[Lystella]

Take care, and I hope that things make a turn for the better on your end, punxtr.

As for the mysterious email you got, I have not received one myself, but I went ahead and checked the Jhuku's blog anyway, which didn't seem to have been updated since the first season. But...(speculative thoughts in spoiler)

In terms of the new file that cherrytree decoded (not sure if thoughts on solves should be spoilered, but I'll do so to be safe):

Spoiler (Rollover to View):

Considering the Nox Ordo link that MaxSec has, I wonder if "the end" refers to the same end described in this post ("Seventh will be the end..."), which I think refers to the cycle-reset system that was in place for the cataclysm. The jhuku played a large role in that system, so I wonder if that also be why the Jhuku's email address pinged (if it wasn't a fluke)?

[cherrytree98765]

There's a new file on the Maxsec website on the Level 3 directory named 0034C1.

Quote:

56 47 68 6c 49 47 56 75 5a 43 42 33 61 57 78 73 49 47 4e 76 62 57 55 73 49 47 46 75 5a 43 42 76 64 58 49 67 61 32 6c 75 5a 79 42 7a 61 47 46 73 62 43 42 79 5a 57 6c 6e 62 69 34 67 56 47 68 6c 49 48 4e 30 59 58 4a 7a 49 47 4a 76 64 79 42 6b 62 33 64 75 49 48 52 76 49 48 52 6f 5a 53 42 77 62 33 64 6c 63 69 42 68 62 6d 51 67 62 57 6c 6e 61 48 51 75

Spoiler (Rollover to View):

Decode as Hex: VGhlIGVuZCB3aWxsIGNvbWUsIGFuZCBvdXIga2luZyBzaGFsbCByZWlnbi4gVGhlIHN0YXJzIGJvdyBkb3duIHRvIHRoZSBwb3dlciBhbmQgbWlnaHQu Decode as Base64: The end will come, and our king shall reign. The stars bow down to the power and might.

[punxtr]

Did anyone get a blank email from number45459? It's completely blank, that I can see.


Also, guys, it's been fun, but I have no job. I have no more saved up money. I have only fractions of time to even comment on simple topics, and this ARG is no simple topic. I can't devote any time to this ARG currently.


Hopefully, one day, I can come back and reread this topic, and remember all of the fun I had. Until then, I say goodbye.

[posse]

Good job Lystella and cherrytree!! I ended up asking Adiu about the file:

Adiu wrote:

I have located the file you wanted to pull. However, I couldn't pull it as a standalone file. I am attempting to pull a backup of the directory it is contained in to pull the file along with it.

[Lystella]

I don't know where to go from here either. I wonder if Adiu has anything to say about anything we found in those files since it's technically his login.

In other news, I told Miller about Future-Genus being unable to to say anything about what happened to our Genus.

Dan Miller wrote:

Then, that means he is from this timeline! Well, as long as I hear he's fine, then I think I shouldn't worry about him. Maybe we'll know down the line what happened.

If that's the case, then the black hole might not have been the end of him...and perhaps the same can be said of the Nox Ordo members whom he followed into that hole.

[cherrytree98765]

The only thing that I have in terms of brainstorming is that

#140C57 is a valid color hex code.

I tried searching for maybe a hidden file but that failed. I'm really not sure what we're supposed to be doing here.

[Lystella]

I thought the shorter line on the bottom of the 3rd character was odd, so I thought to flip it, which now looks like different-cased letters. I have no idea if it's what's supposed to be done, but I'll put up the flipped version if only for brainstorming.

gwah...im afraid that im just making a stupid suggestion that shouldn't be posted because i don't have any intelligent back up for why i did what i did...sighs at self

[cherrytree98765]

Good job Lystella!

Anyways I did try putting those both in as a combination for username and password, but that didn't work (though I may try the roman numerals for them instead. Hrm.

I assume it may be a 0,3,6,8, 9 based on that all the other are numbers, but I could be wrong. I already went and tried to put it into the nox ordo system without success.

[Lystella]

I think I managed to get something out of those blank spots. I'll spoiler what I did if that was the right thing to do (or part of the right thing to do since I'm still not sure), but I'll post the end result for any thoughts you guys might have. I'm not sure because the method I used cuts off some of the empty rectangles, possibly cutting off parts of the message. I will say that a simple audio editor (is that what they're called?) sufficed for what I did.

What I did:

Spoiler (Rollover to View):

I sped up the track on Audacity while staying in spectrogram view.

What I think it says: 114(some number/character/letter I can't read)57 RUN FREE

Spoiler (Rollover to View):

The running part seems in line with the message on the image.

[duke9509]

That is odd... I've never seen anything like that before.

It's not something I've ever heard of before, but I just did a quick google and it seems audio files can be stegged. However, I can't find any OSX-based steganography tools that will do mp3 files. Wikipedia lists a couple of Windows-based tools here if someone wants to look down that road before the next time I'm in Windows.

It's a stretch, since I don't think that would leave any visible traces like that, but, then again, I don't really know what would.

[Lystella]

Progress on picture:

Spoiler (Rollover to View):

There's a hidden message that says, So good He will know He will Run

I'm no good with sound files, but I thought the spectrogram looked odd with the empty rectangles. I don't know if that means anything, but here's a picture.

Edit (February 24):
I asked if Maths was still in Dan Miller's custody:

Dan Miller wrote:

He still is, I personally checked a few days ago. I was informed about this "future" Genus, my question is that if he's a future him, why didn't he come back to this particular time? I mean, what happened to him? He has the ability to do so, and he's been missing for months! Can you pass along a message and ask him why?

I also asked Future-Genus about what happened to the Rifter and if he learned anything about why they were jumping around:

Future-Genus wrote:

Matthew Johnson is pretty safe and sound around here. I just need to find out when to re-insert him on the timeline. It appears you still have your Matthew Johnson, so yeah. Did I learn anything about why they were jumping around? Well, when I spoke with them last time I met them jumping around, they seem to be in pursuit of someone. They didn't say who, or what. But they are.

Future-Genus didn't answer my question about what happened to the Rifter. I haven't responded yet, but it really seems like something fishy is going on...

[cherrytree98765]

I queried Nathan to see if there was any progress in his interragation and this is what I got from him:

Quote:

Hey there, there's fairly little progress. He doesn't know about logins to novusnoxordo.com or maxsecindustries.com. However, we feel like we're getting close to finding out where the 7 unaccounted samples went that was supposedly in his possession.

Tis not good when he finds that out.

I sent Alex your list Posse and this is the response I got:

Quote:

Awesome! I heard Fred Don has sent some people to check them out, I'll send this list to him and see if any of the per-existing ones on the list is confirmed.

[Lystella]

Cliffside Labs updated their website:

Quote:

Please standby for an upcoming anouncement.

Also, Matthew has indeed gone missing from Anfang. Considering that Future-Genus picked him up after realizing the wrong time/date, the Matthew is our actual Maths and not Rifter, I believe.

Quote:

IN: How is the Matthew guy doing? OUT: He went missing. We can't locate him anywhere in the colony, so I've dispatched some scouts few days ago to look outside, but still haven't found him. Do you know his whereabouts?

*goes to check on files in the meanwhile*

Edit: Here are the files.

[cherrytree98765]

Just wanted to drop in to say with the newest login we can access Level 3. Level 4 does ask for a new login though. Level 3 has nothing in it for the moment, but thought I might drop by and mention that.

EDIT:
New file in Level 2

Download it and then rename it with .zip to reveal the file contents.

Spoiler (Rollover to View):

A40521.mp3 A40522.jpg

One is a picture of a door, and the other is maybe jazz/blues? I'm no expert in musical genres so don't look at me.

[Lystella]

Good work you two! \(^O^)/

Any news about Maths from Miller yet, posse?

Also new response from Future-Genus:

Future-Genus wrote:

I'm in your present day EOS. EOS = Observer Event Stream, don't ask me why it isn't OES. I didn't coin this term. Anyway, I snooped around and it does seem I got him on the wrong time and date. I picked him up, and keeping him with me. Besides, he's in a fairly unstable condition. My ship has been upgraded with much more advanced medical facilities. Don't ask me where I got them, your current EOS is still far behind... REALLY far behind.

I'm gonna see if that guy whom Commander Man picked up in Anfang is still around...