The Zodiac Trial Part #29 - Kangaroo Words

Part 29: Kangaroo Words

The group started chatting and splitting up amongst themselves. I still wasn't feeling totally safe at this school, so I didn't want to be alone. I decided joining one of the pairs would be the best choice. I decided that Pig and Monkey were a safe group to explore with.

Oh, you're going with us?

Well, that's great to hear.

Indeed. I feel safer searching with someone I have history with, as opposed to a complete stranger.

I felt similarly. Unlike some of the other groups, I had zero doubts about whether I could trust these two.

Let's not waste any time, then. These Minor Trinkets aren't going to find themselves!

Everyone, same deal as last time. Before the end of the round, remember to input a move and meet back up here.

Thanks for the reminder Ox! We'll be sure to listen.

Absolutely! Now come on guys, let's get searching!

The group split off, and the three of us began to search around the school.

So, does anyone have any ideas about where we should look?

I hold no strong preferences on this matter.

None at all?

It is best to move with the wind.

Okay, but what does that mean?

It means we've got to make a choice.

I don't want to go too far from the cafeteria. How about we search over in this area right next to it?

There seems to be a bunch of spaces where you could hide things here.

Alright then, let's investigate over there.

Let us.

And so we investigated the area adjacent to the cafeteria. There were plenty of spaces where it seemed as though secrets could be hidden. Chairs, tables, vending machines. Thoroughly investigating it all took longer than I expected it would. However, before too long, Monkey called us over to an enclosed section of the area with some printers and a lot of papers.

I do believe I have found something of importance.

What is it?

Between this printer and the wall, there is a safe.

[BGM: Dog Days]

Sure enough, Monkey pointed us to said safe.

It looks fairly lightweight and cheap. No doubt it is hiding something related to the game.

You're totally right, Monkey! Nice going!

Oh, but it's probably going to require some sort of passcode, isn't it? Darn it.

I knew things couldn't be this easy!

Now, now. Do not worry yet. We know not if it is actually locked.

What sort of safe isn't locked?! Of course it's locked!

It is better to check it first before making any assumptions.

Monkey picked the safe up and put it on one of the tables. She then tried to open it. ...Needless to say, the safe was locked.

Okay then. So now we know we should be looking for a code.

Obviously.

The code's probably going to be near where the safe was found, right? So let's just look around here!

We began to look all around the printer area. After a bit, I spotted a stack of four papers that caught my eye. They were labeled '1', '2', '3', and '4' in pen in the top right corner.

Hey guys, come look at these. I think these papers might be clues to the safe's password.

The numbers definitely sort of point to that, I guess. But what are the actual clues?

Well, look at the name for this first paper.

'Pal N. Drome'? Like palindromes?

That's a pretty bad pseudonym, I've gotta say. But what does the joke name have to do with anything?

I read this seemingly nonsense passage, and it turned out that there were 7 palindromes in it. So maybe it's trying to say the number in the 'first' position is '7'.

That seems like a bit of a stretch.

No, that's totally right. Puzzles are all about this sort of weird, tangentially connected logic.

Okay then, what about the other sheets of paper?

Well, one's by 'Amby Gram', so that's clearly looking for ambigrams. The one by 'Tauto Nim' is about tautonyms. But I have to admit, I'm not sure what this name's trying to say.

'Joey N. Kang'?

Oh!

I bet it's looking for Kangaroo words.

Kangaroo words?

Those are words that have their synonyms written inside themselves.

Like, um...

'Isolated' has the word 'sole' inside of it. And 'feast' has the word 'eat' inside of it.

Oh, okay. I think I get it.

Why not give it a whirl and try looking for them? Monkey and I will handle the other two.

Pig handed me the paper. I understood the concept, so I figured it shouldn't be too hard to solve. Now, let's read this passage.

'Any ordinary painter can create works of art that astound and surprise normal citizens. It is only those who can birth living works who possess the potential to truly blossom into masters. Be it a painting of an honorable prince, a helpless damsel, or a devilish trickster, the characters must come alive on the canvas. If the object of the illustration is not seemingly alive, then the creator is no better than a plagiarist.'

Hmm... Words that housed synonyms inside themselves, huh? This was harder than I thought it would be. I figured the words probably served the same function in the sentence, meaning they could replace the larger word they were hiding in and little would change. It was also a fair assumption that none of the kangaroo words would be as simple as lopping off a single letter.

They might be incredibly difficult to see. I also had to look for words that seemed out of place. Clearly the passage was built to try to fit in certain words. I tried reading it once more. Let's see...

It should be obvious, but this is your last chance to scroll back up and try to find the solution yourself before I give it and we continue on.

The correct answer here is 6. There are six kangaroo words: 'astound', which has the word 'stun' in it; 'blossom', which has the word 'bloom' in it; 'honorable', which has the word 'noble' in it; 'damsel', which has 'dame' in it; 'devilish', which has the word 'evil' in it; and 'plagiarist', which has the word 'liar' in it.

Guys, the fourth digit should be 6.

The second digit is also supposed to be 6.

The third digit is only 3.

So, the code should be 7636?

There's only one way to find out.

Pig was right. I moved over to the safe and inputted the code. 7636. I was greeted by an affirmative beeping indicating our success.

Yes!

Well done.

What, is it open now?

The beeping certainly sounded positive.

Did it?

Pig, are you perhaps hard of hearing?

Me? Oh no, no, no, my hearing works completely fine. I just, uh, well, you know, it's kind of a long story.

Bascally I have this thing called amusia.

Amusia?

It means I can hear fine, but I'm not really able to distinguish the pitch of most sounds.

Oh no!

Yeah, it, uh, it kind of means I am not able to really enjoy music or anything, but that's fine. It also sometimes makes it difficult to pick up on people's tones. That's why I generally have to rely on people's facial expressions to tell how they're thinking.

Which, erm, I'm not the best at either. But you know, baby steps.

Anyway, enough about me, let's get a look inside the safe!

Without another word, Pig leaned over and grabbed the safe's handle. She opened it, and sure enough, there was an item that looked like a token.

That is...

A Minor Trinket! I bet these digits on the back are what we need to input to activate it!

The inscription 'Sheep Minor Trinket' was written on the token, but there were indeed also numbers on the back. It read '4376'. Oddly enough, the 6 was written in red. Odd detail, but probably irrelevant.

Yes! We're one step closer to getting out of here together!

Spectacular work, everybody.

[BGM: Silence]

Since we have found a Trinket, how about we head back to the cafeteria, input our actions for this round, and wait for the others?

Makes sense to me.

Yeah, I'm down. The round will be ending soon anyways.

And so the three of us made our way back into the cafeteria. After that, we briefly split up into separate rooms so we could input actions on our tablet. Of course, I pressed RUN again. No need to hesitate on that front. When I returned to the cafeteria, Pig and Monkey were sitting there.

[BGM: Slow Boar]

It was only the three of us there. I realized there actually was quite a bit of time before everyone would be getting here.

I hope the others are alright.

They probably are.

I mean, they have to be, right? There's no way something bad could happen.

Although, I guess there's a lot of ways something bad could happen. Ways I've been ignoring thinking about.

It's an abandoned high school, after all; we're being kidnapped by a psychopath, we've got deadly devices around our neck, it's a bad bad situation. But if I think about that too much I'm just going to flip so for the sake of argument, there's no way something bad can happen.

I don't know. I just want to get out alive.

As do I.

I think we all want to get out alive.

Is there anyone outside that you particularly feel the need to get back to, Mouse?

Well, you'd know more than anyone, wouldn't you?

True, but I would like you to try to vocalize these thoughts.

...Are you trying to give me therapy in the middle of this death game?

Think of it more as a grounding exercise.

Okay then. I have my mother, who cares a lot about me. I have my friends, who would be really sad if I died. And I have a bunch of goals that I want to see through before I die!

That's the spirit.

What about you, Monkey? Why do you want to get out?

Me? Well, I suppose my main motivation is my obligation to all my clients. Without my consultation, I fear many may collapse.

Although, even with my consultation one clearly did collapse.

And there are other therapists, I suppose.

So that's it? Don't you have any family or friends you want to see?

I was an only child, and I'm not particularly close with my parents. And operating as a solo practitioner of therapy is a very tiring ordeal, so unfortunately my social life has been rather unmaintained.

Save for one older confidant, there aren't many people close in my life.

That's kind of sad.

Perhaps.

But I am perfectly capable of living for none other than myself. I prefer to think of it as living untethered. Without any obligations, I can really focus on doing things that interest me.

And I have a lot of interests. There's so many fascinating things out in the world, things worth learning about.

Monkey's got the right idea!

The only reason I want to get out alive is because I want to get out alive!

So you don't have any family, Pig?

Oh, I've got family. Parents and a bunch of siblings.

But I'm not really close with them anymore.

What about friends?

Friends? With my schedule?

I'd have trouble with meeting people if I did spend more than a couple hours a week outside my apartment. I have people I collaborate with on projects frequently, though.

Do they count?

If you believe they do, then yes.