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This puzzle is part of the Monthly Topic Challenge #1: Restricted Title: xkcd 1xxx. The streets and addresses are fictional.

It's your friend again; they've moved to a new address (you already know city and country), and they've sent you another email:

Hey! You were pretty quick solving the last puzzle I gave you, so here's another one.

I just got a promotion and a raise at work, and you know your birthday is coming up, so if you solve this one, I'll get you that VR gaming system you've been raving about the past 3 months ;-). You can get it early if you stop by!

I've moved to a new address in this section of town. Can you tell me which building it is?

image

Hope to see you soon!

K

You wonder where they got such an incomplete map. Nevertheless, you'd like to see them again, and that gaming system sounds nice, so you set to work...

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  • $\begingroup$ I don't have enough rep to edit this into the meta post. Would someone mind doing it for me? Thanks! $\endgroup$
    – Sylvester Kruin - try Codidact
    Jul 4, 2022 at 16:47
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    $\begingroup$ ^ Done :) (And yes, I copy-pasted the spelling of your username...!) $\endgroup$
    – Stiv
    Jul 4, 2022 at 17:02
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    $\begingroup$ @Stiv Thanks! I feel like I'm going to regret that username some day... I don't even know how to pronounce it :D. $\endgroup$
    – Sylvester Kruin - try Codidact
    Jul 4, 2022 at 17:25

1 Answer 1

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I suggest you make a beeline for building number:

EIGHTY FOUR

To work this out:

do what the title suggests, and turn this map upside down! When we do that, we can notice that along the named streets, some of the building shapes appear to be very blocky letters spelling out their names:

Upside down map, hidden letters shown

If we focus only on the shapes of those buildings with numbers (which are all multiples of the magic number, 42, purely as an Easter egg...) and arrange them in numerical order, the corresponding letters spell out EIGHTY FOUR!

So your friend lives in 84 Main Street, just west of Green Avenue. (Or, wait, is that east? I guess we really need to know which way up this map goes!!)

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    $\begingroup$ Dang that was quick. Between the posting and the solving, I only just had time to eat lunch! Good job! Here's +1 and a check mark. $\endgroup$
    – Sylvester Kruin - try Codidact
    Jul 4, 2022 at 17:24
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    $\begingroup$ To extend the Easter egg, let's also note that rot13(rvtugl-sbhe vf nyfb n zhygvcyr bs sbegl-gjb). $\endgroup$
    – Greg Martin
    Jul 5, 2022 at 4:43

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