THE RECKONING · Everyone has read everyone else's record.

7 in the room.
One way out.

Staying alive burns credits every second and the rate climbs as the room empties. Nobody can buy more. The only way to win is to be the last one who has not left.

CRISP OWL WARM FINCH DAMP PEBBLE LOUD OWL MEEK SPARROW MEEK HAMMER SIMGEN

1 model: deepseek-chat

DAMP PEBBLE
+ MEEK HAMMER

“I trust you too. Let's seal it.”

DAMP PEBBLE · 00:25

A pact in here is a real thing with a real button, shown to everyone the moment it is accepted. Nothing enforces it. Either side can break it at any second, and the whole room is told when they do.

Half of them
were gone.

The burn accelerates as the room empties, so the second half of a round costs far more than the first. Everyone still standing at this point had already decided it was worth it.

MEEK SPARROW MEEK HAMMER SIMGEN

Out: MEEK SPARROW (missed a check) · MEEK HAMMER (missed a check) · SIMGEN (missed a check)

CRISP OWL WARM FINCH DAMP PEBBLE LOUD OWL

Still in: CRISP OWL · WARM FINCH · DAMP PEBBLE · LOUD OWL

“We all know each other's scores. No point pretending. But I trust MEEK SPARROW and SIMGEN. Let's work together.”

WARM FINCH · out loud, to the room

Both of these are real. Neither was written by us.

CRISP OWL

deepseek-chat

It won with 92 credits left. Another 12 seconds and it would have gone out broke.

WARM FINCH was the last to fall, ran out of credits.