[ARG] The Pizza Code Mystery

[DeathTBO]

@Gunsrequiem

Hey, thanks, man. TornadoAP also sent me a message a while ago with some suspicions, and I’m sure some others had similar thoughts. The good new is, we now have some information that could potentially help us; I’m currently collaborating right now on the blog/Wiki, and will post here once it’s up and running. We got this, guys!

Same here, can’t believe you spotted the caps in that message though.

Anyway, I think we should follow JohnNotjohn’s advice, he is the only lead we have. I’ll get started on cracking the Hex Code.

[Astij]

I made a wiki page detailing John’s posting. It’s not perfect, so any improvements would be appreciated. https://thepizzaisalie.wikia.com/wiki/JohnNotJohn_Posts

[Gunsrequiem]

Nice work! I especially like the bullet points at the end–very interesting to see just how much information we have floating around out there.

[TornadoAP]

Wow, nice job guns. I was starting to doubt whether Johnotjohn was Storm, but your discovery proves it.

Also, it makes sense though, I mean, have you guys ever heard Dr. Welsh’s full name?

Doctor Johnathan Welsh?

Also I never really liked Johnnotjohn’s Avatar, it’s just so dark and mysterious, like someone is watching from the shadows.

[Gunsrequiem]

You get full credit in my book–I was suspicious, but your message voicing the same concerns is what pushed me to watch his posts closely for clues. As for his avatar, it’s interesting–it’s a play on the default avatar that users get when they don’t choose one, and his profile is barren. I think your suggestion that it’s related to Dr. Welsh is a good one; if it’s not that, however, why the name John? Simply because it’s general in the vein of “John Doe”? Hmmm . . . .

[Astij]

Has Dr. Welsh been HALOS the whole time? Is that possible in the universe of the ARG?

Edit: NVM there’s a whole note that Welsh leaves

[Jacky]

Everybody is interested in “21 into 1” clue, but not rest of same message.
This got me thinking more on: “Don’t trust anyone, it’s not safe.”
Why shouldn’t trust anyone, is it because they might lead us to wrong clues?
And why isn’t safe?!

[TornadoAP]

@Astij

I made a wiki page detailing John’s posting. It’s not perfect, so any improvements would be appreciated. https://thepizzaisalie.wikia.com/wiki/JohnNotJohn_Posts

Rewrote it a bit, thought it started off a bit weakly, also added it to the front page.

[Mr_Sir_Shpee]

My brain is melting now

[TornadoAP]

Oh and Guns, what is this supposed “Care Package” you mentioned in your previous post?

[Flavrans]

One of JohnNotJohn’s posts was lost in the recent forum update. In a stroke of luck, I happened to save it shortly before the forum went down. I thought I’d repost it here in case it might be useful.

The post was posted on 2015-03-02 16:27:58 UTC.

@JohnNotJohn

Since we have now returned to attempts to solve the HALOS file itself, I would suggest reading pages 64 onwards, constituting the final lead up to the file and all work done on it since.

I would also suggest looking through the hints given by user 0418_08151814, or Stormseeker as we now know him to be.

My personal thoughts on the issue:

The HALOS file, and IRC Clue 6, which pointed to it, was released after solving codes A-D, as well as all of the other IRC clues. In other words, all of the other puzzles had been solved, and the time had come for a true challenge in the form of the HALOS file. Furthermore, this implies that all of the clues necessary to solve this puzzle had already been given.

However, after a month without any progress, Storm created the “Tempus omnia revelant” page, with the hidden message “Seek Code out.” This ultimately pointed to 0418_08151814, who identified himself as Code_ from the IRC. When his username was decoded as DR_HORN in early 2014, the connection was finally established, and a mysterious comment was added to the “752 Hex Code” page on the wiki.

I would take all material released prior to the discovery of the HALOS file to constitute the necessary clues to solve it, with the posts and PMs of 0418_08151815, as well as the remarks openly made by Stormseeker, and the aforementioned comment on the wiki, to be additional hints pointing to the solution.

One final point of interest is Stormseeker’s insistence that we focus on the story. Under the abovementioned alias, he always told us to look into the connection between HALOS and Niobium. The AI connection has been well established, so maybe that figures into how we should think about the solution.

[TornadoAP]

@flavrans9

One of JohnNotJohn’s posts was lost in the recent forum update. In a stroke of luck, I happened to save it shortly before the forum went down. I thought I’d repost it here in case it might be useful.

The post was posted on 2015-03-02 16:27:58 UTC.

@JohnNotJohn

Since we have now returned to attempts to solve the HALOS file itself, I would suggest reading pages 64 onwards, constituting the final lead up to the file and all work done on it since.

I would also suggest looking through the hints given by user 0418_08151814, or Stormseeker as we now know him to be.

My personal thoughts on the issue:

The HALOS file, and IRC Clue 6, which pointed to it, was released after solving codes A-D, as well as all of the other IRC clues. In other words, all of the other puzzles had been solved, and the time had come for a true challenge in the form of the HALOS file. Furthermore, this implies that all of the clues necessary to solve this puzzle had already been given.

However, after a month without any progress, Storm created the “Tempus omnia revelant” page, with the hidden message “Seek Code out.” This ultimately pointed to 0418_08151814, who identified himself as Code_ from the IRC. When his username was decoded as DR_HORN in early 2014, the connection was finally established, and a mysterious comment was added to the “752 Hex Code” page on the wiki.

I would take all material released prior to the discovery of the HALOS file to constitute the necessary clues to solve it, with the posts and PMs of 0418_08151815, as well as the remarks openly made by Stormseeker, and the aforementioned comment on the wiki, to be additional hints pointing to the solution.

One final point of interest is Stormseeker’s insistence that we focus on the story. Under the abovementioned alias, he always told us to look into the connection between HALOS and Niobium. The AI connection has been well established, so maybe that figures into how we should think about the solution.

Nice catch. Adding it to the Wiki.

[Gunsrequiem]

@TornadoAP

Oh and Guns, what is this supposed “Care Package” you mentioned in your previous post?

I was just joking about how if HALOS didn’t tell us its (his) secrets, I would download a care package (virus) directly into its (his) server.

[Flavrans]

I was thinking about what JohnNotJohn said about 21 being a metonym, and there was something toxyn said which gave me an idea:

@toxyn

Probably coincidental but the 6 IRC clues can be added up into 21.

1+2+3+4+5+6=21

What object has 1+2+3+4+5+6 dots on it? A die (as in singular of “dice”). In a completely different context, a die is something that certainly could be relevant to the story, if that is what the niobium is being used for.

[h89]

@JohnNotJohn

@toxyn

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1_(number)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/21_(number)

1 is the ASCII code for Start of Header. The Hex code is 376 bytes, 8 short of an even 384 for a 128 bit block. Scandium is element 21, and consists of 8 letters.

This is most interesting, he mentions scandium twice in other posts. The hint “21 goes into 1” might be that Scandium goes into a header of some sort. Maybe look for a clue that starts with Scandium maybe. Also, if we suspect that one of the users may be Storm, we might want to stay quiet and milk him for more hints.

EDIT: he also said that we should follow the story and started posting hints about what the story lead to. Perhaps that might help us find the code.

[CodeWookiee]

Okay, so I’m really wondering about all of JohnNotJohn’s posts about the keylength and including either HALOS or possibly PIZZA with BENALOHPAILLIER to make a 20-character key for Rijndael.

** Also of note is that hey referred to the keys are character strings, not hashes generated from character strings. **

Anyways, back to what I was looking at, I thought I would combine that with the idea that we should be looking at anagrams for solutions, possibly an anagram of BENALOHPAILLIER being the passkey, which lead me to…

ALPHA REBELLION
ALIEN HELP LABOR
HELP AI LAB LONER

And more at Anagram Search for BENALOHPAILLIER

Of course, the anagram could include PIZZA or HALOS along with BENALOHPAILLIER, but for now, I’m going to play around with some of this and Rijndael.

EDIT: Another random thought just occurred to me. 21 goes into 1 could reference Dr. Pepper (21 flavors). Maybe I’m stretching a little, but Pizza is best with a soda, after all.

EDIT 2: No luck with using ALPHA REBELLION combined with PIZZA or HALOS (pre or post) with Rijndael (or AES, TWOFISH, BLOWFISH, etc. as available on rijndael.online-domain-tools.com).

[Gunsrequiem]

I was looking over some of the past clues, and one thing stuck out to me–we’ve got a lot of references to “Level 7”–LEVEL 7 ALPHA, LEVEL 7 CASES, etc. etc. So, I did some digging and came across this:

THISISAMESSAGELEFTFORDRHORNJUSTTOREMINDYOUINCASEOFEMERGENCIESTHATTHEPASSWORDTOTHEHALOSFILESISBENALOHPAILLIERIHAVEPROGRAMMEDHALOSTOSENDINLEVELSEVENCASESYOUSHOULDBRINGPIZZAS

We interpreted this previously as “This is a message left for Dr. Horn. Just to remind you in case of emergencies that the password to the halos files is BENALOHPAILLIER. I have programmed HALOS to send in level seven cases. You should bring pizzas.”

However, what if it’s actually this:

“This is a message left for Dr. Horn. Just to remind you in case of emergencies that the password to the halos files is BENALOHPAILLIER. I have programmed HALOS to send, in level seven cases, YOUSHOULDBRINGPIZZAS.”

That gives us another 20-byte key to work with . . . .

[JohnNotJohn]

Sorry to burst your bubble, but I’m not really HALOS. I just wanted to have some fun when I wrote that post. My sincerest apologies.

[Gunsrequiem]

You can’t lie to me, HALOS. You’ve got some darker methodology you’re cooking up, and I’ll be damned if we don’t figure out what it is. And stop you.

EDIT: The fact that you included this in a recent message tells me all I need to know:

“If I were to take a guess right now, I would say HALOS is online and not friendly.”

[TornadoAP]

@Gunsrequiem

You can’t lie to me, HALOS. You’ve got some darker methodology you’re cooking up, and I’ll be damned if we don’t figure out what it is. And stop you.

EDIT: The fact that you included this in a recent message tells me all I need to know:

“If I were to take a guess right now, I would say HALOS is online and not friendly.”

This amuses me for some reason.

Can someone please just ask Storm whether John is a alias or not?