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You awake, in a room, with nothing. No item. Zero. Zilch. Nada.
Besides the decaying stone brick walls, there are only three things in the room:

  • A door
  • A note
  • A keypad

You decide to look at all of them.

Note: There is no order to look at the objects. It doesn't necessarily matter.

You look at the door.

It seems to be rusted and made out of steel. You can clearly make out the thin line separating the two heavy chunks of metal blocking you from your escape. There is no way out, except for the keypad. In the corner of the door, you can see some writing, etched out: "Vmtkb2JHTnRWV2RoV0UxblltMDRaMXBZVG1wWldFSnNUR2xDVldSWVNuVkpSMHBvV1RKeloySnRPVE5NWjI4OUNnPT0K IS THREE"

Opening it manually seems to be an UNDECIPHERABLE task.

You look at the keypad.

Just your average keypad. It has the digits 0-9, an "ENTER" button, and a "CLEAR" button. It also seems to be connected to an alarm. Who knows what will happen if it rings?

The display seems to want 4 digits.

You look at the note.
The person who wrote it seemed to have made some letters darker, some letters crossed out, and some letters swayed.
Begin note

It's ubiquitous, and by it, I mean your life.
Your life. That's what I mean. I mean, I also love cats. And I hate xenophobes. Xenophobia as a whole is just so unnatural to me. Hopefully someone fixes it. (And I don't mean that in a hateful way.)

Question: Are cats big? Big? Well, I'll say no, they are not.
But on a related note, my great grandma (related to the ancient Babylonians) quizzed me on my virtue. I couldn't care less. Not even on a quest. But, before my gradma died, she said one final thing to me:

NEXARFFUNGRPNAGUNGYBIRQBQEVIRPNAABGBAYLYVTUGPNAUNGRGUNGQNEXARFFPNAABGBHGNEXARFFUNGRPNAGUNGYBIRQBQEVIRPNAABGBAYLYVTUGPNAUNGRGUNGQNEXARFFPNAABGBHG

End note

You have to get out.
But it seems impossible.

Unless...

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1
  • $\begingroup$ To save others the trouble, in the note: bold = QbBhgBaylqevIreq, italics = ubtcxXfh, strike = bulleT $\endgroup$
    – Alconja
    Sep 30, 2016 at 2:12

2 Answers 2

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The encrypted Vmtkb2JHTnRWV2RoV0UxblltMDRaMXBZVG1wWldFSnNUR2xDVldSWVNuVkpSMHBvV1RKeloySnRPVE5NWjI4OUNnPT0K IS THREE" means

There is no escape. Turn back now.

(I had to Base64 decode 3 times)

bold = QbBhgBaylqevIreq means DoOutOnlydriVerd rot13

italics = ubtcxXfh means ). base64

strike = bullet plain text

The note means NEXARFFUNGRPNAGUNGYBIRQBQEVIRPNAABGBAYLYVTUGPNAUNGRGUNGQNEXARFFPNAABGBHGNEXARFFUNGRPNAGUNGYBIRQBQEVIRPNAABGBAYLYVTUGPNAUNGRGUNGQNEXARFFPNAABGBHG

ARKNESSHATECANTHATLOVEDODRIVECANNOTONLYLIGHTCANHATETHATDARKNESSCANNOTOUTARKNESSHATECANTHATLOVEDODRIVECANNOTONLYLIGHTCANHATETHATDARKNESSCANNOTOUT rot13

means:

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

$\Rightarrow So$ $what?$ $I've$ $decrypted$ $some$ $part.$ $Now$ $it's$ $your$ $job.$

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3
  • $\begingroup$ Your last block of text bears a strong resemblance to a quote by Martin Luther King Jr.. $\endgroup$
    – GentlePurpleRain
    Sep 30, 2016 at 3:15
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    $\begingroup$ Welcome to Puzzling! Would you mind editing in a bit more explanation. I can see some rot13, but I'm not quite understanding what decryption methods you've applied to get these results... $\endgroup$
    – Alconja
    Sep 30, 2016 at 5:26
  • $\begingroup$ Now look @ it again $\endgroup$
    – Learn How To Be Transparent
    Sep 30, 2016 at 12:38
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5683 as LOVE on keypad following on from Learn How's work

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  • 2
    $\begingroup$ Could you please explain why you think this is the answer? I'm not following.. $\endgroup$
    – OnlyF
    Apr 24, 2018 at 7:47
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    $\begingroup$ Welcome to Puzzling.SE, George! This answer is currently in the low-quality queue because, as OnlyF noted, it lacks explanation (although I do think it might be correct). Please edit in an explanation, I'd hate for this to be deleted if it is correct. $\endgroup$
    – F1Krazy
    Apr 24, 2018 at 8:03
  • $\begingroup$ This is correct, but could you tell me how you got to this answer? $\endgroup$
    – InitializeSahib
    Jul 14, 2018 at 22:13

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