List of candidate

41.6% - Almond M. Chaveil

22.2% - Lora H. Tolcin

17.5% - Joy L. Nicam

13.8% - Ronald K. Dola

4.9% - (Monty L. Kind)

I guess the plan is not that simple, and there’s probably a high chance it won’t work at all, but when you see a future version of yourself lifting the current president by the throat, I tend to think we have our chances. Of course, I told that to Alice and Marie on the way to Lara’s house, and they were way less shocked than I thought.

The problem now is to know how to get to this point, and what will be our exact demand. This last one became rapidly obvious, as I believe only one thing could make us win the election at that point: the vote of the outer circle people.

Nobody in the centre knows this, but I recently realized that the vast majority of the overhaul population reside here. And when I say vast majority, I’m talking about more than 80%, which at this point is ridiculous.

So there are two phases, first, I’ll have to be known to the people down here, which shouldn’t be that hard, and second, I’ll have to ‘convince’ Chaveil to make them able to vote.

The second part will happen for sure, but the problems lie with the first one. The people here do hate the government and the city centre in general, but they're scattered all around the area, and it’s not like there are many ways of communication down here, Lara being an exception by possessing a scroll.

Nonetheless, there was one group that could be useful to me. One group that could help me to reach every people in the slump. In fact, I don’t think I’ll be able to pull anything out without it, the mafia.

Those greedy and immoral bunch of people will be the key to gather the forgotten people together.

How can I convince them? Well, for that I have something everybody would dream to have, the ability to see the future, and a ton of white pill to help the process!

“Is yar friend alright? He’s been sleepin’ for a long time…”

"Oh, don't worry about it, it's a meditation thing, it helps him… well, get ideas, I suppose.”

“Che, crazy person.”

In Lara's bedroom, Sam had started his first meditation session. He used all the vision he had the day before, and has planned to spend one day gathering as much as he could. For that purpose, he took two white pills at the same times, against Marie, Alice, and his own advice.

In the meantime, Marie started to get in touch with Sam's ‘new contact' and apparently the word is out that Sam will officially replace Monty next week, as he is the only known figure working in the same campaign. This decision should have raised many questions, but as it was approved by the authority and Mr Chaveil himself -as well as the other candidates, but at this point, who really cares about them? In the end, it's beneficial for them, so Marie was mostly glad about it, but also a bit insecure about the unwanted help from the current poll leader.

She brought her laptop with her, and Alice did the same, but she didn't use it yet. Instead, she started to study the available junk material she would be able to get down there. Sam will probably need to infiltrated high-security places, and unlike the secret gate between the inner and outer circle, a smile and a lump of cash won't be enough to pass. Also, she had maintenance to do for her arm.

That left out Alice, who is currently watching over Sam, with their host Lara. Of course, this last asked tons of questions to the group, especially about her father, and despite knowing a lot about him, thanks to hours of research and one of the most brilliant brain to have ever been produced, Alice didn’t tell much besides the fact that he was a lone wolf fighting in the shadow.

After that, she related a fake past for the three of them, one where, unfortunately for her, she was the biological sister of Sam, and Marie a distant cousin they build their business with.

And that’s more or less how they spend their afternoon. In the end, Sam managed to get a dozen of vision, but unfortunately, only two of them were promising, one were he was entering an abandoned building late at night, and another where he was discussing face to face to an old looking man in a dark room. He also realized that Lara might be more useful than expected, as Monty was well known for being the guy that managed to get out.

Also, he found something to investigate, and for that, he would need three things, Lara, his past vision, and more pills.

"So… wha did ya want me with ya?"

The next morning, I asked Lara to follow me inside the closest disaffected factory from her house. There were a lot of those, from what I understood, it was where most people worked before, but for the sake of efficiency, they gathered almost every job on the outside wall of the inner centre. That way they have more control over them, without the need to descend.

Anyway, here I am with Lara, in a similar room I got my last past vision in. The reason why I came here is a bit crazy, but at this point, I think I have to take this kind of risk. The idea is that we’re not in a normal world, where the most likely things to happen will happen. Here, we can count on coincidence and luck, and that’s exactly what I am doing right now.

And as I was thinking that, I witnessed what I came for: the same vision I had in the other building two days ago. It was a man standing up on the wooden stage apparently built up for the occasion, and I was in the middle of a crowd of ghostly people cheering the man.

“Lara, tell me, for what reason did those stages have been put there?”

“That? Well, folks could group and talk b’fore, but we can’t do that anymore…”

“Do you know when was the last time it happened?”

"Che, f'course I know, t'was my great grandfather! Everybody loved him, but t'was long time ago."

As expected, the man she referred to was most likely the one I am watching right now. Looking closely, it’s pretty obvious, except for his garnished black hair, he has the same face than Monty.

I'm starting to understand the whole story, the people here have always been oppressed, but things were not as bad a century ago. Monty's grandfather fought against the authority, failed, and Monty took upon its legacy and tried another approach.

Sigh, sometimes I wonder how the struggles are made, it seems like there design especially for us, but in the end, it affects real lives. I probably should ask Valentine about that.

"However, Great grandpops Mark died b'fore h'could da anything."

“It feels like he started a movement.”

“Better than that, pops always said t’was a revolution!”

“So, why did it stop after his death?”

“Every time someone tried somethin’, they disappear, so after a while, they stopped tryin’. People were coward, and it didn’t change much.”

“That’s why your dad left, to fight from the inside.”

“Yeah, but it didn’t help. I know h’was unknown, and like a child to them, and they still got him… those bastards.”

“He was actually quite threatening. In fact, he was about to win, thanks to me.”

Yeah, saying it like that, I feel like I’m responsible for his death.

“What da ya mean?”

During the whole conversation, I was in the middle of the past vision, listening to Mark speech, and has it was coming to an end, I looked at Lara.

“Monty realized something crucial, and that’s why he stayed in the inner circle all those years.”

“…”

“I think you’re wrong about something, the problem is not cowardice, it’s ignorance.”

“Sorry! We ain’t have TV down there!”

“Hehe, having a TV would actually make things worse. Lara, tell me, how many people can you gather here in 5 days?”

“5 days? For what?”

“I believe it’s time to finish what your family started.”

The first part of the plan was thusly put in motion.

While I was running around with Lara to get in touch with as many people as they could, Alice and Marie had the delicate task to find the mafia's whereabouts and, if possible, to rally them.

According to Lara's information, it was divided into three major group, calling themselves the Triad -wow, such originality… Each one of them has their own name, but I didn't really care when she told me, so I came up with my own name.

The biggest one speciality is to tax the population in exchange for ‘protection'. They are kind of useful, as the overhaul violence dropped to nearly zero, however, they are also the one that operates brothel for the use of rich inner people, so you can't say they are good guys. Thus, I called their group the Kingdom.

The second member of the Triad is almost half as big as the first, but they operate on a whole different level. Their most lucrative and known activity is human trafficking. Well, they don't sell slaves, but they provide children for people wanting to adopt. But they also are running a lot of orphanages, and as they are no shortage in orphans, thanks to awful working condition, it would probably be worse without them. I don't really know what to think about them, as my situation was similar to the one of an orphan, I can emphasize with their work, even though they don't treat the children as well as they should. I named them the Witches Council.

Lastly, there was a group of exactly 10 people forming the last member. They were responsible for underground fights, and their whole purpose was to beat up people and show how strong they are. Apparently, there are people that can naturally sense and use a flux, even among the ‘not-us', and it allow them to demonstrate crazy amount of power. They are not really harmful, but their fights have killed dozens of people desperate enough to participate. In the end, they are probably the main reason why the inner circle come less than before, and I called them Crazy Apes.

Hehe, my naming sense is flawless.

After Lara finished her story, it was pretty clear to us than those groups are effectively doing good for the community, even though they could do it better. I was confident that with the right approach, we could make them join our fight.

“That ain’t happening kido!”

Alice was in the middle of the Crazy Apes lair, in the underground of, guess what, an abandoned factory! Really, those people have no imagination.

To be more precise, it looked like a cellar, but the one used by a secret fight club.

Around her, exactly ten people were laughing, arm crossed, mocking the girl proposition. She never really thought it would be that easy, but the way they flatly refused pissed her off. She was not the calm type to begin with, so it was to be expected. In fact, this is the reason why she went instead of Marie.

She was currently facing their leader, a big bald muscular man with many scars on his face and no shirt.

“I am willing to negotiate, you know.”

“’kay kido, here’s my offer. Ralf!”

A guy with a rat face came out of the circle, cracking his neck and wrist. He was visibly overjoyed to fight against a lady, and Alice was particularly grossed about his expression.

‘Violence… finally, I’ll be able to let out some steam.’

To her surprise, the man disappeared from her sight, and was already behind me. He was almost as fast as the silver wolf!

“Nye he he, I’m gonna take my… hum?”

Without turning herself, she grabbed the back of his head. The movement wasn't fast, but Ralf didn't expect it, and that's why his face met the ground at a tremendous speed.

It was an instant KO, and blood started to spill on the ground.

With a big crazy smile on her face, the young girl, with her hair now matching the ground colour, didn't let her eyes off from the bald man.

“Plot twist! I ain’t a diplomat!”