
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
On an island, there are knights, liars, and followers; each person knows who is who. All 2018 island residents were lined up and each was asked to answer "Yes" or "No" to the question: "Are there more knights than liars on the island?" The residents responded one by one in such a way that the others could hear. Knights always told the truth, liars always lied. Each follower answered the same as the majority of the preceding respondents, and if the "Yes" and "No" answers were split equally, they could give either answer. It turned out that there were exactly 1009 "Yes" answers. What is the maximum number of followers that could be among the island residents?

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