Solution: Marked Books

Answer: CHECK OUT THEIR CARD READERS

Written by Thomas Gordon, Adeline Wong, Ella Sheffield, and Mitchell Rosenberg; with art by Olga Vinogradova

This is the metapuzzle for Floor 1. It uses the answers from the floor, which are:

As represented by the example diagram, each answer can form a different word by removing three of its letters. These words are clued by images of books, which list the clues alphabetically on set of bookmarks—solvers should therefore input the "bookmark" word into the Library's "Go to Bookmark" feature, which is available while browsing the Library.

The bookmarks are set to specific hexes; once there, the remaining three letters in each answer (taken in order) can be converted to Wall, Shelf, and Volume numbers (indicated by W, S, and V) using A1Z26. Navigating to the specified volume, then to the page number on the corresponding book image, yields a mostly-blank page with four sentences on it. (See the appendix for a list of all of the text blocks).

Each sentence is actually a quote from a book with a number in its title. Using each title number as an index into its corresponding puzzle answer and ordering by the location of the 4-sentence block on the Library page yields the answer to the puzzle, CHECK OUT THEIR CARD READERS.

Author’s Notes

Thomas: This was the great grand-daddy of all of the Shardhunt puzzles. It was written first in March 2021, far before any other puzzles which have survived to the final hunt, and motivated many other design decisions. Despite some minor changes to the title, formatting, and books used in the final extraction, it has changed very little.

It may interest some to know that in the initial stages of writing the hunt (up until late 2021), this puzzle relied on the actual Library of Babel website (indeed, plug in some of the bookmarks and see what you find)! However, when we were uncertain about the stability of the site under the weight of hordes of puzzlers, we were faced with the possibility of either writing a different metapuzzle, or building an infinitely large library on a python backend. I am still completely astounded at and in awe of the fact that Addie actually pulled off the latter... entirely on her own. I just provided the wordplay mechanic. She deserves so much praise for making this puzzle happen.

Adeline: Technically, the Library implementation wasn't really done on my own—the actual generation algorithm is adapted from Keiwan Donyagard's Offline Library, which was originally written in C#. At some point during the process, I experienced a glorious few days where I actually understood how the algorithm worked, but two years later, that knowledge has vacated my head entirely.

(Had I known that the existence of this puzzle would directly result in my futile attempts to decipher the utility of statements like c = ((2 ** 11213) - 1) * ((2 ** 4253) - 1) * 2305843009213693951 * 8191 * 13, I probably would have nixed it on sight. Luckily, 2021-me had no idea of the horrors in store for her.)

Appendix: Quotes

HEARTH

fear is stronger than arms. for a bunch of hairless apes, weve actually managed
to invent some pretty incredible things. it was the best of times, it was the wo
rst of times. in every enterprise is no greater evil than bad companionship.    

OUTRE

a happy soul in a healthy body makes the best sort of beauty for man or woman. y
oud be amazed how much research you can get done when you have no life whatsoeve
r. it is a far, far better thing that i do, than i have ever done it is a far, f
ar better rest that i go to than i have ever known. all for one and one for all.

HEIGHT

in the state of denmark there was the odor of decay. going outside is highly ove
rrated. i wish you to know that you have been the last dream of my soul. the eas
iest way to steal a mans wallet is to tell him youre going to steal his watch.  

REACT

you were born at a pretty crappy time in history. everything was beautiful and n
othing hurt. the chief proof of mans real greatness lies in his perception of hi
s own smallness. i didnt think anyone would anticipate this move, because it was
 so clearly insane.                                                             

SNIPER

but love is an emotional thing, and whatever is emotional is opposed to that tru
e cold reason which i place above all things. we talked the moon out of heavens
before either of us grew tired. it is necessary to do right it is not necessary
to be happy. there is prodigious strength in sorrow and despair.                

DESERT

one person can keep a secret, but not two. i believe, with all my soul, that we
shall see triumph. facts are for the unimaginative. never fear quarrels, but see
k hazardous adventures.