
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
Consider a pyramid made of cubical blocks arranged in layers, with the base layer having 16 blocks in a 4x4 square, the middle layer having 9 blocks in a 3x3 square centered over the bottom layer, the next layer having 4 blocks in a 2x2 square, and the topmost layer having 1 block. Determine the smallest possible number which could be assigned to the top block.

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