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'Null is AFK' was an alternate reality game (ARG) as part of a transmedia storytelling project, the plot of which revolved around supernatural incidents in Norwich and a conspiracy theory that they originated through a covert operation between CIA and MI6, intended as a continuation of the real-world historic program MK ULTRA.
The game revolved around finding and solving puzzles left in the personal blog of Null Seraph, a character from the story who served as the 'guy in the chair' trope, functioning as mission control and exposition mouthpiece - a hacker who had been following the phenomena for some time, and would provide the players story hooks and additional information around the events of the narrative. In the chapter before the ARG began, Null had gone missing, all signs of her had disappeared, and players recieved an automated message directing them to her blog.
An writeup of the ARG and explanation of the puzzles can be found in the walkthrough below. For anyone interested in experiencing it as the players did and investigating the website without knowing the solutions, the walkthrough will be in 'click to expand' textboxes, to make it easy to simply read through if you're curious and don't want to play, while those who do want to attempt playing along can go in blind, recieving hints on individual puzzles without revealing the entirety of the game. Some elements are difficult or impossible to solve independently now due to the time-sensitive and real-world nature of the game, so anyone who is playing the game themselves should note that if a hint directs you to see something in person, this was hinting players to investigate real-world locations in Norwich which had previously referenced in the story (and as this ARG took place in 2023, most of the things placed there to be found have since been removed) and if a solution takes you to a custom url, Casey has stopped paying for the hosting for that url now that the game has ended, and you will need to refer to the walkthrough to be directed to where the website is archived.
Clicking on the link NULL.FAQ takes players to a series of statements about the author, each of which is a hint towards finding or solving a puzzle somewhere on her blog.
NULL.TXT takes players to a blog post with several typos in, which players are prompted to take particular notice of through the clue in NULL.FAQ "NULL SERAPH WOULD ONLY MAKE A TYPO IF THE WORLD WERE ENDING."
All of the typos are extra letters added into a word, and if a player takes note of all the erroneous letters, they spell out "checksourcecode"
When a player checks the source code of the blog's webpage, they find the following message:
Hey, you found my secret message!
The fun thing about coding your own website is that I get to hide little easter eggs for my friends in the code! Just for fun, you know? :)
Because this is just a silly thing for fun :) I'll share a fun fact with you! I want to be a DJ or a radio presenter or something in the future, so I'm working on a series of mixes, and I want to show you the first installment of NULL_NOISE as a reward for finding my easter egg! Since it's the first in a series, and a good introduction to my taste in music, it's called 'INITIAL LISTENING' but let me know if you can think of a better title :) Thanks for entertaining my little game! :)
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1z9bMYNjhF6Wr1xR7MwsOo
This link takes the player to a Spotify playlist titled "INITIAL_LISTENING"
The playlist INITIAL_LISTENING is related to the clue "NULL SERAPH LOVES MAKING MIXTAPES AND PLAYLISTS, PUTTING A LOT OF CARE INTO THE ORDER, EVEN THOUGH SHE ONLY PAYS ATTENTION TO THE VERY START OF SONGS."
Taking the first letter of each song (as hinted by "she only pays attention to the very start of songs" and "initial" in the playlist name) spells out "slashtheend"
"slashtheend" directs players to add "/theend" to Null's website, taking them to the unlisted page nullseraph.neocities.org/theend
Here Null writes about the way that she creates sigils, ostensibly with this knowledge being the reward for finding the easter eggs in her blog, but she includes the note "It's a shame not many people get to see them, since people's energy and attention charge sigils, so promise to pay extra close attention to them while you're here, okay?" suggesting to players there is more to find.
After explaining the concept behind her sigils, she provides three examples, introducing them with "Here are some of mine, as an example. These are my favourite three, now I just have to make a decision on which one to use."
Null talking about having to make a decision on which sigil to use references the clue "NULL SERAPH DOES NOT BELIEVE IN CHOSING BETWEEN THINGS. THE BEST OPTION IS ALWAYS ALL OF THEM, ALL AT ONCE." from NULL.FAQ.
If the player overlays the three images, the sigils combine to create an illustration of a key, and the additional lines create the word "MULDER"
This does not direct to another obvious next step like the other solutions do, but there are still other areas of the original website to explore, which may lead to a use for this solution.
The other listed page on Null's blog is NULL.IMG, detailing her recent designs. The first two images are sticker designs, then a third design is given as a prospective band logo for a band called The All or Nothings, featuring a the band's name in a black circle, with the lyric "won't you brighten up my black hole baby" written around it.
The clue "NULL SERAPH MAKES HER OWN LOGOS AND IS NEVER DONE EDITING THEM." guides the players towards the idea of editing the images further, and "NULL SERAPH BELIEVES NOTHING IS EVER BLACK AND WHITE. THERE ARE ALWAYS SHADES OF GREY, EVEN IF YOU HAVE TO SEARCH FOR THEM." suggests what is needed.
Editing the brightness of the image reveals the black circle in the image is actually a dark shade of grey, with a QR code in black on top - the solution being to brighten up the black hole to reveal shades of grey. How difficult the hidden QR code is to see in the original image varies depending on the device used to browse the website and the screen brightness (the puzzle was made knowing the players had mostly engaged with transmedia elements on mobile devices, on which it is very subtle, but the effect is more obvious on a bright PC monitor).
Scanning the QR code gives the text "zowomj.suj" - another solution that doesn't provide a lead on its own, but is part of a multi-part solution.
There are two sticker designs on NULL.IMG, and the text discussing them references the physical printed stickers from these designs repeatedly - initially introducing them with "These are two Null originals. Look out for them in person.", introducing the logo design afterwards with "It feels underwhelming to make a whole stickers page of the site and only put those two images up (especially since honestly, they're so much better in person, to the point where I'd say you're actively missing out if you haven't seen them up in the street) so to pad this out, here's one more design by Null." and the hidden page /theend in a previous puzzle including the line "You've probably seen that I like making stickers and logos (if you've never seen my stickers in person by the way, you should totally keep an eye out around the city, they're way better irl)"
These designs were printed as stickers and placed around Norwich before the game began, primarily in locations that had been referenced in previous chapters of the transmedia story this ARG was part of (e.g. where supernatural phenomena had occured in the fiction, where characters were said to have worked or lived, where meetings between characters had occured).
Due to the necessity of being physically present in Norwich, the insider information that was only available through previous engagement with the story so far, and the fact that many of these stickers have been removed in the time since the game began, this clue will be impossible to solve if following along with a retrospective walkthrough.
When players found the physical versions of the stickers, there were additional symbols in the corners of the designs, as seen in these photos: [PHOTOS TO COME]
The symbols were in a fairly well-known code known as Pigpen cypher, which had been previously referenced in the narrative (during previous chapters, as the story featured more conspiratorial intrigue and required investigation, multiple players had referred to enjoying the spy elements of the game Club Penguin as children, which uses this code prominently).
Translated, the symbols in one sticker translate into V I G E and the symbols in the other to N E R E
The translated symbols on the stickers, put together, spell VIGENERE. Vigenère is a form of encryption in which each letter of a coded message is encoded with a different substitution cypher, and which letters are coded in which way is determined by a second text, known as the key. More simple substitution encoding, such as a Ceasar cypher, can often be broken with incomplete data, but this additional element of complexity makes it more difficult to decrypt a message unless the recipient has all three parts - the coded text, the key, and the knowledge of the cypher used.
Using the word "MULDER" (from the sigil puzzle) as the key for the encoded message "zowomj.suj" (from the QR code) gives the message "nullis.gay"
As the character of Null Seraph in the story had been known to make flippant jokes about her gender and sexuality and occasionally go on unrelated tangents, some players initially believed this to be a joke ending and the entire series of puzzles until this point was some kind of prank or red herring. However, .gay is a domain, and entering "nullis.gay" as a url in their web browser took them to a space Null had used to store files from her PC which could be of use to explain some of the existing mysteries in the story so far, and to direct players in future chapters. As such, much of the content of the site assumes a familiarity with the unarchived transmedia story which the ARG took place within.
While I have stopped paying to host the website nullis.gay now, due to the game being over, everything on that website can be found at nullnet.neocities.org