Chapter 3: Cipher

Blaze's POV

"Yo, Zac! Let's go!" Baldwyn's voice echoes around in the almost empty classroom.

"To where?" I collect the things on my desk one by one as Baldwyn giddily approaches me.

"To the hub, my dear friend," he says then pats my shoulder.

"Why do you even carry those heavy books, Zac? We have modules on the Techvio, right?" Neron asks me as he helps me gather my things.

"There are things that can't be found inside the content of those modules which you can find in books, that's why I always brought these."

This Experimental Psychology is so exciting, I can't help but read every case study and research I can gather. Experimental Psychology is one of my subjects, it is the study of factors that influence people's behaviors and thoughts. This subject really fancied my interest since I've always been keen on being an observer rather than a talker.

He just shrugs his shoulders in response. I hung my bag on my shoulder then proceeded to carry the folders with my hand.

We are walking towards the parking lot where Neron's plasma-powered Futuricar is parked. The other students can't help themselves but glance at us as we approach the car. I can totally understand their amusement since only seven of these cars have been built, making it one of the most exclusive cars in the world. Inside the car is the very first dashboard in the world to have a holographic mid-air display that's both fully customizable and interactive.

We got to Neron's building in record time thanks to the speed of his car. Our hangout place, the penthouse, is found on the top floor of Neron's building. We prefer to call it the hub though. It has a nicer ring to it, doesn't it?

The entire floor is covered with marbled tiles that perfectly complements the sleek interior design of the space. The glass-walled duplex penthouse boasts the magnificent skyline view which can be seen from the huge balcony where a personal infinity pool resides. It's spacious area, which is more than enough to accomodate the five of us, is divided into four. One of which is the wine cellar, where you can also find the glass-enclosed garden for when one wants to drink red while feeling the night breeze. Of course, one cannot forget to have a gaming area which is filled from the retro to the latest games and consoles. The living area where the home bar and boffi kitchen are located emanates a warm ambiance, thanks to the SL74-B modern flames near the couches. Lastly, a private room with a retractable glass ceiling that greatly adds to the experience of laying beneath the stars and the breathtaking Luna.

I fidget with my phone as I watch my friends play soccer with their holographic teammates inside the gaming area. I think they are having a bet, as usual, for they look so serious right now.

I stand up from my seat and come near them to look closely. "So, what's the wager now?" I ask Baldwyn, who's busy tilting his head to look for a better way to kick the ball away from his foe.

"His Cosmic Starship is on the line," Neron speaks for Wyn while his eyes are still fixated on his laptop's screen.

"Uh huh..." I say as I become interested in their battle. I sit down on a napa outdoor stool and lean my elbows on the counter behind me.

Cosmic Starship, huh? Maybe he got a new one, that's why he's getting brave. For all we know, Xeno can easily vanquish this match. How many times did Baldwyn lose against him? As far as I can remember, he never won against him. Not even once, so I don't know how he's still not accepting defeat upon hearing his opponent's name.

The chill music fills the whole hub, while the smell of beer and Neron's vape are mixing with the air freshener. I stand up and walk towards the mini wine cellar to get another bottle. I prefer Chateau Margaux over Carlsberg; it has a more sophisticated taste in my opinion.

My eyes followed Donovan when I saw him enter the hub, still in his school uniform.

"Gotcha! The keys, Wyn," Xeno mockingly says.

I drag my eyes on my two friends again, Xeno who's opening his palm in front of Baldwyn's sulky face. He definitely got defeated again. He's so stubborn, he never learns.

"Still in your uniform?" I ask my best friend, Donovan. He strips off his top and tosses it to the wingback sofa in front of me. He pulls out a gray sweatshirt and casually wears it. "That's mine, dumbass!" I playfully threw the tennis ball at him.

He quickly catches it and just laughs at me. "I forgot to bring extra clothes. I'll buy this from you, don't worry," he says before pulling another stool to sit beside me. I offer him a wine glass, which he coolly accepts and sips before continuing his words. "I'm not really planning to attend school today, but father will be visiting so I don't have any choice."

"Yeah, I heard there's a council in the university today. So, it's your dad? Another talk?" Xeno joins us and pours beer in his empty glass.

"As usual," Donovan replies and just shrugs his shoulders.

My friends and I are all studying at Huxley University but take up different programs. Donovan's father is a politician, which is why he is taking Political Science. Neron, Xeno, and Baldwin are taking Philosophy, Economics, and Business Administration, respectively. As for me, Psychology is what I'm studying.

The early bloom of our friendship in elementary is due to the closeness of our parents. No, scratch that, our parents are allies. We are all from the upper class, Elites as they call it.

"You got a new motorcycle, Wyn?" Donovan asks.

"Yeah, the Electric Atmoscar, that's why I didn't play seriously a while ago," Baldwyn replies. I smirk while Xeno and Donovan laugh at his reasoning. No one really believes him. "Stop laughing, assholes!" he says with furrowed brows.

I let them bicker for a minute as I walk near Neron who's still busy with his laptop. I curiously peek on his screen to see what has been keeping him busy. "Migrator?" I ask.

Even though we have different college programs, our interest in technology is a common denominator between us. We casually visit restricted sites, even dive in the Migrator just to buy some unusual stuff from the black market. Well, usual things are boring so why not buy something peculiar, right?

"Mhmm. Buying some stolen data."

"Data? For?"

"Dad wants me to hack something, so yeah," he explains, still focused on his laptop.

I let him do his thing and just opened my transparent tablet to check any updates on my SNS accounts. My brows crease as I click the trending topic on Oasis- the official site for the students of Huxley. There's this mysterious link that is spreading around the internet. If I remember correctly, I also saw this on one of my SNS feeds yesterday but I didn't really think much of it. Not until now.

What is this even? I click the link that is currently the talk of the town. It leads me to another site, which is empty aside from the mysterious numbers and letters above a blank space box.

A code, perhaps? Do I need to decipher this? Curiosity rises within me as I try to solve this puzzle. I tried looking for a pattern, mixing numbers, and even binary code, but nothing is fitting in.

Donovan must have noticed my seriousness since he looks over my shoulder to see what I'm reading. "You're trying to solve the jigsaw?"

"You saw this already?"

"How can I not know about that? It's been a week since it became the tittle-tattle of almost everyone."

"Have you tried solving it?"

"Well, a bit. I didn't really spend too much time on it. I think it's just a weird advertisement for a new product. You know, those tactics from the promotional department," he remarks.

"Bro, your degree program is talking again! Maybe it's not that bad. Let me see, let's try to solve this!" Baldwyn snatches the tablet from my hold.

I grabbed my phone and continued to solve the code. What could possibly be the meaning behind these numbers? Are the letters the key words? Or is it also part of the puzzle? I stare at the numbers and letters for a while, as if it will show me the answer.

" 4,5,20•20,7,9,9,8,12•

4,12,19•10,4,21,3•25,11,

11,14•19,16,10,5•9,11,11,

25,13,21,26•

WA•TN•YC•CM•ON•OH•EN "

That's the content of the whole page. There's nothing more to see than those given codes and the blank box that I suppose where the answer will be typed in.

"Neron, help us bro!" I hear Donovan ask.

Now, all of us are immersed in solving this puzzle. It's actually fun deciphering codes, especially when you get the right answer. Satisfying as fuck.

Wyn suddenly stands up from his seat and starts walking back and forth like he discovered a huge secret. "Wait, guys! What if..."

We just watch him, waiting for him to speak up. "Can you at least tell us if you already deciphered it or what?" Xeno impatiently tells him.

Wyn stops walking and looks at us nervously. We all attentively look at him as he gestures to us to come closer and compress as he positions his hands to whisper on our ears.

"I think... It's a time bomb!" he exclaims.

We all look at him in disbelief. Is he serious?! I shake my head and ignore his useless theory to focus on searching different methods on ways to decipher the message. I surf the net as I look at every possible code that they could've possibly used, but none of those match this puzzle that I'm staring at.

"Maybe it's just a hoax?" Neron says, throwing his Techvio on the sofa near us.

"Are you giving up already?" Wyn teases.

"Shut up, dickhead! I'm not."

I stifled a laugh when I saw Neron standing up and grudgingly picking up his Techvio.

I returned my gaze to my phone and continued searching. Silence envelopes the hub as we are all busy deciphering the puzzle, that is, until Wyn startled us with his loud voice.

"I found something! I found something!"

We all circled around him and gawked on my tablet that he's holding. "What the hell is that?!" Xeno grabs the tablet out of Wyn's hand and examines the screen as if there's something in there that will suddenly appear.

"I saw this story in a news article before. There's this video clip that when you watch it, you will die," Wyn says frantically.

Neron and Donovan burst into laughter, while Xeno shakes his head before returning my tablet to me. I lightly slapped my forehead. "I knew you're stupid, but I didn't know you were this stupid."

Wyn looks at me in confusion. We return to our place one by one, leaving him on the stool at the far end of the room. "Why?! What did I do? Isn't that code like that video? Let's stop deciphering it, we might die!"

"The video you were saying was a movie, stupid. It's called The Ring."

"Really?"

"Yes!" we shout in unison.

Well, this will be a hell lot of thinking.

~~

I was busy analyzing this new case on Experimental Psychology when my phone suddenly rings.

"Yo, Zac!" Wyn greets me with a loud voice, as always, the moment I answered the group video call.

I project the hologram of the screen on the wall so that I won't need to hold my phone while reading. I glance at them before continuing my work.

"So, does anyone have a clue about that fucking code?" Neron says in irritation.

It's almost a week since the code piqued our interest but up until now, none of us knows the answer. So, we made a bet on who's going to decipher it first. Everyone agreed, they said that it adds fuel to the fire.

"I do."

I automatically lift my head upon hearing Xeno's voice.

"Oh! So what did you discover?"

"What should we expect? He's the great Xeno after all."

"C'mon, give us dibs on the clue!"

Donovan, Neron, and Wyn are ecstatic upon hearing the good news. They are teasing Xeno to give us some clue.

I'm just laughing while watching them. I'm not expecting Xeno to give dibs on us, but I'm kinda hoping to get some clue too. This is a bet where the victor will get an amazing prize, after all.

Neron put one of his penthouses as a wager, Xeno betted his computer set, Wyn told us that he will buy the winner a new motorcycle, the Pleipraboard to be precise; while Donovan offered to make an invented take of our choice, and I offered the blueprint for an AI that is secretly being developed.

I got it from the government's website which I hacked last time when I was honing my skills. Hacking the website was pretty troublesome, but I found a hole in their system which made it easy for me. I was supposed to download the whole project but they discovered that someone is intruding on their website, so the blueprint is all I could get. It's a bummer, but the blueprint was worth it.

"So what's the clue, Xen?" I ask.

They stopped bickering and waited for Xeno's answer. A long silence enveloped us for a minute or two, until Xeno broke it. "Do you guys know the Caesar cipher?"

The three of us nod our head while Wyn is looking at us, confusion is written all over his face. "All I know is Caesar salad, man! What the hell is a Caesar cipher?"

"Look it up on the web. So, what's with that cipher, Xen? The code doesn't look like a Caesar cipher."

I brought out my tablet and looked at the code to confirm Neron's statement. "Yeah, the code doesn't look similar in the slightest, Xen," I second the notion.

"I didn't say it was just Caesar cipher alone. I've heard this gossip from some students that the higher years are also trying to solve that damn puzzle, and that they theorized that it was an upgraded version of the Caesar cipher."

"An upgraded version? What do they mean by that?" Donovan asks, showing the quirked brow he has on the screen.

"That's all I can say. Work on the other details yourself. This is a bet, guys. You all know I hate losing. Adiós!"

"Hey!"

"C'mon, Xen!"

They all complained the moment Xeno dropped the call and left the four of us wandering on the information he revealed.

"What do you think he meant by that?" Neron asks the rest of us.

I just shrug my shoulders in response.

"I don't really know, but I have a bit of an idea. I will work on it now. The post will be gone in three days, so good luck to us!" Wyn signs off. We all bid our goodbyes and dropped the call too.

The thought that Wyn has something on his mind again made me snicker. Wyn is smart, but sometimes you just can't understand what's running on his mind. There are times where he looks so serious but will blabber gibberish. Other times, he's laughing when the things he says make sense. It's really hard to understand him sometimes, but he's a good friend. He always makes us laugh.

I put the book aside and fidget on my tablet as I think of what Xen's clue could possibly mean. I brought out the hologram projector and pen to try deciphering the code in various ways by using just the Caesar cipher but I got nothing.

Upgraded version of Caesar cipher? How do you upgrade a cipher?

My laptop suddenly beeps indicating that there's a new message on my email. I push my swivel chair to the side, using my feet.

"Hey, Zac! Can you help me sell these vintage phones? My father asked me to sell these, but I don't know where I could possibly find someone who will be interested in buying these scraps of useless electronic devices."

I scratch my head as I read the email that Wyn sent me. I clicked the pictures on the screen and saw different types of old keypad cell phones. These phones are probably from the 1980's. Where could we possibly sell these?

I am staring at the phones when a thought suddenly hits me. Could it possibly be?

I dragged my chair back to the other desk where I put my hologram projector and pen, then went back to the desk where my laptop was. I look at the numbers on the keypad of the old phones after looking at the code I wrote on the holographic screen.

Can the upgraded version of the Caesar cipher actually be a combination of two ciphers? Could it be a Vigenère cipher? But there's no key word. Wait, maybe the letters are the keywords?

I tried solving it using the Vigenère cipher but to no avail. What could it possibly be?

I massage the temple of my head, as I think of other ciphers that can be combined with the Caesar. If the Vigenère is to subtract the keyword from the original text, then maybe the clue is within that area.

Think, Blaze! Think! It can't be addition, the numbers will be too high. The number is only up to twenty six, the same number as the letters in the alphabet. Then, what if it's the distance?! I counted the distance of W from letter A and the result was number 4, the first number on the code.

EUREKA!

I need to count the distance of the letter that matches the numbers on the code. It isn't easy because of the broadness of the numbers and letters. I have to count all over again if the letter I got doesn't make sense when added to the whole sentence. I continued doing this method until I deciphered the whole code.

I wipe the sweat off of my forehead as I read the code that I deciphered.

"Who am I? There's no name you can call me, good is not good when better is needed."

I was expecting that when I decipher this, it will surcease the endless thinking I was imprisoned in for the past week; but I was wrong. The code is not a message, it's a question that still needs to be answered.

It took me quite a while to realize the answer to the riddle. I stretch my shoulders, nape, and fingers as I type the answer I reached in my conclusion. Using our group's email I answered.

"The Anonymous."