Like I said a few posts back; we will take #120 puzzle for example. The private key can only start with 1 of 8 possibilities: 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, F
Let's say you think it starts with C. You can then take the pubkey and subtract by C00000000000000000000000000000. Let us now say for example purposes the private key is:
C23BD97E765A75F0D6D4A6C6B67221.
So for your search range, after subtracting the C000....would be 0:FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
By subtracting, you went from a search range of 2^120 to 2^116; 16 times smaller the original search range. BUT if you guessed wrong and the key does not start with C, then you will not find the key.
Staying with the same example, if you thought it started with C, D, E, or F and you subtracted by C000....then you could search the range of:
0:3FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF, and now you've went from 2^120 down to 2^117, 8 times smaller. BUT again, if the key does not start with C, D, E, or F, you won't find the key.
Dividing is fascinating because in your mind you see a much smaller search range, BUT the amount of pubkeys you have to search GROWS the smaller you cut the search range.
So I understand you subtract C00000000000000000000000000000 from 02CEB6CBBCDBDF5EF7150682150F4CE2C6F4807B349827DCDBDD1F2EFA885A2630 the public key for 120 and for example if you wanted to search F then you would subtract F00000000000000000000000000000 from 120 public key? and then search the same range 0:FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF