The image proved vital to the progression of the puzzle but the inclusion of this runic alphabet would remain a mystery for quite some time. The image enclose a message, the message led to a book the book produced a link, and gradually the Puzzle unfolded.Īt one point, a recording titled “The Instar Emergence” was uncovered. Another clue leads to a cryptic Twitter account which then leads to an image. The second Puzzle was not too dissimilar from the first. Cicada out was back and it was time for round two. After a year of lackluster imitations, this image finally matched the official PGP signature. That’s why this image posted exactly a year and a day after the first provoked such a frenzy. Cicada had repeatedly warned of such “false paths” and insisted that any message lacking a valid PGP signature should promptly be disregarded. This allowed users to verify that an immature message was actually from cicada as opposed to some impostor seeking to derail or hijacked the puzzle. Whoever was behind this intricate game had the foresight to include an authentication code known as the PGP signature along with every clue. The lack of an explanation was perceived by many as confirmation that the puzzle had been nothing but a wild goose chase intent on wasting everyone’s time. After nearly a month of silence, an image appeared on the Reddit announcing the conclusion of the puzzle and, just like that, the hunt was over.Ĭicada had supposedly found the “highly intelligent individuals” they were looking for and whatever happened to them is a bit of a mystery but more on that in a moment. But those who did presumably advanced through the final stages before reaching the very end of the puzzle. Well, given that we know this, it’s safe to say that not everyone heeded that warning. The finalists were also warned not to collaborate with others nor to share the details of this private stage of the puzzle. The site eventually closed down with the message: “We want the best, not the followers” Only a select group of first arrivals to this website were accepted into the final stane of the puzzle. But here, the puzzle took an unexpected turn. The codes linked to an image, the image contained a riddle, the riddle lead to a book, and the book leads to a website. It was new up to participants living near the specified coordinates to rise from their comfortable armchairs and venture outside.Īt each location was a poster with the cicada symbol and a QR code. The coordinates pointed to locations around the globe. When the countdown reached zero, the page was updated with a list of coordinates. The website consisted of a countdown as well as an image of a cicada. After multiplying the width and height with 3301 and using the product as a web address, users were taken to a website. The two missing numbers mentioned in the recording proved to be the dimensions of the original image. Who is doing this? A cult? The government? was this the work of the dark arts? Was it dangerous? Will we ever find out who was behind it? There are also rumors that an organization such as the NSA or MI6 could be doing it as a recruitment strategy, or that some cyber-cult was just messing with people’s heads. To pass them you had to know something about coding, or cryptography, or just have general smarts when it comes to wordplay and references. com on the end to find the next step good luck goodbye”. “Very good you have done well there is three prime number associated with the original final, jpg image 3301 is one of them you will have to find the other two multiply all three of there number together and add. The book along with a code could then be used to uncover a phone number that, when called, played this prerecorded message. The extracted information lead to a Reddit which in turn contained information about a book. ![]() At first, this appeared to be a dead-end but using an application knows as OutGuess users were able to extract hidden information embedded within the first image. The string contained a cipher that, once deciphered, formed a link to yet another image. Within minutes of the image being posted someone discovered that by opening the file using a text editor and an appended string of readable text could be found. To find them, we have devised a test.” Cicada 3301 Repetition We are looking for highly intelligent individuals. In a white text on a black background, and this was the beginning of the message: “Hello. ![]() The anonymous author, who went by the four-digit pseudonym 3301, challenged users to uncover a message hidden within the image. A user on 4chan posted this image to the site’s infamous /b/ or random board. Cicada 3301 is the most baffling and enigmatic mystery on the internet that appeared on the 4th of January, 2012, and was ended after one month.
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