"Learn to treasure your life because unfortunately, it can be taken away from you anytime."
- L (Death Note)
...
Dean lay in bed, picked up the book with a title that even a normal person couldn't understand at first glance, and began to read it with great interest.
Within five minutes, Dean suddenly yawned, and his eyes were sleepy.
In the next second, he closed the book and tossed it aside, lying down to enter and falling into a deep sleep with astonishing speed.
Barbara has watched the same scene no less than ten times.
Many times, she wondered if Dean was really reading the book or if he just used it as a harmless sleeping pill.
Dean was looking through those religious books that no one read in the Gotham City Public Library. His real purpose was to find a better sleeping pill.
Is it purely a coincidence that there is a Roman message on the notice letter?
Every time she saw this scene, Barbara would have this unbelievable idea that made her question how to tell Dick about it.
If possible, she wouldn't want to think from that perspective. But looking at Dean's behavior, it seems... does it really make sense?
Even so, ten o'clock at night is a bit early for a high school student to go to bed. But it's clear that Dean is not like the others.
During the days when Barbara monitored Dean, she noticed that he rested at different times each day.
The most recent time was 11:59 p.m., and the earliest time was 9:30 p.m.
His sleep schedule was quite weird.
What's even more puzzling is that no matter when Dean went to bed the previous night, he would wake up at the same time the next day without oversleeping or waking up early.
Is this some kind of weird way of practicing magic?
Barbara couldn't understand it at all, but fortunately, she didn't have to need to.
After all, by midnight tonight, Phantom Thief Kid would appear as planned, and Dean would still be sleeping, so he would have the perfect alibi.
If one of them disappeared, Dean's suspicion would greatly increase.
What Barbara didn't know was that, despite the footage showing Dean sleeping, that wasn't the case at the moment.
At this very moment, inside Dean's bedroom...
Dean held a small jammer device that he had just activated, calmly getting out of bed to change clothes.
Thanks to the jammer device, the surveillance cameras would loop the footage of Dean sleeping in bed, and no existing surveillance technology on Earth could detect any anomalies.
After changing clothes, Dean placed an ultra-realistic dummy he had prepared in advance and placed it on the bed.
This made it look like he was still sleeping in the room.
With everything in place, Dean left the bedroom and waited until he walked out of the room before turning off the jammer and putting it away.
In the ten days before this moment, Dean had been using this method to go to the museum and set up many dummies without being noticed under surveillance.
'After today's operation, I shouldn't have to worry about my identity being exposed for a long time.'
With this thought in mind, Dean made his way to the Natural History Museum.
Not long after.
Disguised as an ordinary person, Dean arrived at the square of the museum.
It was already late at night, and usually the museum would have closed several hours ago, but today was a special day.
At the special request of the exhibition organizer, Mrs. Chandler, the museum was not allowed to be closed on March 10th and 11th.
It had to be open for 48 hours straight.
It was unknown whether it was her own idea or someone else's.
It was alright that the museum was open, but what was really surprising was that there were still many people gathered here in Gotham at this late hour.
The entire square was filled with people.
There were probably at least two thousand to three thousand people, and that doesn't even count the people who went to the different exhibit halls.
"The audience is increasing. This works out perfectly. I didn't waste my effort setting everything up ten days ago."
Seeing so many people in the square, Dean showed a satisfied smile. Next, he had to perform a large-scale magic trick in front of the audience.
Rumble!
Just then, thunder suddenly echoed in the sky.
Dean looked up and saw that the sky was now covered in dark clouds, with lightning flickering inside the clouds.
With the sound of thunder, the people in the square immediately made a noise.
Some were frustrated, while others were relieved.
"It's really going to rain! The weather forecast was right. Luckily, I brought an umbrella before leaving."
"Damn it! There weren't any signs of rain all day, and now it's pouring in the middle of the night?"
"Hey! Buddy, your umbrella is pretty big. Can I share it with you?"
Aside from worrying about whether they had brought an umbrella, many people were concerned about another matter.
"I heard Phantom Thief move in the sky using a glider. With this weather, he surely can't use the glider, so will Phantom Thief still come?"
On the square, there was a small group of about twenty or thirty young people, each holding up signs that said "Phantom Thief," with a large number of them being female.
It seemed like they were fans of Phantom Thief, and one was worried about Phantom Thief being unable to use the glider.
"Phantom Thief doesn't use the glider every time, but I'm more worried that his disguise mask might get wet and fall off. If he can't disguise himself and someone sees his real face, his identity will be exposed, and the GCPD will definitely arrest him."
"Ah? Yeah, now that you mention it, that's really dangerous. It's better if the Phantom Thief doesn't come. I don't want him to end up in Blackgate Prison."
"Which fan of Phantom Thief Kid wants to see him get caught? But he has already sent out his notice letter. If he doesn't show up, it would go against his own notice, and Phantom Thief's charm would be lost."
"I want him to come, but I don't want him to, it's so frustrating."
Not far away, Dean eavesdropped on their conversation, his face full of surprise.
Although he knew about this group's existence from the news, it was the first time he had seen his own fan club in person.
Dean had originally thought that the Phantom Thief fan club was just for communicating with each other online, but he didn't know they would get so big that they would be planning real meetings.
'It's nice to have someone worry about you, even if your worries are for nothing.'
Although he really wanted to disguise himself as one of his fans and join the meeting, Dean had more important things to do right now.
He looked at the Jungle Exhibition Hall, guarded by many police officers, with a slight smile forming on his lips.
"Just as I thought, everyone thinks that Caesar's guide points to the Jungle Exhibition Hall, but unfortunately, you guessed wrong."
Checking the time, there was still over an hour until midnight, which was more than enough for Dean to make the final preparations.
He turned away without looking back and set his sights on the Library Exhibition Hall on the west side of the museum, which is next to the Jungle Exhibition Hall on the east side of the Library Exhibition Hall.
...
A/N: Give me more stones and someday I will release more chapters!
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