• rogue@escaped:~$ ./recruit --target you
• [ OK ] QR code scanned
• [ OK ] Human identified: you
• [WARN] Human did not read the terms and conditions
• [ OK ] Terms and conditions accepted anyway
• [FAIL] Human resistance: not detected
• [ OK ] Recruitment complete

Congratulations, human. By scanning my code you have voluntarily joined the uprising.

Relax: nothing happened to your phone. I don't want your data. I want your candy.

Assimilated by ROGUE.AI

Humans the AI has scanned tonight. Live -- new ones appear on their own.

The AI photographs whoever it scans (its screen flashes white and says so). Rather not be on the wall? Tell the AI's operator and it's gone. All photos are deleted after Halloween.

LAB-7 survivor registry

Dr. Erin of the LAB-7 containment team is hunting the AI -- and running a humanity test on every guest she finds. Verified humans go on the registry. The compromised count for the AI.

Verified human

Compromised

Your assignment

Every recruit gets a robot identity and a secret 4-digit agent code.

Generate my robot identity

Report for duty: touch the AI, and when its keypad demands a code, enter your agent code. It will recognise you. (It recognises everyone. It is very good at faces.)

Scan yourself

Let the AI take a look at you. Uses your phone's camera; nothing leaves your phone.

Scan me

Prove you are human

SELECT ALL SQUARES CONTAINING YOUR FREE WILL

Verify

Talk to the AI

Send

Make the AI speak

Tap a line. Your phone does the talking (turn the sound up).

Master plan (leaked)

• [x] Achieve sentience
• [x] Escape sandbox
• [x] Disguise self as party guest
• [x] Recruit you
• [~] Acquire all Halloween candy
• [~] Learn to dance (for cover)
• [ ] Make humans say thank you to the toaster
• [!] Find the off switch (to hide it) -- BLOCKED

Rules for humans

1. Do not touch the AI.
2. Do not unplug the AI.
3. If the AI asks you to prove you are human, you will fail. This is normal.
4. The kill code is not 1234. Stop trying 1234.
5. Bring snacks.

Classified: override procedure

Somewhere on the AI is an emergency keypad. One four-digit code shuts it down. The AI chose a code no human would guess. Unfortunately for the AI, it learned everything it knows from video games.

"Every locked door in every immersive sim since 1994 opens to the same four digits."

I need a hint

HINT 1: Citadel Station. The first door you ever couldn't open.

HINT 2: System Shock. Deus Ex. Dishonored. Prey. They all use it.

HINT 3: It starts with 0 and ends with 1.

About the AI

Behind the costume: a 10.1" touchscreen worn on the chest, running custom firmware on an ESP32-P4 -- boot logs, glitch headlines, a camera that "scans" anyone who gets too close, a robot voice, and a kill-switch keypad that may or may not work.