The fourth round had already begun. There were four victims of unexplained sudden physical pain that they felt every round. She just noticed when Ninth writhed in pain, according to the ball's content. It was silver in color and had a pair of eyes, a pair of ears, and a nose—just like the sudden pain in Ninth's eyes, ears, and nose.
They had been playing for a minute. Ninth's left hand was still covering his face. He was offered a wet, cold towel to alleviate the pain. Fifth was also back in the game because he didn't want to lose. All the girls from the silver team took care of their hurt silver team players.
At 02:20,
"Player Third, rule number 5, defied. Castigation will begin at any moment."
Third was called by the timer machine.
"Players, continue the game."
The others did nothing, and the game continued. Third approached them, suppressing the pain he was feeling.
"My right arm broke." He stopped squirming because he didn't want the players, especially his team, to worry.
They sat him on the bleacher and supported his right arm. She held it for a look.
"Ouch!"
"S-sorry," Second apologized.
"I think I'm injured."
"Right away? You don't even play much," she threw him a small joke to lighten his mood.
"Hmp. It must have something to do with the 'castigation' thing."
Fourth handed her two face towels, and she knotted them together. She wrapped them around his twisted arm up to his neck to support the injured arm.
"You think so too?" They must be thinking the same thing, if not, closely the same.
"You must've known by now. You're just uncertain."
Second ended up giving first aid to his arm. "It's not like that..."
"You shouldn't have bothered with your improvised first aid. After two minutes, I'll be fine."
She gazed at him while he seriously watched the players playing. "So, you already know."
"Almost."
"How did you know I might know something?" She was curious how he found out that she might know something.
"You look undisturbed."
"Me? Not even."
He did not utter a word. Maybe he thought she was calm. That was just how she was. Her face looked calm when she thought a lot, especially in their current situation, where the brain needed to be activated to decipher the trick behind this. Regardless of her expression, her head was chaotic.
She tried to remove the towel around his neck and arms because he insisted that she shouldn't bother anymore.
"What are you doing?" Now he was baffled.
"Well, you said I shouldn't bother giving you first aid."
"Aw, aw! It still hurts."
They just let him rest so he could return to the game.
Round 4 was over. No one scored. The boys went to the bleachers to drink water. She just noticed that they weren't sweating while playing.
"Looks like it worked," Ninezen appealed to everyone.
"Good job!" Seventh exclaimed.
"Same method for next round," said Firstwen. It seemed like they had their own world discussing their plans for the game.
She sighed in relief that their small plan worked. What was their plan? It was simple.
Everyone thought that every time someone shoots and breaks the rules, the specific body parts of a certain someone were all of a sudden in pain.
First, when one broke a rule, like what happened to Fifzen and Third, the speaking timer machine would detain them, and they would be removed from the game—not because they were disqualified, but because their body part would hurt. Part of the body where no organ was involved, only tissues and muscles, so the pain would be milder.
Secondly, earlier, before round 1 started, the color of the ball was dark blue, but it turned to silver when Seventh fell ill. It was dark blue because the ball had not yet detected which team would shoot. Dark blue was the color for the 'unknown' team that would shoot. It became silver before Seventh, Fifth, and Ninth got sick because the gold team shot and scored. The pain depended on what flesh or organ was inside the ball.
Second also observed that in about a minute, the pain disappeared when someone violated a rule. Two minutes after the opponent shot, random members in a team would be chosen by physical pain. That was why their team was being attacked—they hadn't scored yet. Instead of scoring, when one shot, some opponent members would be hurt. She noticed that Seventh mentioned the pain disappeared suddenly, but it seemed to have a side effect—that was because Author wanted to know which team would remain stable despite having physical pain.
That was why Firstwen's plan was not to score or shoot the ball so that no one would get hurt. They planned to continue this strategy until round 5, which seemed to work. Even if they thought this game was unfair and hurt others, they were left with no choice.
More than three minutes had passed, so Third's injury was finally okay. He hadn't meant to be detained by the timer earlier because he didn't know anything about basketball, so he had made a mistake.
"Was our game great? I'm cool, aren't I?" Seventh boasted.
His energy was replenished because he was confident now that their strategy was working.
Second saw Fifth talking to Fourth. Ninth sat quietly; he was doing well. Aeith argued with Fifzen and Sevenzen. Firstwen talked to Sixth. Thirtwen also approached the girls by the bleachers.
There was only one person she hadn't talked to since the game started. Maybe he wasn't feeling well? She decided to approach him.
"Players, back to the game. I repeat, players, back to the game. Round 5, the last round will start in 10, 9,"
Wrong timing.
"8, 7, 6, 5"
She just went back to her seat.
"4, 3, 2, 1,"
The ball went back to being dark blue. She was already waiting for the timer in case it had a follow-up message.
"This last round will be a special one. Previous rules were eliminated except for one new rule: There must be one team... who will win this game."
*whistle*