The Black muscular man knew that Long Zhan was different from other new recruits; his alertness and observational skills were extraordinary, and any failure in acting could be easily seen through.
Thus, he dared not be careless and used 120% of his acting skills.
First, he deliberately walked back and forth between the woman and Long Zhan twice, creating a tense atmosphere between the two sides and drawing Long Zhan's attention toward himself.
Then, he continued walking back and forth quickly, but with every trip, he intentionally shifted left. That is, after walking three steps to the right, he would turn around and walk four steps to the left. After several rounds of this, the Black man could walk from directly in front of Long Zhan to the left side without Long Zhan realizing it.
Long Zhan's gaze was fixed on him, and his attention shifted left, unknowingly losing his visual control over the front.
This could be likened to the frog being boiled in warm water!
This was what the Black muscular man intended to achieve. By using this "boiling frog" method of attention diversion, he had successfully deceived almost all of the new recruits in the evaluation.
Only two recruits, overly nervous, had been unable to ignore the warning and, on a sudden impulse, killed him on the spot by pulling the trigger.
Killing an unarmed civilian without attack intentions would, of course, lead to the same result.
Previously, the Black muscular man had only used 80% of his power to deceive over 90% of the recruits, and he was now confident in his acting.
To deal with Long Zhan, a monster of a recruit, he was now using 120% of his abilities.
He believed he could deceive Long Zhan as well.
Indeed, the Black man's acting was flawless; most special forces members, restricted by combat rules, would find it difficult to escape the trap he had set.
Unfortunately, in this training ground, the Black muscular man was not the only "actor."
At first, Long Zhan was indeed distracted by the Black man, thinking that the evaluation was testing the special forces recruits' ability to react when civilians suddenly intervene. His gaze was mostly focused on the Black muscular man as he continued issuing verbal warnings.
However, as the Black man wandered irregularly, with a clear tendency to veer left, Long Zhan began to sense something was off.
Having been a mercenary for over ten years in his previous life, Long Zhan knew the nature of mercenaries—people who broke all rules, disregarded laws, and would become ruthless to the point of turning on even themselves.
To survive and get paid, Long Zhan had used all sorts of dirty tricks. He had seen and done manipulations, schemes, dirty moves, backstabbing, and betrayal, among other unsavory tactics.
Facing the Black muscular man, Long Zhan, a seasoned street-smart veteran, quickly realized that the man's deceitful tricks weren't fooling him.
His experience on the battlefield, accumulated over years of mercenary work, allowed him to quickly identify the subtle guiding movements of the Black man.
The Black man appeared to be aimlessly wandering, but was subtly trying to mislead Long Zhan to the right.
There was definitely something fishy here!
In order to uncover what was wrong, Long Zhan kept his gaze fixed on the Black man while subtly shifting his peripheral vision toward the unknown variable in the training ground—the woman.
The advantage of the C.A.R. shooting system's observational capabilities played a crucial role here.
As Long Zhan's body shifted to the right, he subtly locked onto the woman sitting on the sofa with his left eye and finally found the answer he had been looking for.
Perhaps the woman hadn't anticipated that Long Zhan had already become suspicious and was keeping an eye on her with his peripheral vision.
Or maybe she had never encountered the rare and almost unused variant of the C.A.R. rifle system and didn't know the advantages it provided.
When the woman saw that Long Zhan's body had turned, she mistakenly thought that, like the other recruits, he had been distracted by the Black man.
She then began to slowly rise and reached for the handgun on the ground with her right hand.
That action was now unmistakably clear!
The moment the woman stood up to grab the gun, Long Zhan had already deduced who the real threat in the evaluation was.
At this point, he could have aimed his weapon at her, giving the standard verbal command for her to lie on the ground with her hands on her head.
That was the standard protocol according to the training manual!
However, Long Zhan didn't follow this. The examples in the manual were theoretical, while the real-world situation was always changing, and he didn't think this was the best way to handle things.
He wanted to resolve this complicated situation in the most reasonable way he could.
So, Long Zhan pretended not to notice the woman's actions and continued to cooperate with the Black man's "movements," issuing verbal warnings to him and letting the man and woman continue their performance.
It wasn't until the woman's fingers were almost touching the gun that Long Zhan knew the time had come.
This was a basic instinct of the human brain: when someone is about to complete something, their attention is naturally absorbed by the task at hand, leaving them unaware of external stimuli.
Long Zhan was waiting for that moment!
"Heh, buddy, we meet again. You were great last time, but what happened this time? You didn't even zip up your pants before coming out."
Long Zhan abruptly shifted from his warning tone to a casual chat, catching the Black man off guard with a 180-degree twist.
In this case, Long Zhan had taken a shortcut.
In an actual combat situation, this trick would have very limited effectiveness, but in the familiar context of this evaluation, it worked wonders.
When the Black man first heard the beginning, he thought, "Hey, we know each other, but we're in a test right now, can you show some respect?"
But when he heard about the zipper, his eyes immediately darted down.
It was a reflex.
Over 95% of people, when they hear their pants zipper is undone, will instinctively look down to check and avoid an embarrassing situation.
Over 99% of people, when they hear someone call their name, will immediately look up.
During this process, the brain doesn't engage in any analytical response. The entire action is driven by muscle memory, with no conscious thought.
And this muscle reflex was exactly what Long Zhan wanted to achieve.
As the Black man's mind returned to his instincts and he realized something was wrong, just as he was about to refocus on Long Zhan, the woman had already grabbed the handgun from the ground.
Smiling with the satisfaction of her plan succeeding, she seemed to think that even the strongest recruit was nothing special. She was now ready to point the gun at Long Zhan, aiming to teach him, the undefeated recruit, a lesson in failure.
Just as the confused Black man was about to shift his attention back to Long Zhan, Long Zhan exploded into action like a nimble panther.