"The grass will always look greener on the other side, until you start watering the side you're on."
- Steven Bartlett
...
Dean couldn't stay in Gotham City forever.
One day, he would step into the larger world of DC.
As Dean continues to play as the Phantom Thief, he will become more skilled with his abilities and recognize his flaws.
If he wants to explore more possibilities, he'll have to leave Gotham, and it won't be long before that happens.
Dean won't stop improving himself.
In this world, global and even cosmic-scale disasters happen often, and no one can survive those alone.
Dean can't expect the Justice League to save him in the future. For him, the most important thing is always being able to defend himself.
With the help of a system, Dean is sure he will reach his goals, even if he has to earn a lot of amazement points along the way.
Amazement points come from the audience, but as Dean's strength increases, the situations and opponents he faces as the Phantom Thief become more dangerous.
It was even possible that one catastrophic attack would kill all the live spectators.
In such a situation, a virtual livestreaming room is necessary and important!
So far, the performances of the Phantom Thief have been relatively good, but that's because he hasn't encountered the truly dangerous and insane villains of Gotham yet.
Simply put, what Dean had seen of Gotham so far was not the real Gotham.
Of course, this wasn't a bad thing. It's actually a good thing, as it allowed Dean to smoothly pass his beginner phase for a long time.
After completing all the exchanges, there are still 6307 points left in the balance, which will serve as an emergency reserve for unexpected situations in the future.
"Finally, I can take a good rest for a while."
Looking at the pitch-black night sky outside the window, Dean closes the system and stretches tiredly.
After a quick wash, he went back to his bedroom and peacefully went to sleep.
It's worth mentioning that before sleeping, Dean tested the effect of his Mystic Eyes ability.
The Mystic Eyes is a skill that doesn't consume any stamina or have a
cooldown.
It merges directly with Dean's eyes, and he only needs to activate it with his consciousness. However, he can only use it on a single target at a time.
...
Late at night, at the Gotham Botanical Garden.
Batman and Robin were gathered next to a freshly dug hole.
The two get down on their knees by the hole and carefully look at the collection of soil. Robin is covered in mud, which shows that he just came out of the tunnel, while Batman remains clean.
It's not hard to imagine that Robin had just crawled out of the underground tunnel, but Batman didn't not.
This is because the Phantom Thief only dug a small enough tunnel for him to crawl through. The size difference between Robin and the Phantom Thief allows him to move around inside.
However, this size of tunnel obviously wouldn't fit Batman.
A while ago, Batman instructed Robin to enter the tunnel to go back and forth between Gotham City Stadium and the Gotham Botanical Gardens.
The first reason was to test how long it took Phantom Thief to arrive, and the second was to see if any clues to Phantom Thief could be found in the tunnel.
It's important to mention that the soil in the tunnel is quite wet, so crawling through it would leave mud all over one's body.
So, it's possible that the Phantom Thief left clues like hair or skin flakes during this process.
However, after carefully searching the tunnel with a magnifying glass twice, Robin found no clues at all.
He did find a few strands of hair, but unfortunately, they weren't from the Phantom Thief. They were from Robin's first trip back and forth...
"From the looks of it, this hole was dug not long ago; based on the traces, I'd say it's been no more than two hours."
Robin looked at the opening and said to Batman.
"Maybe not even an hour,"
Batman added.
"This is strange, really strange."
Robin muttered to himself with his hand on his chin.
"This place is exactly like the tunnel at Gotham City Stadium, which was dug early on. But there's a two-meter layer of soil at the entrance. How is this possible?"
"It looks as if Phantom Thief didn't dig an entrance from the ground but instead created a tunnel straight into the ground below two meters."
Robin had encountered the Phantom Thief many times, and he thought he knew him. However, the Phantom Thief always managed to surprise him by doing something completely new and strange.
"Is it possible that the Phantom Thief later covered the entrance with soil?"
Robin speculated uncertainly.
"Impossible,"
Batman replied with a single word.
"Well, I know it's impossible. If he had filled it up later, there would be traces left behind, and the color would be darker. If he had just covered the ground by a few centimeters, that might work, but filling two meters would definitely leave marks."
With a frustrated expression, Robin sighed and waved his hand.
"Other than this possibility, is there any other way to achieve this?"
Robin asked.
Exactly how could this happen?
Batman found it hard to believe the Phantom Thief was capable of such a feat, even with all of his normal staged magic abilities.
There was only one possibility.
The Phantom Thief used some kind of supernatural power!
Perhaps this idea is a bit ridiculous, but Batman takes it very seriously.
Since the founding of the Justice League, he has witnessed many terrifying beings that go far beyond the imagination of the people of Gotham.
His thoughts towards supernatural powers are no longer as skeptical as they used to be because these things are very real, not just fairy tales.
Especially when the Phantom Thief can dig a tunnel underground without damaging the ground, it forces Batman to consider that possibility.
'But the problem still remains. If Phantom Thief has the ability to dig underground without destroying the ground and not only survive the lack of oxygen but also dig, then why would he waste so much effort digging a tunnel?'
Batman pondered in his mind.
This was a question that Batman couldn't understand, and he might never understand it unless he could think of Phantom Thief having the help of a system.
'Regardless, we must recompile Phantom Thief's profile,'
Batman starts to envision version 2.0 of the "Phantom Thief Crime Files" in his mind.
"Let's go, Robin."
Batman suddenly turns around and walks away without looking back at the hole.
"You're leaving just like that? We haven't found any clues yet."
Robin raised an eyebrow.
"What clues do you expect to find if you stay here?"
Batman asks without turning his head.
...
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