puzzle present top

It’s gotta be worth it, right?

Birthdays are the perfect time to show how much you appreciate and care for someone by buying them that present they’ve always wanted, making them something special, or perhaps treating them to a meal at their favorite restaurant.

…or, if you’re especially close, trolling them hardcore.

That’s just what happened to Japanese Twitter user @Arutu_R2 when he was given this lovely birthday present from his older brother. It’s a picross puzzle: you fill in the squares according
to the numbers on the sides to make an image.

Now that may not sound so bad – all you have to do is fill in the correct squares, right? Well…that would be too easy.

In picross, the numbers on the left and top don’t work quite how you might imagine. For example, “7 1 2 7” would mean to color in four rectangles made up of seven blocks, one block, two blocks, and seven blocks, but you don’t know how far apart from each other they are, or where they begin.

▼ So for the “7 1 2 7” top row in this puzzle, it could maybe be 7 blocks filled in right from the start, maybe 7 blocks filled in a few spaces from the left, or maybe all four rectangles wouldn’t even start until halfway across the row.

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Long story short, it’s a pretty hard puzzle, and it took @Arutu_R2 an hour to solve. Here’s what it looked like when it was all filled in:

▼ Oh, it’s a QR code! That’s kind of exciting.

▼ Time to scan and see what happens! Maybe it will lead to something awesome.

▼ It’s a text message: “Hap Birth.” You know it’s a quality troll present when the giver can’t even be bothered to spell out “Happy Birthday.”

We’d have to rate this birthday troll an A+. Not only did it waste the recipient’s time with a horrible puzzle, but the payoff was so, so beautifully not worth it. Our compliments to the chef – très bon!

If you suddenly feel an overwhelming urge to give your own friends and family presents that ensure they never forget you, then maybe you should check out these horrible gift ideas for some diabolical inspiration.

Source/images: Twitter/@Arutu_R2