Chrono.gg ARG

Chrono.gg
Active since 2017-03-05
The Chrono.gg ARG involved a bunch of coin-related puzzles spread across various sites.
Type	[[List_of_Investigations#Unofficial|Unofficial]]
Creator	Chrono.gg
Discovered	2017-03-05

Main Page > List of Investigations > Chrono.gg ARG

The following is chronological documentation of puzzles and events that occured during the Chrono.gg ARG, an ARG that took place on the popular game deal site Chrono.gg.

Chrono.gg

Subscribers to Chrono.gg's daily newsletter recieved an unexpected message on March 5, 2017:

Users quickly arrived at the first clue on Chrono.gg's homepage. A URL could be seen on the page's main image, promoting the game OmniBus: http://www.thisisnotaclue.com/

Following that URL leads to a site containing some text and an image with different color columns.

by converting the hex values of all the assembled color swathes the following message was obtained CRITICAL WARNING: COINS ARE UNEXPECTEDLY MISSING. SUSPECT IDENTIFIED. SUSPECT ID: GRENDEL23. REQUESTING INVESTIGATIVE ASSISTANCE. END TRANSMISSION.

A matching username was subsequently found in the chrono.gg forum user: https://community.chrono.gg/users/Grendel23/activity

The user's avatar caught the attention of the solvers.

This was identified as a tangram with the following solution:

Additionally, a single post was found under the same username. The first letters of every sentence in the post spell out the following:

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The link above leads to this image:

By overlaying the previously solved tangram in line with the letter grid, solvers came to the conclusion that the phrase being spelled out was GO TO / CONSPIRACY

This led solvers to http://www.thisisnotaclue.com/conspiracy, which immediately redirects to http://thecoinconspiracy.com/

The Coin Conspiracy

Arriving to this page, solvers are met with a riddle resembling the Tower of Hanoi puzzle:

Barry, an antique coin collector, has recently come into possession of a complete collection of ancient Xin dynasty coins and spades that are more than 2000 years old. There are 6 coins and 10 spades, making a total of 16 pieces, each of which has a different denomination. The coins and spades, which have square holes in their centers, are speared on a small metal rod, with the bottom spade being the largest (and the highest denomination). Barry wants to move each of the pieces to the rod in his display case; however, they cannot be scratched or otherwise damaged! To that end, Barry is only able to move one piece between rods at a time. Fortunately, Barry has a third rod that can be used for storage. Additionally, a piece is only able to be stacked on top of another piece on the same rod if it is of a smaller denomination than the coin or spade it is being placed on.

Keeping all this in mind, what's the minimum number of times will Barry have to move the Yao Quan Yi Shi piece while transferring all 16 coins and spades to his collection?

The correct answer was obtained using the exponential nature of the puzzle; with 16 disks, the Yao Quan Yi Shi piece (the 2nd disc) would need to be moved 16384 times.

Inputting the answer beneath the puzzle displays the following image:

Putting the above image through a bmp converter removes the alpha channel, allowing us to see the blocked portion of the image

The font is Wingdings, reading: /corru

This page will be updated as the ARG progresses.