It must have been a morning like any other for Mimi, a 39-year-old architect from Gironde, who did not want to give her name. This is his daily ritual: he gets out of bed at six in the morning, when the whole house is still asleep, turns on the coffee machine and takes advantage of two hours of calm to dedicate himself to his great passion: the search for owl gold. , a treasure buried in 1993 and which has been trying to locate for eleven years.
But, this Thursday, October 3, things will be different. A notification appears on your phone. Michel Becker, custodian of this treasure hunt, has just posted a message on the Discord server, which brings together part of the community: “A potentially winning solution is currently being verified. » Mimi, barely awake, thinks she has read wrong. “And then I start to realize that this is it, this is the end. Emotionally, I find myself in front of my cup of coffee with a great emptiness”trusts him World.
Immediately, found online “cool friends”as the fans of this puzzle game call themselves, no matter how amazed they are, sometimes in disbelief. Two hours later, Michel Becker published a new message that left little doubt: “Don’t go digging!” We confirm that the countermark of the golden owl was unearthed last night, simultaneously with a solution shipment. » An entire community is orphaned. “It’s like being in mourning”continues Mimi, who on the phone is surprised to feel her voice breaking. “I didn’t think I would cry about it… The human side is phenomenal. It is a community we will not find again. »
Tens of thousands of people have tried, for years, to discover the location of the eagle owl. The story begins in 1993, when the communicator Régis Hauser, under the pseudonym Max Valentin, buried a bronze owl somewhere in France.
Paid server at Minitel
To find it you must solve a series of eleven riddles, accompanied by illustrations, which are published in a book. The person who manages to locate and unearth the bird will be able to exchange it for the real treasure: an owl made of gold, silver and diamonds, whose value was then estimated at 1 million francs, or 150,000 euros.
The concept hits the mark. Many French people get caught up in the game, to the point of developing an obsession. “I have been looking for the owl since 1997 and it takes up about 80% of my free time”says Tina Delly, whose real name is Christine Garin, founder of the Official Association of Owls (AOC). When he started, there was no Internet: he locked himself up for hours in libraries and connected to the Minitel, where Max Valentin, the creator of the game, had opened a paid server. In 3615 MAXVAL answered questions. Over the years, the character has become something of a myth, whose often ambiguous statements were recorded and analyzed by the “owls.”
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