CHAPTER 105: A LITTLE BIT OF LUCK

"It’s like he’s in our heads," Kenny McLean gasped, slumping onto the bench.

"I was about to make a pass, and their midfielder was already running to intercept it before the ball even left my foot."

"Their speed..." Jonathan Rowe shook his head, his usual swagger completely gone. "It’s not normal. It’s like they’re playing on fast-forward and we’re stuck in slow-motion."

Emre Demir, the quiet genius, just sat there, staring at the floor.

For the first time, he had faced a puzzle he couldn’t solve.

His magic was useless against an opponent who knew the trick before he even performed it.

Ethan walked into the room. H

e didn’t look angry. He didn’t look defeated. He looked... furious. But not at them. He was furious at the game, at the system, at the smug, all-knowing voice of GridironGuru that was still echoing in his head.

"He’s reading our minds," Ethan said, his voice a low, dangerous growl. "His ’Predictive Analysis’ isn’t just a suggestion. It’s a cheat. He knows our most likely move, every single time. We are playing a game of rock-paper-scissors against a man who can see the future."

The players looked at him, their last sliver of hope seeming to die.

"So we’re going to lose," Ben Gibson stated, his voice flat.

"Yes," Ethan said, and the brutal honesty of the word hung in the air.

"If we keep playing football, we will lose."

He paused, a slow, wild, utterly insane grin spreading across his face.

"So, in the second half... we are not going to play football."

The players stared at him, bewildered.

"We are going to play a game called ’break the system’," Ethan declared, his eyes blazing with a mad, brilliant light.

"We’re going to be so stupid, so chaotic, and so completely illogical that his precious predictions melt down. We are going to turn this tactical masterclass into a carnival of absolute nonsense."

He looked at his players, a new, unhinged energy radiating from him.

"I’m activating ’Chaos Theory’. For the next ten minutes, there are no positions. There are no tactics. There is only one rule: if you get the ball, you do the most ridiculous, unpredictable thing you can possibly think of. Is that understood?"

The players looked at each other, then back at their manager, and for the first time in thirty minutes, a spark of life returned to their eyes.

The teams walked out for the second half. The Apex players looked different. The fear was gone, replaced by a kind of gleeful, anarchic energy.

"AND WE’RE BACK, FOLKS, for what is shaping up to be a very one-sided execution!"

GridironGuru’s voice boomed. "Can the boys from Apex United find a way back? Or will my Quantum superstars add another five goals to their tally? I’m betting on the latter!"

The whistle blew. Quantum FC, as expected, won the ball and started their slick, one-touch passing. But Apex weren’t pressing. They were just... running around.

In the 48th minute, a Quantum defender played a simple pass.

Jacob Sørensen, the Apex defensive midfielder, instead of trying to intercept it, just ran straight past the ball, laughing.

The move was so bizarre, so utterly pointless, that the Quantum player who received the pass was momentarily frozen in confusion.

In that split second, Kenny McLean slid in and won the ball.

He looked up. He was forty yards from goal. The logical play was to pass. Instead, he just closed his eyes and punted the ball as hard as he could towards the goal.

It was a terrible shot. But the Quantum goalkeeper, a flawless 85-rated machine, was programmed to expect a pass. He was a half-step out of position. He dived, but the ball, a hopeful, glorious, stupid punt, flew over his outstretched hand and into the back of the net.

2-1.

The Colosseum was silent.

Then, Guru’s voice, no longer smug, crackled through the speakers."What... what was that? That was the luckiest, flukiest, ugliest goal I have ever seen in my entire life!"

On the sideline, Ethan was screaming with laughter.

On the pitch, his players were celebrating like they’d just won the World Cup.

The game restarted, and Apex fully embraced the madness.

David Kerrigan started doing keepie-uppies in his own half.

Grant Hanley, the grizzled old captain, tried a step-over and fell over.

It was a beautiful, glorious mess.

The Quantum players were completely bewildered.

Their predictive AI was useless against a team that had no plan. Their perfect system was being broken by pure, unadulterated stupidity.

In the 55th minute, Apex won a corner. Emre Demir swung it in.

It was headed clear, but only to the edge of the box where Viktor Kristensen was waiting. He hit a sweet volley. It was saved. The rebound fell to Jonathan Rowe.

He shot. It was blocked. The ball was pinballing around the Quantum box.

Finally, it fell to Grant Hanley, five yards out.

He swung his mighty leg at it... and completely missed the ball, falling over in a heap.

But as he fell, the ball hit his backside and trickled, almost apologetically, over the line.

2-2.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!" Guru’s voice was a shriek of pure, agonized fury. "A BUNDLE! A SCRUFFY, UGLY, RIDICULOUS BUNDLE! THIS ISN’T FOOTBALL! THIS IS A CLOWN SHOW!"

Ethan was on his knees in his technical area, crying with laughter.

His team had just equalized with a goal that had bounced off their captain’s bottom.

But the chaos was a double-edged sword.

In the 60th minute, with the Apex players still lost in their anarchic joy, they lost the ball. The Quantum players, their faces a mask of cold, professional rage, finally found their rhythm.

A single, perfect, defense-splitting pass. A single, lightning-fast run from their star striker, Savio. He ghosted past the Apex defense, which was still trying to figure out who was playing where. He was one-on-one with Gunn.

He didn’t chip it this time. He just smashed it into the roof of the net with a ferocity that was almost personal.

3-2 to Quantum.

The goal was a cold, hard slap of reality. The chaos had been fun. But the machine was still a machine.

"AND THAT’S WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU MESS WITH THE BEST!" Guru’s voice roared, a sound of triumphant, vindicated rage. "THAT’S WHAT YOU GET! A little bit of luck, a little bit of nonsense, but in the end, quality always rises to the top! Order is restored!"

The Apex players looked at each other, the laughter finally dying in their eyes.

The fun was over. They were behind again.

But as they trudged back to the center circle, Ethan saw it.

The madness was over. And his players... they weren’t broken. They were smiling. They had faced the unbeatable machine and scored two of the most ridiculous goals in history. They had made the king bleed.

They were still losing. But for the first time in the entire match, they looked like they believed they could win.