i · mine the carrier

there is no key under the mat. you make one. find a nonce N so that sha256(prefix : N) opens with a run of zero bits. your machine pays the toll.

ii · decrypt the burst

a Vigenère burst over A–Z. mining bought you the key. shift each letter back by the key, wrapping Z→A. submit the plaintext.

no decoder ring here. paper and patience. that's the point.

iii · the gematria

the old hand. each rune carries a prime. read the sequence, sum the primes, submit the number.

iv · factor the totient

a number with a soul. strip it to its largest prime factor. submit that prime.

primes don't lie. find the biggest one that divides it cleanly.

v · name the relic

last lock. base64-decode the artifact, then read it backwards.

the chain is closed.

this was never a game. it was a filter. five locks, no shortcuts, no file to read. you did the work. the proof is yours and the log will accept nothing else.