great-warnovel Chapter 396 Jade Box
Chapter 396 Jade Box
"You want to just go in like this?"
Amy looked down at herself.
"What's wrong?"
Staff members promptly delivered two safety helmets.
"Construction is still underway here."
Satsuki picked up one of the hats and stood on tiptoe to put it on Amy's head.
As Amy fastened her helmet, she replied earnestly, "I'll be careful."
"You said the same thing in the computer room last time."
"Last time was an accident."
"Was it also an accident that you stepped on the power line and fell into the cardboard box?"
"Hmm... there's something wrong with where that cardboard box was placed."
Satsuki, too lazy to argue with her anymore, handed another helmet to Chizuru and then took her onto the commuter bus.
The journey from the landing pad to the tower is short, but vehicles don't drive directly into the underground entrance; instead, they circle around in front of the management center first. It's almost noon, and workers in the construction area are starting to change shifts, so there are more vehicles and pedestrians on the road.
Amy quickly noticed that almost all the workers passing by were wearing the same style of dark gray work clothes. The names of their respective companies were embroidered on the chest of the clothes, and a small UNIQLO label was sewn on the inside of the collar.
Some people's coats were covered in cement dust, and the elbows and knees were worn and faded. Near the supply station, there were several rows of metal racks where staff were distributing clean coats, gloves, and socks to the off-duty teams, while old clothes were put into recycling bins on the other side according to their numbers.
She stared at a worker's collar for a while.
"Are all these work uniforms made by Uniqlo?"
"Yes."
Jiang Kou, sitting in the front row, turned around to answer.
"Currently, there were dozens of contracting companies on site, and each of them purchased different work uniforms, making it difficult to standardize the size, price, and durability. Mr. Yanai specially designed a set of work uniforms, which are now supplied by Uniqlo according to the number of employees and positions."
Amy watched as the clothes were constantly being taken back and redistributed.
"Can I just replace it if it's broken?"
"Minor damage will be sent back for repair, while severely worn items will be recycled. Helmets, gloves, and shoes will also be provided on-site."
Is Uniqlo going to start selling work uniforms?
Satsuki replied with a smile, "Mr. Yanai is already considering it. People in Odaiba wear out their clothes every day, so this is a good opportunity to test which fabric is more durable."
"So the people here are Uniqlo's fitting staff."
"Well... at least they don't have to pay for it themselves, right?"
Just then, an insulated truck with the S-Food logo appeared outside the window and parked in front of the temporary canteen. Staff opened the back door and carried boxes of lunches inside, while steam was already rising from the other window.
Amy immediately turned her head to look.
What should we eat for lunch today?
Jiang Gu was stunned for a moment, then looked down and flipped through the event schedule in his hand.
"The main course is curry rice, and there are also grilled fish set meals and pork rice bowls."
"Do the people underground eat the same thing?"
"It will be delivered to the rest area of the computing center."
"Do you have dessert?"
Eguchi was clearly not prepared to this extent.
"dessert……"
"Amy."
Satsuki gave a reminder.
"I'll be working here for several days, so I need to get a feel for the living conditions first."
Amy spoke very seriously.
A manager standing next to Eguchi quickly added, "Today we have pudding and red bean bread, and the night shift will also have chocolate and coffee."
Amy nodded in satisfaction.
"The conditions here are very good."
Satsuki glanced at her.
"You're judging a computing center by whether it has pudding?"
"Machines are also very important."
"Should it be placed before or after the pudding?"
Amy considered it seriously for a few seconds.
"That depends on what kind of machine it is."
The people in the car couldn't help but laugh.
Next to the temporary canteen is an S-Mart converted from a shipping container. Drinks, towels, and daily necessities are displayed at the entrance, and several workers are inside selecting batteries and cigarettes.
Further away, an S-Farm refrigerated truck was parked, and staff members were unloading vegetables and meat into the central kitchen.
Odaiba now employs tens of thousands of people every day, creating a considerable demand for food, laundry supplies, and daily purchases—this presents another business opportunity and can also help improve collaboration within the group.
S-Food is responsible for the central kitchen and canteens at various locations, S-Farm supplies ingredients with partner farms, Uniqlo provides work clothes, S-Mart fills in the scattered needs at the construction site, and personnel and goods are transported by Saionji Logistics.
These companies, which used to run their own businesses, have now all appeared on the same construction site.
Looking out the window, Amy suddenly said, "This place looks like a really big computer."
Satsuki turned to look at her.
"How is it similar?"
"Each part has its own task, and then they are connected by roads and systems."
Amy pointed out the window to the refrigerated truck that had just driven by.
"The canteen needs to know how many people are there today, the central kitchen needs to prepare ingredients in advance, Uniqlo needs to know how many clothes each work area needs, and logistics also needs to arrange vehicles and ships. Right now, we can still rely on manual statistics, but once Odaiba officially opens, the numbers will definitely increase."
At this point, she had completely forgotten about the pudding from earlier.
"We can connect all this data to the computing center. First, we can predict daily personnel and supplies, and then arrange transportation based on inventory. Later, all of Saionji's factories, warehouses, and shops can also be connected, and then..."
"You'll find out then that the program can never be completely modified."
Satsuki interrupted her with a smile.
Amy, however, seemed even more excited.
"That's what makes it interesting!"
"I hope you'll still think this way when you're faced with an endless stream of bugs."
The commuter bus eventually stopped on the east side of the Saionji Pagoda.
The entrance is located in a low-rise equipment management building, separated from the tower's podium by a closed passageway, with the underground structure directly connecting to the tower's base. The exterior walls are devoid of prominent decorations, featuring only a metal plaque that reads "SIS Odaiba Central Computing Center".
After Amy got out of the car, her pace quickened again.
She had participated in the design of this place and was very familiar with every checkpoint and elevator after the entrance. But no matter how many blueprints you look at, it's not as good as actually standing in front of the door. Before the staff could guide her, she had already walked to the first security gate.
"Ms. Suzuki."
The security personnel handed over a new identification card with both hands.
Amy took it and looked at it. The front of the card had her photo, name, and employee number printed on it, the SIS logo in the upper left corner, and a black cassette tape pressed against the back, much like the employee ID she usually used.
"Can't I use my old card?"
"The Odaiba Center uses an independent access control system. After entering the central processing area, you will need to enter your personal password, as your identity information has already been entered."
Amy flipped the card over and glanced at it, then suddenly turned to Satsuki.
"Does Satsuki-chan have a new card too?"
Satsuki took her ID from Chizuru and casually placed it in front of her.
Amy immediately moved closer.
Satsuki's card had no SIS logo and no employee number. The dark background only had the Saionji family crest embossed on it, with her name below. The design was much simpler than the employee card Amy had.
"Why is yours prettier?"
"Because this is my home."
...Yes, the reasons are very valid.
Amy looked down at her standard employee ID, then looked up at her.
"Am I also an important employee?"
That's why I sent you a new one.
"Could you add a family crest to mine too?"
"We'll talk about it after you change your surname to Saionji."
Amy blinked, then hugged Satsuki's arm.
"That works too."
"You wish!"
Satsuki reached out and pushed her aside, swiping her card through the card reader. The indicator light turned from red to green, and the first door opened inward.
As the private elevator began to descend, Amy stood at the front, keeping her eyes fixed on the floor numbers.
At first, the construction noises on the ground could be faintly heard, but as the elevator went deeper, those noises quickly disappeared, leaving only the slight vibrations of the equipment running.
Amy waited a while, then finally couldn't help but ask, "How much longer?"
"About thirty seconds."
As soon as the employee in charge of guiding her finished answering, Amy glanced at her watch.
"It also took thirty seconds to get on the elevator just now."
"Ms. Suzuki, confirming safety will take time."
"I know, I've seen the process."
The other person quickly realized that continuing to explain would only elicit more questions, so they simply quieted down.
Satsuki stood behind her, watching her.
"Machines don't just run away on their own."
Amy continued to stare at the floor numbers.
"Captain America may have arrived already."
"When you go out, remember to check to see if anyone is carrying server racks towards the dock."
Amy imagined the scene and couldn't help but laugh out loud; her fingers, which had been constantly tapping the seam of her pants, finally stopped.
The elevator continued to descend for a while before slowly coming to a stop.
As soon as the door opened, a gust of cool air rushed in from outside.
The corridor was wider than Amy had imagined, with light gray walls and metal floors stretching into the distance, and the lighting was very even.
An isolation door is installed at intervals, and the temperature, humidity, and power status are displayed on a monitoring terminal on the wall.
The official sign for this floor hangs at the end of the corridor.
[Central Computing Zone - Phase 1]
Below it are two much smaller black Chinese characters.
[Jade Box]
Amy slowed her pace.
A jade box is a beautifully decorated box used to store valuable items.
The name first appeared in an internal project meeting. It was never used in engineering documents, procurement contracts, or customs documents, but everyone involved in the construction had gotten used to calling the underground center that.
She stood there for two seconds, and the corners of her mouth couldn't help but turn up in a smile.
"We've finally arrived."
The last isolation door opened to both sides, and the low humming sound from inside the server room became clearer.
The first thing Amy saw was a seemingly endless expanse of equipment.
Rows of server racks extend deep into the server room, with cooling equipment and fans running simultaneously, and the control system, which is already powered on, flashing indicator lights of different colors.
She had seen every area here on the drawings, and even remembered the distance between each group of nodes, but when she actually stood at the doorway, the lines drawn on the paper suddenly took on a completely different weight.
More than 500 i860 compute nodes are just ahead.
The server racks, cables, storage devices, and control terminals were all installed in familiar locations, ready for the first round of overall testing to begin.
Amy paused at the door for a few seconds, then immediately looked for the control panel.
Shimomura Tsutomu was indeed sitting there.
His shirt was wrinkled beyond recognition, several empty coffee cups sat on the table, and a stack of freshly printed operation records lay beside him. He heard the isolation door open, turned his chair around, and glanced at it.
"You've finally arrived."
Amy walked over quickly.
"You didn't open it first, did you?"
"The control node and input/output system have been started, and the computing array is waiting for you."
"Where's the program?"
"Two places were repaired."
Amy stopped in her tracks immediately.
"You modified my program again?"
"When a node exits, the task reassignment process will get stuck."
"It wasn't there when I checked yesterday."
"You didn't simulate node failure yesterday either."
That's because the formal testing hasn't started yet.
The two had barely met when they immediately switched into work mode.
Amy handed her coat to Chizuru and pulled out a chair next to Shimomura to sit down.
"Show me what you changed."
Shimomura pushed the keyboard towards her and pulled out a few pages from the printing paper.
"Here, there's also the task scheduling section."
Amy looked down for a moment, her excitement from the journey gradually fading. With one hand flipping through the records and the other typing commands on the terminal, she quickly brought up the node allocation and communication status.
The characters on the screen kept scrolling, and all the computing nodes that had not yet started were in a waiting state.
"This won't work."
She quickly pointed out one of the passages.
"When the third and fourth groups exit at the same time, all the tasks will be pushed to the second group. You only deal with a single node failure."
"We'll test a single node today."
"Since the machines are all running, let's test the multi-nodes as well."
Xia Cun turned to look at her.
"You're planning to let it break down right after you arrived?"
"Fault testing is bound to result in failures."
"You said the same thing last time."
"It was finally fixed last time too."
"It took two days to fix."
"So this time it can be faster."
Shimomura looked at her, seemingly judging whether continuing the argument was worthwhile.
Satsuki stood at the back for a while, then realized that the two had completely forgotten she was still there. The SIS engineers around them were clearly used to this situation, each guarding the control panel and equipment area, waiting for them to finalize the first round of testing.
Chizuru lowered her voice and asked, "Young Miss, should we let Miss Suzuki rest for a while?"
"It would be strange if she were willing to rest now."
Satsuki walked to the observation window and looked at the computing array deep inside the computer room.
A few years ago, Amy would get excited for ages just to take apart a game console, and Shimomura was just a young man who had just been pulled out of school. Now, what lies before them is a parallel computing system consisting of more than five hundred processing nodes.
The area above Odaiba is still under construction, and the bridges, tracks, hotels, and residences will take several years to complete. But the underground computing center is already ready, and it will begin connecting to Saionji's factories, warehouses, shops, transportation, and communication systems from there.
A few minutes later, Amy and Shimomura finally finalized the first round of testing.
Shimomura picked up the printing paper and wrote the number of nodes at the top.
"Start with eight groups, each with sixteen nodes. Once communication, temperature, and power supply are stable, then add more."
Amy stared at the screen and said, "The second round is already halfway through."
"Let's look at the first round."
"I'll definitely pass the first round."
"You said yesterday that the scheduler was definitely fine."
"There's no problem now, the problem lies in the two places you changed."
Shimomura took a deep breath and decided to get the machine up and running before continuing to discuss whose program had more problems.
He made a gesture to the engineers in the equipment area.
The power supply status lights turn green sequentially.
Amy inserted the identification card into the console and entered her password. The screen quickly displayed a final confirmation page, and the key switch next to it was already in the standby position.
Her hands were on the keyboard, but she didn't press any keys immediately.
She was familiar with every part of the system. She had participated in the design of how the nodes were arranged, how the program was scheduled, where the data entered from, and which group of devices it should be sent to. But when those server racks were actually arranged in front of her, her heart still beat much faster.
Shimomura glanced at her.
"Are you ready?"
Amy took a breath and smiled again.
"certainly."
She pressed the confirm button.
The sounds from deep within the server room then changed.
The indicator lights on the first row of server racks lit up sequentially from left to right, with green dots extending forward along the node array. The data on the control panel began to refresh rapidly, and the first line of startup information jumped to the center of the screen.
【Node Group 01: Online.】
The second and third lines appear immediately afterward.
Amy moved closer to the screen, her eyes gradually lighting up as the number of online nodes increased.
"Mr. Shimomura".
"What's wrong now?"
"Bring the second group in as well."
"How long has the first group been running?"
"Temperature is normal, and communication is normal."
"Wait three more minutes."
Amy turned her head and looked at him expectantly.
Shimomura hesitated for a few seconds, but finally reached for the internal phone next to him.
"Power supply room, prepare to connect the second group."
Amy immediately sat back down at the console, her fingers returning to the keyboard.
More lights on the server racks began to turn on.
The jade box truly woke up for the first time.