Chapter 106
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 106
Chapter Title: The Mayor and the Revolution
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Thud. Thud. Thud.
It's not a heartbeat. It's the sound of the man on the podium stomping his foot on the floor.
"Brothers and sisters! Comrades!"
The man gripping the microphone roared.
"Democracy? It's nothing more than tyranny in the name of the majority! Minority opinions are silenced, and individuality suffocates under the guise of the average!"
Ooooh—!
A murmur swept through like a wave. People's eyes blazed.
"What about communism, then! It's just another form of dictatorship! A deceptive system that enslaves everyone under the pretty banner of equality!"
"Down with it! Down with it!"
"If we smash everything and return to anarchy, will true freedom come? Not a chance! It would just recreate primitive violence where the strong dominate the weak!"
Hold on.
So, he hates democracy, hates communism, and hates anarchy too?
What the hell do these people want?
Aliens to come rule them? Or hand over power to AI?
Ignoring my confusion, the man's speech reached its climax.
"If the chaos of the state of nature persists? Naturally, the strong become chiefs! We'll grow tribes and build kingdoms! When the emperor corrupts, we'll chop off his head and establish a republic! Then overthrow that republic with democracy! Ignite a red revolution to corrupt democracy! When the communists rot, back to capitalism! When capital goes to extremes, scream anarchism and plunge into chaos! This endless cycle! Eternal subversion! That is true freedom!"
"Waaaaah!"
"What we pursue is one thing only! Eternal revolution! Today's revolutionary must destroy themselves before becoming tomorrow's dictator! We build only to destroy, and establish order only to subvert it! Endless cycle! Eternal subversion! Only that will set us free!"
"Today's revolutionary comrade is tomorrow's purge target!"
"Overthrow the world! Subvert eternally!"
Fists thrust into the air all at once.
The underground space shook with cheers. Air thick with sweat, heat, and madness.
I had definitely come here on a date. A date as an excuse to escape overtime. To meet the lovely Bokhui at a cafe and politely turn her down.
But what is this?
What the hell am I watching right now?
Aha.
As I watched this spectacle, I reached one conclusion.
'It's one of those trendy themed cafes!'
Cafes these days have all sorts of concepts.
Cat cafes, board game cafes, escape room cafes.
So this place? Revolutionary themed cafe?
That's gotta be it. It has to be.
Coffee names like 'Che Guevara's Tears' or 'Bakunin's Rage' or something.
I nodded inwardly, arriving at my own reasonable conclusion.
Self-employed folks have to go this far to survive these days. Tough world.
Then, Bokhui, who had been watching me from the side—the manager of this themed cafe—leaned toward me and whispered.
"How is it, Mayor? Do you like it?"
Her eyes sparkled with excitement. Not the brown from before. A vivid purple shimmered like a heat haze.
"I never dreamed you'd share our thoughts, Mayor."
"Haha, well, yeah. I'm pretty radical myself."
I played along for now. In a concept cafe like this, matching the vibe is key.
Bokhui slowly removed her horn-rimmed glasses.
Her smooth nose bridge and sharp eyes were fully revealed.
"Standing at the pinnacle of power as mayor! Yet denying it all! Destroying it! Subverting it!"
Her voice grew louder. Her dramatic tone intensified.
"The head of the system is the system's destroyer! Ah, what ecstatic subversion!"
Suddenly, her body floated up about ten centimeters off the ground.
Huh?
Her long hair whipped around, instantly dyeing vivid purple.
Hmm.
Something's off.
Something's very, very off.
That floating sensation. The hair color change. And that mad smile.
I'd seen it somewhere. On the news. In Special Task Force reports. On the Hero Association wanted list.
And above all, that face without glasses. Those curves.
'Wait. That silhouette...?'
My brain's database flashed a warning.
No.
No way.
Nah, couldn't be.
"Join us, Mayor."
Floating in the air, she extended her hand to me.
"All the order of this world, all systems, all oppression."
Her lips curved even deeper, almost to her ears.
"Let's flip it all upside down."
Bokhui.
Overthrow.
Why had I only now realized the blatant foreshadowing in her name, that obvious self-introduction?
How desperately the human brain resorts to self-deception to deny reality in crisis.
'Themed cafe, my ass!'
There was nothing I could do.
Just stare blankly up at the calamity defying gravity before my eyes.
S-Rank villain, Gravity Zero.
The woman who toys with gravity at will. The woman who flips cities like toys. The woman who pathologically hates all order and stability.
Crackle—
Purple energy sparked from her outstretched fingertips.
"Why that face, Mayor? At this joyful, ecstatic moment when we've finally met a comrade sharing our ideals."
Float.
Someone rose into the air.
Then another. And another.
Piles of papers on desks floated up, chairs floated, Zero Cola cans floated.
'Going beyond zero calories to zero gravity...'
Everything drifted slowly like inside a spaceship in zero gravity.
People grabbed hands in midair, forming circles and dancing. Some flipped somersaults, cheering. Not a single one terrified— all lost in rapture.
"It's Gravity Zero!"
"Zero has come!"
"Freedom! Liberation from gravity!"
They swam through the weightless air, worshiping one woman.
Hair glowing purple. The embodiment of calamity floating before me.
Bokhui.
No, in this moment, she was Gravity Zero.
She smiled in satisfaction, spinning gracefully in the air once. Cheers rippled like waves in sync with her dance.
"Comrades! Today, we have a very special guest!"
Special guest?
All eyes turned to me at once.
Ah, me.
"Huh? That guy's...!"
"Neo Incheon's mayor!"
"It's the mayor! Neo Incheon's mayor, Lee Garam!"
The murmurs turned to cheers in an instant.
"We did it! Zero's finally kidnapped the symbol of corrupt power!"
"Sacrifice him to the revolution! Chop off Lee Garam's head and hang it in the city hall plaza!"
"Subvert! Subvert!"
I reflexively stepped back. Of course, floating in air, I just flailed uselessly.
But the mood shifted strangely.
"Wait... that's... that Lee Garam."
"Don't fall for it! He's not just any mayor!"
One by one.
Faces paled.
"The hidden dragon who crushed a terror group using Zodiac's movements."
"The strategist who sliced through Hero Association corruption in one stroke."
"The 21st-century Solomon who revealed the truth of Magpie Village ruins."
Murmurs. Not cheers. Whispers of fear.
One man wailed almost.
"A monster like that... there's no way he'd come quietly!"
"It's a trap! We've all fallen into a trap! Even Zero's been fooled!"
"We're done... Special Task Force and Hero Association will raid us any second!!!"
The underground plunged into panic. People clutched each other, screaming.
The revolutionary fervor vanished, leaving only collective hysteria of doomsday cultists.
They flailed in midair, scanning for exits.
What the hell am I watching?
What image of me is getting consumed out there?
"Everyone, calm down!"
Zero's clear voice quelled the chaos.
She floated lightly to my side, placing a hand on my shoulder.
"You're all misunderstanding. The mayor isn't a prisoner. Nor an enemy! He's a comrade who's fought with the same ideals as us!"
Silence.
Frozen air.
The Resistance members eyed Zero and me alternately, filled with distrust.
She winked at me, then addressed the crowd again.
"Hard to believe, I know. But it's true! Comrade Lee Garam has fought the fiercest, loneliest battle from the system's highest peak! Dreaming the same dream as us!"
Hard to believe for me too.
I just ran away because I hated overtime.
One revolutionary asked cautiously.
"Z-Zero... you're joking, right? That guy's... our comrade?"
Zero tilted her head.
"He's the one denying the system more fiercely than anyone. I heard it myself. Comrade Lee Garam's doctrine of active non-action. Right, Mayor?"
All eyes fixed on me again.
'Right?'
Right my ass!
Not right at all! I just wanna go home!
"Mayor. Show them your true heart. Your great philosophy, right here before your comrades."
Without waiting for my reply, she beckoned with a finger.
My body floated lightly.
"Ugh!"
I landed softly on the podium amid countless stares.
Show them? What true heart?
"I, uh..."
My true heart is to bolt from here right now, flop into a soft bed, knead Nero's belly fat, and roll around all day.
That's my one and only true heart.
How am I supposed to say that in front of these fanatics?
I gave an awkward smile and waved it off.
"No, I don't really have any grand philosophy like that..."
The mood chilled instantly.
Zero's purple eyes turned to me.
The joy from before was gone, replaced by cold suspicion and disappointment.
"Don't tell me... you tricked me? Is this all really a trap?"
Cold sweat trickled down my back.
What if I say no here?
'Actually, I'm just an unemployed dropout wannabe who hates work, zero interest in your ideology. Overthrow? Isn't that seafood?'
The outcome's obvious.
Scenario 1: Crushed flat by gravity into 2D Paper Man Lee Garam.
Scenario 2: Torn apart by enraged revolutionaries into Shredded Man Lee Garam.
Scenario 3: Dangling from Neo Incheon's tallest building as Revolutionary Flag Lee Garam.
Either way, I'd never touch ground again.
One choice.
I grabbed the mic.
Gulp.
Swallowed dryly.
Resistance Freefall's ideology? Eternal revolution?
Who cares. I don't know the first thing about philosophy.
But I had to speak. To survive.
I began packaging my one true heart—'I wanna run away'—into the most noble, philosophical terms possible.
"Comrades."
My voice trembled slightly.
"We live in a world that constantly demands we 'must' do something."
Laid the groundwork.
"We must learn, must work, must succeed. The system assigns us roles endlessly, forcing us to fulfill them. But I ask: why?"
Ooh, sounds legit?
"Why must we do anything? Can't we be complete just by existing? What is true freedom? Freedom isn't the state of being able to do anything."
I took a breath.
"True freedom... only begins with the right to do nothing."
My core philosophy. My reason for being.
My noble ideal of fiercely wanting to do absolutely nothing!
The freedom to do nothing! The freedom to slack off! The freedom to loaf!
"I refuse. By doing nothing, I resist all these impositions!"
Especially overtime!
"My laziness is the most active disobedience against the system, a declaration of revolution shouted by my very existence!"
Sniff.
Someone in the audience started sobbing.
I pressed on without pause.
"We move ceaselessly. For a better tomorrow, toward higher peaks. But where does it end? Does the summit even exist? No! Reach one peak, and another appears! That's the system's essence!"
Yeah. Finish one overtime, another waits.
"So what must we do? Stop! Active departure and escape from the current state! We must flee yesterday's self, break free from today's self! Before tomorrow's self becomes another system, we must endlessly deny and subvert ourselves!"
Flee. Escape.
What words express my heart better?
In that moment, the underground became a sea of tears.
"Sob... Comrade...! Comrade Lee Garam!! His philosophy is far more radical than ours!"
"We only thought to destroy external systems, but he's starting the revolution from within himself!"
"A true revolutionary with both theory and practice!"
No, I just said I wanna run away.
Why are they shedding tears of?
Then Zero floated back to my side.
"Now I get it. Why you're in the mayor's seat."
She whispered in my ear.
"To properly critique capitalism, you must be richer than anyone. To critique the entrance exam system, top scorer on the college entrance test. Only speaking from the regime's peak gives your voice power."
Her eyes brimmed with conviction.
"You've been one of us from the start. A lonely revolutionary who entered the highest prison himself to collapse this rotten system from within!"
The crowd gasped in admiration.
Zero gazed at me with awe.
And one man shouted.
"Let's elect Comrade Lee Garam as official advisor to Resistance Freefall!"
Unanimous.
"Now we have a strategist too! Freefall's advisor, Lee Garam!"
No opposition. Not even opposition for opposition's sake.
Thunderous applause and cheers engulfed me.
Huh?
Advisor?
Strategist?
I just came to dodge overtime and enjoy some date vibes... How did I end up an executive in a revolutionary group?
Can I put this on my resume? 'Chief Advisor to Resistance Freefall'?
I waved like a great leader amid hundreds of cheers.
Forcing a smile, screaming internally.
'Save me.'
This is my one true heart.