Evaluator:

I forgot to add that Merrit will not be available tommorrow for message communication related to this, so if this puzzle is solved within 24 hours, message 17 will appear at 12:00 P.M. on the 31st.

THEREFORE IT IS LIKELY THE MACHINES HAVE CLASSIFIED THE NOW EXILED PROGRAM

-Conrac

Evaluator

As minimal priority for removal or perhaps allowed it to remain as

-Conrac

Evaluator

Message 18 is found here. Good luck.

EXPENDING RESOURCES MAY NOT HAVE EQUATED TO THE VALUE OF PROGRAM REMOVA

-Conrac

Please note that the trailing L of removal was omitted from the cyphertext. At this point this looks like a transmission error as here to fore all messages have ended neatly at a word boundary.

I was supposed to put a message here that message 19 would be tomorrow.

Sorry for the mix-up.

Evaluator

Message 19 is found here. Good luck.

Although noted is machine record of deployment of a single basic removal program

-Conrac

Evaluator

Correct. The 20th and final message is found here. Good luck.

designated Lenesworth which the exiled program has successfully avoided in a previous incident.

-Conrac (Sorry for the delay ... I was slow making connections)

Evaluator:

Completed. Thank you to all subjects who participated. See the overall totals for all evaluations to date here.

The number of subjects did not amount to a 1-10th place final. Points were awarded based on number of codes deciphered.

Results are: Conrac in 1st place, with Aquatium taking 2nd.

Please allow a few days for preparations to be made for the announcement for Evaluation 7. Thank you.

Just in case anyone is curious, each of these messages (except the first one) was encrypted using a Vigenère cipher.  The way this cipher works is that each message has a keyword, and each letter in the keyword corresponds to a number: 'a' represents 0, 'b' represents 1, 'c' represents 2, and so on.  For example, if the keyword was "matrix" it would represent the numbers 12, 0, 19, 17, 8, 23.  In order to decrypt a message using this keyword, you would shift the first letter by 12, the second by 0, third by 19, fourth by 17, fifth by 8, and sixth by 23.  Then you would repeat the process for the next six letters, shifting the seventh by 12, the eighth by 0, the ninth by 19, and so on.

Here are the keywords that were used for each of the messages:

#2 - valkyrja
#3 - apothecary
#4 - caboclo
#5 - vigilant
#6 - threezerothree (the number of the room that Neo was shot in front of)
#7 - guinnesslake
#8 - manager
#9 - ouroboros
#10 - bip
#11 - halloween
#12 - cerulean
#13 - hovercraft
#14 - choppers
#15 - argon
#16 - whiteknight
#17 - archivistsociety
#18 - agentgriffin
#19 - metacortex
#20 - erehpsrepyh ("hypersphere" spelled backwards)

Now then, I have a question for either Conrac, Aquatium, or Evaluator.  Could you please explain how the hell I was supposed to figure out the keywords by looking at hidden text like this:

ORRNLQJIRUDKLQW?MDFNLQWRWKHPDWULADQGVHQGDQHPDLOWRHYDOXDWRUTLWKWKHVXEMHFWOLQH"CAK." 

KLQWVDUHVHQWGDLOBDWILYHSP

Omega0 wrote:

Now then, I have a question for either Conrac, Aquatium, or Evaluator.  Could you please explain how the hell I was supposed to figure out the keywords by looking at hidden text like this:

ORRNLQJIRUDKLQW?MDFNLQWRWKHPDWULADQGVHQGDQHPDLOWRHYDOXDWRUTLWKWKHVXEMHFWOLQH"CAK." 

KLQWVDUHVHQWGDLOBDWILYHSP

Well Omega, that hidden text was a simple Ceaser Cipher, which asks you to send the Evaluator an email ingame with a specific subject line, then at 5pm MCT that day, she would respond with a clue to the keyword. Then you'd simply need to work out what the clue is trying to hint at and then you have your keyword.

You will have noticed that some were solved by me and Conrac before such clue was given, and that is done by using a key by key decode of the message in order to try and evaluate a keyword.

Omega0 wrote:

Just in case anyone is curious, each of these messages (except the first one) was encrypted using a Vigenère cipher.  The way this cipher works is that each message has a keyword, and each letter in the keyword corresponds to a number: 'a' represents 0, 'b' represents 1, 'c' represents 2, and so on.  For example, if the keyword was "matrix" it would represent the numbers 12, 0, 19, 17, 8, 23.  In order to decrypt a message using this keyword, you would shift the first letter by 12, the second by 0, third by 19, fourth by 17, fifth by 8, and sixth by 23.  Then you would repeat the process for the next six letters, shifting the seventh by 12, the eighth by 0, the ninth by 19, and so on.

Here are the keywords that were used for each of the messages:

#2 - valkyrja
#3 - apothecary
#4 - caboclo
#5 - vigilant
#6 - threezerothree (the number of the room that Neo was shot in front of)
#7 - guinnesslake
#8 - manager
#9 - ouroboros
#10 - bip
#11 - halloween
#12 - cerulean
#13 - hovercraft
#14 - choppers
#15 - argon
#16 - whiteknight
#17 - archivistsociety
#18 - agentgriffin
#19 - metacortex
#20 - erehpsrepyh ("hypersphere" spelled backwards)

 

Now then, I have a question for either Conrac, Aquatium, or Evaluator.  Could you please explain how the hell I was supposed to figure out the keywords by looking at hidden text like this:

ORRNLQJIRUDKLQW?MDFNLQWRWKHPDWULADQGVHQGDQHPDLOWRHYDOXDWRUTLWKWKHVXEMHFWOLQH"CAK." 

KLQWVDUHVHQWGDLOBDWILYHSP

DEcoded:

LOOKINGFORAHINT?JACKINTOTHEMATRIXANDSENDANEMAILTOEVALUATORQITHTHESUBJECTLINE"ZXH." HINTSARESENTDAILYATFIVEPM

somehow the letter "W" have been replaced by a null letter "Q"

I knew it was Vigenere Cypher from the start but due to the time I had some Network Problems that I cannot logged in for some time,  I lost interest in this and was also hoping that there are Different other methods Encyphering each plaintext messages.

congrats to both of you Conrac and Aquatium.