Phantom Kid in the World of American Comics

Chapter 34: Undercurrents

”Q, L, G, B, M, K. The teaser letter highlights these six letters, and I think the key to cracking it lies here.” Eggsy said.

”Do you still need to say this? It’s so obvious that no one can miss it, the question is how to crack it!”, Roxy rolled her eyes at him.

”I just haven’t thought about it yet, it doesn’t mean I don’t have any ideas of what it could mean. Forget me and speak about yourself, have you cracked any of it?”, Eggsy was defiant.

”Stop fighting over this stupid matter.”, at this time, the middle-aged gentleman interrupted the two in a soft voice, his voice was so gentle and charismatic, revealing a sense of authority.

”Harry, what do you think?”, Eggsy asked. 

   He and Roxy were agents of the same training program and were close to each other. So, obviously, they would not quarrel over a little thing.

The middle-aged gentleman, also known as Harry, who is Eggsy’s mentor, is also the strongest agent of the Kingsman.

”I’ve got some clues, but I have not quite unravelled the whole letter. I want to hear what you two think first.”

If we simply look at the quality and achievements of the agents, Roxy is undoubtedly far more qualified than Eggsy, especially in terms of knowledge, the gap between the two is particularly obvious.

After all, before becoming an agent, Eggsy was just a punk who never went to school. It was all thanks to Harry to find him, train him, and teach him. Else, He wouldn’t even be even able to read what was written on the teaser letter.

And so, Roxy took the lead and spoke up, “I investigated that, until now, Phantom Kid has committed a total of two cases, which means that there are two teaser letters sent out.”

”Perhaps to his debut, the first teaser letter contained no riddles to solve. It was relatively straightforward. It was until the second letter that he began to set these riddles in a confusing way.”

”Through the content of the second letter, it can be presumed for the time being that Phantom Kid likes to use the content of Greek mythology to set up riddles.”

Hearing this, Harry shook his head. Roxy went completely in the wrong direction.

”So, my guess is that L stands for ‘Ladon’ who guards the golden apples, G stands for ‘Gallitus,’ B probably stands for ‘Briseis,’ and M I think is ‘Minotaur’…”

”For K and Q, I have not found any correspondence to them. I think they can only be explained as ‘King’ and ‘Queen.’ I think these two words refer to Her Majesty at the same time.”

Roxy’s cheeks reddened slightly and said, “Still, I can’t figure out how to link every detail to the other.”

”Pfft!” Eggsy couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

”Isn’t that the same as not saying anything?”

”Ah! What are you hitting me for?”, Roxy withdrew her fist and hammered into Eggsy’s chest and said with a cold gaze, “Now it’s your turn.”

”Look how violent you are, no wonder no man likes you …”

Seeing Roxy’s violence, Eggsy hurriedly kept quiet and spoke out his insights.

”Actually, I think… we don’t need to put in the effort to decipher Kid’s teaser letter!”

”Oh?”

This remark has brought up Harry’s interest, “Why so?”

”Kingsman has been established for decades and has not appeared in front of the world, even the royal family does not know of our existence, then, no matter how smart Phantom Kid is, he can not know that we are here.”

”We know that his goal could only be the Tamil Ruby necklace. Hence, we only need to keep a close eye on Her Majesty. Sooner or later, Phantom Kid will appear and find us already there, which is equivalent to us being in the dark and him being in the light.”

”No suspicious person can escape our eyes.”

”That’s right.” Harry nodded approvingly.

”When carrying out a mission, one’s mind should not be rigid. As long as the mission can be successfully completed, it doesn’t matter if you use some dishonourable means. This method is a bit stupid, but it efficiently works.”

”Roxy, at this point, you are not as good as Eggsy.”

Roxy hummed, didn’t comment, but also did not refute.

”It’s almost time, let’s go find a place for our stay.”, Harry looked at his watch and said. 

   The three of them got up and left at the same time.

”Phantom Kid’s teaser letter has appeared again!”

”Queen Elizabeth had declared war, does Phantom Kid fear defeat?”

”GCPD, FBI, CIA, MI7… and a whole ultra-luxurious agent lineup present here to encounter him.”

”According to rumours, the Secretary of State angrily denounced the acts of Phantom Kid beyond the scope of theft, and can even be considered a terrorist act. If necessary, they may send the Delta Force!”

”SAS is applying for entry to join the mission, what does this mean?”

The same day, what happened at the airport has spread across the country. Various kinds of news came out, some of extreme exaggeration.

Even SAS and Delta were involved in their stories. These media outlets are really brainy.

At Gotham, Bristol, in Wayne Manor, 

”Alfred, what are you looking at?”, Bruce asked while doing push-ups.

In the recent month, he went to the hospital to check his right leg. He found out that the bone damage was extremely serious, the joint is softened to a negligible level, way beyond healing.

So he installed for himself a leg exoskeleton, which granted him normal mobility.

Of course, the exoskeleton also strengthened his kicking power several times.

During this time, Bruce often wondered if he should talk to Tony Stark and make himself a whole-body set of exoskeleton armour.

But he gave up the idea as soon as he considered that the Arc Reactor was difficult to make.

Tony Stark can make a nuclear reactor in the size of a palm, while Wayne Enterprises has worked for two full years, yet, can only shrink the nuclear reactor to the size of the Bosnian stone sphere.

That’s right, Stark is not the only one making mini-nuclear fusion reactors, Wayne has already invested in a lot of such research.

Only that Wayne’s technology is decades behind Stark. To manufacture a reactor that is small and stable enough, the slightest unintentional mistake may cause it to become a large nuclear bomb.

This is why Bruce can only rely on himself. For now, physical exercise is enough to restore his body functions and combat skills.

Every day, he was doing 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats, and a 10-km long run. In addition, he wouldn’t dare to turn on any air conditioning, no matter how hot the weather was…

Yep, It seems that Bruce is a bit dramatic…

However, his master’s training was uncannily similar to the one he is doing now. Other than the long run, he would sometimes multiply by 10 the number of push-ups, sit-ups, and squats…

This makes his day so busy that he hardly has the leisure to pay attention to the outside world’s news, which of course was the least of his concerns for the past eight years.

Although Bruce hates to admit this, he is already forty years old, and the deterioration of his body is inevitable at this point.

Alfred keeps a sharp eye on all of these details, so, he didn’t want Bruce to see the news about Phantom Kid, fearing that, one day, Bruce will gather his power to put on Batman’s costume again.

”Just some trivial things, reporting on Her Majesty’s visit here, as she delivered an appraisal to Gotham.”

Alfred tried to act as natural as possible.

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