Collide Gamer - Chapter 525 – Victory & Mouth 1

Chapter 525 – Victory & Mouth 1 – Spiral

John Newman had imagined himself in numerous situations when he decided to run for a democratically elected position. Down in the streets, showing people he was just a normal human, for example. Behind a podium, delivering a speech as best he could. Flexing his muscles a bit by using the elementals to help clean the streets or something.

Sitting in a late night talk show and speaking about his first campaign ad wasn’t one of them. Although there was a nice and calm smile on his face, inside he was winding in discomfort. He was being blinded by the lights overhead that made everything look nice for the camera but made the crowd in front of the studio look like a bunch of not yet unlocked options in a character select screen, just dark silhouettes.

He was sitting in a comfortable chair, right next to the large desk of the hostess, a blonde catgirl of natural prettiness and painted on gorgeousness. The co-host was a grumbly insectoid of the praying mantis variety, who commented mostly by clicking his mandibles. Something that the crowd found funny every time and left the Gamer wondering what the hell was so entertaining as they laughed.

In other words, John had no idea what was going on, but he still had to be there.

“Now, Mister Newman, your sudden nomination two days ago has caused a bit of a ruckus amongst the people,” the catgirl said, leaning towards him in a way that let John see her white lace bra in the décolleté of her suit, the three top buttons open. She had breasts bordering on a D-cup. The Gamer kept his gaze focused on her red eyes. “Personally, I heard some rumours a few days beforehand but thought it was entirely impossible.”

“Well, it was a rather sudden decision,” John went along, moving his hand in nonchalant gestures as he talked. “I found the line in a code of law and decided I wanted to try.”

“This was despite getting along with President Abraham, right?”

“The two of us had some nice talks, yes, and I think he is a good guy at heart,” John agreed, proceeding to speak his mind. “However, I do think I can do more for this guild and America as a whole.”

“America?” the hostess looked genuinely confused for a moment. “Ah, sorry, you have grown up as a mundane, right?”

“That is right,” John felt like his words were perfect to be written down and published as an interview in a magazine. Not the type of conversation he was used to, but so far this seemed pretty okay.

“So when you say America, you mean the borders of the real world USA, right?”

“Ah,” John made a noise of understanding and chuckled. “Yeah, I guess that could be misunderstood. Yeah, I indeed mean the USA by America. I abhor the state many parts of the country are in, with the slave trade and abductions for mana factories, to name the two most gruesome things I can think of immediately.”

“So, you want to unify the entire continent under your rule?” the catgirl asked.

‘Bad question to answer honestly on public television, dodge, John, dodge,’ he thought and reached for the water to get a second to formulate an answer that was both a yes and a no. As he put the glass back down, his voice echoed with a humorous tone, “That would be one thick country, I would be ruling.” Quietly, he added, ‘Take the bait please.’Alll latest novels on novelbin/(.)com

“Yeah you could say that,” the catgirl said and then laughed when her co-host clicked some indiscernible words together. “Wow, K’tik, you are such a rude bug! Anyway, while we are on the topic of thick, there is an air of sexual rumours around you. Basically, you are being caught in the act pretty regularly and the fact that you have a harem is pretty widely known. Do you have any comments on that?”

This whole thing came out of the left field, but the Gamer didn’t have to think a long time about his response. Physical means were only to be used as enforcement when words failed. Right now, speech was doing perfectly fine.

“Do you think that president Abraham orchestrated that attack to give you a bad name?” the hostess showed her journalistic roots by immediately looking for some sort of scandal.

“No,” he denied flat-out. “Again, I believe he is a good guy at heart. Certainly, he wouldn’t pull a move this underhanded.” John rose from his seat, “I can’t comment on this any further before knowing any more details. For all we know, this could just have been a drunk brawl that went too far and had some people shouting things. I will have to leave and investigate.”

“We understand,” the insectoid co-host clicked.

“Well, we will end the program here then, folks,” the catgirl looked at the audience with a sorry expression. “Let’s hope candidate Newman is going to visit us again soon for a talk uninterrupted by bad news.”

John planned to, he generally liked this program.

___________________________________________________________________________

“Violence between our people is unacceptable,” Abraham shouted into his microphone, standing behind the heavily decorated wooden podium in front of the white house. As a show of strength, the white-armoured knights that made up the governmental guard stood in a closed line behind him.

The brawl had exploded into the story of the local news within hours and now everybody in the political landscape was forced to make a comment on it. The two people that hogged all the screen time were John and the current president of the Little Maryland, to no surprise. Some hopeful candidates were still trying to enter relevancy but failed miserably.

John was watching the live footage together with Chemilia and her husband, as he was staying over at their house for the night. It was a surprisingly boring house in the suburbs, not terribly different from his parents’ place. They were waiting in silence while Aclysia made them tea, the diligent servant even in other people’s kitchens.

“It is clear to me that my supporters, loyal to the Maryland as they are, would never attack their fellow guild members. Of course, we have to wait for the conclusive report, but it is self-explaining that people that support a foreign takeover, because things aren’t going their way right now, would be a bit more temperamental.”

“The idiot,” Chemilia hissed as John clenched his fist until his knuckles turned white. “So much for not wanting to start a civil war.”

“It’s not that bad yet,” the Gamer tried to convince himself just as much as Chemilia. “He is using the incident to solidify his base. Seems like he really wants to go with the foreign invader narrative.” It was an understandable angle, since John could probably win by relying on not being Abraham almost solely. In such a situation, the current president had to rely on what John wasn’t as well.

Ted grumbled his own short commentary on the situation, “He is increasing the division.”

“As far as he is concerned, this is the last election he has to win, so he is fine with playing every dirty trick in the book, I reckon,” John ground his teeth. “This was already a powderkeg and now he is playing with matches. How out of touch can you get?” It was infinitely frustrating that a person that was clearly smart could be this blind towards the obvious because it didn’t suit their narrative. “Maybe neither of us will have to start a civil war, one wrong move and we will just get dragged into it.”