On the Subject of Faulty Accelerando

“12 B.” “Okay, what’s next?” “14 C.” “Okay, go on.” “Wait, my game is lagging.” “What?” “4 Z. 2 G.” “Woah, that was a little fast. Repeat please?” “I’m lagging again.” “How?” “7 U. 21 R. 16 W. 18 D...”

The module starts off by displaying a ‘GO’ button. Upon pressing the ‘GO’ button, the module will start displaying a set of twenty number-letter pairs but will lag in the process. Take note of each number-letter pair and the total number of times the module lagged. If you press ‘GO’ again, the same set of number-letter pairs will appear but in a different order. The total number of lags may also change, but will remain the same parity. There will always be exactly 20 number-letter pairs.

Now, find the alphabetic position for the letters in each pair, and calculate the sums between the two values of each pair subtracting 26 if the sum is greater than 26.

Now, reorder the list of sums from greatest to least, remove all but the first of any duplicates, and observe the third, sixth, ninth, and twelfth number in the resulting list and convert them back to letters through their alphabetic positions.

Now, if the number of times the module lagged was even, then convert each letter as if Z would be the first letter going backwards, eg. A=Z, B=Y. Otherwise, replace each letter using the rot13 cipher (take the letter, and go 13 letters through the alphabet, looping back to A when you reach Z).

Press the number that is next to these letters.

To submit an answer, press the ‘GO’ button, and then proceed to press the correct four numbers.

If you either press a wrong number or miss a correct number, a strike will be incurred. However, the strike will only be incurred after the sequence finishes. Striking will also generate a new set of number-letter pairs.

After successfully pressing the correct four numbers, the puzzle will be solved and the module will disarm.