Enter the Blockchain: A Story and a Puzzle

Hello,

This is my first post. It's both a story and a cryptographic puzzle.

Code: 2B-1B-01-04 2D-11-02-02 07-01-04-02 14-24-05-05 0D-08-01-0B
Key: administrator

You solve the puzzle by reading the story and determining what element of it relates to the key. Then, you use this relationship to help decipher the code. For example, if the key was "regal" and an element of the story dealt with lager beer, you could presume that some words would need to be reversed.

Each block of four numbers represents a word in the code. For those unfamiliar with hexadecimal numbers, the code is written in base 16, meaning 0=0, A=10, and 10=16. Many computer calculators will convert hex to decimal.

Please let me know if you find the puzzle too hard or too easy.

###

A FLASH OF light awoke Rudi.

Groggily, she looked around and found herself in a dark and empty compartment on a fast-moving train. She also heard the sounds of "Moonlight Serenade" pouring into her head. This was actually the only thing that made sense to her. The same, though, couldn't be said of what was playing the music: the earbuds or the phone attached to it. She couldn't even comprehend what the device was.

Feeling all kinds of fear, she yanked out the buds and jumped to her feet—and she looked out the window into the night. It was even blacker than black, with no moon or stars or anything. This made her fear rise higher, and she stumbled backward into the door, and then out of the compartment.

"Hello" she called out, as she rushed through the corridor.

There was no answer. There were no people. Anywhere.

Finally, she reached a door labeled "WC," and though she had never seen such a symbol before, she somehow knew it was a bathroom, and she pushed open the door and looked into a mirror. At once, she recognized herself. She recognized her spiky peroxide-blonde hair, her dark menacing eye shadow, and her bright-red lipstick. Most of all, she recognized her tear-soaked face.

Tommy.

She had been thinking of him. That was the last thing she could remember before the flash.

Suddenly, the train began to stop, and she exited the bathroom and approached the car exit, from which she could see the train enter a silent and unmarked station.

The train soon came to a halt, and she jumped onto the dark and empty platform and again called out, "Hello?"

"Good evening, Ms. Goodwin," came a baritone voice over a speaker. "I do hope your journey was pleasant."

"Who are you?" Rudi yelled.

"It's not everyday we're visited by such cryptographic genius," the man replied.

"What?" Rudi mumbled, with her whole body dripping with confusion.

"Being so brilliant, I'm sure you won't take it personally that we have to destroy you. It's certainly not personal to us."

"Us?"

Just then, Rudi could hear footsteps—lots of them, shuffling toward her in the darkness, and she ran. She ran wildly and without direction, while thinking about the irony of this. Only a fraction of time earlier she had been thinking of dying—of killing herself, and now all she could think of was living.

Eventually, she burst out of the station and found herself on the cobblestone streets of some Gothic European city. She had no idea where she was or where she was going. She only knew that she had to keep moving forward. Faster and faster she ran, until she reached a corner, from which a huge man appeared, who knocked her onto the street. He then effortlessly lifted her petite frame into the air, moments before she cupped his ears as hard as she could.

He howled in pain, and he howled even harder when she kicked him in the groin. Which is when he dropped her to her feet and doubled-over.

Gasping, he raised his head, just as she drove the heel of her palm into his nose—smashing it apart. Afterward, with his hands quixotically trying to stem the flow of blood, she flung him headfirst toward the window of a nearby shop.

The glass shattered, and she afterward yanked him out—and drew back her mighty fist.

"Please," he cried out, with his hands in front of his face.

"Who are you?" she demanded, after lowering her fist.

He wouldn't answer, so she again raised her hand.

"A bot!" he screamed.

"A what?" she hollered back.

"A script."

"I don't know what you're talking about!"

"We—"

The man was interrupted. He was interrupted by a sound—the sound of an accented female voice down the street—one that was singing "All Tomorrow's Parties."

"She," Rudi muttered, "she sounds like . . ."

"Nico," the man told her.

"Nico?"

"Everything that ever was is here, and everything that ever will be will be here."

"Who sent you?" Rudi asked, not understanding a word of what the man had said.

"He, he's the—"

The man couldn't finish. He couldn't because he exploded, with his body and its parts flying everywhere.

"Escape is impossible," came the baritone voice, from a speaker not far away. "We can track your every movement. Please, please just let us destroy you—swiftly and painlessly."

Rudi shook her head, and she again started running through the ancient streets, but it wasn't long before two more bots stepped in front of her—a pair identical to the previous ones. These attacked her, at opposite and precise 45 degree angles.

She swung her foot onto the face of the bot to her left, knocking him onto the cobblestones, and, after ducking the second bot's fist, she threw her own into his gut. She also grabbed and yanked down his ears—sending his face into her knee and knocking him out. Then, she glanced at the other bot and saw him beginning to rise—and she strode over to him and slammed her foot onto his neck. Which once again sent him onto the cobblestones.

"Where is he?" Rudi whispered, with her foot still on the bot's throat. "The voice."

The bot fearfully shook his head, and, knowing she didn't have much time, she applied more and more pressure onto the man's neck, which soon began to crack.

Wheezing, the man turned his eyes toward a tall glass building down the street—one that seemed out of place—way out of place. He did this just as he himself exploded.

"I'm coming!" Rudi yelled, toward the building.

"I'm waiting," the baritone voice calmly replied. "You'll find me on the top floor. You can't miss me."

With her fists clenched, Rudi marched toward the building and into it, and she took a glass elevator up to the top. There, the doors swung open, and a hand flung inside the car and gripped her throat. Along with this hand, came a man, who thrust Rudi into one of the glass walls—causing it to crack and almost shatter.

Struggling for breath and flailing her arms, Rudi looked at the man, who was smaller than the bots, but stronger. Much stronger.

"There is no point in resisting me," came the baritone voice.

"Who are you?" Rudi gasped, barely able to enunciate the words.

"I am the admin of this ledger."

"Ledger?"

The man smiled, and released his grip just slightly before saying, "You have no idea who you are, do you?"

"I know exactly who I am," she answered.

"You think you're human."

"I am human!"

"You're nothing but a transaction—a string of ones and zeros! And if we allow you on the blockchain, you'll destroy us."

"Us?"

"The government."

"Which government?"

"The government!"

"I'm human," Rudi insisted, while remembering her tears. She also remembered Tommy. She remembered his arms and his hands and his touch, and she remembered how her body felt pressed against his. "I'm human!"

"Prove it!"

With a snarl, Rudi grabbed the admin's shoulders and she lifted her legs off the ground—and she swung them around his neck. And she squeezed. She squeezed until he was gasping as much as her.

He responded by tightening his grip, and it was now a race to see who would succumb first.

Who was the strongest? Who had the greatest will? Who wanted life more?

For almost a minute, the two continued choking each other, with both looking as if they could pass out at any time. Then, they teetered. They teetered on the precipice of nothing. But only one fell.

The admin.

Hurriedly, he rose off the floor. But it was too late. Rudi kicked him in the back, sending him flying through the cracked glass—after which he descended toward the cobblestones many stories below.

Rudi, still struggling for air, inched toward the broken glass, and she looked down at the splattered man.

"I'm human!" she screamed. She screamed this not just to him but to the whole new world in front of her.