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While Long Zhan's dazzling performance stunned the audience as he successfully escaped, on the other side, Green Team's tech personnel who were tracking down the hacker also made a breakthrough—they had identified the intruder who breached the surveillance center.

He wasn't an external expert brought in by Long Zhan—after all, the local area network couldn't be hacked from outside.

No, he was a mole from within Green Team—

The eternally unlucky *Cooper*!

Though Cooper always seemed to run into misfortune whenever he crossed paths with Long Zhan, people shouldn't forget—he was still a top-tier operator, a formal member of Green Team under DEVGRU.

Back in the day, he'd fought valiantly with DEVGRU's assault unit—a textbook example of an elite in the industry.

Every special ops team member was required to master a specialized skill, and Cooper, the eternal jinx, had majored in electronic intelligence. He had even pursued further studies in computer science at West Point.

Years of study and real-world combat experience had honed his programming skills into a deadly craft.

Hacking into the Green Team's surveillance network? For him, that was nothing.

With his combination of special operations prowess and technical expertise, Cooper had more than enough time to slip away unnoticed after completing the hack.

If Cooper had really intended to escape, it would have been impossible for Green Team's tech personnel to "capture" him just by tracing the access IP point.

Cooper was caught for two specific reasons.

One was that his exposure was needed to serve as an "answer," helping the instructors understand how Long Zhan managed to escape.

The second was because he was playing the role of a violent criminal—not as an elite, frontline Green Team operator—so he had to deliberately scale back his abilities.

Just like how he helped Long Zhan escape—his role was to portray a thug lured by profit.

To act convincingly—this is what makes a competent sparring partner.

Otherwise, if the sparring team brought out their real strength, the assessments for the new recruits wouldn't even be worth holding.

Except for someone like Long Zhan, a "supermodel-level rookie," every other new recruit would get utterly crushed. No way any of them would pass the assessment.

Though Green Team was considered a second-line unit, anyone who treated them like outdated relics would be gravely mistaken.

"We had a mole inside?"

When Head Instructor Malcolm and Instructor Adam heard the news, they stared at Long Zhan in stunned silence for several seconds—emotions swirling within them.

Everyone in Green Team had heard rumors of the "love-hate entanglement" between the perpetually unlucky Cooper and Long Zhan—and how the two had been spending a lot of time together lately.

After all, it wasn't common for sparring partners and new recruits to hang around each other during basic training.

Some of them *wanted* to criticize Long Zhan for "improper conduct," but couldn't bring themselves to interrupt the current demonstration.

For now, they could only suppress their judgment—and deal with it later.

The biggest challenges in escaping the water cell were twofold: one, opening the welded steel lid; and two, avoiding detection from the surveillance system.

Long Zhan tackled both of these major problems with his skill and capability.

Everything afterward was significantly simpler—not just for official Green Team members with field experience, but even Clay and Brian could have pulled it off.

The sparring partner on duty was Cooper, and given his relationship with Long Zhan, nothing more needed to be said.

In fact, the two had already coordinated secretly—this part of the test was essentially handed to Long Zhan on a silver platter.

The final hurdle in escaping the basement—

The guards stationed outside.

They weren't official members of Green Team, just logistics soldiers assigned to the naval base—just like Jennifer—doing miscellaneous support work for DEVGRU.

After all, formal DEVGRU members were far too elite to be stuck doing gate duty or janitorial work.

The use of a large number of "non-roster laborers" was inevitable.

Every DEVGRU member carried a deep-rooted sense of pride. Even rookie special forces from the SEALs were often coldly received until they passed selection.

The "miscellaneous labor" personnel weren't part of DEVGRU's official structure, so they naturally weren't close with the formal members.

Add to that, the sparring partners always wore balaclavas to hide their faces—the guards outside couldn't possibly recognize every Green Team sparring partner entering or exiting the basement.

It was equally unlikely that they would bother to conduct inspections every time.

Each of Green Team's "old relics" held the rank of sergeant at minimum. To the "grunts," they were all commanding officers. Piss one of them off and get chewed out—those grunts had nowhere to file a complaint.

Over time—

They just stopped bothering.

Long Zhan had a similar build to the off-duty Charlie. With the balaclava concealing his face, and an elite-level operator on duty inside to cover for him—

The guards never suspected an escape attempt and naturally made no move to stop Long Zhan.

Having witnessed Long Zhan's "brilliant performance" firsthand, the Green Team members were thoroughly convinced—genuinely impressed and full of admiration.

Not just because of his jaw-dropping skills, but also the exquisitely designed, flawless plan he had executed.

Of course, amidst this overall amazement, top-tier special forces personnel—who lived to scrutinize every detail—couldn't help but pick things apart.

You could call it the pursuit of perfection—or more bluntly, nitpicking.

"Mr. Long Zhan, I have to admit—your plan was excellent. But there's one major flaw. In a real combat situation, this would never have succeeded."

Instructor Adam pointed at Cooper beside him and said, "He, like you, has completed SERE training. He's an outstanding first-tier operator, with willpower as unyielding as steel. I don't believe he would ever betray his team.

Even though he's now moved to a second-line position, convincing him to defect and help you escape from here? That would be absolutely impossible.

And if Cooper hadn't been supporting you from the outside—while I do acknowledge your strength—you could *possibly* have succeeded on your own, but certainly not this smoothly or easily."

Instructor Adam's reasoning was rock solid.

Without Cooper's external support, Long Zhan might have been caught by surveillance staff while sabotaging the water cell's lock—if exposed, the whole plan would've fallen apart before it began.

In the morning, the Green Team sparring partner scheduled to take over would've been very familiar with their own teammates.

Even with a balaclava, Long Zhan couldn't have fooled them completely.

If Long Zhan wanted to successfully escape the interrogation chamber, his only option would've been to ambush the incoming sparring partner and silently subdue them.

But that would inevitably cause noise—and if it alerted the two guards stationed at the basement exit...

That would've been a **huge vulnerability**.

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