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There once was a mythical stone tablet on which was said to be written the secret of the universe.

If the secret was to fall within the wrong hands, it was said that the consequences would be catastrophic.

This is why the message on the tablet had been encrypted since its creation.

A MAGE in charge of the task of protecting the tablet was one day faced by a powerful demon who claimed he could solve the encryption and so wanted to steal the tablet.

The two fought for a long time but when the MAGE was about to lose, he decided to sacrifice himself with a powerful spell that merged the MAGE's entire being within the tablet.

The content was therefore changed and prevented the demon from understanding its content.

Many years later, a famous leader found the tablet.

Curious about its content, he tried to solve its encryption.

He then tried to decipher the message on a piece of paper by using a cipher that he created himself.

Frustrated that it did not work, he smashed the tablet into pieces.

If only he knew that his cipher would have worked if the MAGE had not intervened a long time ago.

Many more years later, you found the piece of paper on which was written his attempt at deciphering the message.

The message on the paper is

dbjxbdhbexjdlxldjdboxxbd jxdkbidtxjtjbxjyd

Will you be able to decipher the secret of the universe?

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    $\begingroup$ Love the story. +1 for it. So the message that we currently have is the leader's attempt which failed but would have solved it in case the MAGE hadn't intervened? What about the actual encrypted text on the tablet? $\endgroup$
    – Abhirath Mahipal
    Oct 28, 2016 at 8:19
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    $\begingroup$ @AbhirathMahipal It's hard to not give too much away by answering. Let's just say that all that is left of the original is the failed attempt you hold in your hands now. $\endgroup$
    – stack reader
    Oct 28, 2016 at 8:24
  • $\begingroup$ @stackreader, no problem hehe neither the 48 people that viewed xD $\endgroup$
    – lois6b
    Oct 28, 2016 at 9:44
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    $\begingroup$ He then tried to decipher the message on a piece of paper by using a cipher that he created himself. -- Cryptoanalyst of the Century :))))))) $\endgroup$
    – mr23ceec
    Oct 28, 2016 at 10:44

3 Answers 3

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The secret of the universe is

Hello Kitty

Because the famous leader who found the tabelet is

Caesar.

He invented a code named

Caesar code, which is shifting all the letters by 3 places in alphabet.

The message on the piece of paper has been decoded using

Caesar cipher

so if we use the cipher above to encode it back we get

gemaegkehamgoaogmgeraaeg magnelgwamwmeambg

When we undo what the MAGE has done to it

the MAGE merged all of himself to the message - that is the letters 'm', 'a', 'g' and 'e'. As we take out all the letters 'm', 'a', 'g' and 'e'

we get

khoor nlwwb

which again decoded by the cipher of the great leader gives us

hello kitty

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    $\begingroup$ Everytime I skip solving cipher's, the answers are very easy :D +1 $\endgroup$
    – Techidiot
    Oct 28, 2016 at 11:17
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    $\begingroup$ Too easy was it? Maybe I should add 2-3 more layers of encryption or give less hints XD. Kinda frustrating when the puzzle get solved faster than the time it took to make it ;P. I hope it was fun though. That is the only reason I make those after all. $\endgroup$
    – stack reader
    Oct 28, 2016 at 11:25
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    $\begingroup$ The (no-so-high) difficulty level was adjusted perfectly to my deciphering skills :P I had fun solving this so thanks for the puzzle. $\endgroup$
    – oleslaw
    Oct 28, 2016 at 12:13
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    $\begingroup$ @stackreader Don't get discouraged. Many of my puzzles on this site have been solved very quickly. It's not the sign of an inferior puzzle; just a sign that it's being seen by a lot of very clever people. $\endgroup$
    – GentlePurpleRain
    Oct 28, 2016 at 14:26
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    $\begingroup$ @GentlePurpleRain Thanks for the link, was an interesting read. $\endgroup$
    – stack reader
    Oct 28, 2016 at 14:59
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Hello Kitty

My solution probably isn't going to earn any points, because I solved it within a couple of minutes by

grouping identical letters while reading them: dddddddd bbbbbbb jjjjjjj xxxxxxxx h e ll o k i tt y

without even thinking of

Ceasar's or any other cipher,

and the Mage was nowhere to be seen either. At first I immediately noticed that

the letters are close together on the keyboard, like what you get when quickly typing random nonsense,

but that was a false clue.

Seems like I did stumble on a backdoor to the universe, though...

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  • $\begingroup$ This is a good answer because it shows practical cryptanalysis. $\endgroup$
    – A. I. Breveleri
    Oct 29, 2016 at 13:08
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    $\begingroup$ To improve this answer, notice that "dddddddd bbbbbbb jjjjjjj xxxxxxxx" is Caesarean rotation -3 of "gggggggg eeeeeee mmmmmmm aaaaaaaa", which is enough to spell "mage mage mage mage mage mage mage ag". I assume the mage's name was "Ag". $\endgroup$
    – A. I. Breveleri
    Oct 29, 2016 at 13:14
  • $\begingroup$ @A.I.Breveleri Haha! In fact I didn't notice, so it would by cheating to add it to my answer. I'm happy as it is. Thanks for the upvotes everyone, but oleslaw deserves full credit for explaining the whole story. $\endgroup$
    – Zaaikort
    Oct 29, 2016 at 13:43
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    $\begingroup$ @A.I.Breveleri Maybe it was a silver mage. $\endgroup$
    – jpmc26
    Oct 29, 2016 at 21:46
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The true solution to the cipher is:

Goodbye Dog

Because

The demon could understand falsehood and lie. Therefore, it could break the encryption.

Also,

"Hello Kitty" is garnered by using a caeser cipher, removing all the letters in "mage" and then undoing the caesar cipher.

This holds true with what I said, because:

The caesar cipher was only used in obscuring the mage. Therefore, the tablet must have originally said "Hello Kitty". Hence, the demon could solve the encryption by simply assuming the tablet to be lying.

Also:

I'm so sorry. I couldn't resist.

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    $\begingroup$ So enjoyed to see someone trolling puzzling for questions that allow lots of potential answers. $\endgroup$
    – polkovnikov.ph
    Oct 30, 2016 at 14:29

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