicked off her shoes before leaping right in.
“Mom! The ground's so fluffy!”
Mi-young laughed as she snapped a photo on her phone.
The living room wasn't huge, but it got plenty of sunlight, and the kitchen had a four-person walnut dining table.
Everything inside was finished in wood—even touching the walls gave off a warm sensation.
“Seo-ha can have this room.”
Cheol-ho opened the door to the end room on the second floor.
It had a desk, a bed, and a small built-in closet. Opening the window let in a faint scent of river water from far off.
“This one's mine!”
Seo-eun dashed into the room next door and flung open the curtains.
Sunlight flooded the space. With the garden right below the window, it was perfect for her.
What the couple appreciated most about the house, though, was the yard.
Cheol-ho unpacked a bit before slipping on some gloves and getting straight to digging.
Seeing that, Mi-young grabbed a hoe and plopped down beside him.
“What should we plant here? Lettuce or peppers might do well.”
“No matter where we go, you always end up making a garden.”
Cheol-ho chuckled as he pulled weeds.
One corner of the yard had a small patch of soil with some herbs left behind by the previous tenant.
Mi-young plucked a leaf and tasted it.
“Basil and mint. I was worried community gardens might be illegal here, but looks like it's fine.”
“Smells great. Let's put peppers and perilla leaves over there. Green onions and lettuce should handle the weather too.”
Seo-ha watched them from the window.
Seeing his parents smile eased the heaviness in his heart a little.
The day they got internet set up, Seo-ha opened his laptop for the first time.
Hm?
There was an email from the registrar's office.
“It's finally here.”
Cerberus was the personal authentication account every MIT student or researcher had to get.
It handled everything: email, course registration, data cloud storage, even building access and all administrative procedures on campus.
MIT had developed the network authentication system independently, and countless institutions and labs had based their security on it.
A far more powerful and versatile digital key than any student ID—getting it made Seo-ha truly feel like he was at MIT.
“Cerberus, huh...”
The official name of this system was the hellhound from mythology.
A declaration of confidence that it would never let unauthorized users in.
Tak, tak.
‘Seoha_Yoo’
Once he set his ID, the authentication process flew by.
A smile spread across his face.
With this, Seo-ha was officially part of MIT.
On the day of freshman orientation, Killian Court at the heart of campus was packed from morning.
A massive welcome banner hung under the dome roof, with red and white balloons strung up between the buildings on either side.
“They think we're still high schoolers or something...”
A student next to Seo-ha grumbled.
On the lawn, freshmen from all over the world clustered in small groups, introducing themselves.
Having survived the grueling admissions, they seemed eager to make up for lost time, decked out in their best.
But it all looked awkwardly nerdy somehow.
Suits with bow ties, high-top sneakers paired with T-shirts printed in math formulas, laptop bags plastered in stickers—even a kid with a 3D-printed cane.
These must be the nerds I've heard about.
Seo-ha let out a sigh of relief. At least he wouldn't get called out for his fashion sense here.
Then a voice rang out from behind.
“Hmph, total losers!”
Seo-ha turned around.
Huh?
She was a stunning blonde who didn't fit the scene at all.
Her golden hair shimmered in the sunlight, fluttering like silk in the breeze. Her eyes were a clear, icy gray.
White blouse under a dark navy crop jacket, black skirt down to her knees.
Her outfit was so polished, she looked like she'd stepped out of a magazine shoot.
Students stared, but she flashed them a grin without a care.
“What're you gawking at? First time seeing a smart blonde?”
Scary.
Seo-ha quietly edged away from her.
Seats filled up, and orientation kicked off.
The president's welcome, a jazz band performance, the student council president's intro...
It was the kind of lineup that even Seo-ha—who had a high boredom tolerance—felt a yawn coming on. Everyone fought to stay awake.
Just as they were forming groups for tours, the emcee stepped up and tapped the mic repeatedly.
“What is it?”
“Mic acting up?”
“Thank God. My ears were about to bleed...”
Students snickered here and there.
Suddenly, a masked figure appeared on the front screen.
The emcee's face went pale.
The screen flashed white, the MIT logo shattered, and it cut to black.
Static-laced electronic noise gave way to a distorted voice.
The freshmen buzzed.
“What the hell?”
“Is this a hack?”
The masked figure filled the screen.
The emcee made a call somewhere, then shook his head in dismay. The masked figure pointed right at him.
“Hahaha!”
The students burst out laughing.
“Right? So boring!”
“Hear, hear!”
The mask let out an exaggerated laugh.
“Who the hell are you guys?!”
Someone shouted.
The mask clucked its tongue.
The mask gestured, and the screen changed.
Upbeat background music played as MIT's mascot, Tim the Beaver, appeared.
The on-screen beaver was innocently adorable, wagging its tail on a little log as it gathered leaves. Then it carried branches in its paws and mouth to build a nest.
Suddenly the screen shook.
An evil cackle rang out, and dark shadows appeared.
“Grab it!”
Thugs with ropes and nets surrounded the beaver.
It flailed its stubby legs and fled, but ended up tied to the log. Tears welled in the beaver's gentle eyes.
A speech bubble popped up beside it.
The screen shifted.
The beaver dangled from ropes, thrashing desperately in midair.
Below it sat a massive cauldron fit for witches, bubbling with mystery soup.
The thug grinned wickedly.
But the students looked unimpressed.
“We kindergarteners now?”
“Lame.”
“The Halloween stuff at my taekwondo dojo was scarier.”
The thug sweated bullets.
The crowd jeered.
“Just respawn it in the animation.”
“Yeah, it's all graphics anyway.”
The air shifted instantly.
“What?”
“Graphics card?”
The prize appeared on screen: a box for the latest NTX 4090.
“For real?”
“Jackpot!”
Killian Court exploded.
“Save the beaver!”
“How dare they touch Tim the Beaver—we won't forgive 'em!”
“Who's up for a party?!”
Seo-ha's body trembled.
Cruel. How could they do that to such a cute beaver...
It reminded him of the stuffed toy Seo-eun played with.
The pitiful beaver mouthing a distress signal—Seo-ha vowed to rescue it faster than anyone.
Satisfied with the freshmen’s enthusiasm, the thug nodded.
A math problem popped up.
Students plopped down, pulling out pens and paper. Plenty opened laptops too.
Seo-ha grasped the problem's intent in seconds.
Cryptography application.
RSA.
The public-key encryption method developed by Rivest, Shamir, and Adleman.
Two public keys, N as product of two primes—factor it to find E's modular inverse.
He flipped open the pamphlet in his hand and traced the map with his finger.
MIT Building Numbering System.
All buildings on campus used numbers instead of names for speed and efficiency.
The answer was 4312.
Building 4 was physics.
Seo-ha bolted from his spot after checking the location.
Hackers huddled in a room.
A server on one wall blinked nonstop, spitting blue light.
Half-eaten pizza littered the table.
“Wonder if we'll get any decent ones this year.”
A short-haired guy in a hoodie spoke up.
Cypher Fox, the programmer who'd won last year's campus hacking contest.
“Hope someone actually makes it here.”
The woman who replied wore blue headphones around her neck: Entropy, who'd dominated national college AI tournaments.
“That's why we dangled the prize. Tch! Bunch of weaklings. They should've just saved the beaver like good little sheep.”
The guy grumbled, yanking off his mask.
Stunningly handsome—Root, the team's systems engineer.
“Told you this wouldn't work. Back in our day, kids rushed to save kittens. These days? Zero heart.”
“You gonna blame the kids for prioritizing specs over sob stories?”
Entropy and Root bickered.
The monitor showed a campus map with red dots for students moving in real time—their tracking system, Spectra.
Sensors planted around campus plotted their positions like coordinates.
“Whoa, one's moving fast.”
“Yeah. Solved it already? Not even three minutes.”
“First one's easy. We'll see if they make it here.”
Entropy muttered at the screen.
“Hope we get a math whiz this time.”
That was why they'd shelled out big for the bait prize: to find the final piece for their project.