No Ordinary Rookie
The Hanmin Party had executed a definitive strategic retreat. They made sure to salvage whatever positive image they could, releasing the following statement:
"The recent embezzlement scandal involving former Mir City Mayor Baek Hyeong-guk was an individual act of deviance. However, we deeply regret our failure to properly monitor and manage our member as a political party.
In response, our party leadership acted swiftly to allocate additional budget matching the embezzled subsidies to provide emergency relief to the small business owners of Mir City. Furthermore, we have expelled former Mayor Baek Hyeong-guk from the party and are cooperating fully with the prosecution to ensure swift judicial proceedings. Nevertheless, we recognize that these actions alone cannot fully restore the trust of the citizens of Mir City.
Therefore, after careful deliberation with the party leadership, we have decided not to nominate a candidate for the upcoming Mir City mayoral by-election to take full responsibility for this series of events. Regardless of which candidate is elected as the next Mayor of Mir City, the Hanmin Party's central leadership and local council members promise to do their utmost to stabilize the livelihoods of Mir City's citizens, transcending partisan lines."
"What a snake of an old man."
The Strategy Committee of the Jayu Party leadership watched the situation unfold with keen interest. There was absolutely no way the Hanmin Party had stepped down out of a pure sense of responsibility. This was, all too clearly...
"They've unified their candidacy with Lee Yun-hyeok."
Assemblyman Lim Jun-won, a three-term lawmaker, immediately delivered his diagnosis.
He had previously met with Lee Yun-hyeok and made an offer similar to what the Hanmin Party had likely proposed. 'Run under the Jayu Party banner. The Hanmin Party won't stand a chance in this by-election. Joining us guarantees your victory. Serve as the Mayor of Mir City, and we'll secure a proportional representation seat for you afterward. Use those four years in the National Assembly for political training, and then run for a local constituency.' That had been his logic.
Naturally, Lee Yun-hyeok had declined, and the reason lay in his unification with the Hanmin Party.
"How on earth did he pull off a unification with the Hanmin Party...?"
To one politician in the room, that diagnosis came as a shock.
It was Hong Gi-beom.
He was the Plan B card the Jayu Party intended to play if they failed to recruit Lee Yun-hyeok.
"It's not just a simple unification."
Hong Gi-beom presented a news article.
It contained an announcement that Hanmin Party city councilors were endorsing Lee Yun-hyeok in their individual capacities.
"The Hanmin Party is actively supporting him. He'll probably sweep up all the Hanmin Party votes while running as an independent."
"..."
Hong Gi-beom struggled to make sense of the situation. It was true that the Hanmin Party had very few cards left to play. But to support Lee Yun-hyeok of all people? Wasn't that absurd? After all...
"Isn't Lee Yun-hyeok the very person who brought down the Mayor of Mir City?"
The man was a defector who had served in Assemblyman Park Dae-man's campaign but refused to join his National Assembly office.
Not only that, but he was also the one who had led the Small Business Association to Yeouido to tear Park Dae-man to shreds.
On top of that, it was Lee Yun-hyeok who had tracked down the mayor's embezzlement and exposed it in the most devastating way possible, completely destroying him.
From the Hanmin Party's perspective, they had done nothing but take beatings from him.
And yet, they were unifying with him, endorsing him, and backing him?
"What a bunch of absolute pushovers..."
The Hanmin Party seemed so incredibly foolish that it was almost mind-boggling.
"Of course, the Hanmin Party isn't stupid. It's just that Lee Yun-hyeok played his political cards exceptionally well," Lim Jun-won said.
"Since we were also trying to recruit him, he must have used that to walk a tightrope between us."
It was a highly accurate deduction. Yet, Hong Gi-beom still felt a lingering sense of unease. Lim Jun-won agreed on this point as well.
Because such maneuvers were not the work of a political rookie.
It was a dangerous tightrope walk that could easily result in being blacklisted by both major parties. Rejecting recruitment offers from both leaderships, maintaining an independent status, blocking one party's nomination entirely, and narrowing the race down to a head-to-head battle just to extract maximum benefit for himself—the very concept was far too sophisticated for a newcomer.
"A proportional representation seat wasn't nearly enough to deal with him."
Lim Jun-won found himself engaging in the same self-reflection as Hanmin Party Leader Han Myeong-cheol. They had brought the wrong stakes to the table from the very beginning. A proportional representation badge was far too cheap a price to buy a man like him.
"But still, this isn't a bad position for us. In any case, it's a fact that the Hanmin Party has fallen. If it's a head-to-head match..." Lim Jun-won turned to Hong Gi-beom. "You can win this, right?"
The only reason Hong Gi-beom was Plan B for the Jayu Party was not because he was inferior to Lee Yun-hyeok.
They simply hadn't wanted to use a butcher's knife to kill a chicken.
Hong Gi-beom.
He would be the one to step up.
Yun-hyeok had already anticipated this. Though Hong Gi-beom had not yet registered as a candidate, it was a near certainty. Even in his second and third lives, when Yun-hyeok had not entered politics, he had still exposed Baek Hyeong-guk's embezzlement.
And in those timelines, Hong Gi-beom had been the one to run in the by-election.
He was a man who had served as a deputy director in the Ministry of Economy and Finance and an administrator in the Office of the President, and his hometown was Mir City.
Leveraging his experience in the Blue House, he branded himself as a systematic administrative expert. He was highly skilled in data analysis and prioritized efficiency above all else.
If Yun-hyeok's style was that of a grassroots politician running around the streets with the image of a civic activist, Hong Gi-beom was the type who preferred to wear a perfectly tailored suit and tie, delivering crisp briefings to the press.
Based on the knowledge from his first, second, and third lives, Yun-hyeok knew that Hong Gi-beom would eventually become a three-term member of the National Assembly. In fact, back in his first life when Yun-hyeok was in politics, the two of them had clashed frequently in parliament.
Yet, partisan squabbles between the left and the right were utterly powerless before the dystopia wrought by the demographic collapse.
Did anyone know how Hong Gi-beom had met his end?
He had been assassinated by the radical youth extremist group known as KMZ (Killing MZ). They had stormed into Hong Gi-beom's office, decapitated him, and committed the grotesque act of hanging his severed head outside the window for public display.
Therefore...
'Even if only to save your life, I must utterly crush you in this race, Hong Gi-beom.'
To be frank, Hong Gi-beom was a formidable opponent for Yun-hyeok's current political weight class, but Yun-hyeok had never lost to him, not even in his first life.
Yun-hyeok immediately placed a call to the Mir Shinmun.
There were other reasons why major political parties did not immediately register their candidates during the preliminary registration period, aside from the restriction on active campaigning.
First, it took time to resolve internal factional conflicts and select the nominee—especially in the case of a sudden by-election like this one.
Second, they needed time to analyze the opposing party's candidate. However, since the Hanmin Party had already thrown in the towel and withdrawn, there was no longer any reason to wait.
Hong Gi-beom immediately registered as a preliminary candidate and declared his run.
The Jayu Party strategy team's assessment of Lee Yun-hyeok was simple: 'Hong Gi-beom is more than enough.'
While it was true that Lee Yun-hyeok was currently a trendy figure in Mir City, he was too young and lacked experience. He was closer to a civic activist than a seasoned politician. Although he had demonstrated impressive administrative capabilities a few times, that alone wasn't enough to fully capture the public's trust. With the Hanmin Party out of the picture, the spotlight would naturally shift to the Jayu Party. Once the campaign officially began, Lee Yun-hyeok's lack of depth in PR strategy and policy would inevitably be exposed.
...Or so their logic went.
'But I feel uneasy.'
Hong Gi-beom was currently plagued by an inexplicable sense of anxiety.
Was that man truly just a "young, inexperienced political novice"?
The circumstances surrounding how he had fleeced the Hanmin Party like absolute fools. And now, this phone call from the Mir Shinmun.
"Hello, Candidate Hong. This is the Mir Shinmun. We are planning to host a public policy debate open to the citizens, and we were wondering if you would be interested in participating?"
This call was highly unusual.
Because this policy debate was being hosted by the Mir Shinmun, not the National Election Commission (NEC).
What was the difference between the two?
Broadcast debates hosted by the NEC fundamentally had no live audience. There were no questions from citizens either; only the moderator asked questions to maintain formal neutrality.
However, a private debate—especially a "public policy debate open to citizens"—would involve raw, unvetted questions from the public. From a candidate's perspective, this was incredibly burdensome.
In the worst-case scenario, attacks disguised as questions could fly from the crowd. Imagine a Superintendent of Education candidate attending a debate, only for a village chief from Doma-myeon in the audience to point a finger and shout, "You shut down Doma Elementary, and now my granddaughter has to ride a bus for two hours just to get to school!"
In other words, such a debate evaluated a candidate's crisis management skills on the spot. It was less of a debate and more of a public hearing.
"You're holding this kind of debate for a local municipal election?"
The proposal felt incredibly foreign to Hong Gi-beom. Candidates usually avoided these debates out of sheer anxiety. Consequently, they were typically reserved for presidential elections or gubernatorial races, not a mayoral race for a city of 490,000.
The only reason the Mir Shinmun was suddenly proposing this was because someone had already agreed to this insane format. Which meant...
"Candidate Lee Yun-hyeok requested it."
I knew it.
"Even if no other candidates attend, Candidate Lee Yun-hyeok is prepared to proceed alone. He plans to explain his policies while taking direct questions from the audience. However, for the sake of electoral fairness, we at the Mir Shinmun believe we must extend this opportunity to the other candidates as well."
Hong Gi-beom now fully grasped the situation.
This was a formal challenge to a duel.
Like seasoned gamblers tying their wrists together, they were going to lay out their policies one by one and settle the score right in front of the citizens.
'Is this guy completely out of his mind...?'
Did he possess absolute confidence in handling any spontaneous question from the crowd? Or was he just a fearless rookie who didn't know any better?
Whichever it was, he defied any existing category of politician Hong Gi-beom had ever encountered.
"To ensure the fairness of the debate, we will post a recruitment notice for the audience on the Mir Shinmun website. Individuals must apply directly without any external recommendations. We will select the audience members through a live, randomly generated draw broadcasted on our YouTube channel. Furthermore, we will not accept any pre-submitted questions; all inquiries from the audience will be asked live on the spot."
The managing editor of the Mir Shinmun explained.
"And Candidate Lee Yun-hyeok mentioned that if you find the audience's questions too burdensome, he is perfectly fine with the Jayu Party handpicking a portion of the audience members themselves."
"What in the..."
Hong Gi-beom reacted with immediate indignation.
"What are you talking about! The audience must be selected fairly! I will attend that debate!"
He was so confident that he was willing to hand over such an advantage? Hong Gi-beom could not let such a blatant provocation slide.
Besides, it was a fight he couldn't back down from anyway. Avoiding it would only deal a massive blow to his public image.
"Understood. Thank you for your participation!"
Only the Mir Shinmun was left thrilled, eagerly anticipating a massive hit of dopamine from an unprecedented event in a local mayoral race.
[Public Policy Debate Hosted by the Mir Shinmun]
The debate took place about a week later.
A total of five candidates gathered at the venue: Jayu Party Candidate Hong Gi-beom, Independent Candidate Lee Yun-hyeok, and three other candidates from minor parties who had requested to participate.
Seong Ha-jin of the National Reform Party.
Park Du-sik of the Tomorrow Party.
Lee Gyeong-yeol of the Moderate Justice Party.
Although the three of them had virtually zero chance of winning, they had shown up simply to get their faces on camera.
The venue was the large seminar room on the second floor of the Mir City Hall annex.
The space, which could accommodate up to a thousand people, was packed to the brim.
Ordinary office workers, small business owners, freelancers, and owners of factories big and small filled the seats. Parents had brought their children along, and a large number of elderly citizens looking for entertainment had also attended.
There were even some faces Yun-hyeok recognized: the elderly woman who ran the side-dish shop in the Small Business Association, the prominent elder from Doma-myeon whose face was weathered like a morel mushroom, and the woman who always bought bread at Mir Station during her 7:00 AM commute.
"We will now begin the public debate," the moderator announced.
He was a professional MC hired by the Mir Shinmun.
"Since this is a preliminary candidate debate, the official campaign booklets outlining each candidate's pledges have not yet been distributed. Therefore, this will serve as the very first opportunity for the candidates to promote their policies."
However, allowing each candidate to drone on about their policies would only lead to a chaotic and disorganized proceeding.
Thus, the debate was structured to take questions from the citizens first, followed by the candidates' policy answers, and then a round of cross-examination on those policies.
"To ensure the fairness of citizen participation, we did not accept any pre-submitted questions. We ask the audience members to write down their questions on the cards currently being distributed."
The citizens wrote down their questions on palm-sized cards, which the moderator then collected and placed inside a large box.
And then...
"I will now draw the first policy question from the box."
The moderator pulled a single card from the box. Written on it in crooked, uneven handwriting was the following:
The speaking order began with Hong Gi-beom.
The minor party candidates swallowed hard. Hong Gi-beom's jaw tensed.
And Lee Yun-hyeok...
'I can't wait to speak.'
Unlike the greenhorns around him, the five-term lawmaker did not feel even a shred of nervousness.
He was simply itching to get his hands on the microphone.