Mission Icefly: Phase 2

Today has been one hell of a day. Around 12PM, the countdown on testsubjectsneeded.com reached it's end, at which point the ARG-driven scavenger hunt began, forcing players to make horrible life-threatening driving decisions. Shortly after the countdown ended, New York and Atalanta were given coordinates to the mysterious dead drop, which players found within the hour. From then on, every hour on the hour, new coordinates were given for the 13 other cities listed, two of which we at Awesome Robo reside in. So what the hell happened and what is it all leading up to? Hit the jump to find out!


From 2-6PM Sirio and I posted ourselves in our respective cities (Seattle and San Francisco) constantly refreshing the coordinate page, hoping the drop would be nearby. Unfortunately for Sirio, he was unable to reach his destination in time, but as for me, that's a different story. Now, I know what you're thinking, "Holy sh**, Chris! Did you make it?!" to which I answer, "No..." but I came pretty damn close. The destination was set roughly 10 minutes from where I was posted, forcing me to fight rush hour traffic, often times making horrible traffic decisions (I swear I didn't hit anyone).

Damn you!

Once I arrived at my destination, I barely had time to park my car as I rushed down the docks searching for the package, but alas it was nowhere to be found. I failed. It's possible that I haven't been this active in months, because I nearly puked as I walked back to my car in defeat. Someone had found the package, but it didn't make sense, they were so quick and I didn't see anyone there. Luckily I ran into a small group of people surrounding a nearby car. In the middle of the group was none other than Stuart, my new found rival. Stuart (pictured above) was lucky enough to live a few blocks down the street, allowing him to nonchalantly reach his destination while pissing on my hopes and dreams. Good job!

Inside the box

But seriously, good job, today was a blast and it was a treat to run into others with as much as enthusiasm for the ARG as I (if you're reading this, sorry I couldn't grab a bite with you guys). I am rather jealous of the Icefly, but this isn't the end. Finding the 15 packages has lead up to unlocking a video that linked players to a new website, survivalcode.com, which leads to another website, traelekinstitute.com.

Surival Code, which takes the video that was originally unlocked and pieces it together in an orderly fashion, is by far the most interesting piece of the puzzle. It discusses our need to hold onto our five sense while also pursuing a salvation for humanity. Seriously, check out the video, it's some really cool stuff and the ending is a mindf***. It also leads into a small point-and-click adventure giving us yet another countdown (I love this sh**). The countdown this time ends on July 15th at 12PM, giving us plenty of time to speculate and dig deeper.

The other website, Traelek Institute, is a website for a school that allows visitors to call the number, 888-843-5774, and receive a small message which includes the following words for all applicants: decoy ascent, blameless and misguided. We'll get a video of both of these websites up ASAP, but while you wait, why not visit them yourselves? What do you think this all means, especially the four words? It's looking less and less likely to be part of a campaign for 5gum, as its been widely rumored.

The comic below was unlocked upon completing survivalcode.com's miniature Myst like point-and-click game and reaching the countdown. This comic lays the cryptic foundation of something much bigger. And by the way, yes, we know... Locke from Lost

Stay tuned until the next phase.