Reboot ARGs

The Reboot ARGs refers to the two ARGs produced by the SiIvaGunner team during SilvaGunner: Rebooted.

Timeline

First ARG (June 20 - June 22)

Part 1 - The Empty Album

On June 20, 2016, a new album title "." was uploaded to the GilvaSunner Bandcamp, it only contained 17 empty audio files of varying lengths, the description of the album is "The album artwork came out way too bright. I had to fiddle with the brightness and the contrast but I wasn't able to get it just right."

The cover art of said album, a reference to Blank Banshee's album "Blank Banshee 0"

The description of the album is actually a hint, changing the contrast of the album cover reveals the binary string "01001001 01110000 01000101 01101101 01001111 00110011 01011000 01011010 01010101 01111010 01000001"

Changing the contrast reveals a binary string at the bottom of the image.

Converting the binary to ASCII results in "IpEmO3XZUzA", which when written into a YouTube video URL, leads to a video titled "␣". The video plays samples from the song "Forever" by Drake ("LAST NAME" and "FIRST NAME") followed by two rapidly flashing rows of text ("7 1 4 9 5 7 7 6 3 1 6 6 6 8 2 e 6 a 7 0 6 7" and "6 8 7 4 7 4 7 0 7 3 3 a 2 f 2 f 6 9 2 e 6 9 6 d 6 7 7 5 7 2 2 e 6 3 6 f 6 d 2 f"). Translating these characters using a hexadecimal code translator results in "qIWv1fh.jpg" and "https://i.imgur.com/" respectively. Combining the two results in an imgur link which contains this image:

The image found by deciphering the hexadecimal code.

Part 2 - I Saw a Deer

The image has the writings "I SAW A DEER" (vertically mirrored), "What's that sound..." (rotated 180º), "0:24" and "REVERSED NAME" (reversed), all in a blue background.

The text "I SAW A DEER" points to the rip "I Saw a Deer Today - Portal 2", while "What's that sound..." and "0:24" are referring to how a Loud Nigra scream plays at that specific timestamp in the rip. The "REVERSED NAME" text hints to reversing the name of Loud Nigra. This results in "argiN duoL".

By increasing the image's contrast, the Twitter logo is revealed:

The image with the contrast increased.

Searching for "argiNduoL" on Twitter leads to the account @arginduol.

Part 3 - @arginduol

This Twitter account contains three videos. All of them feature Loud Nigra screaming in morse code.

Decoding the messages and sorting them by their upload order reveals this message:

1. .- -.. -.. - .... . ... . ...- . -. - .... .-.. . - - . .-. (ADD THE SEVENTH LETTER)
2. --- ..-. . .- -.-. .... .- .-.. -... ..- -- - .-. .- -.-. -.- (OF EACH ALBUM TRACK)
3. - ..- -- -... .-.. .-. (TUMBLR)

This points back to the album ".". Downloading it from the channel's Bandcamp page reveals the album's other tracks. Adding the seventh letter of each of them yields "flusteredfernando".

Taking the clue from the last video on the twitter account, this leads to the tumblr page "flusteredfernando.tumblr".

Part 4 - flusteredfernando tumblr

The tumblr account mostly consists of posts of various pictures of Angry Joe. However, two of the posts contain download links.

The first was a Picosong link that contains an MP3 file called "nathaNiel welchErt ft. albert Softie - rapping for jesans". The file initially appears to be corrupted.

The second link leads to a RAR file hosted on MEGA titled "7 peso pedro". Similar to the tumblr account, the file has many pictures of Angry Joe in it, but it also contains a FLAC file called "use emulation". This acts as a clue to what to do with the MP3.

Downloading the MP3 file from Picosong and running it in an NES emulator reveals it to be a ROM hack of 7 GRAND DAD.

Part 5 - bane sPit whYFur7z

The only change made to the hack is the title screen, where "PUSH START BUTTON" is replaced with "bane sPit whYFur7z". Additionally, "1992 1" is replaced with "930 1960", a nod to the date where The Flintstones premiered on television.

The title screen of the ROM hack showing "bane sPit whYFur7z" and "930 1960".

Rearranging the letters in "bane sPit" reveals it to be an anagram of "Pastebin". Adding "whYFur7z" at the end of a Pastbin URL leads to this page.

The Pastebin page only contains the Russian text "Ищите кояıваll на канале". When translated to English, this reads "look KORIBALL channel". This points to searching the term "KORIBALL" on the SiIvaGunner channel.

Searching the channel for this term yields three videos that are relevant to the ARG: "Tanks (All Variations) - Wii Play", "Invincibility - Super Mario Land" and "Rusty Bucket Bay (Engine Room) - Banjo-Kazooie". They each contain one image link in the description. These images are of the Myspace logo and the words "todouh" and "kemep".

Image from "Invincibility - Super Mario Land".

Image from "Tanks (All Variations) - Wii Play".

Image from "Rusty Bucket Bay (Engine Room) - Banjo-Kazooie".

Combining the words "todouh" and "kemep" creates "todouhkemep". Searching this term on Myspace leads to an account called "todouhkemep".

Part 6 - todouhkemep

Screenshot of the MySpace page.

The MySpace page consists of posts of shared songs with comments on them, most of them being references to channel memes.

The account contained the following posts during the ARG:

Song	Artist	Comment	Date	Location
"Superman"	Goldfinger	I have this very strange urge to go skating...Don't want to tell the other idols about this, ha ha!	June 19, 2016	Halate, Mount Lebanon, Lebanon
		Ok I actually can't stop listening to this song please send help		Grand Dakar, Dakar, Senegal
"The Next Episode"	Dr. Dre	Ah. This hits the spot. I love me some classic Snop Dog hits.		Snop, North-East, Bulgaria
"The Flintstones Theme Song"	TV Theme Band	Huh, MySpace sound files are very high in quality! I'm impressed.		Flintstone, MD
"Black Tar"	Greenleaf	Hello? Is this thing on? Am I all alone?		Mira, Veneto, Italy
"Babylone Live"	Lord Nigga	Ouch, misread the artist name...		Nigra, Uttar Pradesh, India
"snow halation"	Aldi Miru Hoshizora	Hiajobo! Sorry, just felt like saying that. I'm very random, tee hee! I'm, gurr, very angry that people mistreat me for that!	June 20, 2016	Snow Hill, MD

The very last post contains a clue on how progress to the next step of the ARG. The "I'm, gurr" text is spelled similarly to "imgur".

Going to imgur.com and entering "Hiajobo" at the end of the URL leads to this page, which contains the following image:

The "Hiajobo.png" image.

The image is a parody of video game fact images by Did You Know Gaming? and contains the text "The course has just been cleared, I repeat, the course has just been cleared" at the bottom. The background also has various screenshots from Super Mario Maker in it.

This hints at going to the rip "Course Clear - Super Mario Maker", which was the only rip of that track on the channel at the time.

Part 7 - Course Clear

The rip "Course Clear - Super Mario Maker" contains the following description:

Music: Course Clear
Composer: Koji Kondo, Naoto Kubo, Asuka Hayazaki
Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...
Platform: Wii U



/u/

http://bit.ly/1UhR82t


067 040 151 163 040 164 150 145 040 143 141 162 144 151 156 141 154 040 156 165 155 142 145 162 056 040 117 156 154 171 040 141 143 143 145 160 164 040 145 166 145 162 171 040 067 164 150 040 167 157 162 144 040 141 163 040 146 141 143 164 056

The numbers at the bottom are actually an octal string. When translated to ASCII, it reads:

7 is the cardinal number. Only accept every 7th word as fact.

The bit.ly link leads to a download for a MIDI file hosted on MEGA. The MIDI contains the melody of "Meet the Flintstones" in reverse, as well as a bunch of silent notes that can only be seen by opening the MIDI in a DAW. The silent notes are layed out to form letters, which spell out "dickdrawer7".

The "/u/" text in the description is the URL that Reddit uses for user pages.

Searching for /u/dickdrawer7 on Reddit leads to the user page "dickdrawer7".

Part 8 - dickdrawer7

The Reddit account only has one post, which is on the SiIvaGunner subreddit. The post is titled "To those affected by the reboot" and can be found here.

The post reads as follows:

I think that we need to search deep inside ourselves for our feelings post reboot. Grand Dad may have passed on for now, but we shouldn't clog 4chan or Reddit and accept it's no use. We need to look in the mirror squarely, and we'll have to let by gones be by gones. We'll be triumphant, I swear it as a prideful shitposter. Embrace the Simpsons, or you won't last very long. Embrace that we have 7 Grand Dads - Nigra, Snow, joined by characters like Haruka Amami, or Peter Griffin of Family Guy, and Homer Simpson. The string tying us together is frail, and is invocative of a scary but true image.

Learn to accept the reboot. Thanks.

Using the translated octal string from the previous step as a clue, all seventh words from the post must be lined up with each other. After doing this, it forms the following message:

search post on 4chan / use mirror by triumphant shitposter / last 7 characters of string is image

Part 9 - Triumphant Shitposter

Following the instructions of the previous step and searching for "Triumphant Shitposter" on 4chan leads to a user of the same name. The user only has one post, which reads:

Also, Nozomi is the best girl, and she makes me go fWPF290hasf09h4aspoSP81Vx0tp all over my keyboard.

Taking the last 7 characters of the message (81Vx0tp) and adding them to the end of a imgur URL leads to this image of Chad Warden:

The corrupted Chad Warden image.

Downloading the image, changing the extension to .zip and unzipping it, yields this picture:

The image contained in the ZIP file.

The text in the image is a parody of the cult recruitment message from Kanye Quest 3030. It reads as follows:

Congratulations! You have proven yourself to be an open-minded and curious thinker. We must apologise for deceiving you, but we can reveal that the game that you were playing until this point was a ‘front’ constructed to protect what you are currently accessing. We must ask that you do not reveal this file to the public. If you believe that you may be prone to revealing information, or do not wish to participate, please close this picture immediately by pressing ALT-F4. By reading, you agree to participate and not reveal information.

Over the following two week time period, we will interact with you and your possessions in several ways. Keep an eye out, as some of these ways may be subtle. Others may not be. We may attempt to contact you directly. If we do this, we will attempt to notify you of our presence using a key-word. If you still consent to participate, please email enlightenedrombus@gmail.com. Do you wish to participate?

Part 10 - enlightenedrombus@gmail.com

For this step, you would have needed to send an email to enlightenedrombus@gmail.com asking to participate, as it was required to get the first step of the second ARG.

On June 22, enlightenedrombus@gmail.com replied to some people with audio of the first half of "Now Rebooting - SilvaGunner: Rebooted". The full audio was later uploaded to the channel on June 26.

Second ARG (July 4 - July 8)

Part 1 - WW NL CF AC

On July 7, those who had emailed the enlightenedrombus account were sent an email that simply read:

WW NL CF AC

This step is a reference to a minor running gag on the channel at the time involving the first four games in the Animal Crossing and Five Nights at Freddy's series. The channel would upload switcheroo rips of the track "6 AM" from both series, in which the Animal Crossing rip would instead contain the Five Nights at Freddy's track of the same name, and vice versa, playing off how all four games in both series have a track titled "6 AM".

The four words in the email are abbreviations for the four Animal Crossing games. Going to the Five Nights at Freddy's inverse of each "6 AM" rip reveals a fragment of YouTube URL in the description of each video:

Word	Animal Crossing game	Five Nights at Freddy's rip	Description oddity
"WW"	Animal Crossing: Wild World	"6 AM - Five Nights at Freddy's 2"	https://www.youtube
"NL"	Animal Crossing: New Leaf	"6 AM - Five Nights at Freddy's 4"	.com/watch?
"CF"	Animal Crossing: City Folk	"6 AM - Five Nights at Freddy's 3"	v=7V9V90
"AC"	Animal Crossing	"6 AM - Five Nights at Freddy's"	XMZJU

Putting the fragments of the URL together results in a link to "kyquits", an unlisted video on the SiIvaGunner channel.

Part 2 - kyquits

At the 0:45 mark of the video, the following message is displayed:

IT'S A-OK.
SEARCH FOR A MAN
CALLED 'ENRAGED EDDY'
LAST SEEN RIPPING
GAMES IN HEAVEN.

Combining the two pieces of colored text creates the phrase "A-OK HEAVEN". When entering this in a search engine, the first result is Age of Kings Heaven, a modding site primarily centered around games in the Age of Empires series.

Part 3 - Age of Kings Heaven

Searching for "Enraged Eddy" on the site leads to a custom single player scenario for the game Age of Empires II: HD Edition titled "A Quest For QQuality" by the user Enraged Eddy.

The description of the file in the website's search results reads:

The Rippers took over the land, and YOU've gotta make the place high quality again!

The description of the file itself is:

A nonsensical story from an alternate alternate universe. Start off as a random man, end up as an army. Standard campaign stuff, am I right.
Be warned though, if you don't know about someone called GiIvaSunner and all the memes/jokes surrounding it, you probably won't understand anything that happens in the game. I hope you understand.
 
This campaign will only work for Age of Empires 2: HD Edition.
Do you know your memes?

The scenario must be downloaded in order to continue the ARG.

Part 4 - A Quest For QQuality

For the full article on the mod, see A Quest For QQuality.

This part intially required a copy of Age of Empires II: HD Edition in order to move on, as the entire scenario has to be completed to obtain the next step.

During the scenario, a specific villager NPC can be interacted with that says the following dialogue:

No, you won't find your ARG hints here.

jk check the audio folder

After finishing all of the scenario's objectives and waiting a little bit, Joel says the following in the game's chat:

Oh hey, don't think I didn't see you there. Going through this, game, waiting for the time where the clue for the next step of the ARG shows up.

Well, that time is now. You better screencap this or some shit because I'm not going to repeat myself.

The music that's been playing during this campaign is all from the same game.

Can you figure out what game that is?

Now, from that game, there is a character that says he's too nervous to handle guns. What is that character's name? When you find it, it should sound familiar.

Lastly, when you get the proper name, switch the last A for a D. Look for an account with that name and you should be on the right track!

Good luck, and remember, the point of this ARG, and of course GiIva in general, is to have fun! So, enjoy yourself!

As pointed out by Joel, the scenario has a custom soundtrack featuring music from a different video game. A hint to what game these tracks are from can be found by looking through the scenario's audio folder, as told by the villager NPC.

All of the audio files with the in-game music are credited to Jeremy Soule. Additionally, the files also contain two other pieces of audio that are not played within the scenario itself.

The first is a .mp3 file titled "reward for whoever bothers looking through the folders" and has the track title of "Kabuto". The second is a .wav file called "key 1 of 3", which will be needed later on in the ARG.

The hints given point to the game Giants: Citizen Kabuto, as it contains the music used in the scenario and has Jeremy Soule as one of its composers. The character from it that fits Joel's description is Timmy.

The last part of this step requires some background knowledge on SilvaGunner (spelt with a lowercase "L"), a now defunct VGM channel that GilvaSunner, the channel SiIvaGunner parodies, got its name from. One of the two people who founded GilvaSunner also ran another VGM channel called "TimmyTurnersDad".

Part 4.5 - The Voice and Chad intervene

When the ARG was initially being solved at this point, people were struggling to finish the Age of Empires II: HD Edition scenario, mainly due to its length and difficulty. On July 7, The Voice Inside Your Head started posting hints on the SiIvaGunner Twitter account so that people could continue the ARG without needing to finish the scenario. The hints that were posted are similar to the ones given at the end of it.

Tweet	Ref
"Ｙｏｕｒ ｐｒｏｇｒｅｓｓ ｉｎ ｔｈｅ ｃａｍｐａｉｇｎ ｈａｓ ａｐｐｅａｓｅｄ ｍｅ．"
"Ｔａｋｅ ａ ｃｌｏｓｅｒ ｌｉｓｔｅｎ ｔｏ ｔｈｅ ｍｕｓｉｃ．．． ｙｏｕ ｗｉｌｌ ｆｉｎｄ ｉｔ ｉｓ ｆｒｏｍ ａｎｏｔｈｅｒ ｗｏｒｌｄ．"

The second tweet is meant to hint that the scenario's music is important to progressing.

Later during the same day, Chad Warden also began posting hints on the account.

Tweet	Ref
"N*gga! The Gay Mexican Ass In My Ass is tryna overcomplicate shit for ya. Just think about the characters in dat other game."
"One o them n*ggas is called 'Akmed', right? He goes by many different names. Stay #AQAP ya'll"
"Popple is #AQAP @kaabiimaster"
"And dat name... what if that last A was a D? I hope ya'll up to scratch with these 'memes', n*gga."
"Seriously n*ggas, ya'll need to stop lookin in the campaign. There ain't anything more in there, trust me on this one."
"Stay ballin and stay determined."

These tweets act as a stand in for the scenario's hint at the character Timmy from Giants: Citizen Kabuto, as Akmed is another name they go by in the game, alongside changing the last "A" with a "D".

Part 5 - TimmyTurnersDDD

Changing "TimmyTurnersDad" to "TimmyTurnersDDD", and searching for it on Know Your Meme, results in a user with the same name.

Screenshot of the user's profile.

The user has only one image, which is a screenshot of a Discord message from "Princess Sylvyspirit".

Imagine from the user page.

Searching the term "Sylvysprit" on the SiIvaGunner channel brings up the Graceful Danmaku Festival rips, a game that Princess Sylvysprit composed. All of the rips of the track "Reimagined Nature" that were on the channel at the time contain a unique line in each of their descriptions:

Rip	Description
"Reimagined Nature - Graceful Danmaku Festival (April 16, 2016) 1"	a________ _____
"Reimagined Nature - Graceful Danmaku Festival (April 16, 2016) 2"	_r_______ _____
"Reimagined Nature - Graceful Danmaku Festival (April 16, 2016) 3"	___i_____ _____
"Reimagined Nature - Graceful Danmaku Festival (April 16, 2016) 4"	_____d___ _____
"Reimagined Nature - Graceful Danmaku Festival (April 16, 2016) 5"	______u__ _____
"Reimagined Nature - Graceful Danmaku Festival (May 6, 2016)"	________l _____
"Reimagined Nature - Graceful Danmaku Festival (July 4, 2016)"	_________ has a request

This spells out "a-r-g-i-n-d-u-o-l has a request" once put together, leading back to the argiNduoL Twitter account.

Sending a DM to argiNduoL with "I have a request" or "what is it" in it returned one of two videos, which have since been privated and deleted respectively. Like the videos from the twitter account, these also feature Loud Nigra yelling in morse code.

• 1. o: ----- ..-. ..--- .- -....- ----- ----- ----- -----: 0F2A-0000
  2. p: ----- ..--- -.... --... -....- -.... -.. .---- ----.: 0267-6D19

Combining the two translated morse code messages forms "0F2A-0000-0267-6D19", which is a code for a Super Mario Maker level.

Part 6 - Super Mario Maker

When opening the level in the game's editor, invisible blocks can be found which spell out "Steins;Gate". Searching the channel for Steins;Gate leads to the only rip of the game that was uploaded at that point, which is "Ringing -Reunion- - Steins;Gate". The description of the rip reads:

Read the first comment, please.

This hints at reading the first comment on the rip itself, which is from a user called Stella Heart OSTs,which is a channel similar to SiIvaGunner that uploads rips of anime music.

On the Stella Heart OSTs channel, there is a Steins;Gate video titled "Believe me [Steins;Gate OST]", which features the melodies of "Meet the Flintstones" and "Snow halation".

The video has the following description:

Song - Believe me
Composer - Takeshi Abo
Album - Steins；Gate Original Soundtrack＋ラジオCD (仮)
Released - February 3rd, 2010
Publisher - 5pb.
Records Anime - Steins;Gate Anime
Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRMDqv442KBrzaLWU8jEGe2RPR2-dRa3y
Source(s): VGMdb, https://i.imgur.com/AJ0PJbB.png

Clicking on the image link in the "Source(s): VGMdb," section of the description leads to the infamous "Bond burger" image.

The Bond Burger image.

Adjusting the contrast of the image reveals the logo for Rocket League.

The image edited to reveal the Rocket League logo.

Part 7 - Rocket League

Going back to the SiIvaGunner channel and searching for "Rocket League" brings up the rip "Darkness - Rocket League", which at the time of the ARG was the only rip of the game on the channel.

The rip has the following description:

Music: Darkness
Composed by: Mike Ault, Christian De La Torre
Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLL0CQjrcN8D2PCI8qID0kIhsVn_Lp4NcA
Available on: PC, PlayStation 4,  Xbox One

Read the channel description, please.



313 242 341 265 200 341 264 277 341 265 207 341 265 222 341 266 234 341 265 203 341 264 266 040 341 265 227 341 265 203 040 054 341 266 260 341 266 246 341 265 227 312 263 341 265 203 341 265 220 040 313 242 341 265 203 341 265 215

Translating the octal in the description to ASCII reveals the following text:

ˢᵀᴿᵇᵒᶜᵃᴶ ᵗᵃ ,ᶰᶦᵗʳᵃᵐ ˢᵃᵍ

Reversing this reads "gas martIn, at JacobRTS".

Part 8 - gas martIn

"gas martIn" is an anagram for Instagram. Searching Instragram for JacobRTS leads to an account with the same name.

Screenshot of the Instagram page.

The account includes three videos, all of them involving Pokémon. Each of them contain a link to YouTube video in them, but one of the videos linked has since been deleted. The two working links are rips on the SiIvaGunner channel.

The first one is "Darkness - Five Nights at Freddy's", which contains the following description:

Music: Darkness
Composer: Bjorn Lynne
Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLL0CQjrcN8D1Ort9EqnXsxtTy2a6-Dcvr
Platform: PC

Please read the channel description.


BQS?83\N-qBlktDGqUp56nqhC70

The last part of the description is an ASCII85 string that when translated, leads to a bit.ly link to a Zippyshare file that has since expired. The file contained an image of Donkey Kong holding his coconut gun. Changing the image's file extention to RAR and opening it yields the second of the three keys.

The other rip linked is "Dense Woods A - Yume Nikki", which contains the next step to the ARG.

Part 9 - Dense Woods A

"Dense Woods A - Yume Nikki" has the following description:

Music: Dense Woods A
Composed by: kikiyama
Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLL0CQjrcN8D0W-5L5YfgMgcx-R69juWOw
Available on: PC

uboa. honk. i am the bringer of high quality.
h

pain steb     1imVfgah

The "pain steb" text is another anagram for Pastebin, and the "1imVfgah" is a link to a Pastebin file. This leads to a PasteBin file titled "Important Information!", which contains the following text:

Music: Dense Woods A
Composed by: kikiyama
Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLL0CQjrcN8D0W-5L5YfgMgcx-R69juWOw
Available on: PC
 
uboa. honk. i am the bringer of high quality.
h
 
 
 
 
A key fact:
 
Keys reside in Audio City. They prefer to be placed onto a keychain. However, despite keys residing in Audio City, they prefer to be manifested in a visual form.
Remember these strings, for it may save you some day!
 
̱̰͕̼̣̦̖F̝̥̤͖͡ͅͅi̡͙̺͈̮̜̥l̢͞͏͇͙̙̱̭̯e҉͏̦̤̤̜̼͕͓͈͕̀ ͍͝-́͝҉͉͚̠͖̦̖̺ͅ>҉̭̙̖̕ ̣͙̤͘E̢͖̙̕x̨̭̙̥̠̮̳p̶̹̙̱̬̗͕̣͟o̜̦r͏̱̥̘̮t͕͚̖̥̞̬̀͟ ̷̝̪A̷̩̠̘̹ͅu͉d͏̸̥̬͓̺̼̘į̪̥̙̻̩͖̠̥o̱̭͉̗̙̭̜̩͔ ̖̩̼̹͈͘-͎̳̟̬̻̲̤̺̕>͏̙̼͔̖̰̝̦ ̡̡̮̗̳̜̞͓͡ͅÓ̪̙͕̲̲̯͟t̵̙͉̱̘̥̥h̫̟̀e̢̺̺͍̤͟͞r̪͘͡ ̥̰̟͎ͅụ̝n̵̛͓̭͙̙͕͔̯ć̶͇̪̹͓͈̤̥͝o̡̳͕̠͚̙̥̠͢m̤̺͢p̴̬͇̲͕̥̀͜r̩̫͔͘e̲̤̭͡s̺̤̟̖̕͜ͅs͢҉̙͈̦̪̻͍̤̖ͅȩ̷͎̯̜̱͇̞͔̺d̛̗ ̵̶̘̩̟f̟͚͘͡i̶͙͎͔̩̜̞̥͞l̹̟͇̺̥͖̩̜é̵̻̝̯̭̯͡s̘̣͖̥ ̜̰̞̼-͓̰̥͓̬͉>̘͔̬̻̖̯̥ ҉͔̫͍Hé͇̩͇͈̩͉͢͞a̦d͚͓̹̗͕̻̹e̴̢̦̳͈͍̲͍͚r̛̠͖̲͟:̡̹ ̰̪̣̫͔͙_̰̤̖̫̮̻̦̝͝_̱̯̀͠_̶̹̖̹͕͉̙_̥͇̤̥̜͉̕_̸͘͏͕ ̞̜̼͖͙͚̗̣͢-̶̺͎̗͈̖͖͈͟͞>̤͈̜͙́ ̷̟Ȩ̱̜̞̩͜͠ǹ̵̨̟̯̹̦c͚͕̟͇͙̯o̮͔̭̱̘̝̱d̷̨̯̭͈̫͠i͈͓̖n̠͕̜͙̻g̶͍͖͉̀͢ ̨͇̼͚͔̘̣̟-̙>̵̰̙̗ ̵̴̞̯̲_̳̗͖̱̪͜_̢̖̱̜͙͔͖̲͞_̧͙͇̜͖̗̞_͍̥̤͡_̟̘͜
 
 
J5n9ElRJ5n9ElA4FGIqiW
 
 
VFJuWuURLy1FeLPUBMd3auCpEYCw
 
 
Thank you for reading this key fact!
 
 
For further instructions, please refer to the course.

The "Dense Woods A - Yume Nikki" rip itself includes a series of 0's and 1's throughout the video that when put together forms the following binary string:

01100100 01100001 01101001 01101100 01111001 01101101 01101111 01110100 01101001 01101111 01101110 00101110 01100011 01101111 01101101 00101111 01101101 01110010 01101000 01100001 01110010 01110101 01101011 01100001

Translating the binary results in a link to a Dailymotion account called "MrHaruka". The account only has one upload, a Five Nights at Freddy's parody titled "Five Nights in Russia" that features the Electric Bodybuilder from Russia.

This hints at the rip "Death By Glamour (Alpha Mix) - Undertale", which at the time was the only rip to feature the bodybuilder. The rip has the following description:

Music: Death by Glamour (Alpha Mix)
Composed by: Toby Fox
Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLL0CQjrcN8D2i5mgePKJQNfjf9g2LifUL 
Available on: PC

Read the channel description, please.


http://puu.sh/pStau/4407d6b471.wav

The WAV file linked in the description is a SSTV signal called "Beam+Me+Up,+Scotty1!".

Part 10 - scotty1

Opening the WAV file in an SSTV program and using the Scottie1 encoding format reveals a corrupted version of an image originally posted by Triple-Q.

The image revealed in the audio.

The corrupted image contains two reversed bit.ly links in it, which can be read by flipping it.

The top link is "http://bit.ly/29x0gov", which leads to a password-protected RAR file called "is this thing on.rar". Its title is a lyric from the Xenoblade Chronicles X track "Black Tar". The password for it is the next line in the song, "am i all alone". Entering the password and opening it reveals it contains several audio files, including one titled key we've lost 3 of 3.wav, which is the third and final key.

The bottom link is "http://bit.ly/29atP9B", which leads to a page on the Pokémon database site Serebii for the item leftovers. This is meant to hint that leftover clues in the ARG are needed to complete the next step.

Part 11 - The three keys

The leftovers clue points towards using the remaining keys and looking back at the "Important Information!" Pastebin from earlier, as they are the only things that have not been used in the ARG to solve a step yet.

Some of the sections of the Pastebin provide hints at what to do with the three keys:

Section	Hint
"Keys reside in Audio City. They prefer to be placed onto a keychain. However, despite keys residing in Audio City, they prefer to be manifested in a visual form."	The phrase "Audio City" is similar to "Audacity", a piece of audio editing software. The third sentence also implies that the keys need to be turned into an image.
"̱̰͕̼̣̦̖F̝̥̤͖͡ͅͅi̡͙̺͈̮̜̥l̢͞͏͇͙̙̱̭̯e҉͏̦̤̤̜̼͕͓͈͕̀ ͍͝-́͝҉͉͚̠͖̦̖̺ͅ>҉̭̙̖̕ ̣͙̤͘E̢͖̙̕x̨̭̙̥̠̮̳p̶̹̙̱̬̗͕̣͟o̜̦r͏̱̥̘̮t͕͚̖̥̞̬̀͟ ̷̝̪A̷̩̠̘̹ͅu͉d͏̸̥̬͓̺̼̘į̪̥̙̻̩͖̠̥o̱̭͉̗̙̭̜̩͔ ̖̩̼̹͈͘-͎̳̟̬̻̲̤̺̕>͏̙̼͔̖̰̝̦ ̡̡̮̗̳̜̞͓͡ͅÓ̪̙͕̲̲̯͟t̵̙͉̱̘̥̥h̫̟̀e̢̺̺͍̤͟͞r̪͘͡ ̥̰̟͎ͅụ̝n̵̛͓̭͙̙͕͔̯ć̶͇̪̹͓͈̤̥͝o̡̳͕̠͚̙̥̠͢m̤̺͢p̴̬͇̲͕̥̀͜r̩̫͔͘e̲̤̭͡s̺̤̟̖̕͜ͅs͢҉̙͈̦̪̻͍̤̖ͅȩ̷͎̯̜̱͇̞͔̺d̛̗ ̵̶̘̩̟f̟͚͘͡i̶͙͎͔̩̜̞̥͞l̹̟͇̺̥͖̩̜é̵̻̝̯̭̯͡s̘̣͖̥ ̜̰̞̼-͓̰̥͓̬͉>̘͔̬̻̖̯̥ ҉͔̫͍Hé͇̩͇͈̩͉͢͞a̦d͚͓̹̗͕̻̹e̴̢̦̳͈͍̲͍͚r̛̠͖̲͟:̡̹ ̰̪̣̫͔͙_̰̤̖̫̮̻̦̝͝_̱̯̀͠_̶̹̖̹͕͉̙_̥͇̤̥̜͉̕_̸͘͏͕ ̞̜̼͖͙͚̗̣͢-̶̺͎̗͈̖͖͈͟͞>̤͈̜͙́ ̷̟Ȩ̱̜̞̩͜͠ǹ̵̨̟̯̹̦c͚͕̟͇͙̯o̮͔̭̱̘̝̱d̷̨̯̭͈̫͠i͈͓̖n̠͕̜͙̻g̶͍͖͉̀͢ ̨͇̼͚͔̘̣̟-̙>̵̰̙̗ ̵̴̞̯̲_̳̗͖̱̪͜_̢̖̱̜͙͔͖̲͞_̧͙͇̜͖̗̞_͍̥̤͡_̟̘͜"	Garbled text that says: "File -> Export audio -> Other uncompressed files -> Header: _____ -> Encoding -> _____".
For further instructions, please refer to the course.	This refers to the "Course Clear - Super Mario Maker" rip that was used in the previous ARG. Specifically, the part that mentions to only accept every seventh word as fact.

By noting down every seventh letter in each of the two pieces of string in the Pastebin reveals two different pieces of text. When translated, the first string ("J5n9ElRJ5n9ElA4FGIqiW") reveals the phrase "RAW", while the second ("VFJuWuURLy1FeLPUBMd3auCpEYCw") creates "ULAW".

Importing the three keys into Audacity and exporting the combined audio with the "RAW" header and using "ULAW" encoding reveals an image file with a QR code. Scanning it links to an imgur page containing a gif of Nadeko Sengoku from Bakemonogatari clapping rapidly.

The Nadeko Sengoku gif.

Part 12 - Nadeko Sengoku

Opening the gif as a text file reveals a link inside of it that leads to another imgur page. This one contains an image of the kid from the YouTube video "Kid has major freak out at school" (a.k.a. "It's a meme you dip") with the caption "It's a Vigenère you dip".

Image hidden in the Nadeko gif.

Adjusting the contrast and brightness of the gif also reveals the word "meppu" on Nadeko's left arm.

This is meant to point to the rip "Three Minutes Clapping - The World Ends With You" which has the following description:

Music: Three Minutes Clapping
Composer: Takeharu Ishimoto
Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLL0CQjrcN8D265CV9Bng1kRyzghJOmq53
Platform: Nintendo DS

Please read the channel description.



bmrd rSki

Putting the text "bmrd rSki" through a Vigenère cipher with the password "meppu" results in "pico xGgt". This leads to a link for a Picosong called "Nathaniel wElchert Strikes again". This is another NES ROM disguised as an audio file. The ROM is a hack of The Simpsons: Bart vs. the Space Mutants called "12 GRAND MA".

Part 12.5 - Enlightened Rhombus hints

When the ARG was intially being solved this point, the Enlightened Rhombus email account began sending hints to the people who had emailed it due to people being stuck. The hints point to searching for the hidden "meppu" text and the "Three Minutes Clapping - The World Ends With You" rip more directly.

The account gave out the following hints:

• NADEKO HOLDS ALL TRUTHS
• NADEKO. HOLDS. ALL. TRUTHS.
• WHAT IS SHE DOING? MAD SNAKE.

Part 13 - 12 GRAND MA

Starting the game reveals that part of the first level's instructions have been replaced with a hex string:

65696F6E483448646B5738

Screenshot of the ROM hack showing the hex string.

Converting the string to ASCII results in the following:

eionH4HdkW8

This is a YouTube URL that leads to the video "A Grand New Era ~Ending~ - SilvaGunner: Rebooted", which was initially unlisted when the ARG was being solved.

The video originally had a annotation at the end which lead to a MEGA link for a file called "Final Showdown.zip".

This contains a Game Boy Advance emulator and a Pokémon FireRed Version ROM hack called "Pokémon Grand Dad Version. The hack features a playable Pokémon battle in which Chad Warden takes on The Voice Inside Your Head, with the Pokémon being various SiIvaGunner memes.

Part 14 - ALMOST. THERE.

Defeating The Voice in the Pokémon battle grants access to the champion's area, which contains a single sign that contains the following:

It's. The. T9kTdvJDUow

Putting the string of letters at the end into a YouTube link leads to the video "ALMOST. THERE.", which is an edited version of The Nutshack episode "TT Boy and Kid Utot".

A long string of letters, numbers, images, sounds and code appears throughout the episode. Combining this creates the link "tinyurl.com/7grandtruth". This links to another Pastebin page. It reads:

"ASCEND".
 
Contact the quadrilateral vestal.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. 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Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone. Truth had gone.

The "quadrilateral vessel" hints at the Enlightened Rhombus Gmail account from the first ARG.

Part 15 - kokoronomelody

Emaling the Enlightened Rhombus saying that you wish to ascend would cause the account to reply with a .zip file titled "kokoronomelody". The file contains a bunch of puzzle pieces featuring text over the "Snow halation" music video that form a link to a YouTube video when put together.

This leads to the video "Melody of the Heart ~True Ending~ - SilvaGunner: Rebooted", which was also unlisted at the time. This is the true ending of the Reboot, and doubled as the announcement for the album GilvaSunner's Highest Quality Video Game Rips: Volume FOUR HOURS!, concluding the ARG.

Trivia

• The folder "is this thing on.rar" contains many more audio files, several of which reference SiIvaGunner memes while others are just random sound effects thrown in for no real reason. A full list of the items in the folder, as well as descriptions for each, can be found here.