The assessment was carried out across three consecutive scenarios, with no breaks allowed for the participants.
"Reset!"
Upon hearing the instructor's command, Clay opened his gun's safety and returned to the designated testing area. The black hood, connected by a rope, descended once more, obscuring his vision.
Scene setup personnel rushed in from various doors, quickly arranging new scenarios using various modules.
Though Clay's sight was blocked by the hood, his ears could still pick up the sound of instructors and spectators discussing things from the overhead walkway.
He could guess they were likely discussing him, which made him feel both anxious and excited.
He wanted to know their assessment of him, but the instructors deliberately lowered their voices, making it impossible for Clay to hear anything clearly. He refocused his attention back to the task at hand.
"My slot for outside support will definitely be mine."
Clay quickly reviewed the previous assessment process in his mind, confirming that he had made no mistakes, silently cheering himself on.
Taking a deep breath to shake off the distractions, he turned his focus to the upcoming challenges.
Indeed, the people on the overhead walkway were discussing him, and their comments were generally positive.
Clearly, Clay's excellent performance had earned the approval of everyone present.
Jason and Lei, who had walked in with neutral expressions, were now smiling. It was easy to see that this new recruit's outstanding performance had raised their expectations for this batch of trainees.
Lei, having once been teammates with Clay's father, had a strong interest in him and was looking forward to the next two assessments.
However, Jason's main focus was elsewhere.
He had been told by Sonny a while ago about a new recruit in the Green Team who had caused quite a stir over the past three months. This recruit, a large Asian man with wild nicknames like "The Beast" and "The Violent Boy," had thoroughly piqued the interest of the volatile explosives expert, Sonny. Jason's primary focus in this assessment was this recruit.
As the leader of the best squad in the Red Team, Jason had a responsibility to find and recruit the best new talents for Team B, ensuring the safety of his team and the successful completion of difficult missions.
The Green Team's scene setup personnel were highly professional, and the speed of the scene transitions was impressively fast. Within less than half a minute, the new scene was set, and the area cleared.
The testing ground was no longer empty; instead, two people remained—one man and one woman.
The woman was sitting on a sofa, her hands behind her back, wearing a gas mask that hid her expression. Standing beside her was a Middle Eastern-looking man, holding a gun aimed at her head.
"Begin!"
Instructor Adam gave the command, and one of the staff quickly pulled the rope to lift the hood.
Clay, now able to see, raised his gun and immediately pulled the trigger. Two shots rang out, and the armed man next to the sofa dropped to the ground.
Clay's gun then shifted to the woman. Judging her as a non-threatening figure due to her lack of a weapon, he hesitated to shoot immediately.
"Bang!"
At that moment, the door on the left side of the room opened.
A strong Black man, dressed casually without any obvious intent to attack, entered the room with an air of confidence. He was unarmed and casually wandered about the room without making eye contact with anyone.
Clay judged that the Black man posed more of a threat, and his attention was fully drawn to him. However, since the man was not holding a weapon, Clay could not fire immediately.
He aimed his gun at him and shouted loudly, "Put your hands up! Get down on the ground, now!"
The Black man seemed to ignore him, continuing to wander around as though he hadn't heard.
But his seemingly aimless wandering was actually quite strategic, as he gradually made his way behind Clay.
"Move! Get down now, or I'll shoot!" Clay repeatedly warned, keeping his gun aimed at the man to prevent any harm.
However, he didn't notice that, as he shifted his gun's aim, his own body had been subtly turned 180 degrees.
The woman who had been seated directly in front of him was now behind him, having picked up the handgun dropped by the man he'd shot. She aimed it at the back of Clay's head.
Jason, watching from above, shook his head and smiled. He turned to Lei and said, "He's already failed."
"This scenario doesn't have a single correct answer. In fact, it's a deadlock from the start. No one can pass it perfectly. He still has a chance, doesn't he?" Lei disagreed with Jason, offering a different perspective.
However, this was merely Lei's opinion.
The overall instructor, Adam, along with the other instructors on the overhead walkway, shared the same expression as Jason.
"Mr. Spencer, I believe you should be more concerned about your hostage," said Head Instructor Malcolm, as the Black man walked by, laughing and positioning himself beside the woman.
Seeing the woman holding the gun to his head, Clay lowered his own weapon expressionlessly.
"You seem to have made a big mistake, Mr. Spencer."
Upon hearing Head Instructor Malcolm's words again, Clay turned and smiled, addressing the overhead walkway. "Only big shots make big mistakes," he said, implying that because he wasn't a big shot, he hadn't made a big mistake.
It was clear that Clay was defiant.
"Indeed, my mistake may be bigger. If you die young, I'll have to spend the rest of my life hearing people talk about how I killed you, just because I was too lenient with you. Do you think that's fair?" Malcolm's cold sarcasm was actually an opportunity for Clay to explain himself.
After all, the Seal Teams followed a bottom-up philosophy, allowing everyone to have their say, rather than enforcing a dictatorship.
Malcolm, acknowledging that he was a big shot and that his problems would be bigger, was met with Clay's rebuttal. "I think calling you a big shot is a bit ironic."
"Why?" Malcolm asked.
"In movies, the big shots hardly ever speak, and people even assume they don't talk. But you…" Clay's words trailed off, the implication clear: you talk too much. However, he left it unsaid out of respect for the head instructor.
Jason, upon hearing this, grimaced, clearly disapproving of Clay's constant defiance and overbearing personality.
"Alright, let's save everyone some time. I'll ask you directly now, Mr. Spencer. Are you ready to accept your mistakes? Don't let yourself be destroyed by some mistake in the future," Malcolm said, still expressionless, with no hint of what he was thinking.