KuroYotogi
September 6, 2020 at 6:52:33 PM
puzzle-mystery, ARG, TW, Brazilian
A mysterious man started challenging university students from Brazil; he claims to be in search of "exceptional individuals", and challenges them to solve his puzzles, donating money for charity as players progresses through his challenges. However, something more sinister seems to be underlying the challenge - constant warnings about an evil organization running the country from the shadows, and KuroYotogi himself seems to employ some sort of surveillance system with dubious ethics and intentions. At the same time, his games are raising money for a good cause, and his warnings seem to promote protection.
As the games progressed, it was revealed the man's name was Alexandre Kurosaka. It became clear that these challenges were an attempt of his to assemble and train some sort of code-breaking task force to auxiliate him in his fight against a criminal conglomerate called "KURO". Few details were actually revealed about KURO's nature or Alexandre's relationship to it. It also became clear that two "entities" had access to the KuroYotogi twitter: Alexandre himself and some sort of AI or algorythm called the Yotogi System, which seems to be Alexandre's surveillance system, although details have not been explained so far. Game phases were held at groups of the UNICAMP and USP universities, as well as a final phase held in the christmas of 2020 at a big, cross-university facebook group. This final game was particularly revealing about a few things; through it, players uncovered a strange scientific paper that seemed to be a study conducted internally at KURO, evaluating the effects of an experimental drug in enhancing the physical capabilities of those that take it - although at a great cost, as most of the rat subjects of the study died after taking it. Players also found out that Alexandre has stolen some sort of secret weapon from KURO called the Henshin System; a blueprint of said system was found. The illustration implied some sort of power-armor, with the text indicating that the user of this weapon was capable of transforming into something, acquiring great physical prowess through this process.
Unfortunately, after this game, KuroYotogi ceased its activities. Tweets made at the time ad after implied that Alexandre succeeded in attracting KURO's attention, but failed to create whatever sort of task force he had in mind; this left him defenseless against the organization, which managed to push him back into hiding through virtual and presumably physical attacks, forcing to vacate whatever headquarters he had been using and go into "constant movement"; "They know I'm weakened. They think they'll get me. They're wrong", wrote Alexandre on February 14th. The last thing mentioned by Kuroyotogi was a tweet from February 21st, 2021 - a tweet from the automated Yotogi System, announcing that a new base had been found, and monitoring would be resumed. The account has been silent since, raising questions to whether he escaped KURO after all and, if yes, what is he bidding time for.