# How will you save Mike?

A direct hint: this question.

Question starts from here:

You are Dr. Nathaniel - a renowned archaeologist, and involved in a research about an ancient site. But, there is only one problem - the place you are visiting to study about is cursed.

One of your colleagues Mike who happened to be on the same assignment has arrived a week earlier but is missing now. While searching for him, you find a huge stone entrance to an ancient temple near your assigned site, and along with that........

"What!?" You see Mike's stone statue.

"No wait. It is too life like to be a statue."

And you realise that it is indeed Mike who has been turned into stone.

You panic, and see a parchment with some numbers written on it. You can make out that it is surely Mike's handwriting, but the paper is somehow too damaged to understand what is written.

You move towards the statue, slowly, with chills running down your spine. Near the statue, on the entrance, there are four wheel type things engraved (Maybe, you aren't sure if they are engraved), and some blocks, 80 to be precise kept in a cavity in the wall. Each block contains a number, which can be 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4, with 16 blocks of each number.

You hear some sound. Looking in its direction, you see a sandstorm, but it is just far enough that you can note down what is written on the wheels, and run back to your camp (because you think the camp would be a safer place for some reason). You quickly take out your note pad, jot down the written characters, and run for your safety, just reaching the camp before the sandstorm comes knocking at your door.

At the camp, you realise that the characters are nothing but the same numbers - 1, 2, 3, and wait, there wasn't any 4. You rewrite everything neatly on a new paper, marking a || for the blue glow at certain places on the perimeter of the wheels, and making | for a red glow. The result looks like this:

The last wheel was empty but had some slots- 16 in number. The numbers in the other three wheels seem to be like the blocks permanently fitted in identical slots.

You conclude that you need to figure out the pattern for the last wheel using the given three wheels. The blocks must be required to be fitted in the slots, with only one block per slot.

But how?

You need to hurry as the curse can be broken only within nine days. You don't know when Mike was turned into stone, but if it was on his first day here, then you have to be really fast.

How should the fourth wheel be filled with the blocks?

Hint 1:

Hint 2:

The pattern lies among the complete wheels, not the corresponding numbers.

Hint 3:

Hint 4:

$$\sqrt 16 = 4$$

Edit: Corrected the image as one of the wheels had wrong order (I don't know what I was thinking at that time)

• Well, it's been 3 days, I'd say Mike's chances are bleak! I tried finding the answer all kinds of different ways, but ciphers aren't my specialty so I'll just contact the coroner. Mar 19 '19 at 19:43
• @Amorydai Mike still has some time left. He might be saved after all by connecting the hints in order. Try this and you'll see the answer. Mar 19 '19 at 19:47

Using the linked puzzle as a hint:

Using the Slitherlink method from the linked puzzle, transforming the circles into grids by using the blue light as a upper-left starting indicator and reading clockwise, we get:
A - C
F - ?

Wheel #1 :

Wheel #2 :

Wheel #3 :

Wheel #4 :

The pattern is A, C, F, ... the number of letters between each wheel increases by one each time: A b C d e F g h i J
So the fourth wheel would be J:

So the number slots (starting from the blue light and going clockwise:
0 0 1 3
1 0 1 2
3 2 2 2
2 2 2 2

• One of the wheels had the wrong order. I've corrected it now, so you may find the third alphabet too. Mar 22 '19 at 2:07
• Can you share what your grids look like for each wheel? I can't seem to make a valid puzzle for the first one. Mar 23 '19 at 0:20
• @Barker Absolutely! I'm working on them right now Mar 23 '19 at 0:27
• Oh wait, I see, it isn't actually a valid solution for that type of puzzle to make the letter. Mar 23 '19 at 0:28
• I'm thinking rot13(Gur yrggre W fvapr vg vf N, fxvc 1, P, fxvc 2, S, fxvc 3, W? Juvpu jbhyq tvir ||3213|2222|3321|2221) (sorry no easy way to hide the proposed solution. Mar 23 '19 at 0:45

          3 | 2       2         3     2             3    2               2   ==       O       ——    3               2     2             2       2         3          3 | 1