Chapter 147
A person cannot live without hope.
That thought lingered unusually long in my mind that day: the conversation Sey and Ms. Kim had shared.
Ms. Kim couldn’t refute it in the end.
Emotionally, she looked like she desperately wanted to argue back, but ultimately, she couldn’t deny that El Valentine’s pledges were relatively lacking, and that the hope McMillan presented was far more Powerful.
She chugged her drinks with a suddenly depressed Demeanor, then left while shouting like a third-rate villain, “J-Just you wait and see. My fiancé will win in the end anyway!”
As for me, I didn’t really care which of the two candidates got elected. Whichever side it was, I didn’t think there would be any dramatic changes to my life.
Even McMillan’s supposedly unconventional Health Insurance was a story From Another World that doesn’t apply to me right now.
Because of that, I ended up treating the affairs of the World like watching a distant Fire, as if looking at someone else’s business.
Even though I have lived in this city until now, perhaps a part of my mind still held onto an ego that considered me an outsider, a stranger.
In reality, that wasn’t entirely wrong either. No matter how hard I tried to blend in, I was a Person From Another World who wasn’t born in this place or this era.
“I have a Fake ID, so I could vote if I really put my mind to it, but… do I have to?”
I didn’t think my single vote would change anything.
In my Previous World, I had heard drilled into me that this exact Mindset was terribly wrong and that I had to Exercise my Right to One Vote… but here, it was the truth.
My right to vote was no longer a precious single vote.
From the first Voting Rights Lottery, which bypassed the system to sell and purchase voting rights in the form of lottery tickets, to various other commodities… the principle of Equal Suffrage was no longer sacred in this World.
The citizens were nothing more than a minuscule fraction of the massive field called politics. Their individual, insignificant voting rights lost their meaning in front of the Megacorp that swept up votes by the tens of thousands.
To put it to an extreme, the voting system itself had become half Nominal.
Unless a legendary Politician appeared who could truly unite the hearts of the citizens into one, that is.
‘And there’s no way something like that is possible.’
Gaining the fervent support of one side meant earning the hatred of the other. That was the logic of the World.
D.D McMillan enjoyed Sensational Popularity among the Lower Class, just looking at the bar, but wasn’t he treated as a con artist by Ms. Kim, who belonged to the elite class?
Uniting people’s hearts into one was an incredibly difficult task.
Whether Valentine or McMillan got elected, the people’s dissatisfaction wouldn’t end.
Anyway, it was a difficult problem.
A Politician who rose from the bottom, or the Royal Family of a Megacorp.
progressive or conservative, man or woman, veteran or Rookie.
The side that presented a grander vision and hope even if it had some shady aspects, or the side that wasn’t particularly amazing but was stable and safe - which, conversely, meant it had fundamentals solid enough to beat its opponent with just that.
D.D McMillan or Elizabeth Valentine.
They were two mayoral candidates forming a clear Confrontational Structure at a glance.
It didn’t seem like they were divided into such extremes until recently, but this was probably also one of McMillan’s aggressive strategies that started recently.
He intended to drag the aspect of the Mayoral Election into a complete Fifty-Fifty Structure, positioning himself as El Valentine’s rival, her complete Antithesis, to draw in all the opposing votes.
“Anyway, not just anyone can be a Politician.”
Of course, his Aide or advisors might have designed almost all of it instead of him, but it was clear that it was a very fierce and cutthroat World.
Even if I were born again, I should never become a Politician.
“…Hmm.”
The bar was almost done with Cleanup after Closing Time.
For my own personal safety, I usually got off work together with Sey, but Sey had just stepped away for a moment, saying she had something to do.
Since I had a moment of free time… my hand instinctively grabbed the shaker.
Should I make something?
Looking around, I saw that the ingredients nearby were only the ones I always saw.
Synthetic Tequila, Factory Liqueur, ice, and Frozen Fruit Pulp… The only things I could make with these were the Election Edition Cocktails.
I had made them so much that I could make them with my eyes closed. I was sick of them and didn’t want to make them anymore, but it was also too much of a hassle to bring other ingredients.
In that case, the conclusion was set.
I was tired of thinking about who I should vote for between the two. I’d rather be in the Gray Area that belonged to neither side.
Without hesitation, I pulled out a real Margarita Glass instead of an Ice Glass.
Since I was going to drink it anyway, I roughly rimmed the glass with salt, then boldly poured the ingredients into the shaker.
The ratio was almost exactly the same as what I usually made. My hands were so used to it that I didn’t even need to measure.
After excitedly Shaking tequila, Orange Liqueur, Lime Juice, and ice, I poured it into the glass, filling it with the bright yellow drink.
This was a Margarita, not blue, not Frozen Strawberry, but the original, the classic.
Because I had only been making variations so much, I had never actually tried the original version.
It was a very famous cocktail, so it might be a bit embarrassing for a Trainee Bartender.
I should at least taste it, taking this opportunity.
Everyone has a different way of drinking cocktails, but here, I’d go by the book.
Smelling it first, I could feel the strong scent unique to tequila and the well-imitated aroma of Fake Lime.
As I lightly brought it to my lips and drank, the moment it touched my tongue, I tasted the saltiness of the salt, the sourness of the lime, and the strong flavor of the alcohol.
After swallowing, I felt like my mind was thrillingly awakened. The sweet and sour aroma and taste were pretty good, but the alcohol content was quite high.
“Khh -”
If a person lives on hope, what is my hope?
Freeloading off Sey like this and continuing to live in a nice house without worrying about food?
No, that’s too pathetic. It’s not like I’m some gigolo or a pet.
Or continuing this Bartender life and achieving the Stable Life, the Humane Life I had set as my goal when I first came here?
What is a Humane Life?
Being acknowledged as a person and becoming someone that others need is living a dignified life without being ashamed of oneself.
If that’s what it means to be humane, I feel like I’m already living a Humane Life.
Or, a Stable Life? What is the standard for stability? Is it stable if you have a house under your own name?
But that… I don’t know.
I heard that even in 21st century Seoul, getting a house is harder than plucking a star from the sky, so would housing prices be cheap just because it’s Dusk City?
If anything, it would be worse, not better. Getting a proper house would probably cost tens of millions.
It seemed like it would be hard even if I saved up my Bartender salary for my entire life. It’s not that I was going to work only at the bar for the rest of my life, anyway.
If I were to Leave the bar and get a new job, what should I do?
Should I just be a Chef like I used to, since it’s a somewhat promising professional career in this World?
But what is it that I really want to do? In this barren World, what kind of work should I take on to do it most like myself?
Realizing that it was ultimately a meaningless worry, I shook my head. I took another sip of the Margarita.
The bitter and sour taste spread throughout my mouth.
Come to think of it, wasn’t I in a Position where I couldn’t choose the job I wanted anyway?
Even the Bartender job I was doing now wasn’t something I did because I wanted to, but I was closer to being dispatched as a spy under the orders of someone high up.
I didn’t know when this would suddenly come to an end, either.
“Damn it.”
Suddenly, the alcohol tasted sweet. Thinking about being separated from the colleagues I worked with and thrown into a new place again made my chest feel tight.
It wasn’t like I could refuse, though.
I was someone who had received the Chairman’s grace. If I forgot my place and overstepped my bounds… well. I should just say that the higher-ups hate Ingratitude from their subordinates.
Come to think of it, I had a goal to survive and return to my Original World somehow.
When I reached this point, it seemed to have become almost Nominal. I needed at least a shred of a clue.
Maybe I had resigned myself these days, because rather than thinking about returning, the thought of how I should live here came first.
[My goal is to successfully complete the training of the Test Subject and safely conclude the Research Institute’s experiment. and to be crowned the Best System Assistant.]
I was startled by the words of the In-Head AI that suddenly cut in.
Hey, don’t you know when to butt in and when not to?
I was right in the middle of drinking a cocktail, soaking in the late-night sentiment, and falling into heavy thoughts.
What the heck is the Best System Assistant anyway? Is there some fierce competition among Artificial Intelligences?
Even though I scolded it, the System Assistant remained Steadfast.
[Therefore, please focus on the training of your Extrasensory Perception and Environmental control Ability. Currently, there has been no progress for several days.]
Of course there hasn’t. I had barely utilized the Microchip properly since the cyborg Ninja incident.
Tsk. Thanks to that, my depressed sentiment completely drained away. I thought about drinking more, but…
“Forget it. I should stop here.”
The Margarita wasn’t exactly my taste.
It was a bit bland for my palate, which was already accustomed to the sweet and refreshing Strawberry and Blue Election Edition.
Since it had a high alcohol content, I couldn’t drink too much of it either. I couldn’t go home with Sey in a drunken state, right?
Come to think of it, what was Sey doing all this time? Surely she hadn’t abandoned me and had left.
My mood was ruined anyway, so I was about to just dump the alcohol in the sink and stand up.
[That drink, if you’re going to Throw it away, give it to me.]
Someone’s voice rang out from the darkness.
Before I even had time to react, my wrist was grabbed and the glass was snatched away.
The black figure raised the Margarita Glass once as if making a toast, then started chugging it down.
Wait, what?
Who was that, and how did they get in? I had definitely locked every entrance/Exit, and the security system had been remodeled last time…
The Sense of Crisis that had been quiet lately spiked sharply. Thinking back to the cyborg Ninja incident, I tensed my body so I could spring out at any moment.
Suddenly, in the shadows of the corridor, the snout of the burly silhouette looked unusually large and elongated.
Come to think of it, the shape seemed somewhat familiar…
“…Dragon President?”
At the words I blurted out unconsciously, the Black Figure Flinched.