Animal Detective

Chapter 343: Chapter 279: Tian Kui’s Inspired Point

The incredibly high difficulty was daunting.

Everyone looked at each other, but no one dared to be the next to compete.

It was obvious that competing later was more advantageous.

You’d have more time to see through the judges’ tricks, figure them out, and mentally prepare to deal with them.

In the observation area, the assembled leaders exchanged glances. Wan Chao raised a megaphone and said, "Comrades, this has just begun, and you’re all getting scared already? That’s not quite right, is it?"

The leadership was displeased.

Seeing that no one was responding, Wan Chao said, "In that case, I’ll have to call someone out. Shen Xin, you go."

He wanted to see for himself. If even the stray dog trained by Shen Xin performed exceptionally, then how were they, the professional handlers, supposed to feel about themselves?

The leader had called his name. What could Shen Xin do? He called Tian Kui over and went forward to prepare.

"Shen Xin, you can do it!"

Shi Xianbo and the others all shouted their encouragement.

"Beat Ningshan! We believe in you."

Peng An’s eyes widened in realization. Right now, Shen Xin was the village’s only hope.

Shi Xianbo and the others even huddled around Li Yinjiang, asking if there was any substance to what he had said earlier.

Previously, Li Yinjiang had confidently thumped his chest and told them that the police dogs trained by Shen Xin were top-tier.

"Of course."

Li Yinjiang said without hesitation, but after speaking, he felt a knot of anxiety in his stomach.

It wasn’t that he didn’t believe in Shen Xin’s abilities. It was just that this competition was too difficult. Hadn’t they seen that even the team with the open-book test failed to get a perfect score?

In the preparation area, Shen Xin, like Zhang Ning, put on a ballistic vest and a tactical helmet.

Zhang Ning walked over and helped Shen Xin adjust his vest, asking how Da Mei was doing.

This guy was a total cat person.

Shen Xin said, "She’s doing great. My mom’s taking care of her. She’s as fat as a meatball now. Oh, by the way, I got another black cat—the kind they used to call mysterious cats in the old days, completely black."

Zhang Ning said, "Oh?" clearly interested, and asked if he had a picture.

"I do."

Shen Xin took out his phone and showed him a picture of Sergeant. "See? Completely black, right? If he went on reconnaissance missions like Da Mei, especially at night, and just ducked into a shadow, who do you think could spot him?"

Zhang Ning caught his meaning, saying the cat was a real-life Black Cat Sheriff, leaving criminals with nowhere to hide.

Shen Xin nodded, saying Sergeant’s combat skills were formidable. He could catch snakes. He could even play with a snake over a meter long.

"For real? Over a meter?"

Zhang Ning’s eyes went wide. He marveled that the ancestors really knew how to pick them, then mentioned his own two chubby cats were all looks. The last time they saw a mouse, they ran away faster than his wife did.

"AHEM!"

A few paces away, Lv Yuan couldn’t help but cough as a reminder.

The two of them had gotten completely sidetracked.

Zhang Ning didn’t mind. He shot Shen Xin a look that said, ’I’ll cover you in a bit.’

Shen Xin nodded slightly, took Tian Kui by the leash, and followed Zhang Ning into the test area.

Only a few dim lights hung overhead, and the air was thick with a dangerous atmosphere. Watching Zhang Ning and his team, fully armed, advance in tactical formation gave an incredible sense of immersion.

Soon, they reached the first room.

The door was closed.

Zhang Ning stopped and turned to look at Shen Xin.

This was special treatment. He was afraid Shen Xin wouldn’t understand the tactical hand signals.

Shen Xin glanced down at Tian Kui.

Tian Kui looked up, regarding the group with a puzzled expression.

’Let’s go. They’re up ahead.’

Shen Xin understood at once. ’There’s no one inside. The people are further ahead.’

Shen Xin copied Zhang Ning’s team and gave the hand signal to advance, thinking to himself, ’If only I had an assault rifle, the immersion would be even stronger.’

Zhang Ning gave him a look that asked, ’Are you sure?’

He had meant for Shen Xin to do what the others did: lead Tian Kui to the door and have him sniff under it for enemies.

Shen Xin didn’t respond, instead signaling to just move on.

’So he’s already sniffed it?’

’From over a meter away?’

’The problem is, I didn’t see Tian Kui give any kind of alert signal.’

Shen Xin gave a slight nod.

Zhang Ning hesitated for a moment, then trusted Shen Xin’s judgment and continued forward.

In truth, he didn’t know if there were enemies inside either.

This entire process was recorded without omission by the cameras, leaving the spectators outside utterly baffled.

They could see that there were no enemies in the room.

But Shen Xin hadn’t let Tian Kui go forward to search, so how had he been so certain?

Shi Xianbo and the others all looked at Li Yinjiang. ’Did you guys get the questions in advance, too?’

Because on screen, for the next two doors, Shen Xin’s group only paused briefly before quickly moving on.

They didn’t search at all. It felt like they already knew the answers.

Li Yinjiang himself was confused, because he hadn’t seen Tian Kui give any alert either.

Just then, they arrived at the fourth door.

The door was open. Hidden in a blind spot was an enemy.

And not just one. A camper was hiding in the wardrobe, clearly planning to give Zhang Ning’s team a surprise.

But as the group approached, Shen Xin tapped the shoulder of the team member in front of him and gave the hand signal for "person detected."

This was because Tian Kui, walking beside him, had shaken his head and tugged on the leash.

’Two of them!’

Having heard Tian Kui’s thought, Shen Xin quickly held up two fingers.

Zhang Ning was surprised. ’That was a fast reaction,’ he thought.

’I’m not even at the doorway yet.’

He quickly gave a hand signal, and they executed a standard room-entry assault.

But they only got the target in the blind spot.

Zhang Ning reacted instantly. There was another camper hiding.

He looked at the two wardrobes in the room.

Just as he was about to signal for Shen Xin to bring the dog forward to search, Tian Kui stepped up on his own, lifted his right front paw, and pointed clearly and precisely at the wardrobe in the corner with its door slightly ajar.

He actually made a pointing gesture, just like a person.

He even turned his head to look at the team, his eyes glinting with the excitement of having found the camper.

Zhang Ning was dumbfounded.

The other four team members had much the same reaction.

Outside the building, everyone had clearly seen Tian Kui’s action.

"Holy crap, what’s going on?" someone exclaimed.

Tian Kui’s gesture was just so vivid. Previously, when Mumu had found a target, he alerted his handler by pawing at him.

But Tian Kui pointed.

He pointed like a person!

"When did he find them?"

"Yeah, I didn’t even see him search."

"The key is that gesture—it was just like a person’s. He’s practically sentient."

The scene was like a camper, crouched and plotting how to ambush someone.

Little did he know that Tian Kui had discovered him long ago from outside.

Then he’d stealthily given the signal. That subtle point of his paw even had a hint of slyness to it, making him seem like another camper waiting to watch the show.

On screen, thanks to Tian Kui’s tip, the camper in the wardrobe was quickly eliminated.

Wan Chao, Wang Peidong, and the others exchanged a look, their eyes filled with shock.

It was obvious that Tian Kui had already detected both enemies—one in the open and one hidden—before they even entered the room.

Inside the building.

Zhang Ning pointed at Tian Kui and gave Shen Xin a questioning look.

Ningshan’s team had an open-book test, but Shen Xin’s performance was like he’d known the answers in advance.

Shen Xin shrugged and said in a low voice, "How about we let Tian Kui take the lead?"

’It seems the distracting scents and the complex environment don’t affect Tian Kui at all.’

Zhang Ning hesitated for a moment, then nodded slightly.

’Shen Xin is about to show off. I can’t very well stop him, can I?’

Shen Xin loosened the leash, letting Tian Kui walk ahead.

The dog immediately understood what was expected, trotting past two rooms and heading straight for the third.

Then, just like before, he stopped at the door, lifted his paw, and pointed inside.

He even opened his mouth twice without making a sound.

Even Zhang Ning understood. This must be a signal that there were two enemies inside.

’He can even count?’

Zhang Ning’s eyes widened. He didn’t have time to overthink it and quickly moved in to complete the assault.

Afterward, Tian Kui immediately set off again, heading straight for the next occupied room.

Their pace picked up instantly.

Before, they had searched room by room. But now, their objective was clear: head straight for the rooms with enemies for surgical elimination.

At the end of the hallway, he stopped outside a dilapidated wall and pointed inside.

Someone was inside.

Clearly, it was a camper waiting to flank them from behind after they went upstairs.

After being discovered, the man himself was stunned.

He had specifically hidden behind several barrels of paint to mask his scent, but he was still found.

Including the one covering the rear, six groups of enemies had been eliminated.

Not a single one was missed.

Then Tian Kui led the team straight to the second floor, performing just as before, making a beeline for the occupied rooms.

While passing an empty room, he stopped, ran inside, and pawed a bottle of black powder out of a desk with a cabinet.

Obviously, this was the hidden hazardous material.

Black powder is a common explosive used in police dog training, but to have a dog find it on its own in an environment filled with distracting scents, one can only imagine the difficulty.

Even Mumu, who knew the test questions, had missed it.

With no omissions, the remaining three groups of targets on the second floor were all found and eliminated.

Entering the final hazardous materials search room, Tian Kui’s reaction was just as fast, and he quickly found two dangerous items.

Only the last part remained: the bite and hold.

At the start of the exercise, Shuai Bao had misidentified the target.

Tian Kui would never make that mistake. In his training, he learned to understand the difference between a target and a hostage, to understand who was controlling whom, so he could naturally distinguish the real target.

The moment the target appeared, Tian Kui had already lunged, precisely biting the right hand holding the detonator.

And his bite was powerful. He thrashed his head back and forth in a frenzy, startling the "thug," who later said he was almost pulled to the ground.

The competition was over.

They didn’t know their time yet.

But the time didn’t matter. The most important thing was that all targets had been found and eliminated.

Zhang Ning unbuckled his helmet and immediately said, "Shen Xin, this Tian Kui is just incredible."

The other team members nodded in agreement.

The entire time, it was Tian Kui leading them, heading straight for the targets.

And he hadn’t made a single mistake.

One team member said, "Captain, if this were a real battle, it would be absolutely amazing."

In a real battle, facing an unfamiliar environment, you’d have to be cautious and search room by room.

It would take a long time, and the uncertainty would be immense.

But with Tian Kui, they could go straight for the targets without a single error. An assault mission couldn’t get any easier.

In this kind of assault, the biggest difficulty isn’t eliminating the enemy, but finding them in the first place.

Like the campers hiding in wardrobes or flanking from the rear, it’s easy to fall into their traps.

If Tian Kui were on the scene, he’d be more useful than having a drone on standby.

A drone still has to search.

Not like Tian Kui, who relies entirely on his sense of smell, leaving the hidden with nowhere to run.

Zhang Ning nodded repeatedly.

He had obviously also thought about the role Tian Kui could play in special operations.

"Shen Xin, a word."

Zhang Ning quickly went over and pulled Shen Xin aside.

The more he thought about it, the more excited he became.

Ningshan is the provincial capital and often hosts large-scale events, so the demand for security work is high.

His own Dragon and Tiger Assault Team was the vanguard, always at the forefront.

If they had such an outstandingly capable police dog, their operational efficiency would be through the roof.

"Shen Xin, Tian Kui is perfect for us. I’ve really taken a shine to him."

"Can you leave him with us? Name your price. I’ll talk to my superiors and find a way to meet your demands."

Zhang Ning said eagerly.

Last time, he’d taken a liking to Da Mei, but he couldn’t just take someone’s beloved pet.

But Tian Kui was a specially trained police dog, and he also knew about Shen Xin’s project—the dogs trained were meant to be assigned out.

Since that was the case, why not give him to me?