Chapter 146: A Game That Cannot End in a Draw

Mr. Freeze's hiring process proceeded smoothly; as everyone expected, Victor Fries was indeed a man who dared to act and take responsibility, or rather, he would not fail the savior of his wife—for his wife, he would do anything.

This saved Batman some trouble; the wiretaps and trackers he had previously placed on the two men proved unnecessary.

In other words, often all villains needed to do was kidnap Nora to make Mr. Freeze work for them, so Ma Ma Zhaodi specifically spoke with Gordon, Harvey, and Bruce about this matter, urging them to pay attention to Nora's safety.

Facts also proved that Victor was not merely a bookish scholar; when holding the freeze gun and wearing his armor, he could instantly revert to the Mr. Freeze who once swept through Gotham City.

"From now on, I will replace the previous warden and become one of the new guards, but the rules between the two of us are no different."

The man's voice transmitted through his hood into the loudspeaker and then into everyone's ears, calm and flat without any fluctuation: "Follow Wayne Prison's regulations as usual, and your lives will not change."

At this moment, Victor stood on the platform while the prisoners in the prison stood below; hundreds and thousands of gazes fixed simultaneously on the new guard on stage. For the first few seconds, they had not yet grasped the meaning behind his words, but a few seconds later, the expressions on their faces gradually turned strange. The expressions on their faces shifted from confusion to surprise, then from surprise to secret delight, and finally from secret delight to ecstasy.

"The Jinx... is gone?"

"Has a new guard replaced him?"

"We survived? That dog-hated, people-loathed bastard is gone?!"

"Holy crap! Wayne Prison didn't explode! Wayne Prison lasted a full month!"

"Wayne is awesome!"

An uproar erupted throughout the hall; everyone's face bore the relief of surviving a disaster and an uncontrollable ecstasy. Every single day Ma Ma Zhaodi had been in the prison, everyone had been terrified even while serving their sentences, no different from having a death sentence with a reprieve.

Yet today, that guy actually left.

The area below the stage instantly turned into an ocean of jubilation; Victor did not immediately stop the prisoners' clamor. He had done some homework before taking office and knew what kind of psychological shadow Ma Ma Zhaodi had cast on the two major gangs; the cheers at this moment were the release of emotions suppressed for a month.

After a minute had passed, he spoke again: "Everyone stop making noise immediately; the prison requires quiet, do not cause a disturbance."

However, although his voice clearly suppressed that crowd of prisoners, he found they continued cheering as if they hadn't heard him; Victor swept his gaze across them and immediately discovered several ringleaders with shifty eyes, subtly observing him.

They come with ill intent, he thought; seeing a new guard take office, they want to see if he is easy to provoke.

Although a month had already passed, this group of troublemakers had not yet fully submitted to the prison's rules.

"I said, be quiet."

The crowd still did not quiet down until, a few seconds later, several prisoners' terrified screams broke the atmosphere of celebration.

"Harlick, Harlick!"

"Oh God, Harlick has turned into a block of ice!"

"It's Mr. Freeze! He is Mr. Freeze!"

The crowd quickly fell silent; everyone turned their gaze toward the direction of the sudden outcry in the arena—the biggest troublemaker, Harlick, was now covered in a thin shell of ice crystals, frozen in a pose with arms raised and mouth open in a shout, transformed into a crystal-clear ice sculpture.

Was he dead? No one knew, but everyone subconsciously moved away from that ice sculpture.

"I believe broken bones make the best textbooks, and you are still unskilled in your lessons."

Victor's voice sounded at the appropriate moment; this time, his tone still held no fluctuation, yet now, that flat voice appeared to everyone as a cold, ruthless winter wind, while his armor and freeze gun began to overflow with a chilling killing intent.

"You are very smart; no one touched that ice sculpture. My freezing does not act only on the surface; if that ice sculpture were shattered, that person... what was his name again?"

He thought for a moment: "Hmm, it doesn't matter; regardless of his name, if anyone tries to break open that ice sculpture, they will discover that the person inside and the layer of ice on the surface will shatter together into ice fragments, mixed indistinguishably—so I advise you to leave it there until it thaws naturally."

Seeing that all the prisoners had now retracted their earlier arrogance, Victor finally hung the freeze gun back at his waist; a stiff and terrifying smile appeared on his face, which certainly could not be called good-looking, causing many prisoners to shiver in unison again.

"Now, we are truly acquainted."

At this moment, Ma Ma Zhaodi, in a good mood, had some free time; he had intended to go out directly to look for odd jobs, but then received a call from Commissioner Gordon.

"What? Falcone wants to seek peace again? Can't he hold on a little longer?"

"Oh, Luigi is also barely holding on... sigh, is this the extent of Maroni's old man? Then he isn't up to much either."

Since the losses were not his own money, his words at this moment were purely cold mockery; in reality, the struggle between Maroni and Falcone had already severely depleted both sides.

"We cannot continue like this; at the very least, the final showdown between our two families cannot happen right now."

In the apartment, the Roman lit a cigarette irritably; at this moment, neither Sophia nor Carla Viti was by his side; in fact, most of the family's senior members had already been sent away.

He had not expected Luigi's will to be so firm or the evidence he held to be so complete; however, Carla and Sophia were not really accidents, as he had deliberately sent these two in.

Since Sophia had developed feelings for Sal Maroni, he could naturally no longer trust this daughter; in fact, he had always treated Sophia as his right-hand man rather than a daughter, and he dared not be certain that Sophia truly regarded him as a father.

After all, after his youngest son died, she was the person with the most hope of inheriting the Falcone family.

As for Carla, needless to say, he could completely confirm that this sister would seize every opportunity to usurp his power, and even usurp this city; from the day she arrived, such ambition had never been concealed.

Although leveraging this struggle had cleared out internal hidden dangers and, through tacit cooperation with Wayne and Maroni, severed the external gang's tentacles, one matter made him feel increasingly uneasy: Wayne Enterprises' recent moves were growing larger and larger; rather than operating a prison, it seemed more like running a massive talent factory.

The sharp old fox sensed the problem and even smelled a hint of danger; even if a colossal entity tried hard to appear harmless, its very existence was impossible to ignore.

I must talk with Luigi, he thought; we cannot keep fighting.

"Ring-ring—"

At this moment, the phone on the desk rang.

Falcone looked at the caller ID, his heart shaking violently, because the call came from an unexpected number.

It was Alberto calling.

(End of Chapter)