
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
To ensure the security of information transmission, encryption methods must be used. There is a method whose encryption and decryption principles are as follows:  
Plaintext Ciphertext Ciphertext Plaintext  
It is known that the encryption is $y = a^x - 2$ (where $x$ is the plaintext and $y$ is the ciphertext). If the plaintext "3" is encrypted to get the ciphertext "6", and then sent, the receiving side decrypts it to get the plaintext "3". If the receiving side receives a ciphertext of "14", then the original plaintext sent was \_\_\_\_

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