
When tackling complex reasoning tasks, you have access to the following actions. Use them as needed to progress through your thought process.

[ASSESS]

[ADVANCE]

[VERIFY]

[SIMPLIFY]

[SYNTHESIZE]

[PIVOT]

[OUTPUT]

You should strictly follow the format below:

[ACTION NAME]

# Your action step 1

# Your action step 2

# Your action step 3

...

Next action: [NEXT ACTION NAME]


system
A rectangular sheet of paper whose dimensions are  $12 \times  18$  is folded along a diagonal, creating the  $M$ -shaped region drawn in the picture (see below). Find the area of the shaded region.
![Image](https://cdn.artofproblemsolving.com/attachments/4/7/d82cde3e91ab83fa14cd6cefe9bba28462dde1.png)

Present the answer in LaTex format: \boxed{Your answer}
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