Chapter 157: Underground
"You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great."
- Zig Ziglar
...
A few days ago, when Bruce Wayne held a press conference to announce his challenge to the notorious Phantom Thief, Dean started thinking about how to plan his next crime.
Bruce's challenge came as a surprise; even though Dean had anticipated a possible situation like this, he didn't expect it to happen so quickly.
This put Dean at a disadvantage and made him somewhat helpless.
The Gotham City Stadium is an open space, and the Bat Signal, which held the Ocean Gem, was placed in the middle of the field.
A perimeter was also set up to prevent anyone from getting close to the Bat-Signal.
This meant that Dean couldn't do a complete inspection of the site or make preparations as he had in the past.
Because only a few people were allowed on the field, everyone else could only go to the stands, and even those few were not allowed to get close to the Bat-Signal.
From the stands, Dean couldn't gather enough useful information or make any preparations.
Dean was able to get an understanding of the Gotham City Stadium as it had a real-time livestream available 24/7.
But he still had to figure out how to get close to the Bat-Signal and successfully steal the ocean gem inside it.
On the other hand, the challenger was Bruce Wayne, the famous Batman, an adviser to the Justice League, and the world's greatest detective, and he held many legendary titles.
This added a huge amount of mental pressure for Dean.
During that time, Dean racked his head and thought of many different plans, but he eventually gave up on all of them because they didn't have a good chance of working.
Dean didn't feel safe about any of his plans because Batman was likely to be his opponent.
It wasn't until Dean returned home and entered his secret underground room that he had a sudden inspiration.
He remembered how he fooled Batgirl with the dual secret room illusion.
He used the system to make fake dust, which made her think that the secret room hadn't been entered in a long time.
So, if he could use the system to buy fake dust, why couldn't he buy other things?
After thinking about this for a while, Dean actually came up with a plan that could work.
Inside the Gotham City Stadium, no one could get close to the Bat Signal, even if they tried to disguise themselves or sneak up on it.
The only option was to go straight to them, which was basically like walking into a trap.
At least on the ground, Dean couldn't approach the Bat-Signal.
Naturally, the only way to approach the Bat-Signal was from the sky and underground.
Why did he come up with two ways?
The reason was simple.
Dean wanted to make a big distraction by rehearsing his plan to come down from the sky in front of everyone.
Then, he would use the underground method during the actual crime, but only if everyone wasn't looking.
As for the part where Phantom Thief made Bat-Signal disappear, the first time he simply used special lenses to make Bat-Signal invisible, and the second time he actually made Bat-Signal 'disappear'.
However, the people in the audience believed that both of these performances used the same method.
Dean decided that it was important to have a backup plan.
He believed in Batman's abilities and was sure that Batman could figure out the method he used during the rehearsal.
So he had to make a backup plan.
Even though he didn't end up running into Batman, which was unexpected but not a big deal, Dean found it hard to put these two plans into action.
The sky plan could be done.
He just needed to prepare a few more remote-controlled gliders and high-density smoke.
This would allow him to quickly create a thick fog above the stadium.
Dean planned to connect the remote-controlled glider to his shoulders with a rope in advance of the exit.
When he wanted to leave, he would first use a smoke bomb to hide himself.
Then, he would use the high-speed recoil of the rope to lift him up into the air, and he would quickly escape using the thick fog as cover.
On the other hand, the underground plan was much harder to put into action.
He had to dig a hole in a secret location outside the Gotham City Stadium and continue digging until he reached beneath Bat-Signal's position in the center of the field.
This was a huge amount of work.
Since this world has such advanced drilling technology, digging the hole was pretty easy.
Dean could buy a high-quality WayneTech drill bit with a simple disguise, and three days were more than enough to dig to the stadium.
He even had time to go to the Iceberg Casino.
The most troublesome issue was how to handle the dug-up dirt or soil and how to hide the hole.
The soil couldn't just vanish by itself. If there was suddenly a big pile of soil and a big hole near the stadium, it would be hard not to notice.
If he wanted to move the soil far away and throw it away, it would take too long. It might not be enough to dig into the stadium in three days.
The longer it took, the worse it would be for Dean.
The longer Dean delays, the more time Batman and Robin have to consider the possibility of his second plan.
Dean needed to shorten the time between the rehearsal and the actual operation.
Three days was already considered long, and there was no way to make it shorter.
In short, solving the problem with the soil is urgent for Dean.
At this point, it was time for the system to come in.
As mentioned earlier, Dean had been able to buy dust using the system, so buying soil was just as easy.
By filling the hole with soil, it can blend in with the surrounding soil and look like nothing was dug there.
It's no longer a problem to hide the hole.
As for the soil that was dug up, Dean had to buy a device in the system that could absorb the soil.
This device is quite amazing. It can use soil as a power source, and its function is to absorb dirt.
It might sound complicated, but in short, it takes in soil and turns it into some kind of energy, which is then used to absorb even more soil.
The more soil it absorbs, the more energy is generated. The more energy is consumed, the more dirt is absorbed, and so on.
Of course, the device has a limit on how much it can absorb.
When it gets to that limit, it will break. Dean had to buy a total of three of them to clean up all the dirt.
This was unfortunate because Dean's points were already low.
Luckily, Dean's performance this time went very well.
The Gotham City Stadium was full of tens of thousands of people, so anyone can imagine how many points this would bring him.
It was probably more than what he had earned from his last crime!
No investment, no return.
When Dean thought about the points he would make in this show, he didn't feel as bad about spending those amazement points.
"I shouldn't stay here for too long. I need to leave quickly."
With the Hard Cutter drawing a circle on the Bat-Signal, a hole was cut out of the Bat-Signal, which was made of promethium alloy.
Dean took the ocean gem from the Bat-Signal, put it on a ready oxygen tank, and hurriedly left through the tunnel he had spent three days digging.
Even though a two-meter-thick layer of exchanged soil covered his head, it should be safe for a while.
However, there was no guarantee that someone wouldn't suddenly decide to dig six feet under.
That wouldn't be fun at all.
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