3301

[b]Cicada 3301[/b] is a mysterious secret society or think tank that recruits via complex Internet puzzles. It first recruited from the public via Internet puzzle on January 5, 2012, which ran for approximately one month. A second round began exactly one year later on January 5, 2013, and is possibly still ongoing. The stated intent was to recruit "intelligent individuals" by presenting a series of puzzles which were to be solved, each in order, to find the next. The puzzles focused heavily on data security, cryptography, and steganography.

hah wikipedia

I did one of those things once. The problem was:

``4, 5, 6, 2, 3, 873, -29. Consider the next three terms of this sequence carefully...''

The next three terms were clearly 7, 288, and ``Gather in Times Square on July 17 while holding a newspaper from March 3 to confirm your membership.'' I did as instructed, but nobody else showed up. Since I'm now the only one in my secret society, I figure I should hold recruitment rounds or something.

>>2
What's so obvious about that sequence?

Congratulations >>2-sama: you are the new leader!

Can I join you, >>2-san? I kinda want to have a friend that understands my stupid hobbies and my love for Haskell.

>>3
Well, I simply guessed that the sequence was every other term in the sequence {4, 1, 5, 1, 6, 1, 2, 1, 3, 1, 873, 1, -29, 1, 7, 1, 288, 1, ``Gather in Times Square on July 17 while holding a newspaper from March 3 to confirm your membership.'', 1, 1, 1, 1, ...}. I guess it did require a bit of genius on my part to see so fast what the sequence was, otherwise I might have spent hours trying different sequences, etc, but I guess (not to be too bold) that just confirms my right to be leader.

>>4
Thanks. I'll do my best.

>>5
I'm still deciding how to identify the worthy to join me. Believe me, if you keep your wits about you, when I release a challenge, you'll know.