Free Web NovelChapter 342: Chapter 278: Which Lao Liu Designed the Test Questions? (2)
For example, he went around sniffing the butts of all the other police dogs, especially the female Kunming Dog from Xinyun’s team. He was really into it, circling her relentlessly until Shen Xin had to drag him away several times.
"He just seems a little unreliable," Hou Ben Dong said.
For police dogs, especially riot control dogs, obedience is the single most important trait.
After all, when on duty in a complex public environment, they have to be as still as a soldier on sentry duty.
A dog like Tian Kui would probably have been washed out in the early stages of training.
Meng Fuqiang was a little confused after confirming that this was how Tian Kui really behaved.
In the video Wan Chao played yesterday, Tian Kui was the lead dog—agile, and quick to respond to commands.
’How did he become so undisciplined all of a sudden?’
"In any case, be careful. Don’t underestimate him. Shen Xin is seriously, seriously good," Meng Fuqiang warned.
Hou Ben Dong quickly affirmed that he understood.
He had been blown away by the video he saw yesterday.
And he deeply admired Shen Xin for taking the initiative to train a stray.
Meanwhile, Shen Xin pulled Chen Ran aside to share his own key considerations.
"I think the handler is just as important. We have to be able to keep pace with the SWAT team."
Shen Xin had been thinking about this since he arrived.
It’s not just about the dog; the handler is also crucial. You have to know what you’re supposed to do.
If the SWAT team signals you to halt, you can’t just keep blindly forging ahead.
"Most importantly, we have to follow orders. That goes for us, not just the dogs."
We have to do exactly what we’re told and not mess things up or disrupt the operation.
Because if this were a real combat situation, people could die.
That just made Chen Ran even more nervous.
With that, the competition began.
Wan Chao smiled and asked if anyone wanted to go first and set an example.
"We’ll go!"
Fang Weijie was the first to raise his hand.
Everyone applauded in encouragement.
The Peng An team had some guts, unlike Ningshan’s.
Aside from their leader, everyone on the Peng An team was an elite.
Their riot control dog was also a Ronaldo named Shuai Bao, and his handler was Guo Song, a big, burly man.
That made sense.
These were riot control dogs; you couldn’t even hold onto one without a strong physique.
On the SWAT side, Zhang Ning personally led a standard five-man cell: he was the leader, with two assaulters, one covering, and one providing technical support.
Even now, no one knew what the test points were inside the building, how many hostiles there were, or how many hazardous materials were hidden.
So the difficulty was astonishing; the Peng An team was truly brave for volunteering.
The building was filled with cameras.
An LED screen was set up outside the building, allowing everyone to watch the events unfold inside in real time.
The crowd gathered around it, their eyes glued to the screen.
Shen Xin frowned slightly. ’If they’re brave enough to let everyone watch,’ he thought, ’it means they’re not afraid of us figuring anything out.’
’There are too many rooms inside. The hostiles could change positions, and the same goes for the hazardous materials.’
’It’s completely random. A pure test of skill.’
Seeing Tian Kui still trying to sniff another police dog’s rear, Shen Xin yanked him back, bopped him on the head, and muttered, "You’d better be on your best behavior in a little while."
[Understood]
Tian Kui shot Shen Xin a sidelong glance before turning his head to scan for new targets.
On screen, Guo Song was also wearing a bulletproof vest and a tactical helmet.
The gear, however, seemed to make him more nervous.
He stuck close to the SWAT members as they entered the building, sweeping the rooms one by one along the corridor.
Some doors were closed, others were open.
"See? The handler is crucial," Shen Xin said to Chen Ran.
In front of the first closed door, when Zhang Ning gave a hand signal, Guo Song didn’t immediately react and lead his dog forward.
The camera showed that there was one hostile inside.
Shuai Bao went up and sniffed at the crack beneath the door.
Guo Song must have trained him not to bark and to use another method to signal a warning.
But Shuai Bao let out an instinctive bark.
BANG BANG BANG! "Gunfire" erupted from inside.
In other words, they had alerted the hostile.
Nearby, Lv Yuan’s team of judges silently began to tally the score.
Fang Weijie’s expression soured. They had failed this scoring objective.
The crowd, meanwhile, erupted in murmurs.
"This is too hard," Chen Ran muttered.
This wasn’t the only room with a target; there were three in total.
And they weren’t all hidden behind closed doors.
This meant the dog was required to constantly search for unusual scents and give an early warning.
And that was on top of the task of searching the rooms.
On screen, Shuai Bao searched various hiding spots in the room and eventually pulled a handgun out from under a wardrobe.
This part tested the dog’s ability to search for and identify hazardous materials.
Of course, there was also the final apprehension-and-bite sequence.
The suspect had taken a hostage and was putting up a desperate last stand.
The really tricky part was that the suspect had strapped explosives to the hostage while holding an inconspicuous detonator himself.
The dog needed to strike decisively the moment the suspect emerged from cover.
And in the process, it had to distinguish the suspect from the hostage.
Shuai Bao’s attack was decisive, but his identification failed.
After a moment’s hesitation, he latched onto the "hostage," who was waving his arms in a panic.
"Holy shit, that’s way too hard."
The crowd of onlookers went wild.
"Seriously! Look at that hostage strapped with explosives. Even I would have gotten it wrong, let alone a dog."
"It’s a dog, not a person! That’s way too deceptive."
"Tough. Way too tough."
In the end, Guo Song finished in 7 minutes and 28 seconds, dejectedly leading Shuai Bao out of the building.
The time was a secondary concern, but it was obvious they had failed on several key scoring objectives.
Wan Chao announced loudly, "Everyone, it’s supposed to be hard! This is what a real operation is like, a situation we could actually face. Alright, next team!"
Everyone exchanged glances, and then all eyes turned in unison to Meng Fuqiang and his people.
’You guys basically had the answer key. Time to show us how it’s done.’
At a look from Meng Fuqiang, Hou Ben Dong led Mumu out.
There was a clear difference between those who had practiced the course beforehand and those who hadn’t.
Mumu was clearly much more practiced. The dog made no mistakes with its alerts and even showed the foresight to give warnings in advance.
What shocked everyone, however, was the level-three difficulty.
At level one, there were three rooms with hostiles.
But at level three, there were a total of nine groups of hostiles spread across the first and second floors.
And they weren’t just in the rooms. Hostiles were also hidden in the gaps under stairwells and in blind spots like wardrobes.
One Lao Liu even pulled a King of Qin, circling a pillar to attack from behind.
Out of nine groups of hostiles, Mumu found seven.
There were more hazardous materials, too. Mumu uncovered three of them.
But they still hadn’t found everything. It turned out one of the rooms with hostiles also had a hazardous item hidden inside.
The apprehension-and-bite sequence ended up being the easiest part.
By the end of the run, even Meng Fuqiang had broken out in a cold sweat. ’This ’open-book test’ is no joke,’ he thought.
Meanwhile, Shi Xianbo and his team all turned to look at Shen Xin’s group with expressions of pure sympathy.
They had just gotten a taste of the level-three difficulty.
Thank god Shen Xin had such rotten luck, drawing both of the level-three difficulty slots for himself.
Chen Ran looked at Xiaoba, feeling like he was about to cry.
Shen Xin felt awkward too.
’What kind of bastard designed this test?’ he thought. ’They didn’t intend for anyone to get a perfect score, did they?’
