The prisoners were brought to the square, and the game would be paused for a minute or two every time because the prisoner's side needed to be replaced. In addition, because of the tense atmosphere, one of the prisoners was beaten to a disgraceful appearance, and the visual impact was too strong, so the substitute prisoners kept cheering.
I couldn't say anything encouraging, I just kept my mouth shut and watched the game with a sullen face.
The prison guards who were standing guard at the sentry post or who came here to watch the game did not dare to make any mistakes because of Adel's sudden arrival. They all stood tall and straight, facing forward motionlessly like standing in a military posture, with only their eyes looking down.
, looking at the anxious stadium.
The square, which had only been lively for a while, returned to calm, and the only thing that echoed was the shouts of both sides of the competition.
"Kick the ball! Play the ball! Leave them alone! How can we finish the game with so many people!" Lecter directed the angry prison guards to return their focus to scoring goals.
Verak and the others followed the previous tactics, separating Lecter from the football, so that the prison guards were forced to spread out their protection, resulting in a shortage of manpower, and then they looked for opportunities to grab the ball and organize a counterattack.
It's a pity that this tactic caught the prison guards off guard when they were first used. However, after the prison guards became aware of Verak's intention, they quickly took precautions against this to avoid exposing any flaws.
Seeing the prisoners using their own bodies to resist the attack and squeezing towards the football with all their strength, Verak, who had been fighting with high intensity and was losing his physical strength very quickly, could only follow them and share the pressure with them as much as possible.
"Don't go!" Lecter stopped Verak.
Verak's tactics are also feasible from Lecter's perspective. If he can stop Verak, who has the right to counterattack, others will not be afraid at all, and the possibility of grabbing the football is zero.
Seeing that his fight with Lecter could no longer attract other prison guards to come for support and thus contain more people, Verak did not intend to waste time with Lecter: "Your injury needs to be treated as soon as possible. Don't waste time with me here."
Already."
"I won't miss this moment. I'll just bandage it up during the intermission." Lecter had no intention of ending. Verak aroused his anger. He would not beat Verak even worse than himself today.
Those who are willing to give up.
Verak was too lazy to talk nonsense with Lecter and stepped forward to fight with him.
Compared to Lecter, who doesn't know how to fight, and sometimes seems to be self-righteous in his positioning and attacks, Verak's fighting is extremely straightforward, standing there like a wooden stake, not evading any attack.
Lecter hit him, and he hit him hard in return.
This aura of not being afraid of pain and willing to fight to the death is no less powerful than Lecter's desire for revenge. Lecter, who was very ambitious, felt more competitive than ever before. He stood one meter away from Verak and was equally dissatisfied.
He moved, resisted Verak's stick, and then counterattacked quickly.
The two of them didn't say a word, and looked at each other sharply.
"Bang!" Lecter hit Verak on the arm with a stick.
Verak took a staggering step to the side, steadied himself, and then swung the stick on Lecter's shoulder.
"Bang!"
Lecter knelt on one knee, and felt that kneeling in front of Verak was a huge insult. He stood up with a roar and continued to attack.
Adel, who was watching the game on the sentry post, paid no attention to the football fight between the prison guards and prisoners, and focused his attention on Verak and Lecter who were fighting each other. He thought about it for a long time, pondering Verak's thoughts, and finally thought
It was unbelievable, but it was the only possibility that could explain his abnormal behavior.
Verak is not fighting for himself.
If the peace talks between the Equality Society and the government succeed, he will definitely be able to leave alive. Even if the peace talks fail and he loses his value, he can still use the clues of gold to gain freedom. Such a person who is 100% unlikely to be trapped in prison will fight with his collaborators.
He worked harder than anyone else in a game that seemed to have little to do with him. He must have some purpose.
If not for himself, who else in this prison is worthy of doing this?
Equality meeting.
The official name of the gangster came to Adel's mind.
Since he is the president of this organization, this behavior is not surprising.
He is fighting for other prisoners.
After coming to this conclusion, Adel realized how easy it was. The answer had already been placed next to the question, but he ignored it because he always thought of things as complicated.
——
After beating each other dozens of times, Lecter was the first to collapse. Verak, who wanted to support the other prisoners, just opened his legs and fell to the ground.
All the physical strength of the two of them was exhausted, and the subsequent dozen or so sticks were sustained by willpower and competitiveness.
"Substitute!" Dawn felt nervous when she found Verak fallen and called for a substitution.
The substitute prison guard took the lead and helped Lecter down. Finding that there was no staff member in charge, the substitute prisoner came on the scene and took Verak to the sidelines.
Lecter on the other side received immediate treatment from a doctor, while Verak could only be surrounded by prisoners on three levels inside and outside, helping him wipe away the blood and massage his wounds.
"Are you okay?"
"Should I be sent to your infirmary?"
"What should we do? There is no hope of beating the prison guard."
Verak became more awake, glanced at Lecter who was being carried away on a stretcher by prison guards, and then paid attention to the court. After he left the court, a prisoner who knew how to play football filled his vacancy.
"Speak!"
"If you keep playing like this, you will definitely lose!"
"More than twenty of us are injured!"
The prisoners asked Verak various questions.
Verak couldn't answer and just stared at the court.
Due to losing his control, the team of prisoners completely lost their ability to counterattack and were attacked wildly by the prison guards. A prison guard took advantage of the prisoners being beaten and retreating, rushed out with the ball alone, and kicked the ball into the goal.
The goal is defended by people.
"Okay!" The prison guards on the sentry line burst into cheers.
The fight was so difficult in the past few minutes, which made them think that the goal would be a little twisty, but they didn't expect that the prison guards actually didn't use much energy. The more they fought, the better they became.
There were laments among the prisoners.
Verak looked at the time.
Seven minutes and forty seconds.
In less than eight minutes, the prison guard took the lead and scored a goal.
The score is zero to one.
"We can't go on like this. Looking at them like that, it's obvious that they have found a way. The goals will be scored faster and faster!" Some prisoners who understood the situation shouted anxiously.
This is also what Verak is thinking about.
For the prisoners in the first eight minutes, they were restricted everywhere and pushed their tactics to the limit, using their trump cards to give everything they had. But for the prison guards, this was just a warm-up session and a test.
Now that the prisoners' attack is over, there is no way to effectively curb the prison guards' attack. The prison guards have blown the official attack horn and will soon accelerate the scoring speed unmatched.
As expected.
Three minutes later, the prison guards scored another goal.
The score came to zero to two.
Verak tried to return to the field, but he couldn't lift his arm, couldn't swing his baton to fight back, and even if he went up, he couldn't play a greater role than other prisoners.
His right to attack is not an advantage when facing all prison guards.
This kind of game is not something he can decide the outcome of. He can lead the team to defeat Lecter and hold on for eight minutes without being scored on by the opponent, which is quite impressive.
what to do?!
Verak asked himself.
Is it going to continue like this, with more than ten or even dozens of goals kicked by the prison guards in the first half alone? Not only did it not get the chance to write letters to contact the outside world, but it was also severely frustrated?
"Well done!"
While he was thinking, at the fifteenth minute of the game, the prison guards scored the third goal. The prisoners gained nothing, but people were replaced one after another. Even Dawn was injured due to injuries.
Seriously dropped out of the game.
However, he did not go to the infirmary to deal with the injury like other prisoners, but chose to stay and follow the game, ready to play again at any time.
"It's no use. They've already kicked three goals. I think they can score ten more in the first half." Dawn was helped by the prisoner to sit next to Verak and told him his prediction, "When it gets that big
When the score is close, even if a miracle happens, we will never be able to reverse it."
"I know." Verak looked at the guard post, where the tall and mighty Adel was very conspicuous, "Let me think of a way."
Adel may have felt Verak's gaze and looked at him from afar.
Why did Adel come? Is he just watching the game?
This is the first time that Verak has seen Adel in a place other than the office. He looks really majestic. After he appeared, the prison guards at the sentry have calmed down. Except for cheering when he scores a goal, they do not do anything else.
All was silent.
"Adel..." Verak opened his mouth slightly and chanted Adel's name.
The situation was critical, and Adel's appearance made Verak focus all his ideas on solving the problem on him.
Can Adel be the key to turning the game around?
Verak didn't know, he only knew that Adel wanted to cooperate with him and asked for help from him. As long as Verak could get corresponding benefits, there was no telling what he could do.
"Warden!" Verak shouted to Adel.
Adel heard the sound, looked at Verak who was waving to him, snorted lightly, and walked away from the guard post.
The prison guards at the sentry were relieved. They whispered at first, and then quickly became enthusiastic. They started to comment on the game again, encouraged the prison guards, and hurled insults at the prisoners who had never been looked down upon by them.
Adel got off the guard post, entered from the main entrance of the square, and came to Verac's side. He did not need to speak or send people to clear the place. Upon seeing this, the other prisoners dispersed consciously, not daring to bear the majesty with Verac.
,pressure.
"What's wrong?" Adel asked.
"What can you do?" Verak sat on the ground, not looking up at Adel, staring intently at the completely defeated prisoners on the field.
"What can we do?" Adel put his hands in his pockets and looked at Verak coldly.
"What else can there be but competition?"
When Adel heard Verak calling him, he vaguely guessed that the helpless Verak might ask himself to help the prisoner: "You want me to help you win?"
"Yes." Verak said.
"I am the warden, why should I help the prisoners win over the prison guards? Don't you think this is ridiculous?" Adel has some confidence in keeping his position as warden.
"What do you want?" Verak certainly did not expect the dignified warden to help them win unconditionally.
Adel squatted on one knee: "The whereabouts of gold."
"Let's talk about that." The whereabouts of the gold is the core of Verak and Keating's backup escape plan. He cannot change his decision rashly. "The most I can give you is to inform you more slowly after asking for clues about the gold from Mr. Keating."
Give it to Lecter, let me find other ways for you to keep your position as warden to buy time."
Verak knew that Adel was at the end of his rope, and he basically had no other option except to persuade him to cooperate.
"What's the use of that little time?" Adel became calmer and calmer, "Why do you value this game so much? Does it have anything to do with you? You will go out sooner or later. Now that you have been beaten so much, what else can I give you?
Free collaborators break into the infirmary for what?"
"It's nothing, I just want revenge. He tortured me before and almost killed me." Verak's reason was very good. "We promised each other before the game. The game is a competition, and cooperation is cooperation, so the competition is over.
Sai will not bring old and new grudges into cooperation."
"So, you thought this game was an excellent opportunity to vent your anger without being held accountable, so you fought so fiercely with Lecter?" Adel asked following Verak's reasoning.
"Yes."
Adel narrowed his eyes and immediately pierced Verak's rhetoric: "If it's because of this, why do you care so much about winning or losing the game? Your goal should have been achieved by sending Lecter, a deputy warden, into the infirmary."
"Just tell me whether the deal I just proposed is feasible." Verak could not deal with Adel, and now that the situation is urgent, it is even more difficult to calm down and follow the logic in his words.
"It's not feasible." Adel tested Verak's bottom line and how important winning or losing the game was to him. "Unless you cooperate with me on the golden clue."
"Impossible." Verak replied firmly.
If he supports Adel and kicks Lecter out of prison, there will be no hope of escape. Even if he agrees to him temporarily and Lecter finds out, Lecter will not let it go easily.
Adel's cooperation agreement is tantamount to offending both parties.
"Then I have no choice. You can take care of yourself." Adel stood up.
Verak did not stop Adel.
The competition is very important. Winning the competition will greatly increase the probability of their successful escape, but gold and cooperation are more important, which directly determines whether it is possible or impossible for them.
Four or five more prisoners were replaced on the football field.
In the 20th minute, the prison guard kicked the fourth goal, and the prisoner had already changed to number 60 or 70.
Going to lose.
Losing is inevitable.
After losing, the prisoners were severely hit, and there will be no news of the in-depth cooperation that Dawn said.
Verak regretted suggesting the football game to Lecter.
Now their path to escape becomes even more difficult.
"Huh..." Verak blamed himself. He felt that he was sorry for Keating.
"What do you think..." Adel did not leave. Just when Verak was blaming himself, he stood up and said, "How about I be the referee?"