The Observers

While the examinees were exploring the maze, outside the maze, in the central square of the Silver Gallery, many magical girls had already gathered.

Compared to the examinees who were forming teams in the square not long ago, the magical girls gathered there now appeared much more mature and capable, completely lacking the subtle naiveté of the examinees. Anyone with a discerning eye could easily tell that these were the "guests" mentioned by the chief examiner who had come to observe the ceremony.

Most of these "guests" are magical girls from the Five Institutes of the Kingdom, at least at the level of Letter Card or above. Given that the Magic Kingdom usually only has White Card and Letter Card examinations, they can all be considered "examination graduates".

In previous years, these "graduates" would not have been specially invited to attend the assessment, but this year, being Queen Year, some changes have occurred.

From the perspective of the Royal Court, it would be rather unseemly if the Queen and her subordinates arrived at the viewing area to find it empty and deserted. Moreover, it wouldn't just be the Queen who would be there; the Gem Scepter accompanying her would most likely also be present. Therefore, the Royal Court made a request to the staff of the Magic Affairs Institute and the Research Institute in charge of the assessment: to open up the viewing qualifications for this assessment.

The higher-ups talk, the lower-ups run themselves ragged. To the Royal Court, it was just a trivial matter of "finding more spectators," and there were plenty of magical girls in the Kingdom willing to share a seat with the queen. But for the employees actually carrying out the work, it became a huge problem.

The first priority was to consider the personnel. For security reasons, the Examination Institute could not completely open the examination room to outsiders. So after much thought, they finally decided to send invitations only to the magical girls within the Five Institutes, and then check the list of those willing to come, so that everyone could take their seats on the day.

However, after hearing that they could attend the event with the Queen, the vast majority of magical girls accepted the invitations, resulting in a number of people willing to come that far exceeded expectations and the Silver Gallery's capacity... What followed was a lot of troublesome wrangling and bureaucratic work, and the Examination Institute finally finalized the list with great difficulty under the constraints of all parties.

Therefore, the magical girls who were finally able to sit on the viewing platform all knew that this was a rare opportunity, and they sat there with the mindset of "taking this opportunity to appreciate it properly." They gathered in the square, their attention focused on the high platform that had previously been used to explain the examination Rule. However, at this moment, the projection on the platform had changed—it was now showing images of the examinees exploring the maze.

In fact, after most of the candidates had entered the maze, the projected content had already changed to these, so the images on the platform could be considered a live broadcast. Although there was a delay of about half a minute compared to the actual situation in the maze, it was still a real-time reflection of the progress inside the examination room.

Of course, because the video is almost real-time, it's inevitable that different teams will simultaneously take "notable actions." At such times, the projection on the platform will split off to ensure that all the "highlight scenes" can be seen by everyone present.

At this moment, four projections have split off on the stage, simultaneously showing the exploration progress of the four teams in the maze.

These four teams are arguably the fastest progressing in the maze. They have each found a hidden puzzle within the maze and are working on solving it.

Among these, the progress of "Team 277" is of particular interest to everyone.

There was no other reason than that this team was indeed far ahead in progress. With the magical girl named "Tudingui" possessing extremely strong perception abilities, and the team's excellent execution, the team members were also able to offer their own insights into the puzzle. Therefore, they quickly approached the answer to the puzzle.

Among the magical girls in the audience was even the one who had posed the riddle herself—this magical girl had thought that her riddle wouldn't be so easy to solve, but now she felt somewhat embarrassed under the slightly mocking gazes of her colleagues.

That wall of light did indeed contain a treasure map, but it also concealed many mental traps.

First, there's the sphere fixed in the maze. Logically, test takers might think the puzzle is about "getting the sphere out," so they'd spend a lot of time trying to find a way to move it, which is quite normal.

Secondly, there's the difference between the treasure map and the real map—even if the two maps are superimposed, it's not the real answer, because in fact, both maps are real.

However, the real map is for test takers, for people to navigate; the treasure map on the wall, on the other hand, is for the ball to navigate.

The test takers must first find the actual sphere in the real maze according to the location on the map. After finding the sphere, they will find that they keep hitting "invisible walls" while holding it.

The principle behind this is quite simple: the sphere itself has been treated with a special Spell Formula, and it can only move by following the path on the treasure map. In a real maze, if the person holding the sphere does not follow the path on the treasure map, they will bump into an "invisible wall."

Thus, the final test arises: when the two maps conflict, following the real maze will lead to invisible walls; however, when the examinee holds the sphere and follows the treasure map's route, they will bump into the maze walls. How can they escape?

The answer is: A sphere can pass through walls.

Just as the test-takers don't need to consider the "walls" on the treasure map, the sphere doesn't need to follow the actual maze's route. It only needs to follow the path on the treasure map, so the maze's limitations are irrelevant. All the test-takers need to do is throw the ball along the path on the treasure map; the ball will naturally be thrown to the end of a trajectory. Then, the test-takers walk along the actual maze to the ball's landing point, pick it up, throw it again, and repeat.

Right now, Team 277 is doing is actually this last thing.

Undoubtedly, this final challenge is a long and arduous process; even if candidates find the correct approach, they will still spend a significant amount of time on it. Because the paths in the two mazes are quite different, candidates must navigate the real maze, sometimes even backtracking, to reach the sphere's location.

In summary, solving this puzzle is by no means an easy task. In fact, in terms of actual difficulty, this puzzle is of medium to high level among all the puzzles in the entire maze: it requires not only the right approach but also the execution ability of the entire team to pass it smoothly. Otherwise, it is very likely that they will get stuck at some point and waste a lot of time.

Ironically, this puzzle turned out to be the first one to be solved in the entire event.

As Team 277 drew closer to the finish line, the reaction from the stands grew increasingly enthusiastic. Even the person who set the questions could only manage a somewhat helpless smile and lightly applaud, acknowledging the team's performance.

"Wow, this Cosplay Squad is something else! I initially thought they were just here for fun, but they're surprisingly good."

"I felt from the beginning that the Cosplay Squad looked like they had the makings of a champion."

"Sigh, I misjudged them. I was prejudiced against the hobbies of young people these days. I thought kids who did Cospree were all a bit frivolous."

"That's really impressive, even though she's a cosplayer."

Discussions rose and fell from the viewing platform.

Many of the magical girls present, by their age, would be mothers or even grandmothers in the Material Realm. However, after joining the Kingdom and gaining eternal youth, most of them have a much younger mindset than their peers.

That's why some of the guests present had seen magical girl anime like "Sweet Angel" or "Rainbow Sky Angel." Whether they wanted to watch it themselves or watched it with their children, the fact is they had seen it.

After the guests shared their thoughts, and the origins of the magical girl "Gentian" and the clothes worn by Foxtail Grass became known to everyone, Team 277 somehow came to be known as the "Cosplay Squad."

In addition, the team's exploration progress was indeed ahead of schedule, and they became the focus of the projection content early on because of their discovery of the puzzle, so the name spread quickly.

Somehow, this title even spread to the top of the viewing platform.

Countless magical girls from the Royal Court Guard lined up there, forming a human wall to separate the central seats from the outside world. Seated among them were the Gem Scepter and a figure wearing a crown, whose face was indistinct.

There were three people present with the Gem Scepter: in addition to the Pigeon Blood and Purple Diamond who came along, there was also the Emerald, who had taken a nap before leisurely arriving at the scene.

According to this protocol, the last of the four Gem Scepter, Chrysoberyl Cat's Eye, should also be here. However, all the Gem Scepter present knew that the Investigation Institute had recently been assigned a major case, and everyone was extremely busy. Therefore, Chrysoberyl Cat's Eye chose to take leave, and no one had any objections.

Even the current Purple Diamond member, who had an arrogant demeanor and seemed to be someone everyone owed money to, only mumbled a few words when it came to the Chrysoberyl Cat's Eye and couldn't say much more.

Ultimately, the three Gem Scepter and the figure wearing a crown were the most distinguished guests of this assessment.

When the term "cosplay team" reached the "VIP seats," the others didn't react much, except for Emerald, who had been looking sleepy and yawning while leaning against the armrest. She paused for a moment, then revealed a twisted expression that looked like she wanted to laugh but couldn't, and had to suppress it.

Unfortunately, she had her back to most of her colleagues at the time, so no one noticed her unusual behavior.

After all, while this "cosplay" team performed exceptionally well and stood out among the newcomers who hadn't yet received Certification Card, it was ultimately just a minor achievement in the assessment. While execution and judgment are certainly important criteria for evaluating newcomers, in other words, most of those who pass the assessment are already quite capable in these areas.

The most outstanding member of the team is "Tudingui," a disciple of "Blue Star," the current Strong Flower player in the Material Realm. This identity is enough to earn the respect of the scepter and the Royal Court guards, but for them, it's not actually that prestigious.

Besides these, there is another magical girl who diligently assists Tudingui and keeps making analyses, and a last magical girl who seems to be analyzing something as well, but most of the time she only appears in the image above her head.

--A typical team of top students, with a captain of considerable status, a member who is somewhat skilled at cosplay, and another little girl who is barely visible in the shots, seemingly also cosplaying.

This is the impression that the guests, including the Gem Scepter, had of Team 277.

So soon, as the team solved the puzzle and took the lead, the footage of the scene was replaced by another, more noteworthy one.

That was a battle between squads.

According to the information provided by the presenter on stage, the captains of the two teams seemed to have a personal grudge, so during this exploration, one team specifically came to the other's side and launched a sneak attack.

Now, this sneak attack is reaching its climax.