Chapter 199

===================

Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

===================

2024 was a very important year for America.

Because the US presidential election was at stake.

And the election landscape was already set.

Republican Trent.

Democrat Hillis.

“…”

Trent, aiming for reelection, was becoming deeply troubled lately.

“I definitely made Aiden’s administration into a puppet, and trampled the Democrats, so how are the Democrats receiving support again?”

Aiden had been mocked as a historic puppet administration, losing most seats and completely losing his power.

So Trent was very confident.

That reelection was a done deal.

“But it makes sense that my approval rating got flipped just because of China?”

Calling it “just China” didn’t fit the severity of the current situation.

Because the world panic triggered by China’s sudden regime collapse was giving a huge shock to American citizens too.

“Then our Republican Party should have raised approval ratings even more. how can the nearly dead Democratic Party take it all!?”

To Trent who was throwing a fit, the aides couldn’t bring themselves to say it was because of the nonsense he’d been spewing.

“At least it’s fortunate that Aiden didn’t run as a candidate for reelection. If Aiden had declared he was running for reelection, approval would have gone up even more.”

Aiden had announced his intention to retire from politics at the end of this term.

That was the biggest question.

China is America’s arch-enemy.

So with China’s collapse, Aiden’s approval rating went up tremendously.

Yet Aiden wasn’t greedy and announced political retirement.

In fact, the Democrats were about to nominate Aiden as the presidential candidate, but his sudden retirement announcement made them hurriedly nominate Hillis as the presidential candidate.

“That guy who used to blabber about doing all 8 years as president himself, why did he suddenly change his mind?”

“He may be mentally exhausted, and he might be leaving because of the responsibility of creating the worst puppet administration in history.”

“Don’t talk about responsibility. I’ve never met a politician with responsibility. Aiden included.”

Politicians are filled with greed and ambition rather than responsibility.

Aiden was one of them.

But that Aiden gave up the next election.

Even though he clearly knew he had a chance of winning.

“Then it’s one of two things. Either Aiden, having lost interest in politics, is stepping down voluntarily, or it could be their will.”

“Theirs?”

“Gwangwoon, I mean.”

At the word Gwangwoon, Trent flinched.

“You’re well aware that Gwangwoon controls American politics.”

Nightmares about Gwangwoon still lingered for Trent.

When Trent was in office.

He had used all agencies to thoroughly investigate Gwangwoon.

He had gathered all circulating conspiracy theories and if even one had any connection to Gwangwoon, he planned to use it as leverage to crush the company.

“But nothing came out back then.”

That was the terror.

Several of the events that had swept the world must be related to Gwangwoon, yet no matter how much he dug, nothing came out.

That’s when Trent felt fear for the first time in his life.

The fear of knowing something is there but not knowing what it is.

“Aiden tried the same thing. Using all agencies with Chief of Staff John at the forefront.”

“And nothing came out there either?”

“Yes. Not even a speck of dust came out, apparently.”

What did that mean?

It wasn’t simply that Gwangwoon was good at erasing traces.

“There are too many of Gwangwoon’s people in this country. Enough that reports going up to the President are manipulated. As proof, wasn’t it revealed that John, Aiden’s loyal Chief of Staff, was Gwangwoon’s lackey?”

After that investigation, John quit as Chief of Staff and took an advisor position given by Gwangwoon, openly meeting with American political figures.

“John, who was supposedly Aiden’s loyalist, was Gwangwoon’s person from the start. So no matter how much you dug, investigation results came out that way.”

“Then when I investigated too…”

“Yes. Gwangwoon’s people in each agency manipulated the information.”

Otherwise it didn’t make sense.

Hadn’t Gwangwoon always profited from the global tragedies that occurred until now?

Yet that they weren’t connected to a single one is absolutely impossible.

“Anyway, there’s a high possibility that Gwangwoon’s influence was behind Aiden giving up reelection.”

“Aiden followed their words?”

“Aiden is definitely Gwangwoon’s person now. He stood at the forefront more than anyone trying to stop Gwangwoon, but when it didn’t work, he decided to become one of them instead. It’s already famous, isn’t it? That Aiden joined Gwangwoon’s secret organization and is active.”

Aiden’s mental state had been so questionable that memes about dementia were created.

But at some point he regained sharpness, and now he’s completely returned to his former self.

Coincidentally, rumors spread around that time that Aiden had joined Gwangwoon’s secret organization.

In other words, he found peace by joining hands with Gwangwoon.

“You’re saying those bastards dare to install whoever they want in the US presidential seat?”

“If it’s Gwangwoon, it might be possible. You know the media is on Gwangwoon’s side.”

There’s a conspiracy theory about a global media cartel.

A conspiracy theory that world media moves according to the orders of a few, thereby determining how people think.

Of course, this is due to the nature of news.

Major media outlets’ reports are often copied by other outlets, so the same content spreads, and if that source was distorted from the start, the outlets that copied it spread the same distorted information.

But now it had reached a level that couldn’t simply be dismissed as conspiracy theory.

Wasn’t it Gwangwoon that brought down Wizni, which owned major media outlets, and absorbed it?

“Plus, these days people trust news from social media more. And Gwangwoon controls that.”

In other words, Gwangwoon could flip public opinion through media manipulation at any time.

“Gwangwoon has already made the world noisy several times as if showing off that power through social media opinion manipulation. That power is by no means an illusion.”

“And news outlets absolutely don’t say anything bad about Gwangwoon. Because doing so could get their company uprooted.”

Since there had actually been several such cases, no major media outlet was putting out negative articles about Gwangwoon.

“But wasn’t it Gwangwoon that made the puppet administration and crushed the Democrats? What’s the reason for giving power back to the Democrats now?”

According to their logic, the Democrats’ approval rising again was because of Gwangwoon.

Didn’t they say China’s collapse also happened because of Gwangwoon’s operations?

All of this was positive news only for the Democrats’ approval.

“It must be that they don’t like our Republican Party’s attitude.”

“What?”

“There are quite a few forces within the Republican Party, including the candidate, trying to reject Gwangwoon.”

The Democrats seemed to have definitely submitted to Gwangwoon, but the Republicans weren’t quite like that.

If there were pro-Gwangwoon factions, there were opposing forces too.

And presidential candidate Trent was anti-Gwangwoon.

“So you’re telling me to bow my head to Gwangwoon now?!”

“Candidate, to make America great again, it’s an unavoidable choice. First receive Gwangwoon’s help and be reinstated as President, then think about it after…”

“Ridiculous! I have absolutely no intention of bowing my head. So tell the Republican Party straight. Pull my approval ratings up somehow! It’s Gwangwoon’s fault or whatever. those are all excuses. Got it!?”

Having to bow to a mere company to become President.

Trent absolutely couldn’t accept that fact.

***

“It’s getting noisy because of the election.”

“Yes. President Aiden announcing retirement from politics at the end of this term was a refreshing shock.”

Just a few months ago, the Democrats looked completely finished.

But due to China’s collapse, support for the Democrats and President Aiden, who had always been serious about checking China, exploded.

But surprisingly, President Aiden gave up the next election.

Nominating a female politician named Hillis as the candidate.

“Looking at the current situation, Hillis’s approval is higher. Although the Republicans are overwhelmingly taking more congressional seats, if there’s another election after the presidential election, it looks like it’ll swing heavily to the Democrats.”

Then the first female president in American history would be born.

Time remained until the election, but looking at the current flow, it was fascinating.

The Democrats waving the title of first female president.

The Republicans saying they’ll make America great again.

“But the Republican’s candidate happens to be Trent, so there’s considerable pushback against that.”

Trent is a controversial figure.

He was during his presidency, he was when he wasn’t, and he still is.

Isn’t he still making headlines with controversial statements even recently?

“Honestly, in terms of buzz, no one can match Trent. Maybe Milon Tursk.”

But the world’s standards for success have changed from before.

Now, who draws aggro best is the key to success.

Tisla’s success was due to their vision, but Milon Tursk’s aggro ability played a big role.

Same with Trent.

“However, it seems difficult to flip things this time. The Democratic approval due to China’s collapse keeps rising.”

“Is there a way for the Republicans to break through this?”

“The best angle of attack is PC.”

PC means political correctness.

Race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, religion, minorities, the weak, and so on.

It means viewing and embracing everyone equally without discrimination.

The problem is the PC advocated by the progressive side was causing displeasure and backlash with excessive censorship and caring only for minorities at inappropriate times.

“Especially since there are more forces trying to inject PC ideology into young children, parents’ pushback is reportedly very strong.”

Not just movies and dramas, but even media that children watch was forcibly injecting PC ideology, causing social problems.

Due to such issues, since we acquired Wizni, we’ve been abandoning PC as much as possible and creating content that purely pursues entertainment like Enflix.

“Many people are tired of the Democrats’ excessive PC, but without a big one-hit, it’s still the consensus that flipping approval will be difficult.”

There was a reason we were already worrying about who the next American president would be even though the election was far away.

The US President is a position that can shake the world economy.

Especially if an unpredictable person like Trent takes power, we don’t know how the world economy will swing.

There’s already lots of talk that a great depression might come because of China, and if the US President does crazy things on top of that, we can’t predict what the future will be.

So we need to prepare while predicting as much as possible.

For people like us who are involved in financial markets.

“Who do you think will become the next US President, President?”

“I think…”

I wrote Hillis and Trent’s names on paper and quietly closed my eyes while holding the pen.

Soon, intense intuition stabbed at one of the two.

I opened my closed eyes.

The president of the next election would be…

***

“President. Are you really going to give up like this?”

Aiden was drinking coffee while receiving warm sunlight.

But people disturbing his rest came again today.

“Haven’t I said repeatedly? I want to rest now.”

“But President, your approval is rising to historic levels. Especially the word spreading that China’s collapse was thanks to our White House. people’s perception of you has really improved.”

At those words, Aiden burst into a small laugh.

“Do you really think I collapsed China? Me, who became a puppet administration unable to do anything, became a retired elder?”

“…”

The Democratic congressmen couldn’t answer Aiden’s words.

Everyone here knew, didn’t they?

That China collapsed because of Gwangwoon.

“Do you want to know why my approval and reputation have recovered?”

“…?”

“It’s because I threw away all my pride and submitted to Gwangwoon. Going under them, doing only what they told me to do. so they gave me a gift.”

That gift was the restoration of Aiden’s honor.

The reason he swallowed his tears and went under Gwangwoon was the fear of being impeached and forever becoming a disgraced president, wasn’t it?

But as he devoted loyalty to them, his honor was miraculously restored and his approval shot up tremendously.

“That’s as far as it goes. Gwangwoon didn’t grant me the next term.”

“We don’t know that.”

“If they really wanted to re-elect me, there would have been some contact from Gwangwoon. But seeing there’s no word at all, it means be satisfied here and end it. Besides, I don’t want to sit in this seat anymore either.”

Aiden still regrets it.

Becoming President.

The 4 years in this position were a nightmare.

So now he really wanted to rest.

Retiring cleanly and comfortably enjoying games and hobbies.

“I hope you don’t covet this position either. The American presidency we knew is gone. So honestly, in my heart, I want to give this seat to Trent even more.”

“P-President. What do you mean!?”

Looking at the shocked congressmen, Aiden chuckled.

They probably thought it was a joke, but he genuinely wanted to put Trent back in this seat.

“Shouldn’t he experience at least half, if not all, of the pain I went through?”

He would feel to his bones how incomparably different things have become from when Trent first became President.

In crude terms,

“That bastard needs to get screwed too.”

End