The third ARG campaign of Arknights, titled "Diary of the Oracle," was held around the release of Episode 14 and PV 4, three years after the release of PV 3. The messages were noticed and then deciphered by Team Future, the direct successor of the once active GORIE.
Phase 1
The decipherment began with a series of Baudot codes (modern ITA2) and the "http://" URL hidden in 03:15 of the video which was deciphered as "stand by her side." Upon entering it with the official website of Arknights' CN server (http://ak.hypergryph.com/standbyherside), it displayed a crossword puzzle with seven clues and a login system. These clues represented the names of the stars in our universe:
- Algol: Clue 1 came from a picture featuring a star in the center, a row of codes at the bottom left corner: begin/printf(($gl$,"Hello, DWDB-221E"))/end, and a background containing several demons. The code is written in the ALGOL system; DWDB-221E is the name for the Civilight Eterna, or the Sarkaz's Black Crown; Algol was named the "Devil's Star" in Greek and Arabic astronomies.
- Alphard: Clue 2 gave a note: "the spine 01:56 - 1:57", and this referred to 01:56 and 01:57 of PV4 featuring Kal'tsit curling up and being surrounded by a skeleton of Ouroboros. At a blink second of the cutscene, there was a group of astronomical coordinates at the bottom left (09h 27m 35.2433s,-08° 39' 30.969) which was the coordinates of Alphard. Alphard was referred to as "the backbone of the Serpent" by Arabs, hence the cutscene's association with a serpent skeleton.
- Pleione: Clue 3 gave two images of a star, one with two and the other only one. When altering the image's brightness, it revealed a message: "We're 6, we're 7. After 100,000 yrs, they would not be able to tell you from me," and three groups of codes in ASCII: "49;48;48;48;48;48;66;67" (left star image), "50;48;50;48" (right star in image), "110:101:119:32:98:114:97:110:99:104" (bottom left) that were deciphered respectively as "10,000 B.C.", "2020", and "New Branch." "New Branch" referred to Muelsyse's outfit Young Branch; the years of the stars represented a stimulated image of Pleione's location with Atlas between the year 10,000 B.C. and modern era (2020) - with Pleione having moved behind Atlas, explaining the message. Pleione was also the name of an Oceanid nymph in Greek mythology which fitted its association with Muelsyse who is an Elf.
- Antares: Clue 4 gave an image of a CD case's side with the label "7243 8 29194 21", which led to an album by the British music band Blur, Parklife. The two sides of the image contained additional clues: 71/89 (left); ► ►16 (right). The clue on the right represented the song of the album written on the CD case, which was its eighth song "Far Out," and the clue on the left was a hexadecimal numeral for 113/137; or 01:13 of the full song (01:37). At 01:13 of the song, the name "Antares" was mentioned.
- Capella: Clue 5 gave a short clip of audio on PV4 which was from the cutscene of the pile of old televisions displaying strange symbols as well as the credit to Starset. At the bottom right, a television showed a symbol resembling YouTube and a video link "UC0jG8cS7Azclc9CyclG3iZg." The link led to a short video clip by the user DM01 featuring a boat with the name "Capella."
- Regulus: Clue 6 gave an ASCII code "＆＃71;＆＃71;＆＃48;＆＃49;" that was deciphered as "GG01," the intel number for Siege. At 01:57 of PV4 where Siege left the Victoria Crown behind, a flash cutscene was displayed featuring the constellation of Leo and an ecliptic. The large star lying on the ecliptic was Regulus.
- Alhena (now called γ Gem): Clue 7 featured the second volume of Bonner Durchmusterung, a German star catalog. The highlighted word "1223 2.1 62921.4 •1631.3" is the astronomical coordinates of Alhena when converting their right ascension (RAC) and declination value (DEC).
Filling the answers and arranging the puzzle would then result in the username "ELCARO," or "Oracle." (The Doctor's former team name as revealed in the Babel event) The password for the login system was hinted with a clue:
| “ | How can I tell whether a star is moving towards or away from me? | ” |
The clue suggested the Doppler effect, and at 01:41 of PV4, there was a scene of blurred red and blue light which could be interpreted as Morse code. The answer was "11708102," or July 11, 2018, the date of Arknights' second beta test in the CN server.
After entering the username and the password on the login system, a website was displayed featuring a transparent cassette tape with a crossed out name "Oracle-2" in a blue screen. Participants then just needed to fill in the name, contact number, and their house address. Thus, this ended the first phase of the ARG.
Phase 2
The second decoding game occurred on May 16, 2024, when the players participating in the ARG campaign received a transparent cassette tape that was identical with the one in the website, thirty cassette tapes in total, with a Klein Blue J-card. The cassette tapes featured a six-minute long voice message in Mandarin given by the Doctor who was voiced by their Chinese VA in the anime, Feng Junhua.
The Oracle's Voice Diary
"The Custodian", TT 9th March 209, 16:29
我还记得，最后一次和你辩论的时候，你说自己绝对不会再和蠢人共事，就算这个蠢人，是宇宙里最后一个还在尝试挽救文明的人。呵，现在看来，我也是一个蠢人。但我绝对不是最后一个试图再做点什么的人。想必这个时候，你一定已经和家人做了告别。但他们一定不会知道，你不会进入石棺，我们都清楚。保存者计划没有得到很多支持，原因不是这项计划没法拯救所有人，而是必须有人为此付出残忍的牺牲。你会独自度过漫长的时光。而我会等待阳光，从轨道反射镜都散去，熄灭我面前的这盏灯。弗里斯顿，泰拉上的最后一个蠢人，向你告别。
"The Fosterer", TT 23rd December 228, 02:16
洛，很抱歉没能继续回复你，但这是一个迟到的好消息。你在深蓝之树的那几位几公里长的大朋友，他们活体组织样本的环境适应性分析已经全部完成。从分析结果来看，他们能从毁灭中幸存下来。但他们也需要很多时间，才能成为播撒新希望的航船。洛，请不要认为你的成功对我们来说为时已晚，让他们活下去吧。这些美丽的海洋生灵没有必要加入我们的毁灭，未来也许他们会带上我们留下的一点点尘埃，向冰冷的虚空迈出一步。
"The Security", TT 16th January 229, 09:46
爱德，这是我最后一次向你说明我的看法。很快，所有的人造天体都会成为轨道上的墓碑，再也没人可以对他们发号施令，你也一样。我还记得你的小副业，那家开在拖船里的老餐馆，没有合成设备，只有围裙和烤炉，而你是最后一个知道怎么宰杀动物、怎么把他们加工成食物的人。你总是反对我们遗忘，所以爱德，我希望你能够理解，我们需要的不是胜利，是存续。天堂支点的确是一件强大的武器，但我们的敌人无法被武器打倒，设置 ■■■■ 没有意义。
"The Lumberer", TT
请想象一片不完美的树林，昆虫与飞鸟并不常见，也没有狩猎的野兽在其中漫步。有时，两颗原本相差无几的树苗，一颗夭折于幼年，另一颗却长出了繁盛的树冠；有时某些树木会投下恶意的影子，让他们的邻居在阴影中枯萎。这些都算不上多么可怕的事，毕竟他们只是树木而已。但是在这片树林里住着一位伐木工，伐木工勤劳地挥动着斧子，树木在他面前一一倒下，无论他们的枝杈是否蓬勃、果实是否甜美、叶片在阳光下是什么颜色。没有哪棵树了解这位伐木工的来历，那些古老的树木早已沉寂，也没有哪棵树能阻止伐木工挥动斧子，再盘根错节的枝干也会被劈开。你相信吗？竟然有这样一片树林，这样一位伐木工。
好，我们继续。这一天，伐木工照常举起了斧子，又一棵树在他面前倒下，可伐木工转身离去后，树桩里溢出了树脂，把断裂的枝干粘合在一起。伐木工清理出的空地再一次长满了树木，而且还不止于此，透明的树脂吞没了这片只存在于故事里的树林，你眼前很快就只剩下一枚漂亮的琥珀，没有随风而动的树木和伐木工的斧子，也没有分型、函数、与哲学的纤维在湿润的土壤中生长。现在，我需要你记住这枚琥珀的样子，它真的很美。
"The Custodian", TT 9th March 209, 16:29
I still remember the last time we debated; you said you would never work with fools again even if they were the last person in the universe trying to save civilization. Now, it seems I am also a fool, but I am certainly not the last person attempting to do something. By now, you must have said goodbye to your family, but they still don't know that you won't enter the Sarcophagus. We both know that the Preserver Project didn't gain much support. The reason is not that the project cannot save everyone, but that someone must make a cruel sacrifice. You will spend a long time alone, yet I will wait for the sunlight to disperse from the orbital mirrors and extinguish the light in front of me. Friston, the last fool on Terra, I bid you farewell.
"The Fosterer", TT 23rd December 228, 02:16
Law, I'm sorry to keep replying to you, but here is some belated good news. Your several-kilometers-large giant friends inside the Caerula Arbor, their living tissue's environmental adaptability analysis is fully complete. According to the analysis, they can survive the destruction. But they'll also need a lot of time to become vessels that spread new hope. Law, please don't think your success came too late for us. Let them live on; these beautiful marine creatures need not to join our destruction. Perhaps in the future, they will carry a bit of the dust we leave behind, taking their first step into the cold void.
"The Security", TT 16th January 229, 09:46
Ed, this is the last time I'll share my viewpoint with you. Soon, all artificial celestial bodies will become tombstones in orbit. No one will be able to command them anymore, including you. I still remember your little side business, that old restaurant on the tugboat. No synthetic equipment, just aprons and ovens. You were the last person who knew how to slaughter animals and process them into food. You always opposed our forgetting. So, Ed, I hope you understand that what we need is not "victory," but "survival." The Celestial Fulcrum is indeed a powerful weapon, but our enemy cannot be defeated by mere weapons. Setting up ■■■■ is meaningless.
"The Lumberer", TT
Imagine an imperfect forest where insects and birds are rare, and no predatory beasts roaming around. Sometimes, there will be two seedlings that were originally similar; one withers in its youth, while the others grows a flourishing canopy. Some trees will often cast malicious shadows, causing their neighbors to wither in the shade. These are not that terrifying; they are just trees after all. But in this forest there lives a lumberjack. He diligently swings his axe, and the trees fall one by one before him, regardless of whether their branches are magnificent, their fruits sweet, or their leaves colorful in the sunlight. No tree knows the origin of this lumberjack. Those ancient trees have long become silent, and no tree can stop the lumberjack from swinging his axe. Even the most intricate branches will be split. Could you imagine there is such a forest with such a lumberjack?
Let's continue. On this day, the lumberjack raised his axe as usual, and another tree fell before him. But after the lumberjack turned away, branches sprouted from the stump, and the broken branches rejoined. The clearing made by the lumberjack grew dense with trees once again, and it didn't stop there. Transparent resin engulfed a forest that only existed in stories. Soon, before you, only a beautiful amber remains. No trees swaying in the wind, no lumberjack's axe, no fibers of fractals, functions, and philosophy growing in the moist soil. Now, I need you to remember the appearance of this amber. It's truly beautiful.
In the fourth section of the video, the chapter of "The Lumberer", several numbers were spoken in machine in every sentence, and they were identical with the codes in GB 2312, the standard computing code for Chinese characters in Simplified Chinese. These codes then provided another set of message:
| “ | 3015 4472 3667 5552 2826 5220 4215 3631 1774 5049 3012 2492 2436 1168 4764 4837 0333 0345 0365 0110 0317 0316 | ” |
| “ | 警惕你自己，源石目标已经更改，相信Ama-10。 | ” |
The J-card came with a sentence in Spanish, both on the front and the back. They were both quoted from poems written by the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, the front being from En la voz del poeta collected in the Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair and the latter from La poesía:
| “ | Me miran con tus ojos las estrellas más grandes. | ” |
| “ | Y vi de pronto el cielo desgranado, planetas, plantaciones palpitantes, la sombra perforada, acribillada por flechas, fuego, y flores, la noche arrolladora, el universo | ” |
| “ | The biggest stars look at me with your eyes. | ” |
| “ | And suddenly I saw the heavens unfastened and open, planets, palpitating planations, shadow perforated, riddled with arrows, fire and flowers, the winding night, the universe. | ” |
The J-card also contained an encrypted message with several black stripes that were divided into different sections based on the recipients. The black stripes were Code 49 barcode that, when grouped together, meant "overcontact binary." When puzzled together, the message hidden beneath the barcodes was deciphered as the message of the Lynchpin:
Lynchpin
Lynchpin of Substantia Grisea |
|
| Never forget where you are going. Subspace may have been conquered, and off-course mind may be your only enemy in a voyage, yet it is still a great one. |
The term "lynchpin" can only refers to a widely adopted therapy that utilizes a noninvasive mind-implanting technique to sharpen an individual's spatial perception, and memory capacity. Most recipients, or "lynchpined," any subspace navigators onboard any SST-capable vessels, the such enhancement are vital to them in carrying out their duties.
In summary, "lynchpin" takes effect by imprinting an individual's mind pattern in a critical debate process and periodically restimulating the same pattern in that individual's meta-consciousness layer. For navigators, this will almost always ensure a spontaneous, clear and logical recognition of a specific travel destination, otherwise proved difficult under prolonged subspace exposure. |
When typing "lynchpin" with the website line (https://ak.hypergryph.com/lynchpin), it revealed a page resembling a huge linchpin. While appearing to be a progress chart, it was actually a loop cycle starting from the following data: 15% (from the day the cassettes were delivered), 24%, 33%, 34%, 35%, 35%, 0%, 4%, 12%. The number changed every 12:00 a.m. (UTC+8). As of May 31, 2024, the "lynchpin" cycle began the second round.
Phase 2 progress gallery
The unpacked cassette provided by Hypergryph sent to the participants.
Code 1 in Spanish written on the J-card
The deciphered encrypted message given by the J-card when puzzled together
External links
- For more information to learn more about the ARG decoding process, check out these websites:
