John woke up on Sunday realizing he had slept for two days after running away from a gang of thieves. He was anxious and knew he had to leave shortly so he walked to the door, grabbed his phone, and a blue flash drive when the phone rang. “This is a message from the people trying to help you, we are Cicada 3301” and the phone went silent. The man suddenly realized the drive holding the private keys to his 210,000 bitcoin had vanished.
The year was 2129 and John Waynewright found himself running away from a group of hackers tied to the Burbank mafia. The world had managed to stave off the third world war until 2100. After that catastrophic war, the nation states collapsed but there was significant damage throughout many industrialized cities. At the time, John was only five years of age and his father Sideck passed away during the war, but managed to successfully transfer 210,000 bitcoin to his wife Aelius. After World War III, the world’s electrical grid and communications systems, for the most part, were unscathed. However, the world’s economies had shuddered into oblivion and every single nation state-issued currency was worthless and soon forgotten.
Only a few public blockchains survived and after two decades the monetary system was called the Subset Five Economic Distributed Rail (S5EDR). Moreover, bitcoins became extremely scarce and the entire world settled most of its trade using the network. Alongside this, four other sidechains are tethered to the monetary system. Being the sole owner of 210,000 coins was a big deal in 2129 and each and every one of John’s family was executed by the Burbank family because of this extraordinary wealth. The 34-year old had been on the run for over seven years when his cousin Cabo first gave him the flash drive with the fund’s private keys.
However, 2,557 days later, after getting off the phone with an anonymous individual from the so-called Cicada 3301 organization, John frantically searched the hotel room for the flash drive. He was sweating after fifteen minutes and the room was torn apart. His mobile phone started ringing again and a drop of sweat dripped down his forehead. “Hello,” John answered as he waited for a response. “We will tell you where we hid the flash drive if you trust us. We have built a zero-knowledge interactive proof system in order to communicate with you over these traced lines.” All of a sudden John felt cold and awkward like someone was watching him through the curtains. A knock on the hotel door startled him. “Open the door John, we know you’re in there.” Less than a minute later the door was kicked open by a heavyset man in a white suit.
His name was Makenna and he was known for being one of the most ruthless hitmen from the Burbank family. “Here’s the deal Johnny-boy, give me the drive and we will transfer half of the funds to my wallet,” Makenna shouted. “I really don’t want to have to hurt you but you left me no choice when you ditched me near Engleton city. Staying alive is worth more than thousands of bitcoins and you will still have a chance to keep half.”
John didn't know what to say as he probably would have accepted the deal if the flash drive wasn't missing. However ever since the phone call, everything went from weird to psychotic. Suddenly his phone started ringing again and this time John didn't pick it up. “I’ll answer it,” Makenna said as he snatched the phone from John's shaking hand. As soon as he answered the phone Makenna’s eyes rolled in the back of his head and he fell to the ground. “Holy sh*t,” John said to himself. The reason Makenna went down was due to a viral transmission sent through the elviren-band transmitters often used across the telecom network. This type of assassination was only used by high-level mercenaries that have notoriously killed prominent members of the Burbank mafia over the last decade. After each death a there was a note left that said “ Beware false paths.”
Five minutes later John’s phone started ringing again. This time he was mortified to answer it, as there could be an end to his life on the other line. The phone stopped ringing but again, started back up a minute later. This time John picked up the phone and answered it in a child-like voice. “You will soon find we are here to help you and in time we will return the flash drive to solely you. But you need to solve a riddle. On the bed lies the Liber Primus book and most of the runes have been deciphered. However, it is now up to you to finish the solve and in return, we will not only give you back the money... but also ultimately destroy the Burbank leaders.”
John didn't know what to say, in response to the fact that now he had to solve a riddle, while also being chased down by the mafia. “Beware false paths — And you will find the rest of the clues on your bed.” John slowly walked toward the hotel’s bed which was disheveled from when he was searching for the flash drive and found a white hotel towel folded neatly with a book on top. Inside the book was a bootable mini disk that had a small message written in black ink which said; “read me, but don't write to me.”
To be continued...