“Patrick. You should become the mayor of Zamboanga.”
“Yes?”
At my words, Patrick asked again, as if he didn’t understand.
“I’m telling you to become the mayor of Zamboanga.”
“I’m afraid I don’t quite understand.”
Patrick still seemed to have no idea what I was talking about.
“Simon. Explain it to him.”
“Yes. I’ll explain.”
Simon briefly explained what had happened recently.
That Abu Sayyaf and the BLF had disappeared, and the rebels had been unified under Damaya.
And that Damaya’s popularity was now soaring to the skies.
“There’s a lot we need to do from now on, and if Patrick becomes mayor, it would be a tremendous help.”
After hearing Simon’s explanation, Patrick seemed to think it over for a while before answering.
“So, you’re saying you need someone who can help Damaya spread its wings further in Zamboanga and Mindanao, administratively and politically?”
After a simple explanation, Patrick immediately understood the situation and grasped what he needed to do.
As expected of a University of the Philippines graduate.
I’m growing more and more curious about the University of the Philippines’ education methods.
To think he could assess the situation that quickly.
I want to learn that too.
“That’s right. Exactly.”
I answered.
“To be more precise, isn’t it closer to, ‘The rebels are going to run around causing trouble, so clean up after them’?”
“Huh? Does it sound like that? But would there even be trouble to cause? There’s no force left to clash with. The reason we need administrative support is because it would be convenient to have someone who can help legalize and properly operate not only the mines but also things like farms and logging sites. That way, we can get those people insured too, can’t we?”
“If it’s to that extent, it won’t be difficult. Well, honestly, if I become mayor, there’s no end to what I can do. But if I run in an election, can I really win? Elections aren’t child’s play.”
Simon answered that question.
“Of course. Of course you can. Damaya’s popularity in Mindanao right now is overwhelming. There are many people who want to join Damaya, and its economic influence is enormous as well. Especially since many people are dissatisfied with the current mayor, if you use a catchphrase like ‘We can change everything’ and gather strength to push forward, there will be good results.”
At Simon’s confident words, Patrick picked up his tablet and began checking various news sites and communities.
He made calls here and there to confirm something.
It took quite a long time.
After confirming the current situation and thinking it over for a long while, Patrick opened his mouth.
“But Damaya’s sphere of influence covers all of Mindanao. Will it be enough to take only the mayor’s seat in Zamboanga?”
“What do you mean by that?”
“We should take all of Mindanao. Only then can we move things the way we want.”
“Huh??”
What is with this bastard?
He’s scary.
He wants to take all of Mindanao?
So he was a man with scale.
No wonder whenever I asked this bastard for something, the problem always got bigger.
I hadn’t recognized it before.
Actually, Patrick was right.
Damaya’s influence was spread across all of Mindanao.
Of course, taking all of Mindanao was far better than taking just Zamboanga.
That was self-evident without needing to be said.
Even so, the reason I’d only mentioned the mayor of Zamboanga was because that was the limit of our capacity.
First of all, we had no one to put forward as candidates.
Patrick, at least, had graduated from university and looked the most respectable.
As for the rest… it was bleak.
Should we put forward Sandro, a gangster?
Should we put forward Scott, who was good at fighting?
Should we put forward Dennis, an arms dealer?
They already had so many disqualifying factors that they probably wouldn’t even be able to register as candidates.
That was why, after much consideration, we’d chosen Zamboanga.
Our armory was in Zamboanga, and Damaya’s base was not far from it.
If we had to choose only one place in vast Mindanao, it was obviously Zamboanga.
But Patrick was saying we should take all of Mindanao.
What kind of scale is this?
“Let’s create a political party.”
“A political party?”
“The Philippines is also a country that practices party politics, so if we establish a party, there are many benefits and various advantages.”
“No, making a party is one thing, but do we have people to put forward as candidates? The only person we know is you, Patrick.”
At my question, Patrick smiled so broadly that his molars showed.
“You worry about the strangest things. I’m Patrick. Patrick.”
.
.
.
Election preparations were in full swing.
Patrick created a political party.
The party’s name was Akbayan ng Katarungan.
It was made by combining Akbayan, meaning shoulder-to-shoulder, and Katarungan, meaning justice.
It meant shoulder-to-shoulder for justice, a companion of justice.
It was a name that showed the will to fight for justice and become strength for one another.
It also suited Damaya, which carried the meaning of compassion.
We just called it Akbayan.
Patrick gathered people into Akbayan.
I thought useless chaff would come swarming in, but quite a few well-known people showed up.
There were people I’d seen on the news and in the newspapers.
People whose names I had heard before came.
I even saw the special visa department chief I had met last time when I went to Manila.
The special visa department chief came up to me and thanked me about a hundred times.
He said my aura had been different even back then, and went on and on about how he had known I would become such a great man.
I wasn’t even the one who would get him elected, so I had no idea why he was thanking me.
Other people also came up to me and said they would devote their loyalty to me.
Why me?
Why are you pledging loyalty to me?
I’m the real chaff here.
I had nothing to say, so I only told them I would watch them closely from now on.
In any case, I had been worried because we had no people, but the manpower problem was resolved to some extent.
In my opinion, Patrick shouldn’t be doing politics; he should be running a headhunting firm.
With connections that good, it was a waste to let them rot.
Just when I thought we’d gotten past a major hurdle, the real hurdle appeared.
An enormous election budget.
We needed an unimaginable amount of money for the election.
Did elections really cost this much money?
I’d only ever voted, not run an election.
Wasn’t it enough to just install speakers on the back of a truck and shout a bit?
Wasn’t it enough to hang banners and hand out flyers?
I should have just been satisfied with one mayoral seat in Zamboanga.
I was blinded by greed.
My judgment grew clouded by the desire to take all of Mindanao.
Instinct beats reason.
Mindanao is the second-largest island in the Philippines.
There were an enormous number of provinces and cities.
There were also thousands of village-level units called barangays.
We couldn’t field candidates in every district,
but at the very least, we had to put forward candidates in the provinces and major cities.
The problem is that Philippine elections are kind of trash.
For example, in a mayoral election, they don’t only elect the mayor; they elect the vice mayor as well.
They don’t run as a set.
They run separately.
There is a separate election for mayor and a separate election for vice mayor.
It isn’t that the mayor is elected and then appoints the vice mayor.
The vice mayor is also an elected position.
The mayor serves as the head of the executive branch, while the vice mayor serves as the chair of the local council.
The mayor pushes policies forward, and the vice mayor becomes the head of the council that deliberates on and approves those policies.
The problem is that because the mayor and vice mayor are elected separately, they often fail to work together.
If they belong to different parties and have different ideas, they spend the entire term fighting and then it ends.
So at the very least, the mayor and vice mayor needed to be matched as a set for things to run smoothly.
Governor and vice governor, mayor and vice mayor.
We had only intended to run candidates to that extent, but even that was too difficult.
There were too many large districts like that.
Mindanao had 27 provinces, 33 independent cities, and around 400 cities and municipalities.
We couldn’t even touch the thousands of barangays.
It took an enormous amount of both people and money.
Just thinking about holding elections in that many districts made my head hurt.
So we decided to use the easiest method.
A method very fitting for the Philippines.
In the Philippines, there is nothing that can’t be done with guns and money.
We pointed guns at people who wanted to run as candidates,
and offered money to the voters.
It was far better than clumsily campaigning.
Sandro also joined in.
He said he was more confident than anyone when it came to threatening people, and told us to leave it to him.
It seemed as though a bit of the secret behind his excellent negotiation skills was being revealed here, but he drew the line, saying negotiation and intimidation were different.
Members of the Sandro Group also crossed over to Mindanao and helped with the election campaign.
A few candidates who had been threatened went to the police and complained,
but the police, who had already taken bribes and had a special relationship with Damaya, pretended not to know.
We did not campaign for individual candidates.
We centered the campaign on Akbayan. On the party.
Instead of “Please vote for candidate so-and-so,”
we changed the election strategy to “Our Akbayan is different.”
We will become your new friend.
We will walk with you.
We will share in your misfortune and poverty.
We will change everything with a fair standard.
Become our companion in reform.
We will change the rotten politics of the Philippines.
Just as Damaya defeated the rebels and brought peace, Akbayan can bring new politics.
We offered guns and money, and focused our campaign on the party.
When we changed the direction of the campaign, Akbayan’s approval rating suddenly began to rise.
Akbayan became a major party.
Many of its candidates were predicted to win.
Then newspapers and the media began covering it.
The more exposure we got, the higher the possibility of victory became.
As the possibility of victory rose, people began coming from here and there carrying money.
I hadn’t done anything, yet they came bringing money and asking me to spend it.
How could there be anything moreありが—not grateful, I mean.
I had been so short on money that I’d even sold off all the coins Jericho left behind and used that.
Just the fact that our chances of winning had risen was enough for people to come carrying money.
I couldn’t bring myself to ignore their sincerity,
so I handed out suitable positions one by one according to the amount they brought.
Doing politics like this, I suppose it’s only natural that politicians become obsessed with money once they enter politics.
Since they spend so much money, they must feel the need to recover it.
I’m not even doing politics, so I have no idea why I spent so much money.
I really scraped together every last cent, down to my underwear, and put it in.
Money could be earned again, but I thought now was the time to go all in on this.
As the election approached, Akbayan’s popularity rose higher and higher.
It became popular enough to be recorded as a social phenomenon.
For people struggling to make a living, Akbayan was a comfort, a salvation.
On top of that, Damaya’s positive image stood with Akbayan.
Across all of Mindanao, Damaya’s reputation was very good.
While the previous rebels had suppressed people with force and created fear, Damaya had instead been on the side of helping them.
They had been powerless but good people.
Then that Damaya gained strength.
They liberated people from the terror of the rebels.
They got rid of the rebels who kidnapped people at all hours and stole anything that could be turned into money.
And now that grateful Damaya was said to be working with Akbayan.
They were said to be working with Damaya, which paid wages and gave people jobs.
The two had linked arms.
People who had been oppressed by the rebels said they would give them a vote, even if it meant being fooled.
People who had suffered harm from the rebels said they would vote for Akbayan.
Young people said they chose Akbayan in order to get hired by Damaya.
That alone was already impressive enough.
But the candidates were also people they had seen on TV.
Famous people.
Since they appeared on TV often, they seemed like impressive people.
Both the party and the candidates passed.
On top of that, they bought them drinks and meals.
There was no reason not to vote for them.
And on election day.
Akbayan’s candidates won in the key regions.
It was a landslide victory.
We won every region we absolutely had to win,
and we also won many ambiguous regions where victory had been uncertain.
We won in most of the regions where we had fielded candidates.
Akbayan became the overwhelming number one party in Mindanao.
Patrick became the mayor of Zamboanga.
Patrick looked different after becoming mayor.
I congratulated Patrick, now a mayor, as much as I could and applauded him.
Even so, I felt a sense of regret.
I had been the one to suggest he become mayor, but once he actually got elected, I felt conflicted.
From my position, it would honestly have been better for Patrick to continue handling our work.
That was how perfectly Patrick did his job.
But when I considered which was more beneficial between having him continue working under us and having him work as the mayor of Zamboanga, the answer was clear.
It was right to let him go.
Even so, I felt it was a waste for Patrick to leave my arms.
No matter how much I hesitated, Patrick had to leave my arms.
That was only right, but I felt pointlessly disappointed.
******
Bohol, Philippines.
Late at night, in the Gogo Casino office.
Department Head Nam Yong-u was quietly transferring Gogo Casino’s source code onto a USB drive.
Not long ago, Nam Yong-u had received a secret proposal.
If he took Gogo Casino’s source code and made an identical site with it, they would pay him five billion won.
It was an extraordinary offer, with full authority over the online casino included if he wanted it.
He did not think about it for long.
He accepted immediately.
Nam Yong-u had been feeling uneasy at Gogo Casino lately.
He felt as if his place there was disappearing, and it made him anxious.
It had not been like this at the beginning.
Because Nam Yong-u was the one who had created Gogo Casino.
His position at Gogo Casino had been firm.
But Gogo Casino had grown too large.
Hundreds of thousands of people connected in a single day,
and it had become a massive casino where tens of billions came and went.
It was no longer a scale Nam Yong-u could handle alone.
Developers more talented than Nam Yong-u had been brought in.
Nam Yong-u had built programs with addition and subtraction, while developers who used differentiation and integration as if they were nothing were working for less than a fifth of Nam Yong-u’s salary.
Nam Yong-u was anxious because there were so many developers better than him.
Even the bastards who emptied the trash cans there were better than Nam Yong-u.
He was afraid he had become someone who could be replaced at any time.
On top of that, as the casino, coins, and exchange were linked together, more people were brought in.
That was a field Nam Yong-u knew absolutely nothing about.
There were plenty of monster-like bastards there too.
They coded concepts Nam Yong-u could not even understand as naturally as breathing.
He hated that Gogo Casino, which he had created, felt as if all traces of him were disappearing from it.
It felt as if Nam Yong-u’s very existence was vanishing.
And then, finally, Anna appeared.
Saying that they had to launder money.
He could not trust Anna.
She was someone who had suddenly popped out of nowhere.
He had said he would trust her, but he could not.
Nam Yong-u watched Anna closely.
Then Patrick left his post.
He departed for Zamboanga for the election, and Anna took over his position.
Anna was handling Candy Tour’s major issues along with the money laundering.
Anna was doing the work Patrick had been in charge of.
Nam Yong-u hated that.
At the very least, Patrick’s position should have been Nam Yong-u’s.
Anna, being born in the Philippines, was naturally more familiar with the local situation than Nam Yong-u,
but even so, that should not have happened.
They should have given that position to Nam Yong-u, the man who had created Gogo Casino.
At least, that was what Nam Yong-u thought.
Nam Yong-u was deeply disappointed.
The instability of his position at Gogo Casino.
His lack of knowledge regarding new technologies like coins and exchanges.
The hostility toward Anna that went beyond jealousy over having his place taken.
And the sense of betrayal toward the boss that came from it.
Those emotions drove Nam Yong-u to accept the proposal to steal the source code.
He was in charge of overseeing Gogo Casino, but that was not enough.
The opportunity was now.
Right now, every business Alex ran was in chaos.
Whether it was Candy Tour or Gogo Casino, there was no room to pay attention to them.
All eyes were fixed entirely on the election.
All he had to do was quietly take the source code and disappear.
Ding.
The copy was complete.
Department Head Nam Yong-u took the USB drive and left the office.