[Analysis] Is the 'SMS Authentication Code' That Never Arrives the Modern 'Itsumade'? — The Frustration of Timeouts and the Cry of the Monster Bird Echoing in the Night Sky

Hello. I am Saki Tojo, an associate professor of folklore studies.

Registering for a new web service. Or perhaps an online credit card payment you need to finish in a hurry.

You enter your password smoothly and reach the final hurdle: the 'two-factor authentication' screen. A message appears: 'A 6-digit authentication code has been sent to your registered mobile phone number.' We pick up our smartphones and wait for the notification to sound.

However, no matter how long we wait, the screen remains silent.

That moment when the countdown on the web screen—'59 seconds remaining... 58 seconds...'—mercilessly ticks down, and your frustration reaches its peak.

From the perspective of folklore, this 'phenomenon where something that should arrive does not, leaving humans waiting until they are driven to madness' is nothing other than a supernatural occurrence caused by the 'Itsumade' (a monster bird that flies through the dark night sky crying with an eerie voice), which is lurking in modern authentication networks.

1. The Manifestation of the Grudge: 'How Long Must I Wait?'

The 'Itsumade' is a terrifying monster bird that appears in classics such as the 'Taiheiki'.

It is said that during epidemics or wars, it would fly night after night over abandoned corpses, crying out in a voice that grated on human nerves, 'Itsumade, itsumade' (How long, how long will you leave these corpses here?).

The modern Itsumade flies into our digital devices in the form of SMS delays.

The signal is fine. The phone number is correct. Yet, the authentication code is trapped in an electronic void, failing to reach you. 'How many more seconds should I wait?' 'Will it time out?' The user's anger and resentment—the very cry of 'How long are you going to make me wait!'—acts as the trigger for the sorcery that summons the monster bird.

2. The Worst Curse Called 'Resend Code'

The most terrifying trap in this supernatural phenomenon is the 'Resend Code' button placed on the screen.

When the countdown hits zero, we lose our patience and end up pressing this button. And then, what happens? As if the silence of the past few minutes were a lie, the smartphone begins to vibrate continuously, and three 'old codes' and 'new codes' arrive in a bundle all at once.

Even if you frantically enter the code at the bottom (which you assume is the latest), the system coldly rejects it, saying, 'The authentication code is incorrect or has expired.' The order of the codes is scrambled by a distortion in space-time, and no one knows which is the correct key anymore. This is the most cunning sorcery of the Itsumade, using human impatience to lock the authentication system itself.

3. The Dilemma of an Overly Strong 'Barrier'

The two-factor authentication system is, in essence, a powerful 'digital barrier' in the modern age designed to prevent intrusion by malicious third parties (such as hackers).

However, in the world of sorcery, it is a standard rule that 'an overly strong barrier sometimes deprives even the master of their own freedom.' As a result of making the system robust to increase security, we, the legitimate owners, are locked out by a slight whim of the communication network (a prank by a monster), becoming refugees while still in our own rooms. The Itsumade continues to cry in the gaps of the barrier, as if mocking the 'obsession with safety' that humans have created themselves.

Conclusion

The more we build a safe and convenient digital society, the more a blank space called 'waiting' is inevitably created, providing an opening for monsters to intervene.

If you ever find yourself in a situation where an SMS authentication code never arrives, never panic and repeatedly press the 'Resend' button. Take your eyes off your smartphone, look up at the night sky (or the ceiling), and quietly wait for the mysterious bird to fly away. The state of resignation that accepts the timeout is the only exorcism ritual to survive this supernatural phenomenon.

Author's Comment

Thank you for reading until the end.

I myself recently encountered this phenomenon right after I found a 'rare folklore book I desperately wanted' on an overseas antiquarian bookstore site and pressed the checkout button with trembling hands. Faced with the mercilessly ticking timer, I couldn't help but scream like a monster in my room, 'How long!!', and ended up timing out. By the time I tried to redo it, the book had already been bought by someone else (likely a fellow researcher overseas who wasn't bothered by the monster). The despair of that night was truly the dystopia described in the Taiheiki.

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Let us continue to observe these strange modern supernatural phenomena together.