[ARG] The Pizza Code Mystery

Black Mesa Archive The Cafeteria
#4645

Stormseeker recently made a post (or not–I can’t remember) which included a list of things that are handy and/or that we should look at. They included:

  • Halos
  • Benaloh Pailier
  • congratulationsyouhavewonthePIZZA
  • grilledpizza.jpg
  • 21 into 1
  • Tempus omnia relevant
    It’s not the same list that’s in one of the bullets on the wiki page of the 752 hex code right now because this list includes the 21 into 1 clue. What I was going to do was analyze each clue collectively and see what role they could have played with each other, whether they were a key, an encryption method, or something else (e.g. benalohpaillier and congratulationsyouhavewonthePIZZA could both be keys in a block cipher like double-DES). I just need to confirm where this list was put in the thread, if it was even made at all.
#4646

Has anyone tried contacting that Domino’s in the IRC clue? Maybe they got a lead for us.

#4647

Stormseeker has only ever posted such a list when he edited the original/first post of the thread on December 10, 2012. And that’s the list you saw on the 752 Hex Code wiki page. The list was one of several changes/additions he made to the first post a few days after a disgruntled user complained that it was not up to date. This was also two days before the Tempus omnia revelant page appeared on the wiki.

EDIT: I’ve edited the wiki page, so hopefully it’s a bit more clear.

#4648

-arrives after a long snooze-

Did we solve it yet?

Wait Storm commented didn’t he. Are we still stuck in the same place?

The source for the poiwer used for the LOL Cannon is in the Optronics Lab in QE when you turn the 4 sub systems on. Other than the infomation we get in there its not much to say where its from ( maybe similar pieces to the one used in the opening part of the game.

To add the last line that Storm sent CPU is nagging me now i have read it again. “It’s everywhere you look.” The only things i can think of we see around BM is the Pizzas, the portal code (247), the Die Freeman and the Lambda symbol (Half Life) Symbol.

#4649

I don’t thing we haven’t ruled out Pseudorandom noise have we ?

#4650

Dial tone
"Hello welcome to Dominoes pizza! How can I help you?

“Hello yes, I’d like some ARG clues on the pizza code mystery.”

“Uhm, sorry?”

“ARG clues…”

“I don’t know what you are talking about sir. I’m sorry.”

“Oh, ok. I’ll just take a cheese pizza and large coke then.”

"Alright sir, would you like some extra straws for that coke TO GRASP AT?"

#4651

That “21 into 1” clue always made me think of the song “21 Guns” by Green Day because of the line “One, 21 guns”. I put the lyrics in the spoiler tag if someone wants to read through it.

It’s probably not related… but I can’t think of anything else it might mean beyond math stuff.

https://www.lyrics.com/21-guns-lyrics-green-day.html
Here are the lyrics of the song as copy/pasted from that website.

Do you know what’s worth fighting for
When it’s not worth dying for?
Does it take you breath away
And you feel yourself suffocating?
Does the pain weight out the pride?
And you look for a place to hide?
Does someone break your heart inside?
You’re in ruins

One, 21 guns
Lay down your arms
Give up the fight
One, 21 guns
Throw up your arms into the sky
You and I

When you’re at the end of the road
And you lost all sense of control
And your thoughts have taken their toll
When your mind breaks the spirit of your soul
Your faith walks on broken glass
And the hangover doesn’t pass
Nothing’s ever built to last
You’re in ruins

One, 21 guns
Lay down your arms
Give up the fight
One, 21 guns
Throw up your arms into the sky
You and I

Did you try to live on your own
When you burned down the house and home?
Did you stand too close to the fire?
Like a liar looking for forgiveness from a stone

When it’s time to live and let die
And you can’t get another try
Something inside this heart has died
You’re in ruins

One, 21 guns
Lay down your arms
Give up the fight
One, 21 guns
Throw up your arms into the sky
You and I

#4652

I’m wondering if we can trust that the subject-verb agreement in “21 goes into 1” is correct. If it’s correct, then it means we are looking for one 21 something that goes into one 1 something, and not 21 somethings that go into one something. One suggestion (suggested by @CPU) was that 21 might be referring to sample specimen EP-0021. But if it’s not that, and if it doesn’t simply mean the division 1/21, then it could be something labeled or numbered 21 and 1. For example, something in position 21 goes into position 1.

#4653

Oh god, if this ARG never gets solved this is what it will come back to.

also Captain, congrats on making my Sig.

I always wondered how many Pizza boxes there was through out the whole of BM and if that number ever hit 21. I know several where found hidden throughout the the levels ( and out of the levels in NoClip ) wondering if its at all possible one of them.

#4654

The complete unabridged list of pizza boxes can be found on the Pizza box wiki page.

#4655

Here’s something I noticed (could be irrelevant/coincidence):

On Pizza box model texture it says: “Large Pizza, hot and fresh”, and number of letters is 21.

#4656

WEAREGRASPINGATSTRAWS is also 21 characters… :smiley:

#4657

Could it mean bit/byte 21 goes into bit/byte 1? Is it a permutation? I recall that being a part of DES, but it could be any other crypto system that uses a permutation.

Stormseeker said the code looked random “at one time,” so could he have just been doing this permutation multiple times?

#4658

I thought perhaps it could help us identify a block cipher if we can find one that uses a permutation where bit 1 of the output is taken from bit 21 of the input.

I couldn’t find a matching permutation in the DES cipher. Other ciphers aren’t that well documented on wikipedia, so if we are going to check other ciphers, we are probably going to have to dig through the original source material of each cipher.

Maybe, if it’s a bitwise permutation over a number of bits. But the problem is that “21 into 1”, at best, only tells us what to do with one of the bits, and not what to do with the x number of remaining bits.

But any block cipher will by design produce output that looks random. It’s possible that’s what Storm was referring to when he said that it was designed to look random.

Another idea about “21 into 1”:

What if it’s simply a way to draw our attention back to this whiteboard:

We have other hints that seem to point to other whiteboards:

EDIT: In a description of the Lucifer cipher, the permutation in the F-function (round function) of the cipher is described as follows:

Do you guys see what I see?

…21 GOES INTO 1 !!!

#4659

Very well could be. Here’s some good reading on it: https://www.fuseki.com/lucifer.pdf

Looks like we’d likely have to do it by hand. But, if it is, we know that the key is 128 bits.

#4660

Honestly? No, I don’t see it. But I trust you. So I’m coming out of lurking to ask you to clarify what you mean, because it sounds very interesting.

#4661

I think someone caught the “gibbles”.
Just kidding. This actually looks promising. Lucifer cipher, once again.

Given the nice number of 128 ( = 8 * 16), we are therefore looking for a 16-character phrase. 8 bits per character (standard 1-byte char) x 16 characters = possible winner!

#4662

BENALOH PAILLIER
BENALOH_PAILLIER

Probably not that simple, but for shits and giggles.

#4663

Why not? We were explicitly told that that is the password. What we were not sure of was the method.

Just plug it in and let’s see.

–

On this page in the SEE ALSO section is a link to a C source code for a Lucifer program, good for encoding and decoding. BUT it needs to be compiled and given a GUI. Does anyone here have the tool needed to do that?

…I might be able to whip something up.

#4664

So the key would be
42454E41 4C4F48(20/5F) 5041494C 4C494552

We still have to divide the 3008 bit code into 128-bit blocks, but that would leave us with a 64-bit block at the end.

Edit:
Just throwing this out here…
Benalohpaillier + congratulationsyouhavewonthePIZZA = 48 characters (bytes) = 384 bits = 128 + 256 bits
Is there anything that uses a 384-bit key, or a 128-bit key with a 256-bit key?

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