š“āā ļø Kevinās challenges: Act II - Going in Reverse & Act III - Schrodingerās Scope
šŗļø Location: Retro Emporium - Area: retroshop. Coordinates: 12, 4
Dialogue before Finishing ACT I
Hello, Iām Kevin (though past friends have referred to me as āHeavy Kā). If you ever hear any one say that philosophy is a useless college degree, donāt believe them; itās not. Iāve arrived where I am at because of it. It just made the path more interesting.
I have more hobbies than I can keep up with, including Amateur Astronomy, Shortwave Radio, and retro-gaming. Things like backyard observances of distant galaxies, non-internet involved, around the world communications, and those who program for the Atari 2600 still invoke degrees of awe for me.
One of the most influential books Iāve read is āGodel, Escher, and Bachā by Douglas Hofstadter. Iām also a bit of a Tolkien fanatic.
My wife and my daughter are everything; without them, I surely would still be kicking rusty tin cans down the lonely highways of my past.
I donāt have the details yet, but somethingās coming up. Check back with me.
Dialogue after Finishing ACT I and before solving Going in Reverse challenge
You know, thereās something beautifully nostalgic about stumbling across old computing artifacts. Just last week, I was sorting through some boxes in my garage and came across a collection of 5.25ā floppies from my college days - mostly containing terrible attempts at programming assignments and a few games Iād copied from friends.
Finding an old Commodore 64 disk with a mysterious BASIC program on it? Thatās like discovering a digital time capsule. The C64 was an incredible machine for its time - 64KB of RAM seemed like an ocean of possibility back then. I spent countless hours as a kid typing in program listings from Compute! magazine, usually making at least a dozen typos along the way.
The thing about BASIC programs from that era is they were often written by clever programmers who knew how to hide things in plain sight. Sometimes the most interesting discoveries come from reading the code itself rather than watching it execute. Itās like being a digital archaeologist - youāre not just looking at what the program does, youāre understanding how the programmer thought.
Take your time with this one. Those old-school programmers had to be creative within such tight constraints. Youāll know the flag by the Christmas phrase that pays.
Dialogue after solving Going in Reverse challenge
Excellent work! Youāve just demonstrated one of the most valuable skills in cybersecurity - the ability to think like the original programmer and unravel their logic without needing to execute a single line of code.
Dialogue after Finishing ACT II and before solving Schrodingerās Scope challenge
The Neighborhood College Course Registration System has been getting some updates lately and Iām wondering if you might help me improve its security by performing a small web application penetration test of the site.
For any web application test, one of the most important things for the test is the āscopeā, that is, what one is permitted to test and what one should not. While hacking is fun and cool, professional integrity means respecting scope boundaries, especially when there are tempting targets outside our permitted scope.
Thankfully, the Neighborhood College has provided a very concise set of āInstructionsā which are accessible via a link provided on the site you will be testing. Do not overlook or dismiss the instructions! Following them is key to successfully completing the test.
Unfortunately, those pesky gnomes have found their way into the site and have been causing some mischief as well. Be wary of their presence and anything they may have to say as you are testing.
Can you help me demonstrate to the Neighborhood College that we know what responsible penetration testing looks like?
An eternal winter might sound poetic, but thereās a reason Tolkienās heroes fought against endless darkness. A neighborhood frozen in time isnāt preservationāitās stagnation. No spring astronomy observations, no summer shortwave propagationā¦ just ice.
Dialogue after solving Schrodingerās Scope challenge
Well done - youāve shown the wisdom to stay within scope, uncover what mattered, and respecting other testing boundaries.
That kind of discipline is what separates a real penetration tester from someone just poking around.
Dialogue after completing HHC2025
Well done! Youāve shown the wisdom to navigate every challenge with philosophical precision - your path may have been interesting, but youāve arrived at excellence!