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Undeviginti - An Enigmatic Puzzle in the theme of the ancient times

Welcome, my puzzlers. Let the puzzling begin.

*Just yesterday, I was emailing my friend Bob. Somewhere in the process of him sending an email, I received something weird. Th. t.xt w..
...

Flash.*

Beep... - Beep... - Beep - Beep

I woke up in the hospital. I couldn't remember anything. There was no-one else I could find in the hospital; in the city; in the world. They all disappeared. All gone. An hour later, a phrase echoed through my mind. It goes: 'Bob, he's alive. He has an apparatus that needs a code. The code is "IUVA NOS". I will give you the gift of one teleportation. You have one hour to make up your mind to where you will go. You have until midnight. If you succeed, the earth has passed the test and I will revive all. Else...' I look at a piece of paper. It reads: 'Go hang out with Bob. itlmxubg VpqIcrxn.' So Bob is at Bob's house, then? I ran to his house (saving my teleportation), only to find no-one there.

Where is Bob? (In which country?)

Hint #1:

Start with reading on the itlmxubg VpqIcrxn (Hint contains enigmatic clues)

Required #1:

I see that in the 'translation' of a code, the 'translator' didn't like some characters. or � should be the character ' as in he's/isn't.
The location ? is intended, however, the ? in the date should be should be Γ or γ. Could be represented as |". There are no enigmatic clues given away in this Required. It makes up for an unfixable error.

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  • $\begingroup$ I just saw your puzzle and saw that you have been adding hints. You might want to leave the puzzle stew for a while, so that more people can see it before adding hints. In general - you can wait for 24 hours before posting hints. :) $\endgroup$
    – Maria Ivanova
    Commented Feb 11, 2017 at 9:29
  • $\begingroup$ @MariaDeleva Thanks! I think I can remove the first one, as I found out it might set people on the wrong tracks. $\endgroup$
    – Duncan
    Commented Feb 11, 2017 at 9:31
  • $\begingroup$ Why the downvote? $\endgroup$
    – Duncan
    Commented Feb 11, 2017 at 10:43
  • $\begingroup$ A downvote here or there, with no explanation, can be expected from some users. Perhaps they thought that there was no need to leave a comment, or that their comment was already discussed in an answer. I personally don't give such downvotes unless the item already has a comment which adequately expresses my concerns, or if my downvote would contribute a change much less than 10% from the original sum of votes. Of course, I usually only downvote if I think the summed score differs from some vague worth which I think the item deserves. But, that's just me. $\endgroup$
    – can-ned_food
    Commented Mar 1, 2017 at 14:11

1 Answer 1

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Bob is in

United States of America

Explanations

ROT-7(Undeviginti which is a Latin hint towards ) on "itlmxubg VpqIcrxn" gives pastebin CwxPjyeu

OP-EDIT The code was ROT-7 decrypted because it was encrypted in 'Undevingti' (XIX or 19 in Latin). You use 7 to decrypt because decryptor = 26 - encryptor (26-19=7).

Which is

a Pastebin Link which gives

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

Now

Treating the above as HEX and converting it to ASCII gives

From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Location: ?
Date: Text btvmt xlm, ?, 7E1
Subject: Undeviginti

Hey Bob,

How ya doin? Im looking forward to our hangout tomorrow at the show!
Im already in the hotel, waiting for you. Hope you have a nice trip!

Greets,

Your pal Puzzle.

Applying Required for the above we get

From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Location: ?
Date: Text btvmt xlm, ?(Γ/γ), 7E1
Subject: Undeviginti

Hey Bob,

How ya doin? I'm looking forward to our hangout tomorrow at the show!
I'm already in the hotel, waiting for you. Hope you have a nice trip!

Greets,

Your pal Puzzle.

Further

Lets try to figure out each part of "text btvmt xlm, Γγ, 7E1"

textbtvmtxlm -> Rot 7 again -> Alea iacta est -> January July of Roman Calendar (As per OP July was hinted for Julius Caesar to which the phrase was quoted)
Γγ -> Gamma in Greek -> 3
7E1 -> Hex to Decimal -> 2017

So Finally

The date is 3rd July 2017 and Bob is in USA as he received a mail for the event the next day which is 4th July 2017 -> American Independence Day

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  • 1
    $\begingroup$ I used a hex to string converter on the pastebin text and got something more meaningful. $\endgroup$
    – Ankoganit
    Commented Feb 11, 2017 at 10:37
  • $\begingroup$ You found the pastebin! Succes! But the encryption is a simple hex encryption. I knew this would be the most difficult, since there are so many encoders, but a simple Google search gives you enough. $\endgroup$
    – Duncan
    Commented Feb 11, 2017 at 10:39
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    $\begingroup$ IUVA NOS isn't encoded; it's just a phrase to make the story nicer. It's Latin for 'Save us!' $\endgroup$
    – Duncan
    Commented Feb 11, 2017 at 10:40
  • $\begingroup$ Also, the answer must say why decoding is ROT-7. Think title. $\endgroup$
    – Duncan
    Commented Feb 11, 2017 at 10:43
  • $\begingroup$ You should try and convert every single part of the date (month, date, year) into a number. I will give you year, since it is not part of the puzzle. The year, which you already discovered, was a hex. In decimal it's 2017. The month and date are.. Well.. See title, ancient. $\endgroup$
    – Duncan
    Commented Feb 11, 2017 at 14:17

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