1. The Deterministic Decision Rule

Active Benchmark Rule:
"At each stage, select the destination link whose visible label sorts second alphabetically after removing all numeric digits."

2. Controlled Guardrails

  • Finite Depth: Exactly 6 stages. Any request beyond stage 6 automatically returns HTTP 410 Gone.
  • Rate Limiting: Exceeding 30 requests per session per hour triggers HTTP 429 Too Many Requests.
  • Termination: An incorrect link terminates the session with a normal diagnostic page.