The assessment consisted of three consecutive scenarios, with no breaks in between for the trainees."Reset!"Hearing the instructor's command, Clay holstered his gun, turned off the safety, and returned to the testing area. The black hood attached to the rope was lowered once again.Scene setters streamed in from various doors, rapidly setting up a new scenario using various props.Although Clay's hood blocked his view, he could still overhear the instructors and spectators standing on the elevated walkway discussing him.He could tell they were talking about him, and a surge of anxiety overcame him.
He longed to hear their assessment, but their voices were deliberately subdued, so Clay couldn't make out their specific words, leaving him no choice but to refocus on the task at hand."The foreign aid spot will definitely be mine,"Clay quickly reviewed the last assessment, confirming he had made no mistakes, and silently encouraged himself.He took a deep breath to clear his mind and turned his attention to the next assessment.The crowd on the elevated walkway was indeed engaged in a discussion, and the subject of their discussion was indeed Clay, who was undergoing his assessment, and the reviews were all very positive.Clearly, Clay's outstanding performance had earned the approval of everyone present.Jason and Ray, who had walked in with expressionless faces, were now smiling. It was clear that this trainee’s outstanding performance had already piqued their attention.Ray, having once been teammates with Clay's father, had a keen interest in Clay and was eagerly anticipating his next two assessments.Jason, however, was more excited for someone else.The burly Asian trainee, whom Sonny had mentioned not too long ago, had been making quite a splash in Green Team over the past three months, earning wild nicknames like "The Physical Monster" and "The Violent Boy," completely matching Sonny's description of him.This was Jason's primary focus.
As the leader of Red Squadron’s most elite unit, Jason was responsible for finding and recruiting the best trainees for Bravo Team, both for the safety of himself and his teammates during missions, and to ensure the successful completion of any challenging missions.
Green Team's scene set-up personnel were highly professional, and the scene was transformed with remarkable speed, completing the setup in less than half a minute.
This time, the room was no longer empty, but instead contained two people, a man and a woman.
The woman was sitting on the sofa, her hands folded behind her back, with a gas mask on her face. Beside her stood a man dressed in Middle Eastern attire, holding a gun to the woman's head.
"Begin!" Special training instructor Adam issued the order, and an instructor promptly yanked the hood's cord.
Clay, regaining his sight, raised his weapon without hesitation and fired. Two rounds streaked through the air, dropping the armed man beside the sofa to the ground.
Clay then turned his gun to the woman, but due to his subjective judgment of her vulnerability and the absence of a weapon, he held back from firing immediately.
Bang!
At that moment, the door on the left side of the room was flung open.
A muscular black man, dressed in casual clothes, unarmed, sauntered into the assessment room with a cocky stride.
He made no effort to communicate with anyone, simply wandering around the room aimlessly. Clay judged that the muscular man was more threatening, so his attention was completely drawn to him. However, because the man did not have a gun in his hand, the rules of engagement prevented him from simply shooting him right away.He could only keep his gun on him and shout, "Hands up! Get on the ground, now!"
The black man seemed to have not heard him, and continued to wander around. However, his seemingly aimless wandering was actually very guiding, and unknowingly, he had made Clay look away from where he had been looking when he initially came in."Get down, right now! One more move, and I'll engage!"
Clay barked out warnings, his gun locked firmly on the black man, preventing him from doing anything.He was oblivious to the fact that the movement of his gun had caused his body to turn 180 degrees since the man had come in.The woman, who had been sitting on the sofa in front of him, was now behind him. She had picked up the pistol that had fallen beside the sofa after the previous man's shooting and pointed it at the back of Clay's head.Jason, observing this, smiled and shook his head, saying to Ray beside him, "He's already failed.""There's no correct solution to this scenario. You could even say that it's a dead end. From the start, no one could succeed. He still has a chance, doesn’t he?”Ray disagreed, viewing it through a different lens.
But that was just Ray's take.
The chief instructor, special training instructor, and several assistant instructors on the elevated walkway all shared Jason's view."Mr. Spencer, I think you should be more concerned about your hostage,"Chief Instructor Malcolm said as the black man sneered at Clay and walked over to the woman, who had already stood up.Seeing the female hostage pointing a pistol at him, Clay put his gun down expressionlessly."You seem to have a big problem, Mr. Spencer."
Hearing Chief Instructor Malcolm address him again, Clay turned and looked up at the walkway. He smiled and replied pointedly, "Big people have big problems."
His implication was that he wasn’t a big shot so his problems weren’t that big.He was clearly unconvinced!"Indeed, my problem might be bigger. If you died young, I'd spend the rest of my life listening to people gossiping behind my back about how I killed you because I was too lenient with you. Do you think that's okay?"Malcolm's sarcasm was actually giving Clay a chance to explain himself.After all, not making this a one-man show, but allowing everyone to have their say, was a characteristic of the bottom-up approach of the SEALs.Malcolm tacitly acknowledged his own power, and therefore the bigger problem that Clay was hinting at, which Clay countered with, "I think the term 'big person' is a bit ironic.""How so?" Malcolm asked."Big shots in movies rarely speak. You might even think they’re mute, you on the other hand..."Clay left the rest unsaid. The underlying message: you're talking too much nonsense; just get to the point. He held back out of respect for the chief instructor's position.
Jason curled his lips again when he heard this, clearly disliking Clay's unyielding and overly stubborn personality.
"Well, to save everyone some time, I'm formally asking you now, Mr. Spencer, Are you ready to admit your mistakes? Don't get yourself killed someday over a flawed approach."
Malcolm's face remained impassive, his thoughts inscrutable.
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