Life is A Test 2: Test Harder (Quite A Bit Harder)

by Brony_of_Brody

The Trap Is Activated

Grumbling, Flam allows you to hand over what is effectively chump change in exchange for the small device, and with triumph, you and Applejack make your way back to Sweet Apple Acres, clutching the small robot thing in your hooves, ignoring the cries of vengeance and the sounds of the other brother trying to calm down for the next customer from over your shoulder.

However, as is the case with any new product that needs to be assembled and configured, trying to figure out how to actually start up the device soon proves to be an absolute chore. As soon as you get back, open the packaging and attempt to read the instruction manual inside (the instruction manual is the size of a Jeremy Brenthoof novel, so Applejack has foisted the job of making heads and tails of it to you), you encounter a problem: starting it up requires inputting a password.

Luckily, it would seem that out of graciousness in defeat, Flim, as a reward for besting his brother, has input most of the password already and has left a note saying that the password requires inputting a series of characters according to a pattern in the numbers. The display screen reads 9, 10, 19, 24, 31, 40, 51, 64, 79, 90, ???. Right underneath, you see what appears to one of those weird QWERTY keyboards that you see on Equestria's most advanced typewriters, or on one of Twilight Sparkle's weird machine things in her basement that she vehemently denies the existence of...

Confessing that she has no plum clue as to what the numbers actually mean, Applejack decides to leave it to the expert and have you figure it out, cheers for that. No time to grumble though, as dusk is soon upon you and the Apple-Crab will awaken to wreak terrible vengeance, havoc and all sorts of terrible nouns upon the farm. So what is the mysterious missing piece in the sequence that will allow you to finally activate the machine and deliver sweet justice to your crustacean-shaped problem?

Author's Note:

1. A series of numbers: 9, 10, 19, 24, 31, 40, 51, 64, 79, 90...
2. That's basically it...

PUZZLE: What's next in the sequence?

Comments

[ScopingLandscape]

The answer is A9.
Let me explain.
The trick here is to realize that the numbers are NOT in our usual decimal system, but the hexadecimal system. When converted back into decimals, this would be what you get:
9, 16, 25, 36,...
Look familiar?
It's the perfect square sequence, starting from 3.
So, the next number in the sequence would be 13², or 169, or A9 in the hdxadecimal system.

[Coyotek4]

The real puzzle is, what happened to the previous puzzle's answer?