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It's your first day as an assistant in the new Puzzle Arena, and you've immediately been taken to an important task. Later today, a well-known artist will be taking to the stage to perform in front of several thousand fans. It's your job to deliver the setlist to them, so they have enough time to figure out any particularly tricky parts in the songs.

Between you and their dressing room - which you were told was unmarked, save for a number, for whatever reason - there was a rather long corridor. It doesn't take more than a few steps for you to get bored, so you decide to take a peek at what will be performed. Maybe you're a fan of their work!

Well, you'd know if it wasn't for the fact that the "setlist" you were delivering wasn't so much a list of songs as it was a magazine. It didn't seem to be from around here, either. You don't recognise the publisher. Either way, you take it out from the envelope and look at it. Its article headings are rather bizarre. Bizarre enough to fixate you, anyway.

"Lindt And Nestle Taken To Court After Anti-Preservation Methods Offend the Church" by Toothy Loner, Search Enacted
"10 Tips And Tricks For Your Everyday Planet Takeover Scheme" by Mow Minion, Almond Doctor
"48 Hours Missing: Juliet and Charming's Partners" by Radical Neon Remodel
"New Technology Allows Cardiovascular System To Be Shown On Twitch" by Hearing Matters
"Evidence of Paranormal Monarchy Discovered?" by Other Slug
"Study Shows 85% of Popular Music Features A Depressing Chorus According to Composers" by Fury Pen Piranha
"Users of Hallucinogenics Soon To Take Financial Hit From Council Over Drug-Induced Fantasies" by Tuxedo Snail

...Weird. Either the writers for this thing are messed up or the intended audience is. Probably the writers, thinking about it. There appear to be little pencil markings on the cover, too.

"6 6 3 9 | 6 5 9 | 5 3 10 | 9 5 | 5 4 | 7 7 | 8 3"

By the time you finished scribbling the details into your own notepad to check later, you realise you're nearing the mystery act's door. Room 33... 34... 35... it's around here somewhere... Aha! Here it is. You open the door and look around, noticing the room isn't quite as expected. Yes, it's a dressing room, but there's an unattended (but switched on) computer by the mirror for seemingly no reason and - more importantly - no act. You leave the magazines in front the computer for them to find, hoping they didn't vanish or strain their vocal cords from singing too much, then leave the room and head back to your desk.

Who is performing tonight, and what's their setlist?
Extra: Which room are they in and why?

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1 Answer 1

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The bolded words are

crossword clues

and the penciled numbers are

letter counts

The author of the article:

is an anagram of the song title

The setlist is:

1: Rotten Heresy and Chocolate

2: Mundane World Conquest (aka Common World Domination which is an anagram of Mow Minion Almond Doctor so is the intended title - these are translations so multiple titles are possible)

3: Romeo and Cinderella, a song by Hatsune Miku

4: Streaming Heart, also a song by Hatsune Miku

5: Ghost Rule

6: Unhappy Refrain

7: Delusion Tax

The performer is

Hatsune Miku or Miku Hatsune, a humanoid persona voiced by a singing synthesizer application

Clues 3 and 4 were the easiest to be sure of just as phrases. I didn't know what they were titles of. But when they were both the same thing by the same source, I knew the answer. The rest has just been finding the rest of them. This performer has so many songs that finding a list of them to fill in the rest of the clues was impossible. I had to guess words that might be in the answers and then search with the performer name for possible matches - it took a while.

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  • $\begingroup$ Huh, I didn't realise Song #2 had a different translation from the one I was using. Also, I hate to say it but Song #5 is incorrect. (I can see what you were going for though.) There's something else in the puzzle you can use to determine the song names that you haven't seemed to notice yet... $\endgroup$
    – 128-Up
    May 1, 2017 at 13:21
  • $\begingroup$ I hit enter too early, I edited something into my first comment. $\endgroup$
    – 128-Up
    May 1, 2017 at 13:23
  • $\begingroup$ For the record, I'll accept your answer for Song #2 as correct, as it is the same song, just translated differently. My intended solution was rot13(Pbzzba Jbeyq Qbzvangvba). $\endgroup$
    – 128-Up
    May 1, 2017 at 13:30
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    $\begingroup$ The room number is 39, and the key is en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_wordplay $\endgroup$
    – Sp3000
    May 1, 2017 at 14:31
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    $\begingroup$ I should also add as a fun fact that 39 also gives "san-kyu", or "thank you" in goroawase or Japanese wordplay. Does this affect the puzzle? No. But it's been played upon by at least one song :) $\endgroup$
    – Sp3000
    May 1, 2017 at 14:43

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