Sabotaging the Furnace-Bots: A Coding Adventure

In a world where art is threatened by incinerating furnace-bots, a daring quest unfolds. Ethic, accompanied by her robot companion Hedge, embarks on a mission to sabotage these bots and retrieve a powerful artifact. This journey requires strategic thinking and clever coding to outsmart the machines.

The Mission: Control the Furnace-Bots

The resistance leader, Adila, tasks Ethic and Hedge with a critical mission: sabotage the furnace-bots. In return, Adila promises to lead them to the Node of Power, a valuable artifact. The key lies in understanding the bots' origins. The furnace-bots are not created equal. They are all descendants from one original bot.

The Origin of the Furnace-Bots

• The original furnace-bot had a 0 inside its furnace and a unique serial number.
• This bot self-replicated, passing its serial number to its offspring.
• Each subsequent generation inherited the serial number of its parent.

The Plan: Exploit the Hierarchy

Ethic's plan hinges on a crucial vulnerability: the bots' hierarchical structure. Each bot receives orders from its parent. By targeting the original 0 bot and altering its instructions, Ethic can control the entire army. Adila provides a data crystal containing a program to seize control, but it must be uploaded to the original bot. Uploading it to any other bot will trigger a failsafe, destroying the crystal.

Coding the Solution: Finding the Original Bot

Hedge's data storage ability becomes essential. In programming, variables act as containers for storing information like numbers or words. Ethic must program Hedge to efficiently locate the original 0 bot.

The Challenge: Optimize the Search

The challenge is to find the 0 bot as quickly as possible. Hedge doesn't need to map the entire network of bots. Instead, he can follow a path directly to the source.

Simplifying the Problem

Imagine only three bots: a parent and two children. By randomly selecting a bot and checking its furnace, you can determine the family tree. If the furnace contains 0, you've found the parent. Otherwise, the selected bot has the parent's serial number in its furnace. This guarantees finding the parent in one or two moves.

The Loop: Repeating the Process

With numerous bots and unknown generations, Hedge can use a loop to repeat a sequence of actions until he finds the original bot.

1. Randomly select a bot.
2. Check the serial number inside its furnace and store it as a variable.
3. Initiate a loop that continues until the stored variable equals 0.
4. Inside the loop:
   • Find the bot whose shell serial number matches the stored number.
   • Check the number inside its furnace.
   • Overwrite the stored number with the new number.
5. Once the loop ends, Hedge has found the 0 bot and can upload the control program.

The Result: Control Achieved

With the program uploaded, Adila gains control of the furnace-bots. They feign flame outbursts to conceal their new mission: safeguarding artistic creations.

The Next Step: The Node of Power

Having delivered the furnace-bots, Adila fulfills her promise and leads Ethic and Hedge to the Node of Power. However, it's clear that acquiring the artifact will require another daring act: stealing it.