Chapter 144: Mid-Life Crisis

George had been locked up here for quite some time now.

Yet, never before had he heard such a tremendous commotion from these fellows as he did today.

Had the entire nest emptied out?

At this thought, George's drowsiness and hunger instantly vanished, replaced by a sudden surge of adrenaline and excitement.

And a glimmer of anticipation.

Could it be that his good brothers had come to rescue him?

George wondered in his heart.

And even if they hadn't, today was likely the best opportunity he had encountered in all these days—a once-in-a-lifetime chance to escape!

During his imprisonment here, George hadn't just been idling his days away waiting to die.

Although the food they gave him daily was pitifully meager, intended to keep George too weak to move or even to think, George practiced the ultimate art of lying flat, thereby conserving a massive amount of calories.

This allowed him to "think" for a short while every day. Though after a long while, it would indeed make him see stars and feel dizzy, that brief daily window was enough for George to gain a preliminary understanding of his current situation.

The cell where he was kept was specially designed. Right in front of the iron bars of his cell was a milky-white wall that blocked all of George's vision, making it utterly impossible for him to obtain any useful information visually.

However, as the saying goes, when God closes a door, he opens a window.

Since the front of George's cell was made of iron bars, its "soundproofing effect" was practically zero.

This allowed George to easily pick up a lot of information with his ears.

Distinguishing intelligence from sound was actually one of George's unique talents, known to very few people.

This was probably why the people who kidnapped him hadn't paid too much attention to the issue of "sound."

Through the various sounds that drifted over from time to time, George had roughly deduced a few things: first, there were many people in this base; second, most of the people in this base were well-trained, with very orderly footsteps.

Aside from that... nothing more.

It was probably nothing like what was shown in the movies, where one could instantly determine enemy patrol posts and force configurations purely through sound.

That was all nonsense.

Unless one possessed superhuman hearing coupled with bat-like echolocating abilities, it was simply impossible to be that detailed.

What George had figured out by now was already the result of years of painstaking practice... an ordinary person would never have been able to deduce it.

Because that was how normal people actually were!

Therefore, when George deduced all this, he had practically ruled out "forced prison break" in his mind... after all, the enemy's combat power was indeed a bit too high to mess with.

Yet, today.

This massive force had all gone out, and there were even the sounds of heavy weaponry moving.

This was why George believed today was a once-in-a-lifetime golden opportunity to escape from this place.

With this thought, George quietly climbed off the bed, first looking around in all directions and carefully listening to the surrounding movements.

Then, George tiptoed toward the iron-barred door.

The door, naturally, was tightly locked.

However, George pulled out his long-cherished old treasure—a hairpin used for a hairpiece.

This was originally meant for him to deal with his middle-aged baldness crisis, but because of its superior quality, even when he was captured by the Rhino, and the sandwich in his arms fell to the ground amid the shaking, that small patch of hairpiece still clung tightly to his head.

These terrorists were ultimately rank amateurs, lacking the meticulous body-search capabilities of a real prison.

Consequently, they failed to find George's covert, yellowish, slender hairpin, allowing George to keep wearing it on his head for many days, waiting for an opportunity like today's to arrive and serve as his magic weapon to break the deadlock!

George removed the small hairpiece from his head.

Instantly, his hairline felt a chilling draft...

Getting old indeed, George sighed inwardly.

Then he hurriedly grabbed the tail of the yellowish, slender hairpin and pulled hard!

A hairpin that could be called a lock-picking artifact appeared in his hand.

He looked at the hairpin resting quietly in his palm, as if looking at his savior.

In the middle of this iron-barred door, there was a small gap left by the terrorists to deliver meals to George.

Yet, George had also observed carefully that if he reached his hand out through this gap, pressing the outer side of his entire body against the iron-barred door, based on the length of his arm, there was a chance he could touch the lock cylinder.

At this thought, an endless flame of the will to survive ignited in George's heart.

First, he bent the hairpin, adjusting it to a suitable angle between the fingers of his right hand.

Then George extended his right hand out through the gap in the middle of the iron-barred door.

Fortunately, he had started losing weight rapidly these past few days; otherwise, given the previous girth of his arm, not getting stuck would have been a miracle.

As it was, George smoothly thrust his entire right arm completely out.

Pressing the right side of his body tightly against the iron-barred door, George rotated his shoulder joint and quickly adjusted the angle, reaching his hand toward the lock cylinder.

The distance was enough!

George made a brief mental estimate and knew his arm length was sufficient, which couldn't help but fill his heart with great joy.

Next was to steadily insert the hairpin into the lock cylinder, then wiggle it back and forth to nudge all the internal springs and latches back into place, and the lock would open...

George took a deep breath, and in an instant, his right hand became extremely steady, rivaling even a chief surgeon.

He tried it bit by bit, searching for the keyhole that belonged to his hairpin.

George's concentration also reached an unprecedented level. After a long while, he even began to sweat a little... out of pure nervousness!

Hold your breath... Hold your breath.
Stay calm, calm, calm.

George kept reminding himself in his heart, while his right hand never stopped moving for a second. In no time at all, he would find the lock cylinder...

But.

Right at that moment.

George suddenly felt the world grow a bit darker.

A strong sense of foreboding washed over him, and mechanically, he slowly raised his head......

The pupils of George's eyes shrank violently in an instant!

Standing there was a muscular brute so tall he nearly touched the ceiling. Just by standing there, he blocked out almost all the light.

And his signature silvery-white polymer skin, along with his yellowish-white rhinoceros horn, unmistakably signaled his identity—

It was none other than the Rhino, the one who had dragged George here in the first place!!

There was no expression on the Rhino's face, cold as a machine, and those slightly reddish eyes looked down at George from on high.

Quietly watching his petty little prison-break maneuvers.

In that gaze, George could even read a hint of playful mockery......

So I was discovered after all—George's heart plunged into an icy abyss.