Off Work, Then I Become a Magical Girl

Book 2: Chapter 199: The Fifth Rule

Vol 2 Chapter 199 The Fifth Rule[Additional Notice, Additional Notice]

[Because Team 277 was the first to break through the first "Maze Node," they have received extra bonus points. Therefore, the fifth rule is hereby announced, which is also the final hidden rule of this examination.]

[Rule Five: In some shortcuts and secret passages released after solving certain puzzles, there are hidden paths leading to "Maze Nodes." Each "Maze Node" has at least five secret passages leading to it. Once all secret passages to a Maze Node are opened, the Remnant Beast hidden within the node will appear. Candidates can defeat the Remnant Beast to break through the node and earn bonus points. Each node is worth 100 points, which will be evenly distributed among candidates who participate in breaking the node after the examination’s results are tallied.]

[After all the "Maze Nodes" are broken, the exit of the maze will appear. At that time, all candidates who retain their ability to move can leave through the exit. When all candidates have left the examination site, this examination will end.]

[Repeating once again, because Team 277 was the first...]

"Team 277... It’s that team again."

Listening to the announcement echoing throughout the maze, Xia Liang ran around solving the puzzles at hand while muttering, "How great it is to smoothly find puzzles and also get these bonus projects."

Her sigh was not without reason. The main cause was that her team’s luck seemed truly terrible.

Shortly after the exam began, they encountered the troublesome Drunken Fishweed team, spending a huge amount of magical energy just to barely shake them off. Then, along the way, they kept running into various fight scenes, preventing proper exploration. Even when searching for puzzles, they had long been fruitless. Only after more than half a day into the exam did they finally find their first puzzle.

This progress wasn’t just at the very bottom; it was definitely lagging behind most of the stronger teams.

Xia Liang still harbored the thought of "getting a good score," but reality and ideals always differ. She had just found her first puzzle, yet the fastest team had already discovered the fifth rule. No matter how good Xia Liang’s mindset was, such a huge gap in progress made her feel powerless.

But no matter how frustrated inside she was, the puzzle-solving work could not be neglected. So Xia Liang could only bury her head and keep running, trying hard to solve the puzzles.

The puzzle their team found was a "Rubik’s Cube" type puzzle. Its principle was very similar to an ordinary Rubik’s Cube toy—balancing the magical energy concentration of a 3x3 square area to ensure that each face of the square area had a consistent magic concentration.

The mental difficulty of this puzzle was not high. After all, the Rubik’s Cube, especially the 3x3 which is the most basic, is definitely not a "hard problem" for anyone with some study. But even so, it still took three people a lot of time to solve—because this Rubik’s Cube was embedded in the maze wall and only two sides were exposed.

This not only meant that most of the time they could only see two sides of the Rubik’s Cube, needing to repeatedly flip and check restoration progress; it also meant that to rotate the cube, they had to constantly send people running back and forth on both sides of the wall.

At this moment, Xia Liang had just finished sorting out the magic on the other side of the wall and was on her way back to find her two teammates to exchange information.

Such physical exertion was naturally no problem for a Magical Girl, but the time consumed was indeed nerve-wracking. Xia Liang had considered using her spell combined with flight ability to rush quickly, but the maze’s corridors here were narrow, small, and full of bends. Flying fast risked crashing into walls, so running honestly was steadier.

When she arrived at the location of the Rubik’s Cube with a look of utter despair, Shan Dan and Juan Dan were already waiting.

"Ah, you’re back, Senior Little Jin. Do you need to rest first?" Juan Dan asked politely.

"You look really tired, are you okay?" Even Shan Dan noticed Xia Liang’s somewhat bad expression.

After the earlier fight with Drunken Fishweed revealed her Leaf-rank status, the two sisters changed their attitude and began to respectfully call her "Senior." Shan Dan’s tone also shifted, carrying an inexplicable confidence, as if thinking, "I’m so lucky to randomly get a Leaf-rank teammate; the three of us are really strong."

"...Ahahaha, no need to rest, let’s continue."

Though her mood was somewhat down, Xia Liang chose to put on a smile again. After all, since the two sisters acknowledged her strength, she had essentially become the commander of this team. The exam was still ongoing, so she had no reason to be more negative than her teammates.

As for why she took over command, there was no complicated reason—everyone wanted a better result, so letting the more capable person lead the team was obviously right. However, Xia Liang did not put on any senior airs and remained friendly with the two. If anything, having command made her more proactive in communicating, as she had to make sure Shan Dan could keep up with her and Juan Dan’s thinking pace to keep the team’s actions coordinated.

"But at this rate, I’m afraid it will be hard to get a good score in this exam," Xia Liang said frankly.

Most teams ahead had probably monopolized two or three puzzle rewards already, and some had even reached the next stage mentioned in the notice. Our progress gap is too big; it will be very hard to catch up with the score difference.

"Why?" Shan Dan was puzzled. "The notice said the exit will open after all those 'nodes' are broken, right? If we are the first to run out of the maze, won’t the score still be very high?"

"Big sister..." Juan Dan helplessly tugged her sleeve, "Don’t say unrealistic things. We are struggling just to find puzzles now, and there are many puzzles in the maze. Besides, there is only one exit in the entire maze, right?"

What she said was actually the current thought of most candidates. Compared to chasing that one exit that might be far away, it’s better to honestly solve more puzzles for bonus points. Even if luck fails and they can’t find the exit in time, they can still have a decent score by combining the base exit score with the bonus points.

"Hmph, that’s why I say your dumb little sister’s brain isn’t working."

However, Shan Dan just shook her head with a smile after hearing Juan Dan’s words. "Haven’t you thought of what our biggest advantage is?"

"...What is it?" Juan Dan knew her sister’s personality well and knew she rarely offered valuable ideas in such situations. But to avoid upsetting her, she just played along.

"Naturally, because we’re behind in progress and still on the outer layer of the maze, compared to those who are deep inside the nodes, we are closer to the exit!"

Shan Dan opened her folding fan and proudly analyzed, "Although there are certainly other teams stuck on the outer layer, they lag because of lack of strength. We’re just unlucky. Compared to those mediocre teams, we can fight head-on with the fourth-place team!"

"So?" Juan Dan’s expression turned subtle, guessing what conclusion her sister was about to draw.

"So, we can start looking for the possible locations of the exit now. If we can find it in advance and guard the gate, blocking anyone trying to compete with us, then when the exit opens, we run out first and become the champions!" Shan Dan spoke with certainty.

"As expected."

Juan Dan sighed, "Hey, big sister, I have just one question. What exactly counts as a 'possible location for the exit'? Even if we really get there first, what if the exit hasn’t appeared yet and there’s no mark? How do you know we found the right place?"

"Oh? That’s a good question."

Shan Dan paused, showing a thoughtful expression. After a moment, she closed her fan, "I don’t know!"

"And you said to block others, but they won’t listen to us quietly; there will definitely be a fight, right?"

Juan Dan continued her counter-argument, "Putting aside if we can win, even if we do, what if we accidentally eliminate others? Their ranking and score would all go to someone else. What then?"

"I don’t know that either!" Shan Dan closed her eyes painfully.

"Since you don’t know, just obediently continue solving puzzles."

Listening to their conversation, Xia Liang fought the urge to roll her eyes and waved at Shan Dan, "Forget about looking for the exit for now. Just running back and forth along this wall is already exhausting enough."

"Oh, okay."

Shan Dan, put on the spot by her sister, immediately gave in and returned her attention to the puzzle, "But Little Jin, why do you have to run along the wall? Can’t you use your magical equipment to just teleport to the other side?"

"It’s not that easy."

Xia Liang looked at the Rubik’s Cube and thought about the solution while casually answering, "My magical equipment can’t teleport living people at this stage. Even if I put a mirror on the other side of the wall, I can’t pass through it. If I could, I would have done it already."

"Then why not teleport the wall away?" Shan Dan asked, grasping at straws.

"Because my magical equipment can only teleport things made of magical energy..."

Xia Liang suddenly stopped mid-sentence.

Shan Dan’s suggestion made her start thinking: does this maze count as a physical object?

Although structurally and materially this maze definitely isn’t purely made of magical energy, there’s no doubt that the maze depends on spell formations to maintain existence.

So from that perspective, could she teleport the spell formations maintaining the maze?

Thinking of this, Xia Liang’s hands moved faster than her mind. Before she could decide what to do next, she had already pressed a small displacement mirror against the wall.

Since she only wanted to verify, she shrank the mirror down to less than a palm size to avoid draining too much magical energy.

After a brief flicker of the mirror surface, Xia Liang stared at the scene before her, falling into deep thought.

The wall covered by the mirror had turned into sparse shrub branches, completely losing the solid green wall appearance.

Would this count as destroying the maze?

Feeling guilty, she removed the mirror from the wall to look again. Almost immediately, the branches slowly grew back, gradually filling the gaps in the wall.

A few seconds later, the wall in front of her was whole again,

and nothing else around had changed. No sudden announcement told her that destroying the maze was forbidden or would cause elimination.

Xia Liang was stunned.

This stunnedness was not from stopping thought, but because a wave of surging ideas had risen in her mind:

She might have found a way to get a high score?