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If you don't remember me, I am Aidan. I was in search of Detective Jack a few months back. And after a hard fought battle, I reached where he called me. But, unfortunately, when I reached the rendezvous, I didn't find him. Probably, they identified his location as well..

I knew, Jack won't just escape the place and would have left some clues for me so that I can track him down. I looked for clues near by but didn't find any thing. I saw a trash can lying there peacefully. As a detective, I have a habit of sneaking into things so I just sneaked in..

Here's the trash can-

enter image description here

That's all I have.

Can you help me track down Jack?

(Note-Story is just for adding flavor!)

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  • $\begingroup$ I have to say, this is going to require more intellect than that of a mere mortal to solve this. $\endgroup$ Commented May 3, 2021 at 18:31

1 Answer 1

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Full answer:

First:

The numbers on the trash can are coded in Tap/Knock Code
the number on the left is the number of the row and on the right is the column number
I got "MYTHOLOGY"

Second:

I opened the picture and I saw another cipher coded in vigenere

enter image description here
I applied the key MYTHOLOGY and got:
"The next step is ieYef.png"

Third:

I replaced the imgur link with ieYef and got this link:
https://i.sstatic.net/ieYef.png


enter image description here

Another puzzle: The logos of google, Emirates airline, Bank of america, Amazon And State bank of India I noticed that there is a number under every logo so I wrote every name, and took the (n)th letter so I took lEfmS

Fourth:

I got this link: "https://i.sstatic.net/lEfmS.png"

enter image description here

I noticed few things:

That there is a number on the top right corner like the previous pics, The lettres are on a Horizontally reflected Microsoft logo, There is a circle around it and an arrow pointing to the right.
There is a line down the pic, So I guessed that it is a message coded clock wise, but I couldn't decrypt it.
I tried to decrypt the line and failed, I don't know
any cipher that relates to Microsoft or reflections.

Thanks to @Techidiot: I've already guessed the correct solution, but he gave me the right way to approach the answer.

The answer is rotating the coloured squares clock wise then the image will be like this enter image description here So the key is Death, and after applying it the line below becomes: Next step is UMUlapng

Fifth:

So the next link is this: https://i.sstatic.net/UMUla.png And the picture:
enter image description here So I searched a lot for ancient letters, I looked at million of pics and finally, I found the one. Ogham alphabet the big O that contains the symbols and the rest of the word, Clever :) It Decodes to CVtNMPNG

Sixth:

Now the pic is: enter image description here I put the alphabet letters in the blocks... starting from A to Z and linking letters with their positions I got. vyGdppng

7th:thanks @Sid for the tip:

So the next pic is this: enter image description here
The dot's are nothing but, anagrammed PASTEBIN connecting them and checking the intersecting letters we get -
enter image description here
So I got C6ndUNaT

Notes:

1- Here are the S(start) and E(end) that troubled me in the previous puzzle we must connect the dots between them.
2- There are seven highlighted letters, and when connected a forward arrow appear.

8th:

So the next link is actually a pastebin link:
https://pastebin.com/C6ndUNaT there is a lot of zeroes here and the title says Break the bond! So, highlighting the Bond(007) gives -
enter image description here
ZCV0APNG

9th:

so the next pic is: enter image description here a barcode word repeated a lot exactly 93 times, so I searched for 93 barcode and I got Code 93 Exactly what I needed and decoding the numbers I got N5Hf5PNG the L stands for Lower case

Last:

so the next pic is this: enter image description here googling the coordinate we got from the beginning 43.765176 11.249987

The solution:

He is staying at Pitti Palace

That was so much fun, thanks @Techidiot for the puzzle I learned a lot :)

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  • $\begingroup$ Now, that you already got the key by guessing, here's what was needed to be done with that square -> rotating the squares You can add this explanation to your answer. And, to save you going in an incorrect direction, no, there's no music for the last. $\endgroup$
    – Techidiot
    Commented May 14, 2017 at 12:04
  • $\begingroup$ Thank you very much for commenting and saving me from going in an incorrect direction. $\endgroup$
    – S. Rafael
    Commented May 14, 2017 at 13:26
  • $\begingroup$ Does the Capitalised THREE have anything to do with the solution? $\endgroup$
    – S. Rafael
    Commented May 17, 2017 at 13:29
  • $\begingroup$ Yes. It has to do with the solution. Start by counting the number of blocks :) $\endgroup$
    – Techidiot
    Commented May 17, 2017 at 13:31
  • $\begingroup$ Thanks, yeah I noticed from the beginning that they are 26 blocks so they may correspond to the 26 letters of alphabet, but couldn't make the connection, I will try harder now :) $\endgroup$
    – S. Rafael
    Commented May 17, 2017 at 13:34

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