
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 boy, instead of walking along two adjacent sides of a rectangular field, took a shortcut along the diagonal of the field and saved a distance equal to $\frac{1}{3}$ the length of the longer side. Given that the longer side of the rectangle is 9 units, find the length of the shorter side.
A) 3.5 units
B) 3.75 units
C) 4 units
D) 4.25 units

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