Chapter 399: Propaganda and Votes

The airship carried them into the air above an island before descending, and Adam and Cowboy disembarked.

As soon as they emerged from the airship, they were immediately greeted by several employees, and that showed Adam the only possible hole in this so-called impregnable fortress.

"Human presence is still required. Even though machines can replace humans in the vast majority of cases, there are still some jobs that only humans can do."

Adam and Cowboy were led by the group of employees to the lake at the center of the aerial island, which had been constructed to resemble a beach, and there were some animals around the area that Adam recalled were supposed to have already been extinct.

Sitting on a beach chair on the artificial beach was a man in his fifties, and he stood up slowly upon witnessing the arrival of Adam and Cowboy.

He wasn't dressed in a very formal fashion at all, wearing a pair of board shorts and flip flops, and he greeted Adam's duo with a great deal of enthusiasm.

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Mr. Adam, and long time no see, Mr. Cowboy."

"The pleasure is all mine, Mr. Kevin Reed."

Even though Adam had been complaining about the amount of resources that the residents of Area 77 had claimed for themselves on the way here, he needed to borrow those resources, so he was addressing the Orto Technologies chairman in a very polite manner.

"Here, take a seat," Kevin said as he led Adam and Cowboy to his beach chair.

Even though the sky had already turned dark, there was a glowing sphere that resembled an artificial sun in the air above the beach chair, illuminating the entire area so that it was as bright as day.

Adam took a seat on another beach chair, and an assistant quickly brought him a glass of watermelon juice. Following the departure of all of the assistants, the three of them were left to speak in private.

"I've heard about your electoral campaign, Mr. Adam. You've secured quite a large number of votes recently, elevating you from the seventh position to close to fifth. Barring any mishaps, you should be able to reach the fifth position in the coming few days.

“However, when it comes to mayoral elections, there are only two possible outcomes: either you're successfully elected, or you fail, so there's almost no difference between the candidate that's in second place and the one in eighth place. You understand what I'm saying, right, Mr. Adam?"

"I do. You want me to tell you how I plan to win this election, right? My initial plan for my campaign is to put a strong emphasis on improving law and order. In the wake of the incident concerning the virtual idols, there will be a lot of scrutiny placed on law and order from the general public.

“If I can capture the perpetrators and have them detained, I'm sure I'll receive a large number of votes for my efforts, and I think there would be a decent chance for me to win the election."

"Pardon me for being frank, Mr. Adam, but I've done some research on you prior to your arrival, and with your powers, I don't think it's very realistic for you to be able to take down all of those powerful adapters. I've conducted some research into those killers as well, and all of them are very formidable.

“Even the weakest ones among them are all superior in power to the Lamp Keepers of the southern congress, and as for the strongest ones, even Commander himself would struggle to defeat them. On top of that, there's a huge number of them, so it'll be very difficult for you to uproot the entire organization.

“If you're unable to completely eradicate the organization, then the remaining members will continue to wreak havoc in the city, and your campaign will fall flat on its face."

"What I'm gathering here is that you don't believe in my power, right?"

"That's correct," Kevin replied in a straightforward manner. "I've examined your information over and over again, and you're certainly very strong, but you're not among the cream of the crop."

𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

"If you've seen my information, then I'm sure you're aware that I've displayed an astonishing rate of growth. Do you know what I was like prior to my trip to Shadow City, following my return, and where I stand right now?"

Adam inched closer to Kevin as he spoke, looking straight into Kevin's eyes, and Kevin looked directly back at him, completely unfazed.

In the end, Kevin chuckled as he gave Adam a firm pat on the shoulder and said, "You're right. There are still a few months left, and I like someone with confidence. I was going to make a political donation of 40 million to your campaign, but I've changed my mind now.

“Instead, I'm going to pledge 1.5 billion dollars to your campaign. I'm sure this is a sufficient show of my sincerity, and the funds will be transferred to your public donations account."

"That's a massive donation!"

Even though Adam had already experienced a lot up to this point, he still couldn't help but be stunned by this number.

"I'm willing to invest this much as I think you're worth the investment. Even if you only have a 1 in 15 chances of being elected as mayor, this will have been a worthwhile investment. However, you have to be on your guard, the southern congress won't be so easy to beat.

“There are far too many things that you still have to do in the next few months. By the way, let me take a look at your prosthetics." Kevin rose to his feet as he spoke, then walked in a circle around Adam to examine his prosthetic limbs, and an impressed look appeared on his face as he praised, "I can tell that this is the work of a true master, but the weaponry is a little outdated. If you trust me, I can send you some cutting edge stuff in the next few days. What do you think?"

"That would be great."

Orto Technologies was the largest arms manufacturer, so it had to have had many pieces of cutting edge equipment that hadn't been released onto the market yet. In fact, it was said that they were responsible for manufacturing Mechguard units.

Physical enhancements were enhancements all the same, and Adam wasn't going to pass up any opportunity to grow stronger.

"In that case, it's settled. Here's to a prosperous collaboration!"

……

A few days after Adam received Orto Technologies' political donation, a new wave of viral news about Adam swept across the internet and the Metaverse, revealing to the general public the extent of Adam's involvement in the recent incident.

"Ozawa Sensei was in that area as well! Thank heavens Officer Adam was there to save him," a middle-aged man mused to himself with a grateful expression as he sat in front of his computer.

One of the only things that single middle-aged men like him were concerned about was the safety of their revered pornographic virtual idols.

Virtual idols weren't always positive and healthy, but it was exactly because of this that they were able to cater to the masses.

The middle-aged man in question was someone that had been born in a birth center, and he had no family, nor any intentions to start one. Every day, he worked the most mundane and boring of jobs, and his only hobby was to watch pornographic virtual idols.

In his heart, this "Ozawa Sensei" was his wife, and they slept together in the Metaverse every night, so he was naturally extremely grateful that his "wife" had been saved by Adam.

"If I recall correctly, he seems to be running for mayor. All politicians are scum, but I'm gonna give him my vote just for saving Ozawa Sensei."

Similar scenes were unfolding all across Sandrise City.

Even though some databases had been destroyed, Adam had managed to protect far more than the ones that had been destroyed, and discovering this, many people were willing to cast him their vote.

Of course, there were also many fence-sitters who didn't believe that Adam had actually played the role that he claimed he had, but what soon followed was a second wave of propaganda.

Edited clips of the incident and the psychic battles that had taken place at the scene were released.

In the footage, Adam was risking his life as he pit himself against the killers, and the footage was edited in such a way to make the battles appear as perilous for Adam as possible.

With the release of this supporting evidence, Adam received another batch of votes.

Several days later, he had already climbed to the fourth position, and he was flying up the ranks.

At this rate, it wasn't going to take long at all before he made the top three.