9 Circles of Hell: A Deep Dive into the ARG Quest

On February 17, the notSBU channel announced the launch of an ARG quest, which quickly caught the attention of the Deep Quest chat community. The quest is inspired by Dante’s “Divine Comedy,” specifically the journey through Hell guided by the ancient Roman poet Virgil. In the poem, Hell is depicted as nine concentric circles of torment within the Earth, each reserved for those who rejected spiritual values in favor of animalistic desires, violence, or the corruption of intellect for deception or malice.

How did the quest begin? Naturally, with the first circle. Let’s break down the solutions for each stage. To complete the quest, you had to pass through all nine circles of Hell—which is exactly what we did.

Limbo

We’re given an image and what looks like a random cipher.

• The text is actually base64. Using a base64 decoder, we get an ASCII message: tryth1s.site.
• This link takes us to the next stage. First circle complete.

Lust

Following the link, we reach the second circle.

• There’s a Latin inscription: “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.” Ignore the text and image; check the page’s source code for a binary string in the comments.
• Convert the binary to ASCII to get: yourfirstlinktothirdcircleofourargquest.
• Add this to the URL to reach the third circle.

Gluttony

Here, another Latin phrase appears: “Listen, how quiet.”

• Download the provided file—a wav audio of sinners’ screams in Hell.
• Using steghide extract -sf siners.wav (no passphrase needed), extract a hidden txt file in Russian.
• Transliterate the text into English letters to form a link to the next image and proceed to the fourth circle.

Greed

• Download the image and check its EXIF metadata.
• Find this string: Z2h0eXlyaW9hYXBENEhIbmtzTlQz.
• Decode it from base64, add it to the URL, and you’re on to the fifth circle.

Wrath

The fifth circle is a bit trickier, though the hint is right there.

• Check the page source for a comment. Count the number of letters in the comment (19), which matches the number of digits on the page.
• Each digit represents the count of a specific letter in the text. Collecting the correct letters spells out: Cesare alza lo sguardo (without spaces).
• Another hint in the code says “step13”—use a Caesar cipher (ROT13) to decode. This gives you the link to the next circle. Remember: case matters!

The Walls of Dis

Now we’re at the next circle, where you’re prompted to download a file.

• The image won’t open. Change the file extension from .jpeg to .zip—a common trick.
• Inside the archive is another image, which contains an Atbash cipher. Use an Atbash decoder to get the next link.

The City of Dis

• Download the image and check its metadata using any EXIF online viewer.
• In the “Model” field, find a base64-encoded message and several “1337” hints, pointing to leetspeak.
• Decode the base64 to get: 4n7H0ny54Y3r6. Use a leetspeak translator to get “Anthony Sayerg.”
• A Twitter search for Anthony Sayerg (hinted by “Dorsey 1976”—Twitter’s creator) leads to the next circle.

Malebolge (Evil Pockets)

This is where Dante placed deceivers. On the Twitter account, the status contains a message—read it backwards.

• It’s a lowercase base64 string. The image on the profile also contains a mathematical alphabet, which helps decode the text.
• Decoding gives: questa e la chiave (“this is the key”).
• Encode this phrase in lowercase base64, add it to the URL, and you reach the final circle.

Betrayal

The ninth and final circle, reserved for traitors in Dante’s vision.

• There’s Morse code—translate it to get: FINDME (in Russian: НАЙДИМЕНЯ).
• This suggests finding a person’s account on Telegram, where the quest began. But who?
• Recall that each circle, even the Twitter account, contained a single letter. Combine all the letters to identify the person who congratulates you on completing the quest.

Conclusion

On behalf of myself and the Deep Quest community, I want to thank the notSBU team for creating such an engaging quest. We shared our thoughts in the chat throughout the process. Special thanks to @coder1 and @Kltrst72 for their efforts—you guys are awesome! I’m glad the chat now lives up to its creator’s vision. Thanks also to everyone who watched along. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.

With love, Event Horizon.