# Encoding Extreme #5

Last night, you went to a party and someone knocked you out, then grabbed you and locked you in a small room. You're trapped!

After awaking and examining the room, you see that it's a storage locker. On one of the shelves inside the room, there's a small box with a tiny machine inside. It looks like a lock picker, but much more complex. You observe that you need a 3-digit password to use the machine.

Inside the box, there is also a note:

496620796f752077616e7420746f2075736520746865206d616368696e652e2e2e205573652074686520636f6465 111-111-111--111-1--111-11

What is the password? Solve it quickly before you die (In 1 or 2 days)!

Hint 1:

It's not that hard.

This puzzle is not related to math.

• When you say "3-digit password" do you mean 3 numbers between 0 and 9? – Hugh Meyers Mar 12 '16 at 19:19
• MacGyver would get escaped.. I mean.. It is a storage... a playground for MacGyver. >:-) – Varon Mar 12 '16 at 19:23
• Perhaps it's time for a hint? – feelinferrety Mar 18 '16 at 15:25

Given the hint I'm going to say:

9 - 4 - 5

Explanation:

The other solvers have figured out the ASCII part of the code. 'If you want to use the machine... Use the code' The 'ones' are just hash marks grouped by threes.

• Okay, you got it right. – user18031 Mar 18 '16 at 16:39
• Hahahaha. Was way over-thinking it. Nice catch. – Z. Dailey Mar 18 '16 at 16:39

I'm not sure on what the answer is, but I think I know what the first bit is:

It says 'If you want to use the machine... Use the code'. if you convert 496620796f752077616e7420746f2075736520746865206d616368696e652e2e2e205573652074686520636f6465 as hexadecimal into ASCII. I don't know if it is relevant but putting '111-111-111--111-1--111-11' into google's calculator gives '99'.

Going to give it a shot here:

Converting: 49 66 20 79 6f 75 20 77 61 6e 74 20 74 6f 20 75 73 65 20 74 68 65 20 6d 61 63 68 69 6e 65 2e 2e 2e 20 55 73 65 20 74 68 65 20 63 6f 64 65 from hex to ascii it reveals "If you want to use the machine... Use the code"

The next step:

The numbers '111-111-111--111-1--111-11' at the end could signify 777--71--73 so I'm going to assume that means subtraction or addition as those are the only real ways to end up with a 3 digit number at the end. If it's subtraction it's 633, but if the double subtraction represents addition it would be 921.

Since the puzzle doesn't state whether or not you die if you enter the code wrong at first I'm assuming you could try both numbers and make it out ok either way.

• I'd see a single - as separator, which speaks for a simple subtraction. – Verzweifler Mar 18 '16 at 11:19