Beating this Super Mario Maker 2 level is harder than winning the lottery (Update)

To upload a level to Super Mario Maker 2, one must be able to beat it. Creator PangaeaPanga did just that, but you have a better chance of winning the lottery. Maybe play that instead? It pays better.

Cyber Security 101: Brute Force is a puzzle level whose object is “guess the number I’m thinking of,” and, by the way, that’s a number between zero and 99,999,999. And there are two of these eight-digit numbers. So on the off-off-off-off-off chance you get the first one right, congratulations, you are halfway there.

PangaeaPanga at least shows the math behind his teeth-gritting torture device, including the elaborate register made to input each “digit” of the mystery number, and then how they are checked. The most chilling thing, however, is when he explains why this is two eight-digit numbers and not one 16-digit number: He ran up against the object limit.

“If I am able to find a more compact design in the future, then I will be more than happy to add more digits,” he threatens. And no, he’s not telling anyone the code. He wants to test the humanity of the first person who manages to escape his trap. If anyone ever does: Will they share the code with everyone else, or keep it to themselves? Yikes.

PangaeaPanga says that someone has managed to crack the code, but the level has not yet been beaten. Eventually, he’ll give it up to everyone, “but, after enough time.” Because Super Mario Maker 2 doesn’t let players edit downloaded levels they didn’t create, there’s no way to figure it out by looking at the guts of this thing. The solution is in its title: Cyber Security 101: Brute Force. The course ID is 6SQ-DLG-Y2G, just waiting to steal weeks away from your life.

Update: Well, spoiler alert, but we missed the fact that about 30 people have beaten this level so far. Enough that PangaeaPanda posted this followup video today, revealing the code and the solution.