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Remember my friend, Jim, who, y'know, gave me that "retaliation" puzzle, which I pretended to be stumped at, just to make him happy?
Well, anyone who's met me knows I don't keep people happy for long.
So, I shoved this text file into his computer today:

1.0
2.0
1.4
3.0
4.0
5.0
6.0
1.2
2.2
1.5
7.0
8.0
9.0
10.0
1.3
11.0
1.6
1.9
12.0
1.13
13.0
14.0
15.0
16.0
17.0
18.0
19.0
20.0
1.3
21.0
22.0
23.0
1.8
24.0
1.4
1.8
24.0
1.4
1.0
2.0
1.4
1.4

In case he needed some "help", I added this into a separate file:

kiyiavmb.pyv

Along with that file, I explained to him the way to solve it:

  • The songs lyrics are encoded in a special cipher I made:
    Each unique lyric is encoded in a number (these numbers go sequentially)
    If a lyric is a change from another one, that lyric's number would be put, then a period, then the number of words changed (for a unique lyric, this is 0)

Hard to get? Let me give you an example. The following lyrics:

Sunshine, falling down on me
Through the air and through the trees
Sunshine, falling down on me, yeah
Oh, how I love it so...

would be encoded to:

1.0
2.0
1.1
3.0

Lyrics 1 and 2 are unique, so they get 1.0 and 2.0.
Lyric 3 is just one word added from the first line (1.0), so it's 1.1.
Lyric 4 is unique, but since lyric 3 wasn't unique (it doesn't have it's own number), lyric 4 gets the number 3.0 instead of lyric 3.

I'm hoping that you guys can solve this, so that Jim can read this solution, and tell me I'm an amazing person. ;)

InitializeSahib
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  • the second appearance of 24.0 means the exact line is repeated? does this hold for say 1.3 aswell, or can they be different? – JMP Jun 03 '16 at 05:40
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    There are multiple instances of 1.4. Is it safe to assume that these are all the same or could they be different variants of 1.0 with other words changed? – Gordon K Jun 03 '16 at 08:14
  • Does word order in a line matter? If, in your example, the 3rd line was "Hello Sunshine, falling right down on me, yeah", would the encoding be: '1.0, 2.0, 1.3, 3.0'? Similarly, if the 3rd line was "I love the sunshine, bright as can be", is the inclusion of "sunshine" enough to match line 1, but with 7 changes (1.7)? – William Jun 03 '16 at 13:04
  • repeated numbers could mean different lines, but in this case usually mean the same lines – InitializeSahib Jun 03 '16 at 14:35
  • @William for example one, yes; for example two, the line needs some portion of a unique line to be derived from it – InitializeSahib Jun 03 '16 at 14:37
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    Could we have any hint about the song? – user14352 Jun 03 '16 at 16:23
  • between 12.0 and 13.0 it says 1.13, which would mean that line is the same as line 1, but with 13! words changed. Is it possible that this is a typo? or does the first line really have more that 13 words? – Anna Jun 04 '16 at 13:40
  • @Anna changes could be additions, deletions, or changes to the words themselves. this line could be 13 extra words, or 13 words removed, or 7 words removed and 6 words changed – InitializeSahib Jun 05 '16 at 22:06
  • @GordonK They could be different lines, but they also could not be. Besides telling you if it's a unique line or not, and if it isn't, how many words are changed, the numbers don't give out specifics on each line. – InitializeSahib Jun 28 '16 at 18:10
  • Does the kiyiavmb.pyv represent a hint – qwertylpc Jun 30 '16 at 18:32
  • @qwertylpc mhmm – InitializeSahib Jun 30 '16 at 20:15
  • @SahibPrime So we're talking a variation of Damerau-Levenshtein distance rather than longest common subsequence? – Pharap Jul 19 '16 at 15:18
  • I've been looking forward to getting back to this all day at work - only saw it yesterday and started on it this morning, but I'm hooked! Bye bye jobs around the house! – greenglass Aug 09 '16 at 17:23
  • @greenglass don't sue me for missing your work ;) – InitializeSahib Aug 09 '16 at 17:50
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    @SahibPrime With regards to 'changes' and 'deletions', can you give more clarity as to which can be considered a change and a delete? For example: "I eat desserts when I am happy" with "When I am happy, I am stressed." would desserts -> stressed be considered a delete AND addition? or is this just a change (desserts is stressed backwards). – Takeshi Aug 10 '16 at 09:16
  • @SahibPrime, would you mind double-checking the help you left Jim is correct? If it is, sorry for the inconvenience. – greenglass Aug 10 '16 at 09:49
  • I am sure this isn't made any easier by the fact that I probably don't know the song! – greenglass Aug 11 '16 at 17:37
  • @Takeshi since no words are being added or deleted, it's a change – InitializeSahib Aug 11 '16 at 23:44
  • @SahibPrime This is a popular, English-language, geographically-agnostic song, right? Not some obscure old-timey hymn. – Coomie Aug 12 '16 at 08:28
  • @Coomie you are correcct, old-timey hymn it ain't – InitializeSahib Aug 12 '16 at 21:38

1 Answers1

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After many sleepless nights, my research ended with this song:

Lukas Graham - 7 years

I really hope this is the right answer..I'm soo tired now..

Edited:

Let's see the lyrics:

(Different words are bolded)

Once I was seven years old my momma told me

This is the first line, so refers to 1.0

Go make yourself some friends or you'll be lonely

Second line is different, so we encrypt as 2.0

Once I was seven years old

Same as first line, except last four word, so 4 is the difference, refers 1.4

It was a big big world, but we thought we were bigger
Pushing each other to the limits, we were learning quicker
By eleven smoking herb and drinking burning liquor
Never rich so we were out to make that steady figure

Different lines refers different numbers in encryption: 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, 6.0

Once I was eleven years old my daddy told me

2 different, so 1.2

Go get yourself a wife or you'll be lonely

3 different, maybe this is wrong, or but i count here 3, so 2.3

Once I was eleven years old

4 words missing 1 changed, so 1.5

etc..

Or im i wrong?

peszo
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    I suggest you provide explanations for your answer... – Sid Aug 16 '16 at 15:06
  • great finding! any idea what the hint kiyiavmb.pyv might mean? – elias Aug 16 '16 at 21:59
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    Wow. Finally someone cracked it. Props to you, I really mean it. – InitializeSahib Aug 17 '16 at 03:31
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    Nice one. Finally I can get on with my work - this has been driving me mad. I was convinced the title, specifically the "dominate them" bit was some sort of clue - but apparently not. I also thought the kiyiavmb.pyv would be the artist's name encrypted somehow - I put most of my focus into trying to decipher that to no avail. What did that mean?! As suspected, I've never heard of the artist or the song :(. – greenglass Aug 17 '16 at 07:11
  • i've no idea what was hint representing. I was "bruteforcing" or mining the soution, i was totally sick to find the pattern in the songs. Finally seems i geti it. So maybe the nextquestion could be decypher the Hint. sry for my bad english :D – peszo Aug 17 '16 at 12:10
  • I thought about crawling a lyrics website, but I was so convinced the hint would be easier to solve. I've tried vigenere, bruteforcing with both a word list and random characters. I also tried monoalphabetic subsitution ciphers using a massive database of artist names to validate results. – greenglass Aug 17 '16 at 15:48
  • +1 kudos Peszo, I was not sure this was solvable at all. However, @SahibPrime, could you tell us, how the hint was supposed to help (as you suggested in a comment)? – Arsak Sep 12 '16 at 15:35
  • @Marzipanherz the hint is vigenere-encrypted, and reveals "azlyrics.com", the website where i got the lrics from – InitializeSahib Sep 17 '16 at 05:23