As for the second hot topic, it involved a very popular post among the tech-savvy crowd.
The post was initially published on the 4chan online forum by an anonymous user. The content was simply an image with a black background and white text, which read roughly:
"We have designed a puzzle. The initial clue lies within this image.
Solve it, find us.
Earn your chance to join us. We will bestow the privilege of becoming a player upon the ultimate winner.
Good luck.
Syndicate."
This ordinary-looking image was first dismissed as a silly prank, but a few idle netizens always delved deeper.
When they opened the image with Notepad, it was filled with gibberish.
Netizens quickly discovered that this seemingly chaotic nonsense was an extension of the Caesar cipher—a more complex cipher called the Vigenère cipher. They used "syndikos," the Greek etymology of "Syndicate," as the key to decrypt the gibberish and obtain a URL. This URL led to an image. At the top of the image was a link to a section of the 4chan forum, and at the bottom was a long string of numbers.
Clicking on the link revealed over a hundred posts by an anonymous user, all titled with seemingly random strings of characters.
Decoding the strings using the numbers from the image yielded Sumerian cuneiform text. When this text was compared with the poster's numerical ID, it produced a new line of numerical clues. Yoursupportat*keeps
theseriesgoing.Then, treating this new numerical clue as a key and using the RSA asymmetric encryption algorithm, they decoded the strings to reveal a new line of text.
This text gave the code of a "Mother Goose Rhymes" book and hinted at using the numeric clue again.
The resourceful netizens located the book and converted the numeric clue into English, arranging it vertically. Following the alphabetical order of the first letters, they identified a specific page in the book.
This page contained a significant amount of English text. By comparing it with the original string of numbers and filtering out letters, they finally extracted a phrase: "9522, find the two prime numbers from the original image."
It didn't take long for the techies to guess that the two prime numbers referred to the length and width of the original black-and-white image.
After multiplying the length by the width and then by 9522, the techies obtained an 11-digit number. Adding .com to this number formed a new URL.
The techies, who had endured great pains hoping to find the final answer, were taken aback upon visiting the new URL. They found only another puzzle. Furthermore, the web page didn't remain static; it refreshed with new content every hour. The content repeated a pattern every six hours, resulting in four different sets of web pages per day.
The puzzles offered by these web pages were diverse and bizarre, involving elliptic curve encryption algorithms, ancient Greek prophecies, astrology, classical music, group theory, avian breeding and care, and so on.
Seven days later, the website shut down. A total of twenty-eight sets of puzzles, when combined, pointed to an anonymous website where one could contact the mysterious organization behind the original post.
The global techies participating in the decryption game largely assumed it was a small, elite group of tech enthusiasts. At best, they thought it might be a test by intelligence agencies to screen for cryptographic talent.
But the player community knew that the post's initial phrase, "We will bestow the privilege of becoming a player upon the ultimate winner," might very well refer to an actual player qualification.
This kind of puzzle-solving game, reeking of nerdiness, immediately reminded Li Ang of the Whale Song Organization, to which Black Trojan belonged. However, when he contacted Black Trojan, the latter professed complete ignorance.
"This decryption event must have been released by a new group called 'Syndicate,' right? Whale Song hasn't done any public recruitments like this," Black Trojan said during a friend call. "However, quite a few people within Whale Song are trying to crack it. By the way, how far have you gotten?"
Li Ang laughed it off, saying he'd been busy recently with mundane life—eating, sleeping, and goofing off—missing several rounds of puzzle-solving and falling behind others.
In truth, Li Ang had not been slow at all with the decryption, but after figuring out the final solution, he did not attempt to contact the so-called "Syndicate."
What a joke—these mystifying, secretive organizations were all less reliable than the Special Affairs Bureau.
Regardless of whether any maverick talents like Li Ang managed to decode all the puzzles and contact Syndicate to obtain player status, the whole affair had a significant impact on the global player community.
Going solo, fighting alone—one couldn't get very far in modern human society, let alone the deadly, treacherous battlefield of the game.
Perhaps isolated players could also form their own small groups and societies. Like Syndicate, they could use public recruitment to connect with other players who shared their interests and ideals.
After all, friend slots were free.
So, the forums saw the emergence of numerous odd and minor secret societies, springing up like mushrooms after rain.
There was the "Beat Shark Center,"
"Flying Spaghetti Monster Church,"
"Ubisoft Potato Plantation,"
"Earl of Glamorgan's Friendship Association,"
"Brotherhood of Steel,"
"Human Rights Continuation Protection Organization,"
"Our Comrades Are Everywhere, Even Infiltrating the Enemy,"
"Far East Magic Napping Society of Summer,"
"Mercury Amalgam,"
"Rainbow Hermes,"
"Black Organization: Another Day Infiltrated."
These groups, with their exaggeratedly long names, were mostly for show and inside jokes. However, among them were indeed players who were genuinely trying to run them, clumsily building basic organizational structures and recruiting other players, even talented ordinary people.
These motley crews, comprised of both players and non-players, were currently nowhere near the likes of Datura, Whale Song, or official government-backed agencies. However, given time and the large-scale expansion of the game, these minor secret societies could potentially grow into behemoths themselves.
Li Ang didn't spend much time pondering Syndicate or any other player organizations; he continued to fulfill his role as an utterly ordinary high school sophomore, steadfastly focusing on his studies.
Life at Experimental Middle School of Yin City was unremarkable. His academic classes continued as usual, including the military-style physical education. His homeroom teacher, Shi Qingsong, was slowly recovering from his injuries and would probably return to campus soon. Meanwhile, Li Ang's acquaintance, the school nurse Cangxiu, had requested leave for a trip abroad...
In the midst of this lull, Li Ang, sitting on nearly 5,000 points of Game Currency, finally came across an item he wanted on the market shelf.