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Legend has it that the Mark of the Beast is the number 666. As a legendary puzzler yourself, you know that this is not the case. As your deductions have revealed, this is the Mark of the Beast: enter image description here

So, tell me. Where can you find this Beast?

Hint #1:

It'll take a brilliant idea to solve this one. You might even say...

Hint #2:

...it would take a stroke of genius.

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    $\begingroup$ But I'm right here! $\endgroup$ – Beastly Gerbil Aug 17 '20 at 21:36
  • $\begingroup$ @Avi We found the Beast right here in the comments, I think the riddle is solved! :) $\endgroup$ – Sciborg Aug 18 '20 at 3:15
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You can find this beast

At home

Where else? We're all on lockdown! Or at least that's what I got when I added a (dashed) stroke and flipped it horizontally and vertically ... result

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  • $\begingroup$ I hope this is correct! This is great... $\endgroup$ – Voldemort's Wrath Aug 24 '20 at 2:56
  • $\begingroup$ @Avi that "o" is sketchy, but i'll let that pass. :P $\endgroup$ – oAlt Aug 24 '20 at 7:13
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    $\begingroup$ I guess you could say it was an alternative o (oAlt, for short) $\endgroup$ – Avi Aug 24 '20 at 20:04
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Not a solution, just a series of observations that somebody else may find helpful.

The first hint given says:

It'll take a brilliant idea to solve this one. You might even say...

This gave me the idea to

brighten the image and/or mess with contrast

but that did not reveal anything useful. As far as I can tell the picture is solely these black marks on a white background.

Reverse image search also did not yield any convincing results, nor did rotating, flipping, etc. The only interesting thing I found is that when you orient it like this:

enter image description here

The last two markings seem to say IF. But that could just be a coincidence and/or unrelated to the solution.

Other notes:

The filename when you save the picture is njw4z, which may be relevant and seems to resemble a code?

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    $\begingroup$ imgur filenames are usually randomly generated when you add an image to Stack site - I wouldn't worry about going down that rabbit hole! $\endgroup$ – Stiv Aug 20 '20 at 6:24
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    $\begingroup$ @Stiv Ah, whoops. It seemed vaguely codelike so I was curious if it might be related. $\endgroup$ – Sciborg Aug 20 '20 at 6:59
  • $\begingroup$ I'm pretty sure the thing about needing a brilliant idea is pointing in a different direction (at a specific phrase) ... though that hasn't enabled me to solve the puzzle as yet, so maybe I'm all wrong. $\endgroup$ – Gareth McCaughan♦ Aug 20 '20 at 23:41
  • $\begingroup$ (It turned out that I was right about the specific phrase -- but it never occurred to me to make it rot13(n qnfurq fgebxr)!) $\endgroup$ – Gareth McCaughan♦ Aug 27 '20 at 13:11

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