As for the second hot topic, it was a rather popular thread among tech-savvy communities.

The thread was initially posted on a certain online forum by an anonymous user. The post contained only a black and white image, with text that roughly translated to:

"We have designed a puzzle, and the initial clue lies within this image.

Solve it, find us.

Earn the right to join us. We will grant the qualification to become a Player to the ultimate victor.

Good luck.

The Syndicate."

This ordinary-looking image was initially dismissed as a nonsensical prank, but there were always a few idle netizens who delved into it.

After opening the image with Notepad, it contained a large amount of garbled code.

The netizens quickly discovered that this seemingly disorganized jumble of code was a polyalphabetic cipher "Vigenère cipher" expanded upon the Caesar cipher.

The netizens used the Greek etymology of "Syndicate," "syndikos," as the key to decrypt the garbled code, obtaining a website address.

Upon entering the website, an image was displayed. Above the image was a link to a certain section of the online forum, and below the image was a long string of numbers.

Clicking on the link led to a section filled with over a hundred posts from anonymous users. The names and contents of the posts were all strings of seemingly random characters.

Using the numbers from the image to decode the strings, they obtained a pile of Sumerian cuneiform characters.

Comparing the cuneiform characters with the poster's numerical ID, they derived a new string of numerical clues.

Using this numerical clue as a key, they used the RSA asymmetric encryption algorithm to decode the string, obtaining a new line of text.

The text provided a book code from *Mother Goose Rhymes* and prompted them to use the numerical clues again.

The resourceful netizens found the book,

converted the numerical clues into English, arranged them vertically, and then sorted them alphabetically, finding a specific page in the book.

This page had a considerable amount of English text. Comparing it with the original string of numbers, they filtered out letters and ultimately obtained the phrase "9522, find the two prime numbers of the original image."

The tech enthusiasts quickly guessed that the two prime numbers in the phrase referred to the length and width of the original black and white image.

Multiplying the length by the width and then by 9522, the tech enthusiasts obtained an 11-digit number, and adding a dot after this number formed a new website address.

After going through all the hardships, the tech enthusiasts, thinking they had finally found the answer, were shocked to discover that the webpage was still a password.

Moreover, the webpage was not static. It refreshed with new content every hour, repeating every six hours, and changing four sets of webpages each day.

The password content provided by these webpages was bizarre, involving elliptic curve cryptography, ancient Greek prophecies, astrology, classical music, group theory, poultry farming and care, and so on...

Seven days later, the webpage closed. A total of twenty sets of passwords, when combined, pointed to an anonymous website.

Through this website, one could contact the mysterious organization to which the poster belonged.

The global tech enthusiasts participating in the decryption game simply thought that this was a small-scale organization formed by high-end tech enthusiasts, at most a test used by intelligence agencies to select cryptography talents.

However, the Player community knew that the phrase at the beginning of the post, "We will grant the qualification to become a Player to the ultimate victor," might actually refer to Player qualification.

This kind of nerdy puzzle game quickly reminded Li Ang of the Whale Song organization under Black Trojan.

However, when he contacted Black Trojan, the latter claimed to know nothing about it.

"This decryption event should have been released by a brand new organization called 'The Syndicate,' right? We Whale Song haven't done this kind of public recruitment before."

Black Trojan said during a friendly call, "However, within Whale Song, there are quite a few people trying to decrypt it. By the way, how far have you progressed?"

Li Ang chuckled, saying that he had been busy eating, sleeping, and playing and had missed several rounds of password decryption, unable to catch up with others.

In fact, Li Ang's decryption progress was not slow, but after obtaining the final answer, he did not try to contact the so-called "Syndicate."

What a joke. Every one of these secretive organizations that put on airs was less reliable than the Special Affairs Bureau.

Regardless of whether any wild geniuses like Li Ang had deciphered all the passwords, contacted the Syndicate, and obtained Player qualification,

the whole matter had a significant impact on the global Player community.

Going it alone could not go far in modern human society, let alone in the extremely dangerous and treacherous Killing Game.

Perhaps, Players who were weak and alone could also, like the Syndicate, use public recruitment methods to

contact like-minded Players with the same ideals and aspirations, and form small-scale organizations or societies.

Anyway, friend slots didn't cost money.

As a result, many small and strange secret societies emerged on the forum, springing up like mushrooms after rain.

What "Shark Beating Center,"

"Flying Spaghetti Monster Church,"

"Ubisoft is My Big Brother Sometimes My Wife,"

"Glamorgan Earl Fellowship,"

"Steel Bro♂thers♂hood,"

"Humanity Continuation Security Organization Chaldea,"

"Our Comrades Are All Over the World and Have Even Infiltrated the Enemy,"

"Far East Magic Napping Society of Summer,"

"Amalgam,"

"Rainbow Hermes,"

"Black Organization - Another Day of Being Infiltrated."

These small secret societies with names longer than the other were mostly filled with meme and parody elements.

However, there were also some Players who were seriously managing them, clumsily building simple organizational structures, absorbing other Players, and even ordinary people with special talents.

These small secret societies mixed with Players and ordinary people were, of course, far from being comparable to the Ephemeral Organization, Whale Song, and official institutions formed by various national machines.

But given time, as the Killing Game spread on a large scale, these small secret societies with only a few members might also grow into behemoths.

Li Ang did not spend much time on the Syndicate or other Player organizations. He continued to wholeheartedly play the role of an ordinary high school student, continuing his studies.

The daily life of Yin City Experimental High School was uneventful.

Academic classes continued, and the physical education classes, which were actually military training, also had to continue.

The head teacher, Shi Qingsong, was slowly recovering from his injuries and was expected to return to campus soon. Li Ang's acquaintance, the school doctor Cang Xiu, took a leave of absence to travel abroad...

Amidst this calm, Li Ang, who had nearly five thousand game currency, finally found what he wanted on the mall shelves.