Strange code found in 4chan image?

[Exterminator]

A thing has went viral on the internet, a image that was published on 4chan is driving people crazy and is actually a very big mystery, most people think its anonymous behind it and they are considering it a recruitment mail.

First the image seemed like a normal one, but the image when opened in notepad gave a QR code which then started a giant puzzle centered around a cicada.
Right now many people are actually chasing this puzzle and have found many hints such as one of the primary hints(first 2 percent of the quiz till now) has gps locations, when went to they all has a cicada around, when joined they formed a map with their center having a cicada poster with a QR code.

Now this involves many things such as PC hacking mainly so they are also pointing to random websites that get disposed several hours after they are put up, people arent allowed to share things in later part of the quiz and apparantly all the links with these things uploaded were hacked and deleted..

Here are some of the webpages and images that were found, there have already been 60 steps performed around the quiz and nobody has actually successfully found the end of it and reported back.

http://pastebin.com/k3urTUGZ
http://pastebin.com/Ljs9QgRF
http://pastebin.com/q9QTtdfG

Then the thing started pointing to 13 january.
First a website appeared with a countdown ending at 13 january, at the end of countdown a spooky face appeared and many users started reporting system problems and many pc crashes so it may be a hacker's attack OR a test..

http://puu.sh/dlpU
A simple google search led me to that. By selecting "How current is this?" I stumbled across a line of this.

http://puu.sh/dlpZ
So it was updated on Friday the 13th which could be linked to the countdown ending on Friday the 13th

I have no idea if this is a coincidence but it just caught my eye.
Another thing I have stumbled upon.

There was an image someone posted of that girl. The dimensions were 768x616
768*616=473008

Trying the domain 473008.com, I got nothing so I decided to google search it. During that, I found a website with info on a person named Leona. It may not be of importance but the thing that caught my eye was the entry date.
http://puu.sh/dlvp
October 13th, 1978 was a Friday. Surely all these Friday the 13ths can't be a coincidence yeah?

And then maybe this leona thing is a joke..well check the dates on the pastebin which appeared on the site, then check out this
When the 473008 was google earthed it lead to a place called Leona(Coincidence?Person is leona place is leona?)

You guys think it is legit shit?First i thought this was fake but to make something so complex and so much effort to be put in it isnt a easy thing, so this may actually be for real

[Stefanrsb]

I didn't get nothing bro. What is this actually?

[Norrage]

I didn't get nothing bro. What is this actually?

[Lionel Valdes]

This is a little bit scary....

[Orel]

[Kizzu]

I didn't get nothing bro. What is this actually?

[Stefanrsb]

Lol combo?

[BKP]

Bohemia Interactive used this kind of quest/quiz/hint to announce ArmA3

[Gimli]

Someone forgot to get out of their rooms every once in a while..