The next day.
Meal delivery proceeded as usual.
Leo Vance didn’t play silent this time.
When taking the dry rations, he intentionally paused for a fraction of a second, casting his gaze over the guard’s shoulder into the depths of the corridor.
Three seconds.
Then he lowered his head.
The guard noticed nothing amiss.
However, Leo Vance had already verified the general layout at the end of the hall—a stack of wooden crates at the corner, roughly 1.2 meters high, suitable for cover; about five paces to the right was an indentation in the rock wall, visually estimated to fit a person standing sideways.
All these details were quietly mapped into his memory.
Ho Yinsen noticed the shift in Leo Vance’s eyes, but didn’t ask questions.
Tony was sharp, leaning in to whisper once the guard had walked off, “You’re sizing up the outside.”
Leo Vance didn’t deny it.
Tony leaned against the wall with a half-smile.
“I take it you’re not the type to sit around waiting to die.”
“Neither are you.”
Tony paused for a moment before chuckling.
“Fair enough.
At least we’ve got that much in common.”
Ho Yinsen looked between them, hesitant to speak.
He originally wanted to urge them not to do anything rash, but seeing the unnervingly calm look in Leo Vance’s eyes, he swallowed his words.
This man was different.
Ho Yinsen had met many people captured by the Ten Rings.
Some broke down, some went numb, others prayed hysterically.
But someone like Leo Vance, who hadn’t displayed even a flicker of panic from start to finish, was a first for him.
It was as though he had known how events would unfold all along.
That evening.
Leo Vance completed his final observation pass.
Guard shift times, armory guard count, generator location, exit direction, entry point for the secondary ventilation shaft, and the channel frequency patterns used by the Ten Rings’ walkie-talkies.
Every piece of information was fully locked down.
The system prompt popped up right on time.
[Character Completion: 4% → 6%.]
[Current Progress: Initial exploratory action allowed within limited scope.]
Leo Vance scanned the notification but didn’t move immediately.
He was waiting for nightfall.
Only when the cave was left with nothing but the low rumble of the diesel generator and occasional distant murmurs did Leo Vance silently sit up from his corner.
Tony hadn’t slept yet and reflexively glanced over.
Lincoln raised a finger and pressed it lightly to his lips.
Ho Yinsen caught the movement as well and looked toward Lincoln.
Lincoln offered no elaborate explanation, merely mouthing the words, “Stay quiet.”
He then rose, hugging the wall as he ghosted toward the door of the stone chamber.
His footsteps precisely avoided the gravel and iron debris scattered on the ground, his entire movement as silent as a breeze.
Tony stared blankly at the scene, only one thought running through his head: *What in the hell did this guy do before this?*
Lincoln didn’t look back.
He paused at the entrance for two seconds, straining his ears to confirm the guards outside had moved off, then slowly pushed open the rusted iron gate.
*Screeech—*
A barely audible sound.
However, Lincoln had already calculated this sound.
During the daytime meal delivery, he had specifically noted that the iron gate’s hinges squeaked when opened to about one-third of an angle, and the guards’ patrol route didn’t cover this blind spot.
So he opened it only to that precise angle, then squeezed through sideways.
The corridor was dim, lit only by a single aged, yellow bulb at the far end that swayed gently, casting long shadows.
Lincoln hugged the wall, moving swiftly.
Step one: reach the crate stack at the corner.
Time elapsed: two seconds.
Step two: slip past the rock wall recess sideways.
Time elapsed: three seconds.
Step three…
He stopped midway down the corridor.
Because two meters ahead lay the armory entrance.
As expected, two guards stood watch at the door.
One was seated, the other leaning against the wall.
Lincoln remained motionless in the shadows, his breathing steady, his pulse even.
He didn’t approach.
Because Batman’s operational principle had never been “force an entry,” but rather “recon and retreat.”
He came merely to verify the lock mechanism and guard habits, not to initiate a fight.
Five seconds later.
Lincoln backtracked along his original path.
Faster than his approach, lighter than his arrival.
Reentering the stone chamber, closing the iron gate, sitting back down in the corner—the entire sequence took under a minute.
Tony and Ho Yinsen held their breath the entire time.
Only when Lincoln sat back down did Tony finally exhale a long breath.
“What the hell…”
Lincoln calmly cut him off.
“The lock is an old pin tumbler model.
Not difficult, but it requires tools.”
Tony blinked.
“So?”
“Wire, bolts, or any usable makeshift substitute.”
Ho Yinsen was silent for a moment before suddenly speaking up.
“There’s a layer of thin tin foil on the food packaging.”
Lincoln turned to him and nodded.
“Can you work with it?”
Ho Yinsen considered it.
“Give me half a day, and I can tear off two thin strips.”
“That’s enough.”
Tony watched the two of them earnestly discuss fashioning lockpicks out of food packaging, staying quiet for a long while before finally blurting out:
“I used to think my getting kidnapped was bizarre enough.”
He pointed at Lincoln.
“You’re way crazier than me.”
Lincoln didn’t reply.
Though a subtle curl touched the corner of his lips.
The system prompt lit up in the darkness:
[Host has completed initial exploratory action.]
[Behavior aligns with Batman’s operational logic.]
[Character Completion: 6% → 8%.]
[Evaluation: Patient.
The first step was executed remarkably steadily.]
The night grew deeper.
Nothing remained in the cave save for the breathing of the three men and the occasional faint footsteps in the distance.
Lincoln leaned against the wall, eyes closed.
Yet his brain did not cease.
Plan A, Plan B, extraction routes, timing window, emergency contingencies…
Everything was systematically taking shape.
Just as Batman would do before every single operation.
He waited.
Waiting for the moment with the highest probability of success to arrive.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the stone chamber, Tony stared at Lincoln’s face—as still as a stone statue—wondering what was going through his head.
After a long silence, he mumbled under his breath:
“If we get out of this alive, dinner’s on me for this guy.”
Ho Yinsen heard it and smiled softly without calling him out.
Lincoln, eyes still closed, heard it as well, but pretended he hadn’t.
Because according to the plot, they would definitely make it out alive.
It just wasn’t time to lay it bare yet.