I Got an Omnipotent Brain Chapter 80

Translator: Dreamscribe

Whirrrrr...

The lab was sweltering with the heat radiating from the workstations.

Multiple screens were running different simulation seeds, pouring out logs like a torrential downpour.

Lisa chewed on a chocolate bar while keeping her eyes on the monitor.

On the desk were a half-eaten bag of Cheetos, a cold cup of coffee, and an empty pizza box strewn about ssily.

[Case 4172: Fenway-LMA Event/Rain/Ergency Vehicle Multiple Entry]

[Case 5849: Back Bay Construction/Pedestrian Congestion/Truck Breakdown]

"CPU load has increased slightly."

Lisa, seemingly nervous, had a pen in her mouth, chewing on it.

But soon the incident was resolved, and the load stabilized. The graph curve gradually declined.

Around 2 a.m., a case marked with difficulty level S ca up.

[Case 7311: Heavy Snow Assumption/Visibility Obstruction/Sensor Drop Rate 18%]

"That's from January last year. It was the biggest snowfall in ten years."

Tom approached the monitor. The mory of the city paralyzed by the snowstorm vividly returned to his mind.

It had started with light snowflakes, but by evening the entire world had turned into a white field, with no clear distinction between the roads and sidewalks.

'Back then, the transportation control room looked like it had been hit by a bomb...'

Tom held his breath as he stared at the screen.

The graph on the monitor shook violently, and red dots began to spread from the center of the city.

"Visibility obstruction rate, 82 percent."

"Three sensors just went offline simultaneously. This looks seriously dangerous."

Gulp.

Tom swallowed hard.

It had started the sa way last year, with three sensors going out. After that, signals failed in a chain reaction, and the city ca to a complete halt.

Cars fought each other to move forward, and malfunctioning traffic lights showed red in all four directions.

But this ti was different.

Other nearby nodes started changing colors simultaneously around the three intersections where data had been lost. When one side lost sight, another stepped in to secure the view.

"Nearby intersections are reverse-calculating the flow in that segnt."

Michael zood in on the screen, eyes wide in surprise.

"They’re predicting the vehicle density in sensorless zones using surrounding speed, arrival intervals, and queue length. The mutual calibration capability is incredible."

Tens of millions of traffic patterns accumulated in the system over the past few weeks, ti-based flows, reactions by weather and temperature, the algorithm had learned all of this.

And when the sensors vanished, it used that data to correct each other's movents.

The red on the graph gradually shifted to yellow, then to green.

The city regained its functionality.

"Sensor-deficient zones have been restored. Estimated margin of error: 2.1 percent. Almost perfect."

"This is way better than real-ti human control."

Tom stared blankly at the screen.

"Is this really possible? That this ss is automatically resolved without any human intervention?"

Soone gave Tom a light pat on the shoulder as they passed.

"We call this science, my friend!"

4 a.m.

With every tick of the wall clock's second hand, the researchers' hearts pounded.

But Seo-ha rose calmly and pressed the coffee pot button. Soon the sound of boiling water filled the air, followed by a stream of white steam.

Drip.

It was Seo-ha’s ergency stash of cup ran.

Slurp.

Ellie and Jason looked at Seo-ha with hungry expressions. When he offered it out of courtesy, both of their eyes lit up.

"Can we really eat it?"

"Yes, I have plenty at ho."

Seo-ha laughed as he handed out chopsticks.

As the sll of ran spread through the lab, everyone began pulling out their own snacks.

The tense atmosphere eased noticeably.

"Feels like we're on a camping trip."

At Ellie’s words, Jason nodded.

Around the ti the sky outside began to brighten, one simulator made a warning sound.

[Case 9998: Sports Event Ends/Subway Delay/Taxi Surge/Pedestrian Jaywalking Model Inserted]

But the system handled it smoothly without issue.

At 7 p.m., the simulator fed in the most vicious S-class scenario.

[Case 12000: Massive Blackout/Earthquake and Fire/Ergency Vehicle Accident/Network Delay 40%]

"What is this, an apocalypse?"

Soone muttered in disbelief.

The screen turned red in several areas. The congestion that started in the city center spread throughout the entire city.

Power to the hospital zone was cut off, and a fire truck and an ambulance collided in the middle of an intersection. When a section of the road collapsed due to the earthquake, network communication was severed.

If this had been reality, the entire city would already have fallen into a state of panic.

"No sensor response! Network packet loss at 37 percent!"

Lisa shouted.

"Central communication is delayed! We can’t hold on like this."

"Even a war wouldn’t be this bad…"

The researchers began to worry if the test had gone too far.

But the system didn’t stop.

Within the severed neural network of the city, the living nodes began to emit light on their own.

Hospitals, fire stations, police departnts, underground substations, major bridge control centers...

Yu Seo-ha’s algorithm began identifying which of the infrastructures were still operational.

"It’s scanning the remaining power and network signals now."

Everyone held their breath and stared at the monitor.

"Is this self-restructuring?"

Inactive zones were marked in gray, and usable nodes were being connected in blue.

Dozens of blue dots lit up in the center of the city.

"What is this…"

The system was diagnosing the city's condition and drawing the most efficient traffic circuit.

Tap.

Tap.

Seo-ha tapped his fingers on the desk. And as if on cue, he spoke.

"Beginning phase reconfiguration."

As soon as Seo-ha spoke, the screen shook.

Thousands of nodes responded at once, and the entire city lit up as if it had co alive. The system erased the collapsed signal network and combined the remaining circuits to create a new network.

"What is this? What’s happening right now?"

Lisa looked at Seo-ha.

"I revised the algorithm so that the city could maintain minimal functionality even in ergencies. If all power and roads are cut off, there’s nothing we can do, of course."

"When did you add sothing like this?"

Alan stared at the screen with a look of disbelief.

"There’s nothing new in the algorithm. I just gave it guidelines so it wouldn’t lose control even in extre situations. Think of it like insurance, maybe?"

Seo-ha scratched his head as if it was no big deal.

The red light over the city began to fade. Then it gradually turned yellow, and soon regained a green hue.

The once-devastated traffic network was slowly regaining functionality.

"The signals are automatically rerouting around the earthquake zones."

"The system has closed off the road collapse areas. It’s redistributing load to the surrounding roads."

"What about near the accident zone?"

Tom, the field supervisor, asked.

"Traffic priority has been given to ergency vehicles. The system is also calculating and guiding fire truck access routes."

"The delay rate has dropped from 38 percent to 7 percent."

"The congestion index is also rapidly decreasing."

Alan was at a loss for words.

He stood in front of the monitor, slowly inhaling. He already knew Seo-ha was different from the rest, but this performance exceeded his imagination.

'Is he saying this level is nothing?'

Seo-ha looked at the screen with a calm expression. And at last, all the simulations were completed.

[All 12,000 validation scenarios completed]

[Error: none detected.]

The researchers stared at the monitor with bloodshot eyes.

"It passed."

Lisa whispered.

"...It’s over."

"It really passed, right?"

And then, an explosion of cheers erupted.

"Wooooooaaaahhh!!"

"Yes! We did it!"

"Bonus! Bonus!"

Jason spread his arms wide and pulled Seo-ha into a tight hug. Startled, Seo-ha tried to escape, but with his weak body, it was impossible.

"You actually pulled this off, from now on I’m calling you big brother!"

"I’d really prefer you didn’t."

People rushed to Seo-ha and surrounded him.

"Congratulations."

"Now your algorithm will be applied to the whole city."

"Seo-ha! Really, congratulations!"

Cheers and congratulations burst out from all directions.

The lab instantly turned into a festive atmosphere. Just minutes ago, everyone's faces had looked lifeless, but now they were full of energy.

"Alan! There's no longer a risk of the project being scrapped, right?"

Lisa looked at Alan with hopeful eyes.

"Of course not. Now, it'll be the folks in Congress begging us for help."

He grinned wickedly, as if plotting sothing.

Clap clap!

Alan clapped his hands to gather everyone's attention.

"Attention! Let's settle down.

Nothing is over yet. We've rely taken the first step of the project. From now on, let’s each get to work."

Tom spread out a large blueprint on the table and began sticking red stickers on each intersection according to priority.

"Pilot Zone 1 includes Longwood, Kenmore, and the Massachusetts Avenue Interchange, right? Each intersection here uses a different generation of signal controllers. We’ll need to tweak the firmware."

Michael discussed the anonymization protocol with the Harvard team.

"Let’s detect pedestrians using heat maps only. No personal identification. Increase the insertion rate of degraded samples to 10 percent."

Alan approached Seo-ha, who was sitting quietly in a corner.

"Seo-ha! If we need anything, we’ll contact you, so go ho for now. And if you have the ti, could you write a maintenance manual? Sothing anyone can understand."

"Yes! Got it."

Everything he could do here was finished.

Seo-ha left the research lab feeling relieved.

***

The next morning, Seo-ha ca downstairs from the second floor, rubbing his eyes.

A savory sll was coming from the kitchen.

"Ah! This is what I needed. Korean food."

Uninspired tacos and burgers.

The als at the school cafeteria always tasted like sothing churned out from a factory line.

Seo-ha quickly ran over and sat at the table.

Hot seaweed soup, grilled fish, and various seasoned vegetables were laid out in abundance on the table.

"You looked tired, so I didn’t wake you."

Mi-young took off her apron and sat down.

"I'm okay now."

"Let’s eat."

Chul-ho picked up his spoon and pressed the TV remote.

Beep-

[Boston Newsline LIVE]

"Here’s today’s top news. The city of Boston has officially declared its liberation from traffic hell.

Let’s hear more on this. In the studio right now, we have Boston Mayor Patrick Stewart himself."

The cara zood out to show the studio.

Patrick, dressed in an expensive tailored suit, smiled confidently into the cara.

Seo-ha absentmindedly stopped using his chopsticks.

"Fellow citizens, we are about to witness a traffic revolution.

Boston has beco the first city in the world to implent an 'Autonomous Adaptive Signal Network'. Yesterday, I received a report that this system endured a staggering 12,000 extre simulation scenarios."

The screen changed to a simulation scene.

Even as snow brought traffic to a standstill and earthquakes and fires erupted, the system didn’t stop. Eventually, the roads gradually turned green.

Only then did Seo-ha realize what was happening.

Patrick must have visited the lab, seen the simulation results, and was now excitedly going off the rails.

"This is rely a secondary effect. You could call it a kind of ‘insurance’ for disaster situations. The true value of this system lies in the fact that all the city’s sensors simultaneously detect traffic congestion and make optimal decisions to resolve it.

This is the finest signal system in the U.S.... no, in the world created through collaboration between MIT and Harvard."

The anchor tilted his head slightly.

"Isn’t it a bit of an exaggeration to call it the best in the world? I heard Singapore has made great strides in this field. Their governnt-led ‘Smart Nation Project’ is pretty well known, isn't it?"

At the anchor’s pushback, Patrick frowned slightly.

"The system we use is on a whole different level.

The algorithm’s designer is a well-known genius in the mathematics world. I don’t know the details, but I heard he’s already solved age-old problems. Not long ago, he was also in the spotlight for sothing related to the Riemann Hypothesis…"

"Ah! I know who that is too. Yu Seo-ha from MIT!"

His face appeared huge on the TV screen.

Startled, Seo-ha nearly dropped his spoon.