Corporate Warfare

Corporate Warfare
On Hold
An ARG based around factions of the game NeuroSlicers.
Type	Unofficial
Creator	NeuroSlicers
Discovered	2018-04-27

Main Page > List of Investigations > Corporate Warfare

Backstory

NeuroSlicers is a cyberpunk RTS game, revolving around short 5-10 minute matches. The ARG consists of 3 factions fought each other for their own cause regarding the fate of the NeuroNet and the Keeper.

• The Tesseract: At first it was created for the NeuroNet, so that the responsibility is not on MindCore when leak happens, but on Tesseract. Later, when the major leak occured, Tesseract lost their control of the NeuroNet, forcing them to deploy slicers to regain control.

• BIT.CRASH: They were an anarchic slicer dedicated to destroy the NeuroNet, Tesseract and MindCore for sake of humanity. They were the first to successfully breach the Keeper's defences, making them able to enter a non-public area since the Mayday.

• XANTUARY: Their goal is to cleanse the NeuroNet from impurities to prepare humanity for their digimortality ascension.

Detailed backstory can be found here

Encrypted Messages

On the NeuroSlicers Discord users were able to join one of the three factions and try to decipher the messages which contributes and advances the story of the NeuroSlicers.

First Message

The first message was received in the encrypted-message channel at 2018-04-27. This message was first decoded by The Tesseract.

####--INCOMING ENCRYPTED MESSAGE--####

z85 f5211815f520 91914'20 238120 920 19551319, 25 3118562112 238514 315141453209147 2015 920, 522514 1514 1 195321185 129145, 208525 3114 1955 23815 251521 1185, 238120 251521 1185, 2385185 251521 1185

####--END OF MESSAGE--####

The encryption method was Numbers to Letter assignment. The decoded message: The neuronet isn't what it seems. Be careful when connecting to it, Even on a secure line, they can see who you are, What you are, where you are

Second Message

The second round of cryptic message happened on the 30th of April, 2018. The message was posted in the #encrypted-message channel in the NeuroSlicers Discord.

####--INCOMING ENCRYPTED MESSAGE PT1--####
o 20891411 208525'225 131141754 2015 45318251620 1325 1211920 1351919175, o'13 1315229147 1522518 2015 1 14523 51431825162091514 135208154, 815124 1514. atthtk 161815205320 251521 l1293518, 235'1212 69144 114192351819 914 2085 31545, 9'13 1921185 156 920
####--END OF PT1--####

The message had the same encryption method as the previous message, so decoding it by numbers-to-letter, it yielded: I think they've managed to decrypt my last message, I'm moving over to a new encryption method hold on. Keeper protect you slicer, we'll find answers in the code, I'm sure of it

New Encryption

The part two of the previous message happened shortly after the first part, but this time, the encryption was changed.

####--INCOMING ENCRYPTED MESSAGE PT2--####
Ti8m8 n48h95 ui 59 icbia9j65ho 06odncus ci jb9 f8uqjlf ep9m ni8 q99a8i8, I'q8 ben 5 9f8gcib nc5l d8mn5dd ntknfgn 5m4 69ahh pjbm0798, qinmd6bs 5 gpl9 mj1ono 6pghm nomo9e jm 59dda kmn ci kg069 2he 68c5lcjm2f AI dn 46jmn nj 69 okbj4e88. T7cn 4ivf8 7c0hb9 8w8msoc8hb!  Wb5n 5h8 r6 hidhb ji 8g?
####--END OF MESSAGE--####

The message contained a layered cipher. ASCIItoHEX on top of a vigenére cipher. Encoding the word KEEPER to hex (4b4545504552), you needed to do a vigenére cipher with custom alphabet.

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789

By using the custom keymap with the vigenére key 4b4545504552 the message was able to be decoded.

There seemed to be significant activity in the network over the weekend, I've got a feeling that certain systems are being upgraded, possibly a more robust comms system is being put in place and behavioral AI is about to be upgraded. This could change everything!  What are we going to do?

The message was decoded by the Tesseract.

Stranger Things

On 2018 May 07th, a new message have been posted across the faction channels. One was posted in the encrypted-message channel, which was the first key to decode the whole message.

Public Message:

####--INCOMMING ENCRYPTED MESSAGE--####
MqEcSaSnAqGfEb sLrEwNhGuTrHk:q s5z2y3p
EaNnCyRtYyPzTuIzOnNl:p oVhihglecnwéprweo
AzTjTmAyCcHjMtEbNeTd:k ghntftrptsd:g/x/kwnwpwp.udbruofphbmoxxu.zcxoomx/gsd/yrzzctlnlrg5tgkmaxude0z7pcz8w3l/hwwiopl.zmdpw4z?xdyly=z0n
KzEhYx:o £<]+<|]&$:/:/>[=&$=&$:/>[&$<|]+] ------PART OF LINE BLOCKED BY PUBLIC FIREWALL------
MwEaShSaAhGgEl:s
gi'gq ktfvrwhl hz cii esee wrfusus vkxe mrgmfpgsm wb lri cqxoowo, vnzzmgkvhh aatm caiysg sbi pbtwawmlu fqfzkc xwq kehxmfm kvpjo waugwrx yfy poelvmrv jgr hmacsobnw. mc evdnxgch hc lrmw, aw'wi gyjwbr wsvt ippjvgshhsr kvmgtdw bjmlu moboameteqh wmil znuveaxk cqawr wjwwjfg, lyx ur ecgfohls, lric'di nta gnffhtfq xd isrs nfyxhwrw.....efy mbsu kvll xlpf as elr bvoe sx xe msjh tiw?
####--END OF MESSAGE--####

Decoding is possible by only taking every second letter.

MESSAGE LENGTH: 523
ENCRYPTION: Vigenére
ATTACHMENT: ghntftrptsd:g/x/kwnwpwp.udbruofphbmoxxu.zcxoomx/gsd/yrzzctlnlrg5tgkmaxude0z7pcz8w3l/hwwiopl.zmdpw4z?xdyly=z0n
KEY: £<]+<|]&$:/:/>[=&$=&$:/>[&$<|]+] ------PART OF LINE BLOCKED BY PUBLIC FIREWALL------
MESSAGE:
gi'gq ktfvrwhl hz cii esee wrfusus vkxe mrgmfpgsm wb lri cqxoowo, vnzzmgkvhh aatm caiysg sbi pbtwawmlu fqfzkc xwq kehxmfm kvpjo waugwrx yfy poelvmrv jgr hmacsobnw. mc evdnxgch hc lrmw, aw'wi gyjwbr wsvt ippjvgshhsr kvmgtdw bjmlu moboameteqh wmil znuveaxk cqawr wjwwjfg, lyx ur ecgfohls, lric'di nta gnffhtfq xd isrs nfyxhwrw.....efy mbsu kvll xlpf as elr bvoe sx xe msjh tiw?

The different faction messages only differed in the KEY segment:

KzEhYx:o keepmesafe$=&$:/>[&$<|]+] ------PART OF LINE BLOCKED BY TESSERACT FIREWALL------
KzEhYx:o keepme:/:/>[=&youfools ------PART OF LINE BLOCKED BY XANCTUARY FIREWALL------
KzEhYx:o £<]+<|]&$safeyoufools ------PART OF LINE BLOCKED BY BITCRASH FIREWALL------

Combining the three lines, it reads: KEY: keepmesafeyoufools, which makes the original message's internal encrypted message decodeable:

we're starting to see some strange data anomalies in the network, billboards with emotes are appearing across the sectors where slicers are battling for dominance. in addition to this, we're seeing more experienced slicers being handicapped when fighting newer slicers, but in exchange, they're now starting to earn prestige.....any idea what that is and what it is used for?

Note: The non alphabet characters might influence the vigenére cipher decoding process. Remove those or use the Cryptii decoder