Each Showing Their Skills
"Haa."
Purple Diamond leaned lazily against her chair, letting out a long yawn. She glanced absently at the projection screen in the distance, then quickly looked away listlessly, muttering under her breath, "Boring."
The assessment has entered its later stages. The leading candidates are venturing deep into the secret passages, searching for the so-called "Maze Node"; while the lagging teams are not to be outdone, desperately searching for new puzzles. The maze, which was originally filled with various conflicts, is now surprisingly calm—the vast majority of candidates are focused on their progress, and there are few fights.
This situation naturally caused the guests on the viewing platform to lose their focus and become somewhat uninterested. Watching the puzzle-solving process once or twice was still novel, but after the first few teams, apart from the examiners who set the questions, almost no one was interested in the content of these puzzles anymore.
For a moment, all that remained on the projector screen were monotonous shots of a few leading teams making their way.
Among them, Team 277, which has performed exceptionally well, is naturally a standout. In fact, due to the outstanding achievements of the team led by Tudingui, Team 277 has become the focus of the projection. Even though she is not doing anything right now, the camera will occasionally cut back to this team on her way back from leaving the node.
However, not many guests were surprised by this, after all, the name "Blue Star" was well-known in the Magic Kingdom. Since the unexpected fall of the former Strong Flower player "Sakura", she, as the representative of magical girls in the Material Realm, has repeatedly performed great feats, and her reputation is now second only to the Gem Scepter. As "Blue Star's disciple", Tudingui's outstanding performance was entirely reasonable.
Besides Team 277, the other teams that received special attention also had impressive backgrounds. If any test takers familiar with the "Carry Ranking" were present, they would be surprised to find that almost all the magical girls in these scenes were listed on the ranking.
Among them is Team 604, whose progress is closely following Team 277. This squad is now very close to the Maze Node they are looking for. If all goes well, they should find the Aberrant Beast within the node within ten minutes at most. This squad's style is also very similar to Squad 277's: excellent average strength, outstanding comprehensive abilities, strong execution, and smooth sailing all the way. The only thing they are slightly inferior to Squad 277 in is their lower efficiency in solving puzzles, and many of their decisions are not as decisive as Team 277's. But rather than saying they are lacking in this aspect, it would be more accurate to say that Team 277's performance is simply too outstanding.
As for the team composition, while it wasn't particularly noteworthy in the eyes of the guests, in terms of the "Carry Ranking, this team could be considered a "dream team." Its members included two magical girls ranked high on the Carry Ranking: " Cotton Tree " (ranked first) and " Anthurium " (ranked seventh). On paper, their strength even surpassed that of Team 277, so their progress was hardly surprising.
Another noteworthy team Team 1334, who had been stirring up trouble since the start of the assessment. The leader of this team was none other than Butterfly Bush, who had previously attacked Xia Liang and his group.
From the very beginning, this team clearly defined their strategy as "not looking for paths, but for people." Butterfly Bush indiscriminately attacked every team of examinees they encountered along the way. Many of these teams found the puzzles, and naturally, all the puzzles and their rewards fell into the hands of Butterfly Bush and her team. As a result, Team 1334 currently holds the most puzzle rewards in the entire maze, with a whopping seven puzzles rewarding them, giving them a reward score that even surpasses that of Team 277.
Anyone with a discerning eye could see through Butterfly Bush's scheme: she cleverly exploited a loophole in the Rule —the eliminated could only identify the "individual attacker," not the "attacker's team," which made her plan feasible. She could take on all the battles alone, while her two teammates reaped the benefits. Although she herself was destined to lose points for being identified by multiple people, she could ensure that her teammates achieved sufficiently excellent results.
So, is the Butterfly Bush really that selfless, sacrificing its own points just to boost the scores of its two teammates?
The answer is, of course, no.
What she really wanted was the "team score" and the "viewing evaluation".
These two additional rewards apply to the "entire practical assessment," not just the maze project. Therefore, the scores for these two rewards are not considered part of the "score for the first assessment."
In other words, even if she is identified after leaving the maze, these two scores will not be transferred to anyone else.
The team score is the reason she works so hard to improve her teammates' scores. As long as her teammates' scores are high enough, she can also get corresponding bonus points after this assessment ends.
As for the audience's evaluation, that's the reason she put on such a dedicated performance.
According to the Rule of this assessment, Butterfly Bush's behavior is naturally discouraged; however, her actions did not reach the level of disrupting discipline. For the spectators, this "Butterfly Bush" certainly made the viewing experience much more interesting. It can be said that as long as the camera followed her, there would never be a shortage of interesting stories.
The atmosphere at the scene undoubtedly indicated that her scheme had succeeded. How could the senior magical girls on the viewing platform not see through her junior's intentions? Yet, there were still those who applauded her performance. After all, in the guests' eyes, using any means necessary to achieve a high score in the assessment was a "demonstration of ambition." And for Butterfly Bush to have considered external factors so early on, strategizing with the "viewing evaluation" in mind, was already quite bold and daring, worthy of encouragement.
Besides these three teams, there are naturally many other teams that excel in other areas. Some teams have formed alliances, gathering a large group of magical girls who are invincible in the labyrinth, even controlling more than three Maze Node, and are now launching a major offensive; other teams, relying on their superior mobility and sensory abilities, have traversed most of the labyrinth, and have now drawn a nearly complete map, using it to deduce the puzzles and node distribution of the entire labyrinth; still other teams have members with the ability to communicate with plants, communicating with the labyrinth walls and befriending the shrubs that make up the labyrinth, locking onto the location before the true exit even appears. They have now abandoned solving the puzzles, lying in wait near the exit, just waiting for all the nodes to be conquered so they can be the first to escape...
Each team has its own ideas, and countless magical girls are trying to find ways to break the Rule. The situation on the scene can be described as "each showing their own unique abilities," because everyone knows that following the rules is unlikely to defeat the strongest teams in terms of absolute strength, so everyone is trying to find alternative ways.
Right now, however, we are still in the midst of a storm, and many teams are still lying low. The fiercest competition will only begin when the exit opens.
Seeing that the content on the projection was unlikely to change much in the short term, Purple Diamond couldn't help but look around. However, Emerald and even Pigeon Blood, who was wearing an eye patch, seemed to be watching with great interest, so much so that she couldn't even find someone to chat with.
Feeling utterly bored, she couldn't help but steal a glance behind her.
The petite figure sat there motionless, like a doll.
However, she wasn't sure if it was just her Purple Diamond, but she noticed that when that person looked at a certain spot in the projection, there seemed to be a slight upward curve at the corner of their mouth?
She dared not speculate too much, so she quickly looked away and banished those chaotic thoughts.
She mimicked the other spectators, striking a pose as if she were still watching the projection, but her gaze was somewhat unfocused, and she couldn't concentrate for a moment.
Until one moment, she suddenly noticed that the Emerald beside her had sat up straight.
Not only the Emerald, but even the Pigeon Blood suddenly let out a cryptic laugh.
From the viewing platform below, exclamations of surprise and disbelief began to rise and fall, such as "Is this allowed?", "My God!", and "Isn't this a foul?"
What happens?
Somewhat belatedly, she regained her composure and began to pay close attention to the content projected on the screen. What she saw shocked her: the focus of the projection had shifted to a small team that hadn't been shown much before.
The team included a magical girl wearing Hibiscus Purple soft hat and a light yellow shawl. She somehow managed to easily create a hole in the labyrinth wall and led her teammates through it.
And now, she is running wildly towards the exit of the maze.
Two hundred chapters to commemorate this milestone! It was quite an achievement to get this far. I'm so proud of myself (nods).