Chapter 7: Red Magic

“Actually, I have always wanted to see with my own eyes what Catwoman, who’s been wanted by the police for so long, really looks like.”

“After all, you really are my senior.”

Mathison suddenly became curious and took off Catwoman’s mask, revealing a moving face that looked very similar to a certain Hollywood actress in Mathison’s previous life.

“It’s a shame for a woman as beautiful as you to be a thief, Miss Kyle..”

Mathison returned her original words to her.

“I can’t tell you are stingy.”

Serena curled her lips. She wasn’t worried that Phantom Kid would hurt her. After all, she didn’t feel any hostility.

“It’s getting late, Miss Kyle, I will ask you one last question, who is your employer?”

“Well, you know, even in our business line, we have our own principles, such as never discussing information about our clients.”

Serena turned her face to the other side facing away from Mathison, not allowing him to stare into her eyes all the time.

“Well, it looks like you are a principled thief… Then, do you know ‘Bane’?”, Mathison asked suddenly.

   “Who is Bane?”

   Serena was puzzled by Mathison’s sudden inquiry. She knew most of the wealthy people in Gotham City and was employed by them many times. This is precisely why her name is on the wanted list, yet she has not been caught by GCPD. However, she had never heard of the name “Bane” and had no idea what Mathison was asking about.

“This expression and reaction… she isn’t lying!”

While the expression on Mathison’s face hasn’t changed, deep down he pondered.

“Which means it’s still quite a while before Bane shows up, but not too long…”

   Eight years ago, the Joker prosecuted Harvey Dent into the abyss of revenge. He was a bloody criminal with a sense of justice. However, Gotham could not accept the decay of their justice knight, Harvey Dent, especially since he was seen as the saviour of Gotham at that time.

   He strongly advocated the implementation of the “Dent Act” to effectively fight criminals. Once Harvey Dent’s image will collapse, the Dent Act will completely lose its effectiveness among Gotham citizens. The GCPD that finally had the chance to clean the mess caused by Gotham’s criminals will never allow this situation to occur.

   So the police hid the truth about Harvey Dent’s death, falsely claiming that Batman had killed Harvey, and associated some crimes committed by Harvey to Batman. And thus, the Dent Act became unbreakable due to Harvey’s heroic sacrifice, while Batman disappeared.

From that point, Gotham remained in a state of peace for eight years, thanks to Dent’s act of course. Although black markets trading couldn’t have been completely stopped, it has changed from being rampant in the open to being hidden in the shadows.

Gotham Went from being the city with the highest crime rate in the United States to a city with a medium crime rate, an improvement beyond belief.

That is, until Bane had descended on Gotham, revealed the truth about everything, and almost led Gotham to its downfall.

This whole event happened exactly eight years after Harvey’s death, this year, except that Mathison doesn’t remember exactly when.

Mathison recalled that the prelude to Bane’s coming was when he hired Catwoman to go to Wayne Manor to obtain Bruce Wayne’s fingerprints and use it to transfer Bruce’s shares on the stock exchange.

And now Catwoman says that she doesn’t know Bane, which proves that Bane hasn’t expanded his operations in Gotham, but it is estimated that he will reach for Serena soon.

There were definitely a handful of rich people who wanted Adam’s Star, but Mathison didn’t care enough.

“It looks like I guessed wrong, Miss Kyle, then… it’s time to say goodbye.”

Mathison grabbed the cloak with his hand, flicking it, covering his body completely, and moving frighteningly fast. By the time the cloak fell naturally, the figure of Phantom Kid had already disappeared.

At this time, Serena hadn’t even recovered.

“Wait, didn’t he take Adam’s star?”

Serena’s heart was puzzled, was it because the place where she had put Adam’s Star was so sensitive that Phantom Kid had not taken it back out of some kind of gentlemanly manner?

Although she couldn’t see his face, it seemed that Phantom Kid was very young, so if you think about it, he could be a young bird who had never seen a woman!

Serena thought in her mind.

Hesitatingly, she put her hand in her cleavage and took out Adam’s Star to examine it.

“Shit! This is… a fake! But when did he swap it? Why didn’t I feel anything…”

On the other hand, Mathison went around a dozen blocks haphazardly and changed disguises three or five times before returning home in his original form.

In the world of American comics, even the cinematic universe is not to be taken lightly.

As soon as he arrived home, Mathison quickly locked the doors and windows, then went into his bedroom and opened his system with great anticipation.

Immediately, his personal panel appeared and a faint look of disappointment flashed across Mathison’s eyes.

Host: Mathison Feng

Age: 20

Identity; Phantom Kid

Items: ‘Phantom Kid’s Complete Skills’, ‘Magic Mastery’, ‘Small Tech Prop Manufacturing Book’

A panel with poor content, no beep, no instructions, no complex roulettes to claim prizes, not even any tasks!

The system had been like this since he had crossed over ten years ago, and Mathison had long since gotten used to it.

 When the system was first bound, he had imagined that it would tell him a marvellous story. It might be some kind of technological crystallization of a high civilization or a game to please some supreme being, however, it remained unchangeably static..

Ever since, he had thought that he would have to wait until he became the Phantom Kid to activate the system, but nothing really happened. 

Over time, Mathison grew up, but the system remained the same…

     But wait!

Suddenly, Mathison noticed that something had changed in the system panel…

In the top right corner of the “Host” section, there was a very small exclamation mark that could easily be missed without close observation.

When the exclamation mark was clicked, the panel instantly became transparent and a new panel popped up.

Target Stolen: Adam’s Star

Treasure Value: C

Difficulty: easy

   Magnificence Grade: B.

   Special Note – Making more than ten people feel shocked is Grade D, more than a hundred is Grade C, more than a thousand is Grade B, more than ten thousand is Grade A, more than a hundred thousand is Grade S…”

Final Evaluation: B

Reward: Encyclopedia of Red Magic

It seems that as long as you steal treasures, you can get rewards.

“Do you want to claim the reward?”

That was no need to ask, and Mathison clicked “yes” without hesitation

A thick and ancient book appeared in Mathison’s hand, the cover covered with weird and mysterious patterns.

This Book of Red Magic came from the world of “Magic Kaito”. It is the magic of Akako Koizumi’s family. Its main function is to temporarily control human emotions and actions. Other types of magic are also available, but in small quantities.

   In the duel with Kid, it also showed similar effects to freezing time and space, so it’s not as if Red Magic itself is weak. And really, at a B-level evaluation, there shouldn’t be any Red Magic rewards; Even at A-level or even S-level, it is uncommon.

However, the limitations of red magic are equally great. For example, you will lose magic power when you shed tears, the highest level of magic can only be used when it’s full moon, offensive magic is rare, etc., which lowers the evaluation of Red Magic in the system.

Open the magic book, and you will see packed spells covering the pages of the book. There are countless strange and puzzling patterns, and the text on the book is different from any known language on Earth.

Fortunately, the system had been “kind” enough to imbue Mathison with the words and language associated with the spellbook, otherwise, it would have taken Mathison a lifetime just to translate the contents.

Of course, learning how to use these spells and cultivate magic power is still something that Mathison has to figure out for himself…