Chapter 560 - 531: The Election Dust Settles (I have an announcement, everyone please read the author’s note)

Having returned from the awkward Taiping State to Manhattan, New York, Lille had just stepped out of his house, ready to head to the company.

In the Cyberpunk World, Lille had essentially decided the direction of the mayoral election:

In the original plot, Ryan had died, his death shrouded in mystery. Based on the intelligence Lille now possessed, Ryan was bound to be killed by a coalition of corporations no matter what,

Perares and Hot were competitors, and depending on whether the protagonist V told Perares that he was being controlled, the competition would lead to the same outcome but with dramatically different details:

If V chose to follow the mysterious messages received during the investigation and did not tell Perares about being mind-controlled, Perares would win the election with a 70% approval rate.

If V chose to tell Perares the truth, informing him that everything around him, including the thoughts in his head, was untrustworthy, Perares would become paranoid and, although he would still win the election, the support rate would narrowly be 49.3% to 47.8%.

Regardless, Perares was superior to Hot, and Ryan was clearly superior to Perares, mainly in political maneuvering:

Although Perares also knew how to form alliances, he could not abandon some of the fixed, fabricated thought patterns in his mind, being overly idealistic, and he could never beat Ryan. This was obviously anticipated by Blue Eyes; otherwise, there wouldn’t have been a need to eliminate Ryan.

However, both men were definitely better than Hot, who openly jumped out to be Arasaka’s lapdog. Now both were pushed to rely on Burger King as their backup—

But compared to giant corporations, their backup still had a lot of room for improvement.

All these could be accomplished remotely.

In the Marvel World... the presidential election had also settled.

In the laboratory, the TV was broadcasting good news:

"The presidential election has been decided, Secretary of State James Buchanan Barnes will soon become the next President."

James Buchanan Barnes, commonly known as Bucky, the childhood friend of most Marvel series’ Captain America, a veteran from World War II. In most Marvel settings, Barnes disappeared in battle, was captured, brainwashed, and injected with the Super Soldier Serum to become the Winter Soldier.

But here, it was Captain Carter who was frozen, and it was Steve Rogers who disappeared in battle, Barnes was the current Secretary of State, and a main support figure for Roxon Energy Group, a legitimate nearly hundred-year-old man.

Although he was old, Barnes still looked vigorous and alert in the news photos. Judging by his recent speeches and appearances, there were no digestive mishaps, and if his age weren’t emphasized, one might think he was only in his sixties.

"This nearly hundred-year-old President-elect seems ready to embrace his first term. It must be said, he appears to be in excellent shape.

If all goes well, Mr. Barnes will celebrate his hundredth birthday during his first term.

Many people see him as a representative of the hardliners, believing this World War II veteran should lead us to another global victory. However...

It is often said that those who have experienced war do not wish for a second one; perhaps only his victory speech tonight will reveal his true thoughts."

Considering the election results came out early this morning, the victory speech is scheduled for this evening. As usual, Barnes will thank his supporters and campaign team, look to the future, and briefly outline his policy directions.

The venue for the speech is usually the campaign headquarters, representing his support team and sponsors, all the interest groups he represents.

However, in reality, the location can also be chosen for its symbolic significance—

If Barnes chooses to give his speech at the Roxon Energy headquarters in Houston, it means Lille was tricked by this hundred-year-old scoundrel and should immediately prepare to evacuate the United States.

But if the chosen location is somewhere else, Lille would clearly feel this old veteran indeed had no intentions of following Roxon’s plan to thrash the whole world.

The venue for the victory speech is...

"The victory speech will be held tonight at eight o’clock. People can hardly wait to hear what wisdom this century-spanning President can offer to resolve the crises of the current world.

The speech will be held at the United Nations headquarters in New York City, showing that the President not only wants to communicate with the voters but is also eager to engage with the world.

It’s just uncertain whether his words will be sugar-coated or laced with barbs."

The United Nations headquarters, in New York City, next to the United Nations Park, built after World War II, where many anti-war rallies were held.

This place... indeed sent a very positive signal to Lille, yet was unlikely to make Roxon suspicious all of a sudden.

After all, Barnes was a participant in World War II, this place had significant memorial value for him; changing presidents would have made Roxon suspicious.

Consequently, Lille opened an encrypted channel and began contacting Barnes.

[Lille: Congratulations, Mr. Barnes.]

[Barnes: "Let’s not rush the congratulations. I shouldn’t get shot like President Kennedy, right? I hope you really are capable."]

[Lille: "How could that happen? New York is very safe, and we’ve made some progress in vehicle development recently. You’ll see when the time comes."]

[Barnes: "Roxson is going to be furious, I mean really furious."]

[Lille: "Don’t worry, that’s why the President needs a support team. We’ve had some new breakthroughs in vehicle development recently."]

Having received the information, Lille immediately went to the company—

The Atlas Group had a lot of new real combat data that needed to be processed and also needed to upgrade the cross-dimensional industrial production system.

Going to Dog Town by oneself was always beneficial; the greatest advantage was never being fully occupied by a batch of mercenaries.

Prosthetics needed upgrades, vehicles needed to be rebuilt, and the industrial system needed an upgrade to a meaningful scale, and...

Calculating the time, Captain Carter and Frank should be arriving in New York soon.

It was time to see what breakthroughs Vibranium could offer them.

Lille sat silently in the car, watching the parading crowds on both sides of the streets.

The atmosphere on the streets was somewhat gloomy as, ostensibly, Barnes, although not as explicitly aligned as former President Ellis and often accommodating the Rocksen Group, still kept close relations with the energy and military industrial sectors.

There were also claims that since he was an old soldier who had benefited from war, he would surely initiate war again.

Frankly, the situation had already spiraled out of control. When confrontations intensified, this would happen: the left felt that those claiming to be left weren’t left enough, the right felt that those claiming to be right weren’t right enough, and they insanely slapped hostile labels on others recklessly.

Barnes was indeed part of the American political scene and had to take responsibility for the current situation, but to say that he was a war fanatic wasn’t necessarily true.

Society was just too complex. If a gangster raped and killed an ordinary student, Lille could execute the perpetrator on the spot without any other options.

But when scaled up to the entire society, a war, a financial storm, a subprime crisis, data falsification, a unilateral action of power...

All could trigger an avalanche effect with consequences far more severe than individual crimes and...difficult to hold accountable.

Tracing from results might be simple, but now Lille stood at the crucible.

[Little Octopus: "Big Brother, you seem a bit melancholic, you always get a bit melancholic when you come here."]

Little Octopus suddenly appeared before Lille’s eyes, with several tentacles propped on its head, as if mimicking "The Thinker."

It was an AI capable of reading all of Lille’s bodily data, but it couldn’t read his thoughts and memories, or rather, it couldn’t secretly read them.

Then it immediately sprang up all its tentacles, donned Iron Armor, equipped Cyber Prosthetics, each tentacle grasping a weapon, making the whole octopus look like a crazy cyber maniac.

[Little Octopus: "Why not just go bang bang bang! Hehe!"]

Lille grabbed back its data body and got out of the car.

[Lille: "If I can do better, I will strive to do better. I’m not some kind of serial killer."]

[Little Octopus: "But even the most famous serial killer’s kill count is nowhere near yours! Even considering battlefield performance..."]

[Lille: "...It’s not about the absolute value here! It’s about being above the average!"]

Little Octopus sat on Lille’s head, its soft body slowly slumping down, looking more like a slime creature than an octopus, as it entered low energy mode and disappeared from Lille’s sight.

[Little Octopus: "Okay then, there’s a woman at the back door of the company, she’s been waiting for a long time, seems like she’s hiding from something, and she has a bodyguard."]

[Lille: "Natasha?"]

[Little Octopus: "Seems like former executive assistant and head of security of Stark Industries. They have laid off a lot of people recently, the external view is that they are trying to deviate from our business points."]

That would be... Tony’s former lover Pepper Potts and his former head of security, Happy Hogan.

What had they come for?

[Lille: "Let them sit for a while, I’m very busy."]