DC: Phantom Thief Kid

Chapter 25: The Phantom Thief Appears

"Everyone wants to be the sun to brighten up someone's life, but why not be the moon to shine on someone's darkest hour?"

- David Copeland

...

As soon as Robin saw the flag, he realized that he had been tricked by the Phantom Thief.

At first, Robin thought that Phantom Thief planned to replace the auction item with something of his own, like the wooden box in front of him.

He suspected that the box probably had some remote-controlled mechanism or timed device.

That would release a large amount of hypnotic smoke, tear gas, or even deadly poison when activated, either by pressing a remote control or reaching a specific time.

Of course, based on Phantom Thief's previous crimes, Robin believed that he probably wouldn't choose to kill.

But it's always better to be safe than sorry. No one could be sure if Phantom Thief was an insane killer who enjoyed hiding his true nature.

Robin guessed that Phantom Thief had timed it perfectly so that this wooden box would be brought up for bidding just before midnight.

When the host introduced the item, the switch would be activated, creating chaos and allowing Phantom Thief to steal the "Pink Fantasy" in the middle of it.

It sounded like something out of an action movie, but there was actually a chance for it to happen.

Phantom Thief had already infiltrated the venue where the auction items were being kept, which means he knew the number and order of the auction items in advance.

With this knowledge, he could intentionally bid high to scare off other bidders and quickly move on to the next item or slowly increase the bid to extend the bidding time.

So that he could manipulate the amount of time for the auction.

As for whether Phantom Thief had enough money to bid, it doesn't matter at all.

After all, he wouldn't participate in the bidding using his real identity, but he would definitely disguise himself as someone else.

What's more, Phantom Thief could even pretend to be the host and personally control the speed of the entire auction.

In short, these things weren't too hard for Phantom Thief to do.

Until a few minutes ago, Robin had been thinking this way.

He plans to deal with Phantom Thief's surprise here, while Gordon and the others would start investigating everyone at the auction venue and finally expose Phantom Thief's true identity, and everything would end happily.

However, this time was different from the last one at the museum.

During the museum stealing, no one knew where Phantom Thief would appear or escape from.

So the police had to be spread out all over the place.

Now, most of the police force was concentrated on the eighteenth floor, and the entire auction venue was heavily guarded by the GCPD.

In this situation, it was nearly impossible for Phantom to escape.

But the result was that Phantom Thief had not left any trap or mechanism here, which meant Robin's analysis was wrong.

Well, to be precise, there was a trap, It's just that the purpose of this surprise was more like a joke played on Robin.

In the surveillance footage, Phantom Thief purposely glanced at the ventilation duct in the hidden corner three times.