——[Additional Announcement, Additional Announcement]
[Due to Team 277 being the first to break through the first "maze node," they have received extra points as a reward. Thus, Rule Five is hereby announced, which is the last hidden rule of this assessment.]
[Rule Five: Once a part of the puzzles is solved, the shortcut or secret paths revealed will lead to the "maze nodes." Each "maze node" has at least five accessible secret paths, and once all paths leading to the maze node are opened, the Remnant Beasts hidden within the node will appear. Examinees can defeat the Remnant Beasts to break through the node and earn reward points. Each node is worth 100 points, which will be evenly distributed among the examinees who participated in breaking through the node, after the assessment results are finalized.]
[When all the "maze nodes" have been broken through, the maze's exit will appear. At that time, examinees who have retained their ability to move can leave through the exit. Once all examinees have left the examination venue, this assessment will conclude.]
[To repeat, due to Team 277 being the first...]
"Team 277... It's that team again."
Listening to the announcements echoing in the maze, Xia Liang sighed while dashing around, solving puzzles in hand, "How nice it is to smoothly find puzzles and gain bonus points afterwards."
Her lament was not without reason, mainly because her team's luck seemed to be particularly poor.
Shortly after the assessment began, they encountered the troublesome Drunken Fish Grass Team, spending a lot of Magic Power to barely get rid of them; and afterwards, they constantly ran into battles, preventing proper exploration. Even during the puzzle search, they found nothing for a long time, finally finding their first puzzle more than half a day into the assessment.
In terms of progress, they're not necessarily last, but undeniably trailing most of the more capable teams.
Xia Liang still harbored the desire to "achieve a good result," yet ideal and reality have their discrepancies. Just as she found her first puzzle, the fastest team had already discovered the fifth rule. Even with her good-mannered mindset, such tremendous progress disparity left Xia Liang feeling somewhat powerless.
But despite feeling internally frustrated, the puzzle-solving cannot afford to slack, so Xia Liang continued to immerse herself in running and solving puzzles.
The puzzle her team found was a "Magic Cube" puzzle, much like a standard magic cube toy, balancing the Magic Power concentration in a 3x3 square area, ensuring that the Magic Power concentration on each square face is consistent.
The difficulty of thinking for this puzzle was not particularly high, after all, magic cubes, especially the basic 3x3 ones, are certainly not "challenging" for those with even a bit of study. Nevertheless, solving this puzzle still required considerable time from three people—because this magic cube was embedded in the maze wall, exposing only two of its sides.
This meant that most of the time, they could only see two sides of the magic cube, needing repeated checks to confirm the progress of restoration; it also meant that to rotate this magic cube, they had to continuously dispatch people to and fro on both sides of the wall.
At this moment, Xia Liang had just finished sorting the Magic Power on the other side of the wall and was on the way back to exchange information with her two teammates.
Such physical activity was certainly no problem for a Magical Girl, yet the time consumed indeed made one anxious. Xia Liang considered using magic technique combined with flying ability to move quickly, but the maze area was narrow and small, with many turns, flying fast might lead to crashing into walls. In contrast, running steadily seemed more reliable.
When she ran back to the position of the magic cube with a look of resignation, Shan Dan and Juan Dan sisters had been waiting for quite some time.
"Ah, you're back, Jin, senior, do you need to rest first?" Juan Dan greeted politely.
"You seem tired, are you alright?" Even Shan Dan noticed Xia Liang's somewhat poor expression.
After showing skill in the previous fight with the Drunken Fish Grass, the sisters found Xia Liang to be a Leaf Level, thus Juan Dan sensibly changed how she addressed her, starting to call her senior. Shan Dan's attitude changed as well, her words carrying a kind of inexplicable confidence, as if saying, "Having randomly got a Leaf Level teammate, my luck is great, we three are strong."
"...Haha, no need to rest, let's continue."
Despite feeling somewhat depressed, Xia Liang chose to put on a smile again, as her acknowledgment from the sisters naturally made her the commander of the team. Given the ongoing assessment, she had no reason to appear more passive than her teammates.
As for why she took over the team's leadership, there wasn't a complex reason, since everyone wanted better results, having someone more capable to lead the team presumed sensible. However, Xia Liang did not display any senior airs, remaining amiable to the two individuals. In fact, having taken command of the team, she became more proactive in communication with her teammates, ensuring Shan Dan could keep up with the thinking pace of herself and Juan Dan, allowing the team's actions to remain cohesive.
"But even with this pace, we might struggle to achieve good results in this assessment."
Therefore, at this moment, Xia Liang spoke candidly about her thoughts: "Most teams with advanced progress should have already monopolized two or three puzzle rewards, and even reached the next phase as described in the announcement. The gap between our progress and theirs is too wide; catching up with the score difference has become exceedingly difficult."
"Why?"
Shan Dan questioned, puzzled: "The announcement mentioned that once all those 'nodes' are broken through, the exit will open. We just need to be the first to run out of the maze, isn't that equally high in score?"
"Sister..."
Juan Dan helplessly tugged at her sleeve: "Don't say such impractical things. We're struggling even to find puzzles, and there are many puzzles in the maze. At that time, the exit will be the only one in the entire maze, you know?"
What she was saying now was actually the mindset of most examinees at present. Rather than chasing after the singular, possibly distant exit, it's better to sincerely solve more puzzles to earn reward points. This way, even if luck doesn't favor them in finding the exit timely, they could still rely on the baseline score for normal maze completion plus the reward points for a decent result.
"Haha, which is why I say you're a silly sister with not much sense."
However, after hearing Juan Dan's words, Shan Dan merely chuckled, shaking her head: "Haven't you thought of it yet? Our team's greatest advantage?"
"...What is it?" Juan Dan knew clearly what kind of person her sister was and expected little valuable proposals in such situations, yet to accommodate her feelings, could only respond.
```
"Of course, precisely because our exploration progress is behind, we're still in the outer layer of the maze, so compared to those who have already delved into the nodes, we're closer to the exit!"
Shan Dan opened her folding fan and analyzed with a smug expression: "Although we're not the only team left on the outer layer, they are behind due to lack of skill, while we're just held back by bad luck. Compared to those average teams, we can face off directly against the second strongest team!"
"So?" Juan Dan seemed to have already guessed what conclusion her sister was about to draw, her expression was subtle.
"So, we can move now to find where the exit might appear. As long as we find it in advance and guard the door, we can stop anyone who tries to compete with us for the exit. When the exit opens, if we run out first, wouldn't we be the winners?" Shan Dan stated firmly.
"As expected..."
Juan Dan sighed: "Ah, sister, let me ask you a question. Where do you think is 'the place where the exit might appear'? Even if we really arrive at the location in advance, without the exit appearing or any signs, how can you be sure you've found it?"
"Oh? You've stumped me with that."
Shan Dan paused upon hearing this, showing a thoughtful expression, and after a while closed her folding fan: "No idea!"
"And you said to block others, but they definitely won't just listen to us. We would definitely end up fighting, right?"
Juan Dan continued to counter: "Even if we could win, what if we accidentally eliminate others? Then their rankings would only benefit them. What would you do then?"
"Don't know about that either!" Shan Dan closed her eyes in slight anguish.
—"Since we don't know, let's obediently continue solving puzzles."
Xia Liang, who had been listening to the entire conversation nearby, resisted the urge to roll her eyes and waved to Shan Dan: "Forget about finding the exit for now, just running back and forth along this wall is already tiring enough."
"Oh, okay."
Shan Dan, having been challenged by her sister, quickly shifted focus and obediently returned her attention to the puzzle: "But Jin, why do you have to run along the wall? Can you just use magic armor to go straight through to the other side?"
"It's not that simple."
Xia Liang observed the Rubik's Cube in front of her, thinking of solutions while casually answering: "At this stage, my magic armor can't teleport living beings, so even if I placed a mirror on the other side of the wall, I couldn't pass through it. If it was possible, I would've done it already."
"Why not teleport the wall away then?" Shan Dan asked, trying to make conversation.
"That's because my magic armor can only teleport things made of magic power..."
Xia Liang's words suddenly got stuck halfway.
Because of Shan Dan's suggestion, she suddenly began to ponder—does this maze count as a tangible entity?
Although structurally and materially it's certainly not purely made of magic power, it undoubtedly relies on magic technique to persist.
So, from this perspective, could she teleport the "magic technique maintaining the maze"?
Thinking this, Xia Liang's hands moved faster than her mind, and without deciding her next move, she had already pressed a small deflection mirror against the wall.
Since she was only doing a test, she deliberately shrunk the mirror to very small, less than palm-sized, to avoid draining too much magic power.
After a brief flicker of the mirror surface, Xia Liang gazed at the scene before her, lost in thought.
The wall covered by the mirror had turned into sparse shrub branches, completely unlike its previous solid green wall-like appearance.
Was she inadvertently destroying the maze?
She thought somewhat guiltily, then removed the mirror from the wall, only to see the branches slowly regrow, gradually filling the holes in the wall.
Seconds later, there was a complete wall in front of her again.
Aside from that, the surroundings hadn't changed, nor was there a sudden broadcast declaring this as maze sabotage resulting in elimination.
Xia Liang was stunned.
This daze wasn't due to the cessation of thought, but because a surge of thought had erupted in her mind:
—It seemed like she'd discovered a way to score high?