"Sorry, I often subconsciously make certain gestures when I'm thinking, it's my fault."
After Erald Sparrow's reminder, Tu Dinggui belatedly put his hand down and looked apologetic: "I often do this with my sister at ho, so it was just a habit..."
"It's okay," she said.
Since the other party was willing to stop, Erald Sparrow didn't pursue the matter further. With a simple response to move past the incident, they continued to walk forward.
The three-person team continued to silently explore the maze.
The brightness in the maze wasn't very high, almost dim, but all three present were considered quite adept magical girls, and their vision was no longer affected by re light and dark, so navigating in the dark wasn't an issue. However, this conclusion seed to be limited to Erald Sparrow's perspective, as after walking a bit she noticed the surroundings brightening suddenly.
Turning her head, she saw Tu Dinggui raise a hand, casting an auxiliary illumination magic technique.
"There's a staircase ahead, watch your step."
Perhaps because of the earlier subconscious head-patting, which made Tu Dinggui feel a bit embarrassed and apologetic, she maintained a few paces' distance from Erald Sparrow, only placing the magic technique nearby.
Dogtail Grass, seeing this, silently withdrew her already extended hand.
Erald Sparrow looked at the light orb beside her, then at the staircase not far away, wanted to say sothing, but didn't know what.
She wanted to say it was over-concern, but then thought about how, in others' eyes, "Long Dan" was indeed a child, and it didn't make sense to reject others' goodwill. Explaining so much was unnecessary, so she just said "Thank you" and proceeded down the stairs with the team and the light orb.
Following the route Tu Dinggui suggested, they descended a floor and passed several corners, moving steadily for about five minutes when they heard faint voices in the darkness ahead.
Looking closely, it turned out to be another examinee team.
As they drew closer, that team also noticed Erald Sparrow and the others, causing their previously cheerful deanor to abruptly change to one of cautious vigilance.
All rembered the rules the examiner ntioned before the test, "Attacks or interference with other examinees are not prohibited," aning all teams might be potential enemies. If one team was completely unprepared during contact, elimination was likely not far off.
Naturally, even with vigilance, their focus would inevitably be on Tu Dinggui.
As a well-known figure among the candidates this year, any magical girl aiming for a good score would certainly rember Tu Dinggui. Thus, when they t in the maze, the other team imdiately recognized Tu Dinggui.
This was likely the downside of having soone from the "big shot list" in your team.
After all, the sa rule in the test stated that if a candidate is rendered unable to act due to an opponent's attack and is eliminated, as long as they can identify the attacker later, they will be awarded all of the opponent's points for this project.
Now, with just a face-to-face encounter, the other team had identified Tu Dinggui, and they seed ready to report her na if eliminated here by her.
In this inexplicable tense atmosphere, Tu Dinggui stared blankly at these magical girls for two seconds, then slowly spoke:
"Hello."
The atmosphere at the scene paused.
On the other side, a few magical girls heard the simple greeting, and whatever "demonstration" or "intimidation" was on the tip of their tongues got stuck there. After a mont, their leader hesitantly responded, "Hello?"
"Did you find anything on the way?" Tu Dinggui continued to ask.
"Uh... probably not?" The other party after a brief recollection replied.
"Okay, thank you, we ca down from the staircase on the right rear, that area has been explored, nothing there."
Tu Dinggui nodded politely to thank them: "If you want to explore forward, you can go left."
"Oh... alright." The other party nodded blankly.
"And in this maze, whether it's the walls or the floor, there's a magic technique attached that can be utilized, did you know?" Tu Dinggui asked again.
"Huh? What is that?" Now, besides the leader, the other magical girls also spoke up.
Thus, Tu Dinggui explained the use of the magic techniques in the maze to the others.
After this explanation, the opposite team completely let go of their previous vigilance and began exchanging information with Tu Dinggui: Despite not knowing about the maze's magic techniques, they had managed to discover a few dead ends through hard exploration, and they told Tu Dinggui all about it.
—"That really scared , the first team we t in the maze was from the top five of the big shot list."
Their leader finished speaking, scratching her head and laughing: "I felt like my great-grandma was waving at back then."
"You're such a wimp; I only felt a bit weak-kneed," her team mber teased.
After briefly exchanging information, the two teams bid farewell to each other and continued exploring, with the other team resuming their laughter and disappearing from Erald Sparrow's sight amid the cheerful noise.
She didn't look much at the now-empty corridor but suddenly wondered if her team's atmosphere was a bit too dull.
From Tu Dinggui's performance so far, she didn't seem to be a reticent person; her interactions with others were natural. Dogtail Grass also wasn't the type to resist interacting with others; she just seed shy for now.
Clearly, in terms of personality, none of the three were averse to teammates, but for various reasons, their relationships hadn't progressed. anwhile, other teams were cheerful all the way, while they were sowhat spellbound into long periods of silence.
Was it her problem?
Erald Sparrow couldn't help but think.
Admittedly, compared to the introverted Dogtail Grass and the sowhat oblivious Tu Dinggui, she was indeed the one best suited to "break the ice" in team relations.
In fact, it was because she hadn't made any moves so far, and her sowhat rigid reaction to Tu Dinggui's earlier subconscious friendly gestures, that interactions were now awkward.
If she was a bit more proactive in conversation, would it help the team integrate better? Like earlier when Tu Dinggui ntioned her sister; if she had seized that chance to ask about Tu Dinggui's daily life, could that have allowed for more internal team communication?
Indeed, she wanted to maintain a low profile, but that didn't an evading all responsibilities as a team mber. Essentially, she wouldn't seek to beco that "linchpin" but would also avoid dragging the team down.
Tu Dinggui's personal skills were very strong, so she should be able to pass regardless. But "passing" and "ranking high" were different matters; if her lack of action led to poor team integration and affected the other two mbers' subsequent rankings, it would be her fault instead.
However, as she pondered this, the team's exploration suddenly made new progress.
—A bushy wall, inexplicably emitting a flickering light and unusually captivating, appeared before the three of them.
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