The Crazy Plan

Stepping out of the supermarket.

It was April, the start of the school season, and the afternoon sun cast a gentle, lazy warmth upon him.

How pleasant.

Xu Nuo found a bench to sit on, took a couple of sips from the canned coffee he had picked up, and set it aside to reflect on his performance just now.

Hmm.

He could already imagine those two stunned faces.

Xu Nuo's goal was simple: just to show off, leave a deep first impression on Miss Phantom Thief, and avoid getting in the way of Sakayanagi recruiting her underlings.

After all.

Since Kamuro Masumi was Sakayanagi's future right-hand assistant, it was better not to poach her.

Lest he get hissed at by the little kitten again.

Speaking of which.

Speaking of Sakayanagi...

This little princess of Class A, the apple of the Chairman's eye, was indeed quite a bit of trouble.

After all.

It didn't feel very good to have one's background thoroughly investigated.

Even if it was just the tip of the iceberg, and only because Xu Nuo hadn't bothered to hide his identity.

Still.

It was somewhat annoying.

"It's a good thing she said she wanted to deal with Brother Lu before coming after me; I suppose that means I'm off the hook, right?"

Xu Nuo couldn't help but mutter.

Clearly.

He didn't believe Sakayanagi could bury the Pseudo-Human Ayanokoji.

There was no helping it; the "Classroom of the Elite" wasn't just a saying. Sakayanagi's constitution was still too weak; one underhanded move and she would be finished.

As long as the intensity was controlled.

Even having a Chairman for a father wouldn't save her.

Forget it.

These things weren't important. What Xu Nuo cared about right now was an imminent problem, and that was—

Money.

Or rather, Private Points.

Although the school generously granted every student 100,000 points, which converted to roughly 5,000 yuan.

For an ordinary student.

This amount was enough to splurge for quite a long time.

They could even buy some luxury goods.

However.

For Xu Nuo, this amount of money was nowhere near enough.

After all.

As a member of Class D, his point income for the coming months would likely be a big fat zero.

Xu Nuo had no interest in eating dirt with the rest of Class D.

What's more.

He currently possessed the title of "Ultimate Phantom Thief," along with a set of bug-level abilities.

Disguise, voice mimicry, god-like sleight of hand, top-tier lockpicking skills, superhuman intelligence, and acrobatic parkour skills, among others...

It even included absurd skills like piloting a hang glider.

If he wanted to make money, there were simply too many ways to do it.

The simplest and most direct method would be to disguise himself as a classmate and go around borrowing money or doing bad things.

Never mind surveillance.

Even if Xu Nuo stood face-to-face with the person himself, the other party would absolutely not be able to spot a flaw, and might even suspect they had a twin brother.

Clean, swift, and efficient.

But...

"Too low-class."

Xu Nuo murmured, a look of disdain appearing on his face.

This was no Phantom Thief.

This was a common thief.

It was the kind of thing only a low-life pickpocket would do.

What was a Phantom Thief?

A Phantom Thief was an art form, a magnificent, grand performance that captured the eyes of the masses. They never skulked in the shadows; they stole treasures in broad daylight.

What they pursued was the perfection of the process, the pleasure of toying with their prey, and the sense of accomplishment in vanishing without a trace once the deed was done.

Simple greed for money.

It was practically an insult to this top-tier ability.

So, the question arose.

In this enclosed campus, what treasure was worth him, a Phantom Thief, taking action himself?

The answer was self-evident.

The hearts of beautiful girls, and the points themselves.

Ahem.

The latter was just a bonus.

"If it's a performance, it needs a stage and an audience..."

Xu Nuo tapped his fingers against the chair in a rhythmic pattern, a classic image surfacing in his mind.

A white phantom under the moonlight, a fluttering cape, a tall top hat, and that poker face wearing a confident smile no matter where he was.

What a pity.

The school was too small.

This small-scale setting was definitely unqualified for a Phantom Thief's debut show; it could even be called comical.

Xu Nuo shook his head, feeling a bit of regret inside.

Oh well.

Let's just play a simple game.

So.

Whose points to steal?

Class A? Class B? Or Class C?

No, no, that was thinking too small.

Stealing points directly from a certain student or class, while it might cause a stir, was essentially just a petty squabble, lacking impact and flair.

Besides.

It would easily drag him into the quagmire of class rivalry.

That was not what Xu Nuo wanted.

If he was going to do it.

He would put on a show that swept through the entire school!

Xu Nuo took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and let his brain run at high speed, sketching out the script stroke by stroke.

After a long while.

He opened his eyes and slowly exhaled a breath of stale air.

Points.

The school system's points.

When it came down to it, these so-called points were just a string of data, and the operation of such a massive monetary system could not function without the servers that stored and recorded them.

So, the first step of the operation was clear.

Find the location of the servers.

In all likelihood, they were somewhere in the School Building or near the Student Council room; for a Phantom Thief, this was no problem at all—it was as good as in the bag.

Disguise.

It allowed him to impersonate anyone.

When the time came, he could disguise himself as a teacher and casually ask an upperclassman, and he would likely find out soon enough.

Lockpicking skills.

They allowed him to enter any room at will.

Once he knew the location, he could make his move.

As for the school's security system and the professional knowledge required to operate the servers?

Hmm...

This was not a difficult problem.

Although the "Ultimate Hacker" title had expired, some of the small backdoors left behind were still active.

Moreover.

Kaito Kid himself was not entirely ignorant of technology—at the very least, cracking a school-level security system would not be more difficult than stealing a gemstone.

And so.

"Stealing the Private Points of the entire school, I suppose I'm the first to do this, right?" Xu Nuo rubbed his chin and chuckled.

Of course.

He could have simply hacked into the school's central system to modify the data; relying on the little gadgets left over from his time as a hacker, Xu Nuo was fully capable of doing so.

Simple and brutal.

But.

This was not what a phantom thief should do; he wanted to accomplish all of this in a more elegant, more classical way.

Cool enough.

Flashy enough.

Enough to leave everyone dumbfounded.

"Whew..."

Xu Nuo tilted his head back slightly, the sunlight spilling onto his face—not blinding, but warm and bright.

In the distance.

Students passed by in twos and threes; some were discussing the afternoon club recruitment, some were showing off things they had just bought, and others were simply talking nonsense.

Everything was so peaceful, so mundane.

No one knew.

On this ordinary afternoon, a storm capable of shaking the entire school was quietly brewing.

A moment later.

Xu Nuo stood up, brushed the non-existent dust off his trousers, and tossed his unfinished coffee into the trash can, when suddenly, a thought occurred to him.

It seemed that he...

Had left a certain high-and-mighty flower behind at the supermarket?

Xu Nuo fell silent.

Forget it.

Given Horikita Suzune's personality, she had probably left on her own long ago; she wouldn't be foolish enough to just wait there for him, right?

He shrugged his shoulders and headed toward the dormitory building.