At the bottom of this file you will find a payload -- a blob of data that has been obfuscated in some way. When it is decoded correctly, the payload will turn into another text file with another puzzle. There are many puzzles wrapped inside each other, like a matryoshka doll, or the layers of an onion.

You will need to write code to do the decoding. This can be done using any programming language.

Every layer clearly explains how to decode its payload. These are puzzles with deterministic solutions, like Sudoku, not riddles. I'm a software developer, not the sphinx of Thebes.

There is a little bit of educational value in each layer. In order to progress, you will need to learn and use computery concepts like bitwise operations, encodings, cryptography, error detection, and so on.