Both book codes led to a dark web TOR onion site (basically an anonymous hidden layer of the internet that requires special software to access) where solvers were asked to create a new email and submit it on the site. The various QR codes led to more book codes and a warning that only the first people to find the next step would be able to advance any further. These posters contained an image of a cicada as well as a QR code. After the countdown finished, the OutGuess message changed to include a list of worldwide coordinates, each of which designated the location of a Cicada 3301 poster. This new webpage showed only a picture of a cicada and a countdown with a OutGuess message telling solvers to wait for the countdown to end. Solvers figured out that the remaining prime numbers were the dimensions of the original image in pixels, and when multiplied with 3301 did lead to a new webpage when given a “.com”. The solved book code let to a phone number that, when called, played a message that told solvers to go back to the original image and find two more prime numbers to multiply with 3301 so that they would be a website URL when put in front of a “.com”. In this case, solvers deciphered some more coded messages on the subreddit (reddit forum) that told solvers what PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) code to look for to ensure that a clue or message was actually from Cicada 3301 as well as the text needed to solve the book code. Since you need a book to decrypt a book code (a book code consists of various sets of numbers that reference individual letters in a book by what chapter, page, paragraph, etc. What OutGuess does is basically rearrange the data in an image to find that message). Sure enough, when put through OutGuess, the image revealed a new message that contained a book code and a reddit link where clues about what book the code was for could be found (quick detour: for those of you who don’t know, steganography is basically when a message is hidden within another message, file, or object. The second sentence contained the words “guess” and “out” which pointed solvers towards steganography tool OutGuess as a possible solution. Looks like you can’t guess how to get the message out.” Just as the previous message used a Roman emperor as a cipher hint, there was hint in this message as well. Upon arrival at the webpage, however, they encountered another image, this time of a wooden duck, with a message next to it that read as follows “Woops just decoys this way. It wasn’t long until someone found the hidden message in the image’s source code (accessible by opening an image in notepad) which read “Tiberivs Clavdivs Caesar says” followed by an Imgur URL encrypted using a Caesar Cipher. 3301” This piqued the curiosity of 4-Chan users because this seemed to be some sort of recruitment tactic rather than the usual jokes or memes. We look forward to meeting the few that will make it all the way through. Find it, and it will lead you on the road to finding us. We are looking for highly intelligent individuals. In January of 2012, an image was posted on internet forum 4-Chan’s /x/ (paranormal) board containing the following message: “Hello. Sometimes, curiosity can lead to a happy ending where answers are found and problems are resolved, or it can lead to a glass wall that promises answers but gives none. Humanity both fears and revels in the pursuit of answers to questions not yet resolved by time.
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