The Iceberg Restaurant

　　Mathison walked down Gotham Avenue, wearing his PM2.5 mask, and manifested a refreshing smile. He had spent all day thinking up this notice letter, and, although it wasn't that difficult to solve, it was his first time writing a coded letter. He felt an inexplicable sense of achievement knowing that he was become more and more like the Phantom Thief.

　　He could only imagine Gordon's detectives torturing their brains to decipher this code and all his future ones. Although it was a bit risky to sneak in the GCPD, it worked out and no one knew he was there until he wasn't. In fact, he's sure that Gordon's scrambling to investigate everyone in the station at this point, not know that his Thief is long gone. Thinking of Gordon, Mathison flicked his mind back to his conversation with Gordon. He never thought that his antics would lead to all out riots and the total disrespect of the law. Sure, there may be copycats but without any training or talent they would be quickly dispatched by the police. Mathison shook his head, no use thinking about this now. He chose live this way so he's going to go all the way and fix problem when they arise. Also, one can't deny that Gordon is getting paranoid, after all, everyone else at the station thinks so.

　　Sniggering, Mathison walked to a brightly section of street, which are rarely found in Gotham at night.

He knew exactly where he was, his last important stop tonight.

　　If there was a family in Gotham that could be said to rival the Wayne's in power and wealth, it was the Cobblepots.

　　Under the leadership of Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot, the Cobblepots developed a massive illegal black industry and formed the largest gang in Gotham, earning striking amount of power and wealth.

　　At the height of its power, it could even compete with New York's Fisk, but unfortunately, during the eight years since the Dent Act, the Cobblepot black industry has shrunk signinficanlty, leaving only a part of it left, hidden behind all the glitz and glamour.

　　But the Penguin's power is still not to be underestimated. If at least four out of every ten crimes in the US are Fisk-related, at least two of the remaining ones are related to Cobblepot.

　　In today's Gotham, Cobblepot is the only one who still has the audacity to run an underground operation, and their most typical venue is the Iceberg Restaurant.

　　When Mathison pushed open the door of the prestigious restaurant, he was greeted by two young waitresses in tuxedos.

　　"Hello, sir, do you have a reservation? If not how many people are you dining with?"

　　Mathison ignored these people; he wasn't here for a good meal.

　　He walked straight to the cabinet next to the front counter of the restaurant, took out a black umbrella from underneath the cabinet then placed it upside down on the front counter.

　　The waitresses were puzzled and could only look at each other in confusion.

　　The receptionist's expression, on the other hand, had changed, "You guys go back and entertain the other guests, I'll take care of this one personally."

　　'Interesting, it seems that the entire staff of the Iceberg aren't all under the Penguin, at least on the surface this is truly a normal restaurant. Tough times must have fallen indeed, Dent Act is really that good,huh'

　　The receptionist led Mathison towards the private dining area inside the restaurant, and along the way, Mathison noticed that both the lobby and the various private dining rooms were filled with people eating in the place, and it didn't look like there was any criminal activity going on.

　　But this was all just a façade, the real face of the Iceberg was actually Gotham's largest black market exchange, only a few people knew the real way to get into it, and those who did were not normal people.

　　After a while, Mathison was led into one of the last booths.

　　"This doesn't seem to be where I need to go."

　　Mathison asked with playful eyes.

　　"Gentleman, before we send you 'there', we need to ask you to put this on."

　　The receptionist smiled slightly and took out an eye patch, her tone was quite polite and courteous, not at all like the stereotypical attitude of someone in the black industry. Come to think of it, in this line of work, they might offend a big shot if they are not careful, the kind of arrogant watchdogs in the movies are almost non-existent.

　　While Mathison was smiling playfully, two powerful men in suits suddenly burst through the door and stood on either side behind Mathison.

　　"Your boss is really cautious, or could it be an act of timidness?"

　　"It's a pity if this is just caution then is a little too much, so much so that it seems to give an impression of cowardice…"

　　Mathison was as calm as ever and even in the mood for some light teasing.

　　"You should watch your words, sir." The smile on the receptionist's face gradually disappeared.

　　"The location of the exchange cannot be revealed, a rule that should understand if you intend to do business with the Penguin."

　　"That also depends on what goods I have to sell… Wait, it seems I have to show you…"

　　Mathison's left hand suddenly probed towards the receptionist's waist, and quickly drew back before she could see what he was doing, a gem suddenly appeared in his hand.

　　The moment she saw this object, the receptionist's face changed dramatically, only to see her staring at Mathison with a shocked expression, saying in disbelief, "This is the… Adam's Star? You're that Magic Thief… what was his name… Kaito Kid!"

　　"He looks are all played up on camera but does this newbie Kid really look so mediocre." The receptionist wondered.

　　"Hold your applause for just a moment-"

　　A soft laugh was heard, and as soon as Mathison deftly took off his jacket, his whole clothes instantly changed into another outfit: the outfit of the Phantom Thief.

　　The two strong men behind him instantly took a defensive posture because of Mathison's surprising action.

　　"It was indeed quite rude of me to not use my real costume before, but I didn't expect the Iceberg Restaurant to be built in such a prominent location on Gotham Avenue, I'm afraid I wouldn't have been able to come here if I used my original appearance. I would've been swamped by the adoring public."

　　The white cloak danced without wind, the backlight of his monocle flickered as Mathison ignored the threat behind him and gave a gentlemanly bow.

　　"Uh~ hahahahaha!"

　　Suddenly, the receptionist burst out laughing so wildly that those who didn't know her occupation would think she just another fan-girl.

　　"Kaito Kid, a gem as valuable as Adam's Star… you really just show it of to someone… especially in the Iceberg restaurant? Your just some arrogant little fish whose barely made a splash."

　　"If you'd just leave the gem just and instead obediently put on your blindfold like a good baby goat and entered the Exchange room, everything would've worked out fine. Everyone in there is professional, even the boss wouldn't grab the goods that others are trying to sell… but, no, you're such and idiot that you won't even make it to the door!"

　　The female receptionist's expression instantly became warped by greed.

　　Mathison had a feeling this was how this might turn out but whatever, he already planned ahead. Even so he couldn't help but sigh, it was a shame to see such a pretty face distorted.

　　'If I can offer Adam's Star to the boss…', at the thought, she receptionist called out to the two burly men.

　　"Deal with him! Snatch the Adam's Star!"

　　The two burly thugs reacted instantly, and as soon as the receptionist's words left her mouth, the two lunged at Mathison, but they were easily dodged by him.

　　"You seem petty determined about this but I must warn you, actions like these are sort-sighted"

　　Agility is a must for a thief, Catwoman is a prime example of this in terms of dexterity. As he is now Mathison, could even dodge a pistol bullet, let alone the fists of two punks with no training in combat.

　　Even without the powers of the system, the transmigration itself had given him an extraordinarily strong motor nerve, which makes any physical training he performs twice as effective.

　　After dodging the attacks of the two strong men, Mathison crouched down and threw a heavy sweeping kick.

　　"Argh-!"

　　One of the strong men fell down, and then Mathison rolled to his left, distancing himself from the other one, with an extra poker card already in his hand.

　　"The ace of spades, a fine card, don't you agree? However, did you know that this card, apart from being the best, also represents-"

　　"Death."

　　The receptionist would have sworn that the hand holding the card had not moved at all in he the slightest, but the card had suddenly disappeared, in the true sense of the word.

　　Then, there was a slight "poof" and she realised that the card had been stuck in the neck of the other buff man.

　　No! Both of them had a card stuck in their necks! Not only that, the one who had just been kicked down and hadn't gotten up yet was worse off because he couldn't stand up straight and had to remain in a half-crouch position.

　　Because the two cards had cut perfectly into the carotid arteries of the two men, normally, blood should have been spurting everywhere, but what was actually happening was that it was flowing very slowly.

Mathison elegantly got up and began to advise the two thugs in a gentlemanly tone.

　　"I'd advise you to keep still, yes, just like that, otherwise you will die of excessive bleeding really quickly, the kind of bleeding that cannot be saved."

　　"Also, this restaurant is absolutely stunning and I don't believe any of us would like to see it become dirtied by blood."

　　Mathison wasn't the type of person who would kill anyone who got in his way, but still, these people weren't exactly innocent nor was he strong enough to detain them easily. So, he decided to put them in a compromising situation and he explained what would happened so any action was if they still came after him and died that was their business. He was a thief with standards after all.

　　What's more, in such a dangerous Comic Book World, being too nice would definitely get him killed.

　　At the same time, he didn't want to just give up the gems he'd worked so hard to get his hands on so he came up with this til he got stronger.

　　"Well, I seem to have underestimated you, Kaito Kid."

　　The receptionist pulled a pistol from her belt, "Hand over Adam's Star now, and I can guarantee that the boss won't take revenge against you for what happened today."

　　"Oh, you've had quite a change of attitude, how about we make a bet?"

　　"A bet? We're not a casino. Just hand over to gem now or you hand it over with a hole through your head" The receptionist sneered.

　　"Well then, I'll have to raise the stakes then" Kid ignored her threat, "For the extremely high price of one dollar, I bet your gun has no bullets in it" Mathison smile oozed with confidence.

　　'What? Is he mad?' the receptionist didn't believe him for a second. 'Maybe he is just a madman after all. Well, he's a dead madman now.'

　　She pulled the trigger straight away.

　　A splash of red radiated from Kid's suit; his cocky smile instantly disappeared as his breath became laboured, he collapsed on the on the ground and the receptionist slowly walked towards him… is what should have happened.

What actually went down was that silence followed the receptionist action and she just stood there in disbelief for a while. After a bit, she checked her clip a found nothing there.

　　Sensing his cue, Mathison slowly extended his right hand, and in it was a magazine.

　　'It was that time!" Suddenly, the receptionist remembered that Kid had previously probed his hand towards her waist, and it turned out that he had stolen her own magazine at that time, without alerting her.

　　Such a terrifying hand speed…

　　The receptionist hand subconsciously shook out of fear so her grip on the gun loosened, and the pistol fell to the floor.

　　"Well, now that we've danced a bit, can you take me to the Exchange now? In fact, no, just take me to your boss, the Penguin. It's less of a hassle that way."

　　Mathison approached the receptionist, reached out and lifted her chin, with his face close to her ear, and whispered softly.

"I'm just here to do business, I don't want to ruin the 'peace' you guys have. You understand right?"

　　The young receptionist nodded, she had thought that a newcomer to Gotham like Kaito Kid would not dare to cause trouble on the Penguin's territory, but she was proven wrong. It seems this Kid is more brazen she first thought, though she still held on to the madman theory.

　　Then, a doctor from Penguin's crew was called over to save the two big thugs, and then, with her leading the way, Mathison made his way from the third box to the left of the current box. Though it was a different box, it had identical tables and chairs set up.

　　The receptionist the walked over to a wall and knocked lightly a few times and a secret door opened.

　　To be precise, it was a lift and the Iceberg Exchange was located underground in the Iceberg Restaurant.

Mathison held himself back from making a tip of the iceberg joke since it was probably designed with that in mind.

　　It was not known how many meters deep underground he actually travelled but Mathison's rough estimate was probably over fifty meters.

　　The structure of the exchange is actually very similar to the restaurant above, just instead of a restaurant, inside it is an auction house that can hold hundreds of people. Most of the items traded here are large quantities of illegally smuggled goods, including marijuana, ketamine, opium, bobbleheads… and even a small amount of human organs.

　　And only the really high-quality black deals are carried out in a separate private room area at the back of the auction house, where the deals are just as diverse, there is only what you can't think of, not what you can't buy.

　　Slaves, arms, intelligence, treasures, technology… anything can be sold if you can find a buyer.

　　"The boss will usually only be in the private room and wait until he sees something he likes before making an offer. Here, we don't sell any goods, we leave it up to the guests to trade themselves."

The receptionist was explaining all this to Kid so that he didn't go anywhere he wasn't supposed to.

　　"And, of course, we don't offer any sort of protection. If you get robbed or scammed that's your fault, we don't care, you can settle your problem as you walk out of the Iceberg Restaurant."

"Or, I should say if you walk out of the Iceberg Restuarant."