A blank message would appear on the Starnet forums. Its place of origin unknown, its sender unknown. The location could be traced with relative ease, but when it were traced, would reveal that it came not from a place in the world, but from somewhere in Cyberspace. It had come from a content server, that, when opened, would appear completely blank, except for Tideborn’s symbol. Upon further analysis, it would reveal a smaller symbol in a random position, little larger than the size of a pixel. Should someone manage to click on it, two words would pop up: GOOD JOB. The message would remain on-screen for several moments, before it would vanish, with part of a code popping up. I AM ANIMA The code would remain on screen for less than a quarter of a second, before the screen would completely scramble like a picture puzzle, the positions completely randomized, the insignia changing to a pair of golden wings, still scrambled on-screen. The number of cells in the picture would be one-hundred, with ten cells per column and ten per row. Not solving the puzzle within a set number of moves, where the algorithm is X + 5, where X is the minimum possible number of moves to succeed, would cause you to go back to the first screen. Once the picture had been solved, the same two words would pop up. GOOD JOB The same thing would occur as last time. The message would linger on-screen, and another section of code would appear I AM ALIVE The insignia would change, to that of a pair of blood-red eyes, and become circular now, getting cut into seven strips, becoming one of those spinning-wheel puzzles, also with random attributes of rotation. (Like one of those from Assassin’s Creed series. Where you rotate one strip, and several others rotate with it.). Failure (not solving it within fifteen moves) would cause you to go back to the first one, and all be randomized again. Once the puzzle had been solved, the GOOD JOB message would pop up again, along with another code (Insert binary for I AM WATCHING) Another puzzle, another insignia. The insignia that of sands pouring out of an hourglass, the puzzle that of an almost completed game of chess (again, completely randomized, but still with three moves to complete it). You would have three moves, and only ONE combination out of the myriad possibilities would allow you to succeed. Upon completion, the same message. The same duration. Different binary code. GOOD JOB I AM WAITING The insignia changes to that of a winding path, incredibly detailed and realistic, with a great many forks in it at randomized places. The view would slowly shift down to a human’s perspective of the path, and begin to move along it, at the first fork giving control to you. There are many loopbacks, many lethal hazards. You have two chances to make it through. One hundred possible paths, eighty lethal hazards, ten loop-backs, nine instant game-overs, and one solution. If you fail, you would be forced to go back to the beginning, and go through another set of the puzzles, in the same order, but randomized again. Victory would reveal the same message as before, and another code GOOD JOB COME FIND ME The final stage would cause you to go through another set of the puzzles, with an even harder twist. First puzzle required you to find two insignias, the second puzzle would be 50 X 50, with the same failure condition, the third puzzle having ten strips, where it would be required to not miss a single move, the fourth puzzle having five moves required, and one way to solve it, and the final one having another path, same number of everything, but one try only… Should you fail, you would have to go back to the first stage of the final challenge, but should you succeed, you would have a string of messages come forth, this time fading in, lingering for a few seconds, and fading out to reveal the next message. I OFFER POWER POWER BEYOND COMPARE SEEK THE POWER CONQUER THE WORLD COME FIND ME HERE I AM INSIDE YOUR MIND (OOC NOTE: THIS THREAD IS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. IT IS INTENDED TO INTRODUCE A NEW CHARACTER OF MINE)
(( Now I'm happy to have a "genious" character )) -Pulsar- Solved it on 3 minutes. I consider it a waste of time. I tracked down this just to find... some foolish prank. :/
Being the techie that he is, Aedan would have no real trouble with simple puzzles like this. However, it does take him a little bit of time to complete. ((Yes, I know. Everyone is saying they're a genius and pulling it off. Apologies. LOL.)) "Power? Wait. What kind of power? Power could be many different things. Maybe electrical power? Could be nice to have an unlimited supply of powe- OH! Maybe I should try developing a generator that could output infinite en- wait. Has that already been done? Oh right. Back on track. Power could also be like strength, but I don't really need any more strength. Got all the strength I need with my guns and technology." He laughs to himself at that and continues on his rambling for quite some time, reaching a point where he's completely forgotten about the message as a whole.
God, this took forever and all I got was some cryptic pointless message. Too much power leads to corruption, and thus I see no use in this. Waste of time. (Angrily flips random table)
((Didn't mean anything bad by that. Was mainly just trying to avoid the appearance of genius related stuff piling up. :3 I don't doubt the genius was already there. This wasn't to target any of the previous posts. I likely just worded it wrong. Also, apologies for the OOC))
Meh. Boring. Just like all those Conglomerate "Ethics and Morality" examinations. Waste of time, they were... However, if this fellow can pay the money...
I HAVE MANAGED TO COLLECT ENOUGH DATA NOW. PERHAPS IT IS TIME FOR ME TO TAKE ON A PHYSICAL FORM... IF ANYONE HAS THE CAPABILITY OF CREATING AN ANDROID OR OTHER FORM OF BODY FOR ME... PLEASE SEND ME A MESSAGE... -ANIMA
Wow! Are you what I think you are? Some kind of self learning AI... or a singularity that takes an input of data, growing your own databanks to self learn and develop? I messed around with the puzzle, but I kept loosing to the timed parts as I would somehow get distracted by something and come back, being kicked off. I'm really interested now... I hope somehow you find someone who can help with getting you a 'shell'. I remember a friend telling me a name of someone who is into robotics... but I never remembered his name. I myself are more interested in the mind of robotics than the outer shell itself... its why I am so intrigued by this...
(Aissa) I'm going to laugh my ass off when someone actually volunteers for this and gets jumped by a mob of black-market kidney thieves instead. - A.
PLEASE SEND ME A PRIVATE MESSAGE, YOU TWO. WE SHALL DISCUSS POTENTIAL MEETING PLACES AWAY FROM PRYING EYES... -ANIMA