Logic Masters Deutschland e.V.

Lupin's Loop 7

Where It All Began

Backstory

Professor Lupin did the impossible: he connected the ancient energy cores in one perfect circuit, and Earth's portal was finally activated. The crew expected a doorway through space, a path to distant worlds, or the entrance to the aliens' network.

But the portal was not built to travel through space; it was built to travel through time.

Inside the light, Lupin saw the truth: humanity had been trapped inside a simulation, locked in an infinite timeline loop for the aliens' entertainment. Each cycle was staged like a grand performance. A brilliant human was chosen, pushed through impossible trials, and watched by crowds of aliens waiting to see how close they would come to escaping.

But none of them ever understood the prison they were inside.

Every time the chosen human failed, the curtain dropped, the timeline reset, and a new crowd gathered for the next play. A new cycle. A new chosen mind. The same invisible cage.

They all failed.

Until Lupin came.

Through the portal, he finally saw what no one before him had seen: this time, the loop already existed. It was not something to complete, but something to break. To free humanity, he had to split the timeline into two separate paths, meeting at only one shared point: the exact moment he stood in now.

One path would connect the past to a future humanity had never been allowed to reach.

The other would become an archive of every failure, every reset, and every human the aliens had sacrificed for their entertainment.

All his life, Professor Lupin had been known for finding perfect loops.

Now, to save humanity from the aliens' endless show, he had to break one.

But wait.

Wait, wait, wait.

Something is wrong.

I recognize this puzzle.

No… more than that.

I set this puzzle before.

The same grid.
The same numbers.
The same loop.

Wait.

No.

No, no, no.

This is my first published puzzle ever.

Why is it here?

Why is the finale wearing the face of the beginning?

What is happening?

Is this real?
Where am I?

Am I outside the story?

Or have I been stuck inside the timeline loop too?

No, please.

Someone help me understand.

Am I real?

Is this page real?

Or is this just another reset?

Please, break the timeline loop.

Solve the puzzle.

Free Lupin.

Free humanity.

Free me.

Before the curtain rises again.

Rules

Normal Sudoku rules apply.

Regions: Divide the grid into four distinct regions. Each region is orthogonally connected and touches each of the other three regions orthogonally (shares at least one edge). No 2×2 block may be entirely within one region. At least two regions are the same size.

Paths: Draw two distinct orthogonally connected, non-branching paths, each joining a pair of hourglasses determined by the solver. The paths share exactly one cell, marked by the red pin, and otherwise do not overlap. Along one path, adjacent digits have opposite parity, along the other, adjacent digits are consecutive.

Hourglass Clues: A digit in an hourglass equals the number of times its path crosses the border of the region containing that hourglass.

Purple Sensors: A digit N in a Sensor means the digit N appears exactly N times within that sensor's region.

Blue dots: Neither path may pass through a blue dot.

Green Dots: Digits in cells joined by a green dot differ by at least 5.

White Dots: Digits in cells joined by a white dot are consecutive.

Black Dots: Digits in cells joined by a black dot are in a ratio of 1:3.

Cages: Digits in a cage sum to the value in its top-left corner and do not repeat within a cage.

Arrows: A digit in a cell with arrows equals the total number of cells containing any part of either path in all indicated directions, including the clue cell itself.

Diagonal Sums: Numbers outside the grid on a diagonal indicate the sum of the first X cells along that diagonal. The value of X is not 6 and must be determined by the solver.

Outside Clues: A number N outside a row/column means the first N cells from that side are in the same region, and the (N+1)th cell is in a different region.

Note: You may finish one part before the others (digits, paths, and regions), but the puzzle is only solved once all three parts are completed.

Solve Online

This is the seventh and final episode of the first season of the Lupin’s Loop series. It may also be the final episode for now, as I’m still not sure whether there will be another season. I truly hope you enjoy solving it, and I would be very happy to hear any feedback, thoughts, or comments you may have.