Chapter 334: Solving the Puzzle
Standing in front of the wall, the three members of Delphinium's team looked at each other. They all noticed this extremely conspicuous sight, but didn't know what it was, so they pinned their hopes on their teammates, wanting to see if anyone else had any clues.
It's just that apparently, no one knows.
Even Kuroko, who had participated in the test before, knew nothing about it, because the practical test items were different every year. Maybe this maze-walking item had appeared in the test in some previous year, but it was definitely not the year she participated in the test. Now, as a magical girl, her ability and knowledge were higher than those children, but in terms of understanding the test rules and accumulation of information, she was no different from ordinary candidates of the same year.
"what to do?"
"Let's go up and study it."
"……Um."
After a brief decision, the three of them stepped forward together and stood beside the wall.
Out of consideration for the team's safety, the three did not explore it together. It was still Tu Dinggui who took the initiative to take the lead without saying a word. She put her hand on the wall and activated her magic perception on it.
In the vision of the emerald bird, the fluctuation of the magic power on the other party overlapped with the light on the wall at this moment. In addition to the change in magic power, Tudinggui himself also stood in front of the wall, as if he had suddenly turned into a sculpture, without any movement.
This process lasted for a moment, and just when Delphinium began to wonder if something was wrong, Tudinggui let go of her hand.
"How about it?"
Delphinium asked, looking at her.
"I think I know what's going on."
Tu Dinggui had a puzzled look on his face: "This is an extra level."
"Extra levels?"
"Well, there is something buried in this wall. I tried to take it out, but it didn't seem to have any effect." Tu Dinggui knew everything.
After knowing that this was not a trap, Delphinium and Coleus no longer hesitated, walked forward, and stretched out their hands to sense the wall. After a sense of distortion, a rather complicated picture appeared in Delphinium's mind.
In the center of the picture is a sphere emitting light and magical fluctuations. Judging from the characteristics of its fluctuations, this sphere should be the reason why this wall is always glowing.
Delphinium tried to touch it with her magic power, and the ball trembled slightly under the influence of the magic power, proving that it was indeed in the wall in front of everyone. However, when Delphinium tried to go a step further and push it with magic power, the ball seemed to be imprisoned in place by something and did not move at all.
Looking closely, it is surrounded by plant stems and branches, forming "channels" as wide as its diameter. The pattern formed by these channels is like a "maze."
Such a complex design could not be a coincidence. The glowing sphere in the wall and the small maze that trapped the sphere were most likely the "extra content" hidden in this test that the examiner had not mentioned before.
From the visual guidance, in order to complete this additional content, you should find a way to take the ball out of the maze - so, how to do it?
It is known that magic cannot move the ball in the maze, and if you want to take the ball out, you obviously have to go through the maze surrounding it. How can this be done? Is there something undiscovered nearby that can be used to move the ball? Or is it the other way around, and this wall can be moved?
Delphinium thought so and walked back and forth along the glowing wall, but did not find any mechanism that could be controlled. She tried to push the wall with magic power, but there was no response from the wall.
Just when she was about to make further attempts, the dogtail grass beside her spoke hesitantly:
"Could this... be a treasure map?"
This statement immediately attracted the attention of the other two people.
"Well, that is to say... you see, this maze on the wall has a long exit in the upper left corner. Considering the proportion and position, it is actually very similar to the wall in front of us. Is there a possibility that the wall in front of us... is the exit for the ball in the diagram?"
Being stared at by two people at once, Dogtail Grass organized his words nervously and said, "Then, if we work backwards from this position... maybe the ball in the picture also corresponds to something, and it actually exists in the maze under our feet?"
"A treasure map?" After listening to Dogtail Grass's analysis, Delphinium couldn't help but look up at the wall in front of her again.
"It sounds possible." Tu Dinggui was more active. She felt that what Dogtail Grass said made sense, so she immediately turned right according to the map of the maze on the wall.
Bang! A few seconds later, under the gaze of Delphinium and Setaria, the osmanthus tree crashed into another wall.
"…Okay, that seems to be wrong."
Tu Dinggui, with a red mark on his face, returned to his original position calmly and continued to analyze as if nothing had happened: "Although the location of the exit in the picture seems to be similar to the wall in front of us, the maze in this picture does not match the terrain we are actually in. For example, the road on the right, which is shown in the picture as being accessible, can be walked all the way to the end and then turn down..."
She pointed to the right: "But actually, our right is a dead end."
"No, you can tell just by looking at it, why did you bump into it?"
Dogtail Grass couldn't help but retort: "I'm just suggesting a possibility, don't be so reckless!"
"Until we actually run into it, we can't rule out the possibility that the dead end we see is a trick and the maze in the map is the real route."
Perhaps because it did hurt a bit, Tu Dinggui still reached out and touched his forehead: "But unfortunately, I tried it and the map drawn on the wall is probably not a real map."
"Even so, it's too reckless..."
Dogtail Grass muttered something in a low voice, and then continued to propose a possibility: "So, could it be a map of another floor? It's the same location on the plane, but the floor is different or something?"
"No, there is still a considerable possibility that it is the map of our floor. Moreover, if the drawings on the wall are of other floors, there are so many floors in this maze that it is too difficult to find them. It does not fit its position as a 'test'. A question that cannot rely on logical reasoning and must be answered by exhaustive enumeration is a bit lacking in aesthetics in the eyes of the questioner."
Delphinium, who had placed her hand on the other wall at some point and used the maze's technique to sense the surrounding area, let go of her hand: "I think what you said makes sense, so I explored the real map of the maze again. After comparing it with the map on the wall, I found a very interesting place."
"What?" Dogtail Grass couldn't help asking. Tudinggui beside him also showed a look of waiting for analysis.
"Here, here, and here."
Delphinium used her magic to draw a map in mid-air and placed it next to the wall so that the two maps could be compared together: "Although it is only a part of it, there is a part of the exit in these two maps that is common."
She did not hide her findings, because the other two had already given quite a lot of analysis, and she was just pushing on that basis. So while saying this, Kuiqi threw the map she drew onto the wall, making the two maps completely overlap: "Look, if we want to pass this part, although most of the places are dead ends, it is not completely impossible to pass."
"In other words, it's not that the map on the wall conflicts with the actual maze map..." Dogtail Grass muttered in a low voice.
"...but overlapping the two maps is the real treasure map?" Tu Dinggui also understood what Cuiqiao meant.
"Well, we can even make other assumptions based on this. However, we have to wait until we actually find the location on the map."
Delphinium retracted her magic power and looked at the other two: "Anyway, let's go first. If this is really a treasure map, we don't know when another team will arrive here. It would be bad if someone gets there first."
(End of this chapter)
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