Soon enough, Sunny and Robert had said their final goodbyes to Eniac and were walking out of Variable Village. Sunny looked around at the little houses and the other villagers, most of whom were going about their own business. They didn't seem to be experiencing any negative effects from the error information disappearing… at least, that's what Sunny thought until she saw a couple of villagers attempting to assemble a cart. The materials seemed to be going in the right places, but the word "Error" kept flashing.
Next to her, Robert harrumphed. "Probably missing a semicolon."
"Yeah?" Sunny looked towards the villagers in concern, then called out Robert's advice to them. They acknowledged her with weary nods. Sunny frowned worriedly, then turned to Robert with renewed determination. "If we walk two times faster, maybe we can get to the Loop Factories before nightfall."
If Robert had eyebrows, he'd be raising them at her right now. But all he said was, "Let's see how quickly you can navigate with Eniac's guide."
Sunny pulled out the paper from her backpack and glanced at it. Considering all the folds, it was probably much longer than it had first seemed… Well, she'd deal with it one if-statement at a time.
A couple minutes later, Sunny started to hear a faint roaring, and she and Robert entered a thin wood. A couple minutes after that, just when the pair had lost sight of Variable Village, the Conditional River came into view. Sunny caught her breath at the sight. The waters swirled and bubbled past her and Robert, carrying dead leaves and other detritus on its surface. It wasn't a particularly exceptional river, but Sunny couldn't help but be moved by what it represented. This was the first significant piece of nature she'd seen since she'd arrived in Javaland, and she couldn't help but feel that there was something especially magical about rivers.
She and Robert walked along a small path by the river until they reached the first fork. Sunny looked at the first line of the guide: "if (temperature > 0 °C) {" and decided that the temperature was indeed above freezing. So she looked at the line right after the open curly brace, which was: "Choose the left branch;". Thankfully, Sunny and Robert had already been walking along the left bank of the river.
Sunny followed the left branch, smiling at Robert. "That only took a few moments."
The robert shrugged. "Would you like me to give you a gold star or something?"
"Well, no, but a ‘good job' might be nice."
"Hm. Maybe after you get through some of the nested conditionals and navigate ones with five or more else-ifs."
Sunny rolled her eyes. "Fine. I'm proud of myself, which is what matters, anyways." She couldn't stay annoyed at Robert for long, though. Walking through the wood by a burbling river gave her an irresistible urge to skip along and sing some kind of traveling song. The only problem was, she didn't know many songs by heart, so she ended up doing some kind of half-singing, half-humming thing.
The next fork consisted of two branches, one of which seemed slightly polluted. Sunny consulted the guide and decided to follow the else-if: "} else if (the right branch is a little polluted) {". She folded the part of the guide that she'd already used and unfolded the part that contained information on the next forks.
Sunny and Robert continued this way for the next few hours, with Sunny keeping an eye out for forks in the river and checking the guide and Robert adding an occasional comment. At one point, there was in fact a conditional with five else-if statements, which all dealt with the exact color of the leaves of a tree at one fork. Sunny spent a couple minutes on that one, debating with Robert on whether the leaves were more red or orange.
Eventually, once they got into a rhythm of following the river, reaching a fork, reading the guide, and crossing a tributary when necessary, Sunny tried to strike up a conversation with Robert.
"I haven't seen many other robots like you around, either in Parentheses Town or in Variable Village. How many ambassadors are there?" she asked curiously.
Robert seemed to float a little higher. "Not many, actually. I'm one of around fifty ambassadors working for the High Council of Javalandia. And yes, working– after the Great Protest at Spaghetti Code Mountain, the High Council was forced to pay us for our work."
Sunny nodded appreciatively, then asked, "And what are the other ambassadors doing?"
"Oh, various things." Robert waved an arm dismissively. "Some are staying in Pythonia or the Republic of C++. Others just act as peacemakers, arbitrating any conflicts between people in Javalandia."
"What kind of conflicts? And are there still problems with the other nations?"
"Small things, like disputes over property. The nations are on neutral terms for now."
Sunny wanted to learn more, but Robert focused on the path ahead, clearly giving off not-in-the-mood-for-answering-questions vibes. (Was he ever in the mood for answering questions?)
So Sunny navigated the next few forks accompanied only by the rushing of the river and her own humming. She noticed how the tributaries were continually becoming smaller. It felt like they were walking up a slight slope as well, and the trees were thinning. Suddenly, Sunny looked up and could make out a mountain range in the distance.
She eagerly tapped Robert on the shoulder. "Which one is Spaghetti Code Mountain?" To her mild disappointment, none of the mountains looked like they actually had any spaghetti on them.
"The second-tallest one." The robot scanned the mountain range for a moment, then pointed at an average-looking mountain. It had a small snowcap and seemed to be covered in a scattering of trees.
Sunny narrowed her eyes at the mountain. "We're coming for you, Spaghetti Code Mountain."
"Well, it'll take us a few days," Robert muttered. "But sure."
Sunny shot him a look, then glanced down at the guide in her hands. There were only a couple of folds left now. Sunny pulled out some snacks that Professor Polly had packed them, then went back to navigating with renewed energy. Finally, the target of her quest was in sight!
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