The burly black man knew that Long Zhan was unlike the other trainees, his vigilance and observational skills were astonishingly sharp. If his acting wasn't on point, it would be easily seen through.
Therefore, he couldn’t afford to let down his guard and gave it his absolute all.
First, he deliberately paced back and forth quickly between the woman and Long Zhan a couple of times, creating a tense atmosphere and drawing Long Zhan's attention onto himself.
Then, he continued the rapid back-and-forth, but with each passing, he intentionally shifted to the left..
That is, he took three steps to the right, then turned around and took four steps to the left. After repeating this pattern several times, the black man was able to move from the front to the left side without Long Zhan noticing. With Long Zhan's gaze locked on to him, his focus would shift to the left too, unknowingly losing sight of what was once right in front of him.
It could be thought of as boiling a frog in warm water!This was the black man's goal. Using this boiling-frog-like distraction tactic, he successfully deceived nearly all the trainees taking the assessment.There were only two trainees, overly nervous, who saw that their verbal warnings were ineffective, and, without much thought, snapped and shot him dead on the spot.Killing an unarmed civilian with no signs of hostile intent would naturally result in only one outcome, failure.
The burly black man had fooled over 90% of the trainees with just 80% of his effort before, so he was already very confident in his acting abilities.
Now, facing this monstrous trainee, Long Zhan, he cranked his acting up to 120%, confident he could trick him as well.The black man's acting was truly impeccable. Ordinary special forces, constrained by operational rules, would have found it difficult to escape his trap.Unfortunately, the black man wasn't the only "actor" in this training ground.Long Zhan was initially captivated by the black man, believing this scenario would test a special forces soldier's ability to react to an intruding civilian.He focused most of his attention on the black man, constantly issuing verbal warnings.But as the man wandered irregularly to the left and to the right, showing a clear bias toward shifting to the left, Long Zhan started sensing that something was off.
In his previous life, he'd been a mercenary for over a decade, and what were mercenaries? Battlefield scum who ignored all rules, laws, and conventions, vicious wild dogs that'd bite even their own when pushed to the edge.
To survive and claim his pay, Long Zhan had used every dirty trick in the book.
Mind games, clever schemes, setups, underhanded moves, betrayals… you name it, he'd seen it or even done it himself.
Playing coy in front of a veteran mercenary like himself? The burly black man was clearly lacking.Long Zhan's experience let him sniff out the anomaly in the man's deliberately guiding movements.
He appeared to be wandering aimlessly, but in reality, he was secretly leading him to the left.Something was definitely fishy with this!To pinpoint the source of the anomaly, Long Zhan, while maintaining his gaze on the black man, shifted his peripheral vision to the only other figure in the examination hall.The C.A.R's superior field of view proved crucial at this moment.
As Long Zhan's body nearly turned to the right, he discreetly locked onto the woman sitting on the sofa with his left eye, finally finding the answer he was looking for.Perhaps she hadn't anticipated Long Zhan to be so vigilant, keeping his peripheral vision constantly on her.Or perhaps, having never encountered the uncommon, almost unused variant of the C.A.R shooting system, she wasn't aware of its advantages.
Seeing Long Zhan's body turn away from her, the woman assumed he, like the other trainees, had been distracted.She lifted her hands from behind her back, slowly stood up, and reached to her left to pick up the pistol that had fallen to the ground.This action of hers was incredibly obvious!From the moment the woman rose to retrieve her pistol, Long Zhan could already determine who the true threat was in the examination room.At that moment, he could have turned the gun around and verbally threatened the woman, telling her to lie flat on the ground with her hands on her head.That was the textbook-standard response!
However, Long Zhan didn't do so. The example in the textbook was fixed, but the situation in reality was unpredictable. He didn't think that this was the optimal approach.He wanted to handle this complex scenario in what he deemed to be the most optimal way.
So, Long Zhan pretended not to notice the woman's actions, continuing to follow the black man's "guidance" and continued shouting warnings at him, allowing the man and woman to continue their performance.Until the woman's fingertips were about to touch the gun, her attention completely focused on the weapon.
This is a basic human tendency. Before and after completing a task, a person’s attention isn’t completely focused on the task at hand.
But right at the brink of success, people immersed themselves fully, losing all external awareness.
That was the exact moment Long Zhan was waiting for!
"Hey, buddy, we meet again. You acted really well last time, so what’s wrong with you this time? You didn't even zip up your pants before coming out."Long Zhan abruptly switched from issuing warnings to casual chatting with him, this 180-degree pivot left the burly black man dumbfounded.
Here, Long Zhan was cheating a bit.
In a real scenario, where the two sides didn't know each other, the effect of doing this would be very limited. But in this assessment, where both sides knew each other, this tactic was extremely effective.
When he heard the first half of the sentence, he thought to himself, "Hey, man, even though we know each other, now is not the time nor the place, can you please be respectful of the assessment?"When he heard the second half of the sentence however, that mentioned that his pants were unzipped, he looked down without even thinking.It was purely on instinct.
More than 95% of people, upon hearing that their zipper is unzipped, will immediately look down to make sure they are not making a fool of themselves.
More than 99% of people, upon hearing their name called, will immediately look towards the place the sound came from.
In that process, the brain stops analyzing. It's purely muscle memory controlling the body at that point.
And this instinctive moment of muscle memory controlling the body is what Long Zhan wanted to achieve.
When the black man's mind regained control of his instincts, he realized that something was wrong, and was about to turn his attention back to Long Zhan.The woman who was reaching for the pistol on the ground also picked up the pistol during this time.With a smile of triumph on her face, as if thinking that the strongest trainee was no match for her, she was about to point her gun at Long Zhan, intending to make this standout trainee taste the bitterness of defeat. Long Zhan, who seemed to have been completely bewildered, suddenly erupted like an agile black panther.
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