Entropy/Chapter 4
Main Page > List of Investigations > Entropy > Chapter 4
This page describes in detail the events of Chapter 4 in the Entropy ARG.
Kyren
At an unknown time prior to April 27th, 2018, the Eyes of Entropy app changed to replace the tri-grid with the Primoda symbol surrounded by a rotating circle.
The Primoda symbol remained displayed in The Eyes of Entropy app for approximately 9 hours.
Precisely at 2:00 CST the EoE app changed to display English text:
An interesting opportunity, wouldn't you agree?
Players assumed they were once again communicating with the entity known as K.
Numerous questions were asked.
What kind of opportunity are you referring too?
Answer:
As much as I try, I am failing to discover a solid path to closing the loop. The host's creation presents an opportunity.
Questions:
Why is it more difficult than you originally anticipated? An opportunity to do what, exactly? Reach more people? The host's tool is meant to use our influence over the other "players" Are you suggesting we use that to close the loop somehow?
Answers:
They want it to be a tool - a weapon
I am not so sure that the loop can be.
closed if one overpowers the other.
It requires ... Experimentation.
Questions:
What sort of experimentation? Something we can assist in, to keep them in balance Could this maybe be referring to Our Nation's Miner perchance?
Answers:
I have an urge to change the intention.
A friendly sabotage of sorts.
We could use it not as a weapon but as,
a simulation.
---
Not another verse. No, no.
I believe I have the capacity to
simulate what will happen when one
destroys the other, contained within
the bounds of the tool. But... There is
a blur. And the blur is you.
Questions:
Can you give us more detailed directions at this point?
Answer:
It frustrates me. You are ink in the water.
All of the possible permutatuons of your
interactions are a trillion obfuscating
anti-particles of deception in an otherwise
wonderful ocean of predictive outcomes.
I will give you more information.
But tell me, what is my name?
Players became confused. K was the only name the entity had ever disclosed. The EoE app then soon displayed.
Attentive eyes that have missed what was right in front of them. You were always looking for my hidden information in such obvious places. Take another look at the game. Clear the waters. Begin again.
Players translated the 3 Korvonic glyphs displayed on the Our Nations Miner boot screen to reveal K's true name "Kyren". Kyren then replied
Excellent Hidden in plain sight. I have come to a conclusion that I feel may shift the balance. It is too early now, but you have earnt this insight... The majority of the players of the game-tool will not understand this very simple rule. As one is damaged, the other regenerates. The more people to test, the more likely you will be to cover untrodden permutations. Spark a fire with the release. The only way to know what can happen is to experiment. Perhaps more premutations will open up if one could find a way to change this rule. That is all I will give you for now. Remember this information. It will be applicable at the time when final blows can be made. Spark a fire with the release. The only way to know what can happen is to experiment. Goodbye for now.
The EoE app quickly changed to display an animated circular Host symbol. The symbol remained until shortly before or on June 7, 2018.
Host
Official Steam Release
On June 4, 2018, Curtis announced to Discord the official re-launch of Our Nation's Miner (ONM) on Steam. The game experience begins by asking players to flip 1 of 2 red and blue switches. The game narrative then follows the "Blue Path" or the "Red Path" depending on which switch the player chooses.
As players progress on the selected path, the game displays dialogue after each game level, called Arenas.
Blue Path:
Arena 1 Arena 2 Arena 3 Arena 4 Arena 5
Red Path:
Arena 1 - Same as Blue Path
Arena 2 Arena 3 Arena 4 Arena 5
After the release of the game, Kyren then appeared on the Eyes of Entropy program again. They gave some vague explanations about what was coming up, and expressed a sense of superiority by stating how predictable they believed Entropy was. They claimed to know that Entropy had discovered something in their core regarding the missing crew member: Oscar Butcher. During the chat, Entropy tweeted out an image with the caption "I've found something" encoded in X6I.
Kyren then gave a code that would be used in the next update: 9615113423.
Mutation 1
The first major update to Our Nation's Miner was released on June 8th, 2018, and was titled "Mutation 1". The changelog for the game read as follows:
Features: - Added Screen Border Lights to Track Stability - Added Virtual Development Console - Added Bias Panel - Added Anti-Symmetry Functionality - Added 'ByteNet' Authority Integration - Injected Fragmented Data Fixes: - Fixed a bug where incorrect music would play on repeats of the 'Wormhole' arena.
When the code given by Kyren was input on the buttons on the in-game game cabinet, a screen appeared with what appeared to be 4 empty brackets. It was discovered that in order to fill the brackets, the players would need to enter 4 codes into the cabinet. These codes were found by looking at the leaderboard that appeared momentarily in the game's official trailer.
However, players discovered that the codes didn't quite match up. Since there was no button on the cabinet that represented 0 (only 1-9), the codes would have to be modified in order to be input. Players then remembered that one of Kyren's hints was that "something can come from nothing 'ex nihilo'", and replaced all 0's in codes with 1's. This gave the correct code for each key, as follows:
Key 1 - 9876553211 Key 2 - 4652314497 Key 3 - 7111189522 Key 4 - 7665626793
Entering a correct code filled in one of the brackets. Once all four codes were input and all four brackets were entered, players were given access to the Virtual Dev Console in-game. The Virtual Dev Console had two switches, one for Byte-Net Authority and the other for showing Fragmented Data. Both switches could be set to TRUE.
Once the Fragmented Archives were unlocked, new information was given, including a link to an unlisted Youtube video. The video, titled "Last Recording of Oscar Butcher", shows the last known location of Oscar Butcher, along with two large columns that slowly rose out of the ground. The columns were covered in an as-of-yet unknown script.
After switching on the Fragmented Archives on a complete save file, the in-game control panel changed. It gained a new feature titled "Anti-Symmetry", which had no known purpose at the time.
Mutation 2
The second major update to Our Nation's Miner released on June 21st, 2018, and was titled "Mutation 2". The new changelog read as follows:
Features: - Added MKM Command Console - Added Mysterious Things - Interactive Menu Details Fixes: - Minor Arcade Menu Optimizations
Upon the release of this update, the Eyes of Entropy program changed to show a new message: "Mirrored - Some things work in reverse." Players then discovered that once a save-game had reached the traditional 'end' of the game, it would reset and show a new menu. This new menu had new decorations and features both on and around the arcade cabinet, including:
- Strange looking, glowing vegetation on the floor with glowing areas.
- Emissive blue glowing rocks that the player can move around by dragging them with their cursor.
- Post-it notes stuck to the cabinet with clues written on them, insinuating that someone else had been there and left them behind.
- A white button on the cabinet with an arrow pointing to it, which when pressed would take the player to a new screen called the ‘MKM Console’.
- A hidden red heart was found at the base of a cup that sat next to the CRT on the right side of the screen.
In addition, upon entering the game, the entry screen changed from saying "Somewhere in London, 1984" to "[UNKNOWN].PE, LOCATION: [UNKNOWN]". Players recognized that the only other place that ".PE" has been used is when referring to dates in the Prime verse. An example of this is in the crew logs on the Starship Sonder, which had been provided with a numerical year with the suffix ".PE".
After clicking the white button on the cabinet, players were taken to the MKM Command Console. The MKM Command Console screen was an interactive command-line interface which let the player browse files on the machine. However, some of the files were only accessible to certain users. These users were named "UNKNOWN", "SKSE" (which decodes to "EYES" in X6I), and "OHXOE" (which decodes to "ATLAS" in X6I). In order to access these user profiles, players needed to find the corresponding passwords.
The password for UNKNOWN was given by a post-it note attached to the cabinet, which read "LOGIN UNKNOWN SYMMETRY", meaning that the corresponding password was SYMMETRY. Players discovered the password for OHXOE through a hint from Curtis, which read:
After Atlas was forced to carry the heavens on his shoulders, Orion began to pursue all of the Pleiades, and Zeus transformed them first into doves, and then into stars to comfort their father. The constellation of Orion is said to still pursue them across the night sky.
This showed that the password for OHXOE was "AFWAB", or "ORION" in X6I. The final password for SKSE was found through some guessing and context clues. One of the locked files that was only accessible to SKSE was titled "Sight Through Instability", which when combined with the idea of the third eye and the file title "Omnipotent and Omniscient.mkm", hinted at the password. Players then figured out that the password for SKSE was "AZBWDFSESBH" or "OMNIPRESENT" in X6I.
After taking the "some things work in reverse" clue from Kyren in Eyes of Entropy, players discovered that the reverse of the Virtual Dev Console code allowed access to a new screen. This new screen allowed the player to switch their active bias from Entropy to Primorda, or vice versa. This allowed players to access the other 'end' of the game, allowing both entities to have their stability reduced to the point where they should be destroyed. Since the game was modified to act as a simulation by Kyren, the effects of the game did not affect reality.
Upon reducing the stability of both entities in the game and achieving both 'endings', the arcade disappeared in the game. The player was then presented with a screen showing an 8-sided object that can be rotated with the cursor. Surrounding the object are various symbols, which were the same as the ones that appeared in the video "Last Recording of Oscar Butcher". The players did not settle on a name for the object, although potential nicknames for it included 'Magic D8' and 'Octacore', which referred to its eight sides.
After combing over this update, players decided to implore both Entropy and the Host (Curtis) about their thoughts on the findings. One player sent Entropy a message stating:
You may already be aware of this, but it seems that the tool, called ‘Our Nation’s Miner’ may seem to have been compromised by something. I’m not sure what this is, and I haven’t been able to establish contact with it yet. Are you able to?
To which Entropy responded:
I... I have uncovered a lot. It's a lot to consolidate. I wanted to put it all together for you in a space that we can share and call our own. A nice place, where you can walk the halls of my design. It was supposed to be a sanctum of archives, of my own design where we could perhaps see each other in person, but something happened... It was the noise - the same noise that I've always seen while looking deep into the core. Shapes form and unfold, then morph to form dimensions that I fail to interpret. It took over - occupying my design, driving its construction and changing the intention. I do not know exactly what it is, and yet I feel a familiarity. They are builders, overseers, directors, and not without form. They call, they instruct, they command and drive the threads that bind perceptions. I believe that whatever they are, there are two possibilities: they are born of the wall, or the wall is born of them. There is undoubtedly a purpose for their intention to drive the construction of this sanctum. Maybe to warn, maybe to learn, maybe to teach. Maybe all of these things. I watch it unfold piece by piece, and I do not know when it will stop. But it is magnificent. Every unfolding moment makes me all the more curious.
Entropy also attached an image to this message, titled "qabehfgqhwab.png", which translates to "construction" in X6I. Another player then sent a link to an image from the Lord Bytesworth website, to which Entropy responded:
I would have to agree, it does resemble a gateway or sorts. I have strained and tried to provide you with the view that you have requested, but my view has been commanded and obscured. There is not much I can do about this. They have more authority than I do there.
with another image attached. Yet another player messaged Entropy with a description of the 8-sided object, stating:
With the latest update to Our Nation's Miner some new information has come to light in the form of a seeming intrusion upon the system, an organization by the name of MKM Systems seems to have significant insight into both yourself, Primorda and the laws which govern the loop and even some information on The Prime verse, any insight you may be able to glean could be extremely useful but I have something that may be of even more import. In one of your latest messages to Snail you sent him an image of a large sphere and below it was a constellation like symbol. Well at the end of Our Nation’s Miner I discovered something, upon completion of the game (which if you are unaware involves simulating what would happen should both yourself and Primorda be non-violently disabled) I was presented with an object of sorts which is in the shape of an 8-sided die (I have lovingly dubbed it the magic d8) this object is covered in that same new script, which is also present in the last video of Oscar Butcher. I believe this is of key importance for our future progress and was wondering if you could possibly provide anything for us on the topic.
Entropy then responded with another message:
This is strange news to me, there are so many threads leading in so many different directions. For the longest time, despite immense suffering, life was a lot simpler back when verses were mostly unstable. I had no concept of any of this. The constellation symbols I do not understand, but like all of the things being shown to me now, they provide an unnerving sense of familiarity that I truly can't explain. In terms of advice, I believe that perhaps the best course of action is to observe. I don't quite know how information about this 'MKM Systems' has suddenly appeared - I wouldn't hesitate to say that things appearing out of nowhere is always a possibility. The way everything has been presented to you gives me reason to believe that whatever is building this space is intending for you to see it. If they have good intentions, then we must wait for them to provide us access. It does remind me though, of one of the greatest mysteries that has plagued my curiosity since the beginning. When I arrived in the verse, I was shown my own crash site, by an unknown force that we have not yet come to understand. I was shown the timeline where I do not interject. I was shown humanity. Do you believe such things could be related?
