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Cards

rc4!!!

You stumble upon a body of a scientist with a name tag that says: AV - Employee 122. Apparently he has succumbed to the toxicity. It's a harrowing sight but you catch a glance of something in his breast pocket, and you are compelled to investigate. In the pocket you find that there is a standard deck of playing cards and a scrap of paper. On it is written THEREISNOSPOONJUSTTHISDECKAGWIQTKQBXKBABGWHIOPVSZGXQ.

Perhaps he found a cure. Perhaps not. Find out his last words.

Solution

author: Daniel Low

The image of the cards suggests a card cipher and the word "pocket" appearing twice suggests it might be related to the type of cipher.

Searching google for "pocket card cipher" returns a cipher known as Pocket-RC4.

The given website has detailed instructions on how to set up the cipher using a normal deck of playing cards.

Following the decryption instructions here gives us the answer

xthepinkelephantintheroomx