Chapter 35: The Server

After finishing his tasks for the day, Zhou Yun clocked out on time as usual. He went to the gym, grabbed dinner, and returned to his dormitory.

Unlike a week ago, all three of his roommates had now arrived on campus. Because the school assigned dorms based on surnames, all four of them shared the same surname, Zhou. In a way, it was a stroke of fate.

"Back already?" Zhou Yang, who was closest to the door, looked up first to greet him, though his fingers continued to dance across his keyboard—he was in the middle of a game. Although Zhou Yang always claimed to be an introvert, compared to the other three in the room, he was practically an extrovert among introverts.

Zhou Yu, positioned diagonally by the window, pulled off one side of his headphones upon hearing the noise and offered a smile as a greeting. Don’t let his shy appearance fool you; that was only because he didn’t know you well yet. Once he grew familiar with someone, he would truly want to share everything with them.

The last one, who had just emerged from the bathroom, was Zhou Zheng-hao, the roommate in the bed next to Zhou Yun’s. He was a genuine extrovert—the kind of person who could be described as a "social terrorist."

"You didn't just come back from the lab, did you?" Zhou Zheng-hao looked at Zhou Yun with an exaggerated expression, rubbing his wet hair with a towel.

"Yeah, where else would I go? To go on a date?"

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. You’re working way too hard, man. You’re making me nervous."

"That’s just because you haven't been assigned a workstation in the lab yet. Once you get your own spot, you might end up coming back even later than I do."

Zhou Yun put down his bag and shook his head. If we were talking about being a workaholic, the future Zhou Zheng-hao would be the undisputed champion of the dorm, though his situation was admittedly quite miserable. Right now, his supervisor didn't have the time to bother him, but in a month, working from 8:00 AM to 11:00 PM would become a daily routine.

"Absolutely impossible!" he shook his head with firm conviction.

Zhou Yun just smiled.

Watching the three of them busy with their own affairs, he felt a strange sense of warmth. After all, as their studies grew increasingly hectic later on, the dorm would truly become nothing more than a place to sleep. Sometimes, when things got busy, they would even end up sleeping in the lab.

Even so, in his over ten years of living in dorms, the three years spent as a graduate student were easily the best. The main reason? No one snored at night. Who could truly understand the sense of salvation that came from not having the sound of an electric drill next to your ears every night, unlike the three years of high school and four years of undergraduate life?

The group chatted idly until midnight, at which point everyone consciously quieted down.

The next morning, Deng Yonghua sent a notice for all the students in the group who were still on campus to meet in the conference room.

"I won't waste any time. I have a class to teach shortly. I called you here today for two things."

"First, the server for our group is arriving soon—likely within the week. However, I’ll be away on a business trip in a couple of days, so someone needs to take charge once it arrives. Qiu Yan, can I leave this to you?"

"Sure, Professor. But what are the specs for the server?"

"An eight-card A100 setup. Even at our university, it’s rare, if not unique. I’ve handled the equipment for you, so you all need to step up and produce more results. Any ideas you couldn't test before, you can now try with confidence."

Deng Yonghua never strayed far from the topic of research.

Qiu Yan smiled sheepishly, not daring to respond to that. He wasn't Zhou Yun; results didn't just appear out of thin air.

"The second thing—I mentioned this to Qiu Yan before—is that registration for a competition has opened recently. The new students can participate if they wish. As for you, Zhou Yun, it’s entirely up to you whether you want to go or not. Qiu Yan, you’ll be in charge of organizing this; I’ve sent the link to your phone."

"Understood."

"If there are no other questions, that’s all. I have to go to class." Deng Yonghua waited a few seconds, and when no one spoke, he picked up his bag and turned to leave.

"Senior Qiu Yan, I won't be participating in the competition." For Zhou Yun, such contests were useless; he’d rather spend that time reading a few more papers.

"Fair enough. But if you run into any issues later, I might still need to ask for your help."

"No problem."

"I never thought our group would finally have our own server." Compared to the competition, the others were much more interested in the hardware. For computer science students, a server was like a giant toy; there was a difference between one you bought yourself and one you rented.

"True. Although Professor Deng mentioned it, I didn't expect him to buy eight A100s. The group is certainly well-funded!"

After the meeting, Zhou Yun returned to the lab and logged into the server to check the progress of his experiment. There were no errors, and it was running smoothly. Strangely, the progress bar had jumped forward significantly; at this rate, the experiment would be finished in less than two weeks. Zhou Yun checked the logs, but found nothing unusual. It was quite bizarre. Could it be that the "Machine Spirit" was pleased?

That was a good thing, though—finishing early was always welcome.

On Friday, the server was delivered to the school's server room as promised. Everyone planned to go and check it out, Zhou Yun included. Even though he had access to better server resources, he had never actually seen an A100 in person.

The heavy, soundproof door was pushed open, and a wave of heat washed over them. Rows of black server cabinets were arranged neatly, and the sound of the fans was deafening—it was no wonder they needed such a thick door.

"Hiss... why is it suddenly so cold?" Shen Rui, standing nearby, rubbed his arms and hunched his shoulders, but a moment later, he felt hot again. "Why is it alternating between hot and cold? Are we trapped between ice and fire?"

"Don't be so dramatic. Isn't this how server rooms always are?" Qiu Yan led them to a cabinet that had just been installed. "This is our group's server. The system and everything else have already been set up; we're just here to power it on."

As he spoke, he tapped the sheet metal on the outside of the server, making it clatter.

"Whoa, hey, don't break the server!"

"It's not that fragile. It's industrial-grade equipment—the two words to describe it are 'durable.' Maybe my tapping will please the Machine Spirit, and your experiments might even run a bit faster."

"It's still new, you know. You're being too rough."

"This thing would be a beast if you used it for mining!" Yu Tianrui remarked while eyeing the machine.

"Brother, that's a very dangerous thought."

"Don't laugh—I heard that someone in another group at our school tried to secretly use their server for mining. Their supervisor found out, and the guy ended up having his graduation delayed by two years."

"I was just joking. I wouldn't actually use it for mining." Hearing this, Yu Tianrui immediately backed down; he didn't want his graduation delayed.

Qiu Yan fumbled around the machine for a moment before finding the power button. He pressed it, the indicator lights flickered, and the fans began to spin.

"Alright, let's go. I'll get you all an account later." He didn't want to spend another second in the server room; it was only novel the first time. The erratic temperature changes and the noise were unbearable.