death of hope

Chapter 1006 "Psionic Storm" (80) Election for Governor
Nikolai explained in a low voice: "That bald man is named Koizumi Donjiro, a leading candidate for the new colonial governor."
Don't let this old man's unassuming appearance fool you; he looks like a fathead fish, but he comes from a very powerful family—he's a descendant of a powerful clan from the Shogunate.

Koizumi's financial backer is Sony Corporation, and his political patron is even more powerful: Duke Donald, leader of the Red Party (conservative wing) in the Federal Parliament.

"That's awesome? Then it's a sure thing!"

"It's not stable; this person is currently ranked second in the polls."

"Ah? There are still experts?"

Nikolai grinned mischievously: "You'll find out soon enough~"

The crowd whispered amongst themselves, while Koizumi Donjiro on the podium was also busy, speaking eloquently, his spittle almost soaking the microphone cover.
This person is incredibly skilled with words; he can speak fluently without a script, delivering a continuous stream of ideas for half an hour without repeating himself. This skill was honed during his early years participating in variety shows.

"Hey, look over there," Ando Shuichi seemed to have noticed something: "This is going to be good!"

Following Ando's pointing finger, everyone looked and saw a rather attractive middle-aged woman with a large pregnant belly, leading two young children, pushing and shoving her way to the front row near the podium. She took a deep breath and began to shout loudly like a shrew:
"Koizumi Donjiro! You heartless bastard!"

You promised! You'd divorce your ugly wife and marry me! You lied! Why didn't you answer my calls!

"Don't even think about running away! Not a penny less in child support for either of the children! You have to pay it all back!"

The moment the shrew started making a scene, the room fell silent. After a couple of seconds of stunned silence, people burst into laughter.
As soon as the reporters saw their favorite gossip and scandal arrive, they swarmed around with cameras, microphones, and other equipment pointed at their faces.
Koizumi's PR team was no pushover either; they immediately ordered bodyguards to rush over and cover the shrew's mouth to stop her from speaking.
"You bastard! Let go of me!" The woman scratched the female bodyguard's face with her manicured nails, and in a fit of rage, she opened her mouth to bite the male bodyguard's neck.
The scene became even more ridiculous, with bursts of laughter erupting from the crowd. The campaign, which was already not very serious, had now completely degenerated into a farce.

·
The two unruly kids that shrew brought were clearly trained by someone; they had a clear division of labor.
The big boy joined the fray to distract the bodyguards, while another petite girl went around in a big circle, squeezed through the crowd, rushed to the stage, and hugged the speaker's leg, crying and making a fuss.

"Daddy! Daddy! How could you be so heartless? Don't you want us anymore?!"

The scene was like a melodramatic soap opera; although the acting was over-the-top, people love watching the cheesy stuff.
The crowd kept whistling and jeering, and the speaker looked even more embarrassed than after a serious speech; it was so awkward it almost made me cringe.

Koizumi Donjiro was so angry that he was trembling all over, his old face turned red, and he wanted to slap that brat away, but he had to hold back for the sake of his public image.

·
"Hahaha~"

Even the usually serious Paul was amused:
"Interesting, it was definitely worth the trip."

“I’ve seen this episode before,” Dimitri said. “It’s from my elementary school textbook, Mark Twain’s ‘Running for Governor’.”

"You know what, you really can't believe it, it's so damn similar!" Ando Shuichi laughed until his stomach hurt: "As expected of a famous writer, his classics will live on forever~"

"Who orchestrated this farce? It's so hard to guess!"
"Let's go take a look over there." With that, Nikolai led the group away from the farce and headed to another speaking venue a few hundred meters away.

·
There was a large crowd gathered because of the free sausages and iced cola being given away. Everyone was busy eating; that's how it is in the downtown area—if there's a bargain, no one will pass it up.

Standing on the stage was a plump, dark-skinned woman wearing an ivory-colored embroidered round hat, pouting her thick lips, and reading a thick stack of scripts in broken local dialect:

“I see hardworking immigrant mothers doing the same jobs, but receiving less pay because of their gender, their sex, or their religion!”

Is this fair? Obviously not!

If elected, I will not tolerate this kind of discrimination! I will build a more inclusive and diverse new Sapporo!

Similar to before, there was sparse applause from the audience, and there were quite a few opponents, but the boos were much less frequent because of the free food distribution.

Nikolai began his introduction: "That big black woman is called 'Imahan Dihad',"
It's said she weighs a full 400 jin (200 kg), but I guess the scale can only measure up to 400 jin. She used to be a popular food vlogger, nicknamed "Big Stomach," and she's illiterate.

Somehow, this woman suddenly had a Harvard University resume and started working from Z.

“Let me guess,” Sergei thought for a moment; “Actually, there’s no need to guess, it’s obvious.”
This large, overweight woman is the candidate nominated by the Green Party (radical wing).

“Absolutely correct,” Nikolai nodded.

The big fat woman's backer is "Sakura Corporation".
She and that Koizumi Donjiro from earlier are the top two in the polls, with the chubby woman temporarily leading, but the gap between them isn't large.
With the final round of voting approaching, the wealthy voters in the upper district have relatively fixed opinions, while the poor voters are more indecisive.
Therefore, the votes held by the poor are crucial to the outcome, so both sides are vying for the undecided, holding frantic events and campaigning in the lower city, offering small favors and playing hard to get.

"A bald conservative versus a big-mouthed, right-hand man—what a brilliant pair of opponents!"

Rimi Takiya covered her mouth and laughed, "Why hasn't anyone caused trouble yet? The Red Party's PR team isn't doing a good job~"

"Those conservative old aristocrats are very reserved. They prefer to do things openly rather than in secret."

"A hypocrite and a true villain—this pair of Louis & Martin (equivalent to the Western equivalents of Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong) are running for colonial governor. The citizens of Neo-Sapporo are in for a treat!"

"The election of a governor has turned into a gang war, revealing their ugly side and resorting to all sorts of underhanded tactics."

Which side will win?

"Judging from the current strength of the red and green D, the big-eater lady has a higher winning rate than the bald uncle."