"You can't change what happened, but you can still change what will happen."
- Sebastian Vettel
...
Batman neither confirmed nor denied the Phantom Thief's speculation.
This is an answer in and of itself, but it's not really a surprise.
The Phantom Thief used different tactics to scatter the large forces of the False Face Society while slowly searching for Bruce Wayne, who didn't actually exist.
A criminal organization of hundreds of people is divided into dozens of small teams.
In this situation, if Batman couldn't defeat them one by one in a short amount of time, then he wouldn't be Batman.
After all, Batman has proven multiple times that he can single-handedly take down groups of a hundred or more people more than once.
Just two years ago, a medium-sized gang with over a hundred members fought directly with Batman, and in less than half an hour, he managed to defeat them all by himself.
The Phantom Thief suspects that even when combined, the hundreds of members in the False Face Society wouldn't be a match for Batman, especially when they were scattered.
"The Batman has finally appeared! According to what the Phantom Thief said, Batman has already dealt with all the members of the False Face Society. How long has it been since Black Mask arrived at Robinson Park? About twenty minutes?"
"No wonder we haven't seen Batman until now. I thought he didn't care about Bruce Wayne anymore, but it turns out he's fighting the entire False Face Society!"
There were five thousand people watching the virtual livestream in Gotham at the same time, and they all had their eyes light up at the same time.
They felt like they were watching a TV series with constantly changing twists or reading a novel.
At first, they thought Bruce Wayne had brought the Black Mask to Robinson Park to settle their personal grudges, and they were worried that the Black Mask would kill Bruce.
The story shifted quickly.
Bruce Wayne wasn't actually Bruce, and the Black Mask's henchmen had suddenly become Phantom Thief.
It turned out that the Phantom Thief disguised himself as Bruce to lure the Black Mask to Robinson Park, all for the purpose of stealing his skull-shaped mask.
To be honest, no one really thought the Phantom Thief had a reason like that. Black Mask thought the same thing everyone else did was it was just an excuse to mess around.
How much could the mask of Black Mask be worth?
In terms of materials, it's made of ordinary wood from his father's coffin—nothing special. They can easily buy it at any wood factory.
In terms of art, the Black Mask himself carved the mask, and based on the Black Mask's artistic taste, its value in this aspect is basically zero.
Who would believe the Phantom Thief when he said he wanted to steal Black Mask's mask?
It was merely a joke that everyone laughed.
After that, the Phantom Thief showed off his incredible card-throwing skills and even performed a miracle of cutting bullets with playing cards.
It was truly astonishing and left the audience in awe.
They thought it would almost be the end, but then Batman suddenly appeared while bringing exhilarating news.
At this very moment, both the Black Mask and the False Face Society had been successfully dealt with, which meant that the source of the riots in Gotham had been cut off.
The GCPD could easily control the remaining gangs causing trouble and the rioters fueled by the surroundings; it was just a matter of time.
In addition, some of the more established large gangs, including the Penguin's, started sending members to join and collaborate with the GCPD to put an end to the riots and restore order in Gotham.
It shouldn't be long before things settle down.
It's worth mentioning that when the Black Mask was knocked out by a Batarang coated with sedatives, the perspective in the virtual live-stream room switched to Phantom Thief himself.
In Robinson Park, Phantom Thief relaxed his shoulders and spoke, "Now that all the bad guys have been taken care of, I don't think I have anything else to do here. I'll be on my way. Batman, it was nice chatting with you..."
"Do you think you can leave in front of me so easily?"
Before he could finish his sentence, Batman interrupted him.
"Hey! I haven't done anything wrong today, have I? When you really think about it, I'm the hero for taking down the False Face Society. The mayor should give me a medal."
The Phantom Thief nonchalantly shrugged and spread his hands.
"Are you sure you want to hold onto me like this, Batman?"
While he was speaking, his right hand made an almost invisible movement toward Batman, and his index and middle fingers flicked slightly outward.
This small movement was hard to notice, and Phantom Thief was still speaking, so Batman didn't notice what had happened.
But as soon as Phantom Thief finished speaking, a flashbang suddenly appeared in front of him, and a dazzling light erupted.
A flashbang had been hidden in the sleeve of his right hand, and an invisible line connected his index and middle fingers.
The earlier movement was used to open the flashbang's pin and throw it out.
The strong light instantly turned the pitch-black forest into daylight while blinding everyone in its path—including the viewers outside the virtual live-stream room.
At the same time as he threw the flashbang, Phantom Thief ran away at top speed.
While running, he pulled out his Grappling Gun and shot it towards the top of a large tree behind him. He flew up ten meters into the air in just two seconds.
"What!"
However, just as the Phantom Thief reached the tree trunk and was preparing to make a clean escape, he saw something unexpected.
As the Phantom Thief tried to escape, he noticed someone on the opposite tree trunk, less than three meters away from where he was.
It was a dark figure silently watching him.
This figure had been standing in silence with the Phantom Thief on the ground just a few seconds ago.
Batman!
The Phantom Thief was sure of it.
Batman didn't just catch up moments ago; he had been waiting there all along, and Batman must have been hidden for much longer than Phantom Thief expected.
"Then what I saw down there just now..."
In this moment, the Phantom Thief seemed to understand something.
"So, you don't think only you can use dummies?"
Looking at the Phantom Thief before him, Batman spoke slowly.
"I indeed didn't expect you to use this trick against me, Batman."
The Phantom Thief regained his composure and smiled.
"That batarang you threw earlier—it's not something an ordinary dummy could pull off, right? Who's down there? Robin in disguise?"
"It was a realistic robot that was recently developed. This is its first test, and it seems to be working quite well. It even fooled a master of disguise like you."
Batman calmly explained.
"To conduct this kind of experiment at a time like this, Batman, I finally understand why so many people dislike you."
The Phantom Thief's eyes narrowed slightly.
In that instant, he pushed off the tree trunk with both feet and leaped down from the tree branch.
...
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