ROOM 347 AN ESCAPE EXPERIENCE. ONE ROOM. ONE RULE.
TIME REMAINING60:00
REJECTED OFFERS347
A heavy wooden door wrapped in chain and held shut by a brass padlock, lit by a single caged bulb.
THE DOOR. IT IS EXACTLY AS LOCKED AS IT LOOKS.

YOUR BRIEFING

OBJECTIVE: You have 60 minutes to acquire the domain sergeant.com. The room contains seven locks.

Some facts about the room before you begin. Sergeant is the real surname of a real person. The family tree contains actual veterans. The current registrant is not one of them. His entire service record is spelling the name, out loud, letter by letter, to receptionists, airlines, and one very confused pharmacist.

The domain is not for sale. This information is not a puzzle mechanic. It is not a clue with a twist. It is the load-bearing wall of the room, and you are welcome to push on it as long as you like.

Begin whenever you are ready. The clock has already started, which the management admits is a little unfair.

THE SEVEN LOCKS

LOCKED

LOCK 1 COMBINATION DIAL

0
- · - · -
LOCKED

LOCK 2 KEYPAD

 
FOUR DIGITS MAXIMUM. CONFIDENCE UNLIMITED.
LOCKED

LOCK 3 WORD LOCK

IT ARRIVED SPELLING "SELL". THE MANAGEMENT DENIES INVOLVEMENT.
LOCKED

LOCK 4 DIRECTIONAL LOCK

 
LOCKED

LOCK 5 DEADBOLT

LOCKED

LOCK 6 SYMBOL LOCK

 
LOCKED

LOCK 7 THE OFFER SLOT

$

HINT STATION

EACH HINT COSTS TEN MINUTES. THE MINUTES WERE NOT HELPING YOU ANYWAY.

    THE OTHER DOOR

    EXIT

    This door has no lock. It has never had a lock. It opens onto the parking lot, where the air is free and nobody is auctioning anything.

    Most guests do not notice it for the first fifty minutes. They are at the keypad, entering the year the internet was invented. The door does not mind. The door has seen things.

    There is also a doormat. Rooms like this one hide keys in obvious places, and the management sees no reason to be above that.

    THE MAIL SLOT

    The brass key does not open the front door. It opens the mail slot, and the mail slot is the one genuinely unlocked thing in this building besides the exit.

    If your last name is Sergeant, actually Sergeant, the kind you spell for receptionists, write in and we can talk about an @sergeant.com address. About five people have asked in twenty-eight years, so there is no line. Not for sale. For family. There is a difference, and the difference is the entire room.

    WRITE TO domaininfo@sergeant.com

    OPERATOR LOG