Chapter 156: Thief-Signal

"If you don't heal what hurts you, you will bleed on people who didn't cut you."

-Unknown

...

"Oh my God! I can't believe my eyes!"

In the seats at Gotham City Stadium, a lot of people blurted out in shock.

Just a few seconds ago, they were curious about the strange object next to Robin on the field.

Now they realized it was none other than the Thief-Signal!

The special lenses covering the Bat-Signal had the ability to alter light reflection and make it appear invisible to outsiders.

But Robin had made big cracks in these special lenses, which changed how the light was reflected and removed its ability to become invisible.

However, since the reflected light was still different from normal, the audience didn't see the original Bat-Signal.

Instead, it looked like a strange object that was difficult to describe.

It appeared to be the Bat-Signal in Robin's eyes as well, but he already knew it to be the Bat Signal.

As a result, it wasn't the real Bat-Signal but a plastic cover with the same shape as the Bat-Signal!

After Robin removed the plastic cover of the Bat-Signal, the hidden "Thief-Signal" was revealed to everyone.

It projected the cartoon image of the Phantom Thief's symbol into the sky, just like the Bat-Signal, which left his symbol in the sky in Gotham.

The 'Thief-Signal' was smaller and had less power than the Bat-Signal, so only people inside Gotham City Stadium could see the Phantom Thief's symbol.

The people in Gotham City couldn't see any of this from outside the stadium.

"I thought making the Bat-Signal disappear was already a magic trick, but I didn't expect Phantom Thief to do something even more spectacular. He actually replaced the Bat-Signal with his own signal!"

The audience in the stadium was amazed.

"Does Phantom Thief have too much nerve? Could this lead Batman to believe that the Phantom Thief intends to take his place?"

One audience member expressed concern and excitement.

"Probably not. There have been too many people over the years who have tried to take Batman's place in Gotham, but have you ever seen anyone succeed? There wasn't even one! The Phantom Thief won't even think about this if he's smart."

A second audience member said confidently.

"Indeed, I think Phantom Thief is just an artistic magician who wants to entertain us with his free magic show. He does not intend to become a masked vigilante or take over Gotham. He doesn't care if someone else is Batman."

A third audience member agreed with the previous one.

"I wonder how Batman will react. I was looking forward to a direct fight between the Phantom Thief and Batman. I thought we'd get to see that this time, but it's still just Robin and the Phantom Thief, like before."

The first audience member shook their head.

"Speaking of Robin, have you noticed that he hasn't been doing well lately?"

At this point, another audience interjects.

"Hmm, now that you mention it, it does seem that way. Let's not even mention anything else, just the fact that Robin has fought the Phantom Thief so many times and always lost. It's definitely a drop from what he did before."

"Yeah, and in the past two months, Robin doesn't seem to be as ruthless as he used to be when he faces other criminals. When he fights robbers, he only knocks them out. He doesn't do more serious damage. I think he's holding back on purpose, but I don't know why."

"Where did you hear this news? Batman and Robin don't like to be in the spotlight. They rarely make it into the news all year. Only when the Justice League shows up does Batman get more attention. Otherwise, many people still think Batman is an urban legend."

"Well, I have a relative who works in the GCPD..."

In the eyes of the audience, the events of today have already ended.

The Phantom Thief had won again, as usual.

Even though there was a strange feeling around this event, what did that matter to the regular people who had just come to watch the show?

On the other side, in the center of the field, Robin clenched his fists as he looked at the Phantom Thief's smile in a Thief-Signal, which looked like a mocking cartoon image.

Bang!

Robin hit the Thief-Signal in anger, which broke the light bulb and made a loud noise.

The Bat-Singal had been switched with the Thief-Signal right in front of him, but he didn't realize it until the last second.

When did Phantom Thief switch it?

How did he do it?

Where did the real Bat-Signal go?

How could he move a several-ton heavy Bat-Signal?

Robin didn't know any of this, and he couldn't even imagine the possibilities.

Bruce had thought that the Phantom Thief might be a real magician or have access to some kind of advanced space technology.

Is this true? Or maybe both?

The answer was - it was close but not quite accurate.

Phantom Thief had not learned any real magic at the moment, and there is currently no such thing as space technology.

However, it was also impossible to say that Phantom Thief hadn't used any advanced technology at all.

He did use advanced technology, both the ones he bought through the system and the ones he made himself using the technology that already existed in the world.

For example, the special lenses that made the Bat-Signal invisible were something he had made at home.

Of course, the raw materials had been bought through the system because many things were hard to get and not easy to buy.

The raw materials exchanged through the system were normally cheap, as long as they weren't something like Amazonium or Nth Metal, which were super metals with mysterious properties.

It wasn't hard to imagine that Phantom Thief had used some sort of advanced technology to switch the Bat-Signal for the Thief-Signal.

At this moment, in the center of Gotham City Stadium, there was a large hole dug about five meters underground.

The Phantom Thief and the missing Bat-Signal were both found in the hole.

While the Phantom Thief was using a Hard Cutting Tool to open the promethium alloy of the Bat-Signal, he heard a noise from above and immediately looked up.

"Phew, luckily, Robin didn't notice any problems with the ground."

The Phantom Thief breathed a sigh of relief.

The system was helpful, and the layer of real grass that he bought created a convincing illusion.

Above him was not just a three-meter-high empty space; there was also a layer of soil and a layer of grass on top of that.

Of course, Phantom Thief couldn't simply pass through a two-meter-thick layer of soil to get down this pit.

Instead, he used the system to temporarily exchange for soil and grass, creating an illusion for those on the surface.

If he had used just a single layer of fake grass to cover the dug-up hole, it would have been far too easy to discover.

So what was going on here?

While the Phantom Thief couldn't move the several-ton-heavy Bat-Signal, he somehow used gravity.

Why did he originally set aside three days after the rehearsal?

The reason for this was actually to dig underground.

With the help of the system, he bought layers of soil to cover part of the hole so he didn't have to worry about it being discovered.

Otherwise, how else could the Phantom Thief have spent those three days only gambling with the Penguin at the Iceberg Casino?

...

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