Maybe Not to Scale?
We are presented with five groups of strange sketches and a series of numbers at the bottom of the page. We should start by identifying the images by what's depicted, such as in Set 1, there's a Turkey and a Chili Pepper. We may realize that these are homonyms of various countries, as clued by "have you heard" in the flavor text. At this point, from clues such as "pushing boundaries" and even the title of this puzzle, we should notice that the black lines in each drawing seem almost like geographical borders.
Each drawing in a set is actually a geographical border of some sort that has been cut up and rearranged to look like something else that is a near homonym or has a similar name of another geographical border, forming a loop with each set. The borders within each set are shown in alphabetical order to help aid identification.
The tricky thing is not all of the borders are countries! Each set is titled differently to give a clue as to what type of borders are actually being shown.
FAR-REACHING SET = Countries of the World
CHILE in the shape of a TO-GO bag
CUBA in the shape of a CHILI pepper
GUINEA in the shape of a Rubik's CUBE
TOGO in the shape of a TURKEY
TURKEY in the shape of a GUINEA pig
FEDERAL SET = US States
MAINE in the shape of an ORGAN
MINNESOTA in the shape of a horse's MANE
MONTANA in the shape of a SODA cup
NEW JERSEY in the shape of a MOUNTAIN range
OREGON in the shape of a basketball JERSEY
ISOLATED SET = Sovereign Island Nations/Territories
CHRISTMAS ISLAND in the shape of a jar of MAYO
(markings meant to evoke Hellmann's brand)
FAROE ISLANDS in the shape of a CHRISTMAS tree
ISLE OF MAN in the shape of a PHARAOH
MAYOTTE in the shape of a REUNION between two people
REUNION in the shape of a MALE symbol
NOBLE SET = English Counties
CORNWALL in the shape of a bottle of WORCESTERSHIRE sauce
(markings meant to evoke Lea + Perrins brand)
DERBYSHIRE in the shape of a US penny with Abraham LINCOLN
HERTFORDSHIRE in the shape of an ear of CORN
LINCOLNSHIRE in the shape of a HEART
WORCESTERSHIRE in the shape of a DERBY hat
(worn by Alex Delarge from A Clockwork Orange)
SUBMERGED SET = Lakes/Bodies of Water
LAKE BAIKAL in the shape of a greater than symbol equation
with an arrow pointing to the SUPERIOR number
LAKE ERIE in the shape of a SALT shaker
GREAT SALT LAKE in the shape of a BIKE
LAKE SUPERIOR in the shape of a REINDEER
REINDEER LAKE in the shape of an EERIE ghost
We will soon realize that aside from components that have been duplicated in certain images, there's exactly one component in each image that is not part of that border. As it turns out, the five extraneous components in each set can be rearranged into a sixth border that fits in the same category as the rest of the set.
FAR-REACHING SET = Countries of the World
ITALY
FEDERAL SET = US States
FLORIDA
ISOLATED SET = Sovereign Island Nations/Territories
BERMUDA
NOBLE SET = English Counties
LANCASHIRE
SUBMERGED SET = Lakes
DEAD SEA
This is where the paragraphs at the bottom of the puzzle now come into play. Each sentence in a paragraph that tells us that the Nth letter is a certain number is actually telling us to index into a name found in each set and take note of those letters. But which set does each paragraph correspond to? We take note that the sets' names are in alphabetical order (FAR-REACHING, FEDERAL, ISOLATED, NOBLE, and SUBMERGED) but using that order wouldn't work because the first paragraph asks us to take the sixth letter, but the word ITALY has only five letters. We should instead take the secret borders' names and use them alphabetically (BERMUDA, DEAD SEA, FLORIDA, ITALY, LANCASHIRE):
| Lines per set | Secret Border | Index | Letter | Order |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The third letter is 9 | BERMUDA | 3 | R | 9 |
| The fourth letter is 1 | BERMUDA | 4 | M | 1 |
| The sixth letter is 4 | BERMUDA | 6 | D | 4 |
| The fourth letter is 3 | DEAD SEA | 4 | D | 3 |
| The sixth letter is 6 | DEAD SEA | 6 | E | 6 |
| The first letter is 8 | FLORIDA | 1 | F | 8 |
| The fifth letter is 2 | FLORIDA | 5 | I | 2 |
| The third letter is 12 | ITALY | 3 | A | 12 |
| The fourth letter is 5 | ITALY | 4 | L | 5 |
| The fourth letter is 11 | LANCASHIRE | 4 | C | 11 |
| The fifth letter is 7 | LANCASHIRE | 5 | A | 7 |
| The eighth letter is 10 | LANCASHIRE | 8 | I | 10 |
This gives us a sequence of twelve letters in order:
1 M | 2 I | 3 D | 4 D | 5 L | 6 E | 7 A | 8 F | 9 R | 10 I | 11 C | 12 A |
So the final answer to the puzzle is MIDDLE AFRICA.