1. Description
1.1 Story
You wake up on a bright and beautiful day inside REFUGE. The sun streams through the window, the light catching the dust swirling, twinkling, above your bare, blue calves. You wiggle your toes and roll out of bed. As you do, the morning heads-up display shines in your face, telling you about the activities you can do today. You brush the annoying list away and saunter over to the main entrance of your house. Pausing on the doorstep, the past couple minutes flash through your head and a news item way at the bottom of your list makes you pull your hand away from the doorknob.
You flip open your HUD and scroll down past the “don’t forget to collect your daily allocation of free potato seeds” and the “when your house is feeling small, take a look at our home expansion catalog”. Under the fold, you see “Harry Q. Bovik, dead at 35”.
Not believing your own eyes, you open the news item to see the details. It doesn’t say anything about the cause of death, but you can't help but think that 35 years old is oddly young. You can’t even recall seeing anything about Bovik being sick recently.
You think back to all of the fun updates that Bovik made to his Realistic Environment for Unique Gaming Experiences (though everyone just calls it REFUGE), and almost tear up at the thought. Harry Q. Bovik basically saved humanity when he invented the most versatile and useful virtual-reality game ever created. His studio even put out skin-suits that give tactile responses to actions your avatar takes in the game. With climate change, overcrowding, pandemics, and a whole host of other problems, the world was suffering. REFUGE gave everyone a safe place to meet up with their friends, family, and even complete strangers, without venturing into the dangerous outdoors.
And now he’s dead.
You continue reading the news clip and get even more surprised. Harry Q. Bovik’s estate is up for grabs! The clip talks about how his true family was made within REFUGE, so he wants to give *them* his estate. Of all the people on REFUGE, Bovik had the most friends. Period. You didn’t know him personally, but you’d heard that Bovik even tried to actively participate in the lives of all of his friends. You had no idea how he had the time to do all of that.
The only detail about how he was actually distributing his wealth is a vague statement: “Capture The Flags”. You blink at this for a few seconds. Does that mean…? Bovik clearly wanted to give his estate to the community of REFUGE, but is it really a free-for-all?
As you put away your HUD to think for a second, a flag pops out of thin air and falls onto your bed. You fling yourself towards it and snatch it up.
You hear a deep voice broadcast as you hold the flag. “Congratulations, your flag is PCTF{Are you ready, pwner?}. By collecting flags, you will earn points. Whoever earns the most points by the end of 48 hours will win the estate of Harry Q. Bovik. Good luck!”
You sit back on the bed, stunned.
“And as a last tidbit, we’re opening Bovik’s newest invention: the Inner Sanctum,” the announcer continues, “you might want to start your hunt off there. Bovik stocked it with all sorts of anecdotes and background about his life that will be helpful on your hunt.”
You pull up your cell phone and give your friend Pip a call.
“Did you hear…?”
“Yes.”
“See ya there.”
You don’t bother leaving your house into the bustling neighborhood, and instead teleport directly to your best guess of where the Inner Sanctum is. Amazingly, you’re right. The entrance to the inner sanctum, once a wall, is now a looming gate that leads to a shimmering fountain. It’s not too crowded yet, so you think you must have been one of the first people to read the news. As you walk in, you spot Pip out of the corner of your eye. You wave.
“Good luck!”, you shout.
“Good luck to you, too. I’ll be there if you need me.”
You shoot Pip a smile and cross the gateway into the Inner Sanctum.
Problem Details
This is the only challenge that you will have to read the story to solve, though we hope you will enjoy the story anyway. Welcome to REFUGE, and good luck with PlaidCTF: Ready Pwner One!
2. Write up
Story를 읽어보면 플래그 포맷을 확인할 수 있다.
You hear a deep voice broadcast as you hold the flag. “Congratulations, your flag is PCTF{Are you ready, pwner?}. By collecting flags, you will earn points. Whoever earns the most points by the end of 48 hours will win the estate of Harry Q. Bovik. Good luck!”
3. FLAG
PCTF{Are you ready, pwner?}