The Price of Treason
[Are you really going to kill them?]
Superintendent Hong Yu-seong, the leader of the group currently approaching the ballot box with extreme caution, gulped as he looked at the police officers guarding it.
It was a brutal plan devised by Choi Bu-seok and Im Seong-uk, the Chief Prosecutor of the Busan High Prosecutors' Office. They intended to slaughter every police officer at the ballot storage facilities in Busan. The reason was the ballot boxes themselves. N wasn't a fool; he hadn't staffed the security with Busan police, but rather with personnel dispatched entirely from Seoul. Because of this, a simple swap seemed impossible. But that was precisely why Choi and Im had resorted to a plan that should never have been executed.
If N took power, everyone involved with the Manse Welfare Center, including Choi and Im, would be ruined. If they were going to be destroyed anyway, they might as well play a desperate hand, even if it meant social condemnation. That was why Choi and Im had ordered their subordinates to commit murder without hesitation. Even now, it wasn't just the group led by Hong Yu-seong attacking a storage facility; similar incidents were breaking out simultaneously all across Busan. Police, prosecutors, and even regular civil servants were involved. Acquiring weapons hadn't been difficult, as police armories were well-stocked.
The security provided by the Seoul police was predictable. With overwhelming numbers and firepower, what could possibly go wrong?
The decisive justification for this operation was that this region was N's base of support. The ideal scenario was to swap them with boxes full of DJ's votes, but making the existing votes invalid was a sufficient secondary goal. Choi and Im expected that if the Busan votes were wiped out, DJ's chances of winning would drop significantly.
With that final word from Choi, Hong Yu-seong exhaled sharply through his nose and steeled his heart. 'It can't be helped. This is all for my own survival.' Finally, Hong raised his right hand. The police officers following him threw open the main gate of the storage facility.
However.
Flash—!
The moment Hong's group opened the door and aimed their guns, powerful studio-grade lights erupted from inside. "W-what the!" Hong, startled by the blinding light, reflexively covered his upper body with his arms. The other officers did the same, and thanks to that, the guns they were holding were captured perfectly by the cameras hidden inside.
Click—! Click! Click! Click!
High-definition cameras, the kind used by broadcasting stations, were everywhere. At the same time, the sound of gunfire began to fill the room—not from the rebels, but from the personnel belonging to Yoon-gi's PMC who had been hiding behind the pillars.
Bang! Pa-pang—! Pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pang—!!!
The sound was slightly different from automatic rifles. The crisp, satisfying sound of specially manufactured rubber bullets cried out for democracy. Thanks to this, the rebels, including Hong Yu-seong, couldn't even scream properly before they were rendered combat-ineffective and collapsed to the floor.
The suppression took less than a minute. The PMC agents gave a casual two-finger salute to the Seoul police officers who had been guarding the ballot boxes, and then they vanished from the scene.
"These bastards, were they really trying to kill us?" one of the Seoul police officers growled at the rebels groaning on the floor. While they were technically rubber bullets, the PMC had used high-intensity ones because they had intelligence that the opposition was bringing live ammunition. As a result, the rebels weren't just suppressed; they were writhing in pain with at least one broken bone each.
"Damn it, to think they'd try to stage a rebellion in this climate. They’ve got some nerve," another Seoul officer said, slowly walking toward the fallen rebels. It was a gruesome sight, but even if the Seoul officers felt a bit sick to their stomachs, they felt absolutely no pity for the Busan police who had tried to kill them.
"What should we do with these guys? They're badly hurt."
"We’ve got ambulances waiting outside. Take them and get them treated first. We need to make sure they live long enough to regret their lives."
Usually, police officers were all one family. But today, the Seoul police decided they would investigate their "family" with absolute fairness and certainty.
N checked the morning paper and let out a dry laugh. "Haha... I never imagined that what you said would actually come to pass."
N continued, "How on earth did you know?"
It was only natural to be suspicious. The insurrection plot carried out by Choi and Im had been conducted in absolute secrecy. Since those involved with the Manse Welfare Center had no future to lose, there was no reason for information to leak. Consequently, not only the regular police but even JSD of the ANSP had failed to grasp the situation. Yet, Yoon-gi had accurately predicted the insurrection and even specified exactly which locations would be attacked.
Of course, he had mentioned all the ballot storage facilities. But predicting whether they would attack during transport, at the storage site, or somewhere else was nearly impossible, yet Yoon-gi had pinpointed the storage sites. Furthermore, he had even suggested selecting the best personnel from the PMC agents currently training in the Soviet Union. The result was a victory for democracy. The rubber bullets of democracy fired by those with U.S. military backgrounds had beaten the rebels, and the ballots were kept safe.
"Isn't it obvious? They knew they would face the gallows the moment you won, so they figured they might as well take a gamble since they were going to die anyway."
In truth, Choi Deok-bae had seen it. Yoon-gi had been considering the worst-case scenarios Choi Bu-seok might pull if pushed to the edge—fleeing overseas, hostage-taking, assassination attempts, or ballot box swapping. He had considered preparing for all of them, but it was too much of a hassle, so he just sent Choi Deok-bae. The result was a de facto insurrection.
However, N still couldn't quite accept it. "But Choi Bu-seok and Im Seong-uk must have had several cards they could have played, didn't they?"
Yoon-gi shrugged. "Assassination attempts would have been blocked by your excellent security detail, and if they tried to flee overseas, ANSP agents are already guarding the airports. Hostage-taking is the worst of the worst strategies. That left only manipulating the election results themselves by swapping the ballot boxes."
"But doesn't it cost a lot of money and manpower to prepare for that?"
"Do I look like I'm short on money or manpower?"
"...I'm suddenly convinced."
Even if something is difficult, it's not a problem if there's someone who can make it easy. That person was none other than Yoon-gi. Perhaps Yoon-gi was the only person in South Korea who could say "I can do it" and have it be the most credible thing in the world.
"After you are elected, you just need to treat the actions of the PMC agents as legitimate self-defense. In reality, they were just suppressing a rebellion, weren't they?"
Yoon-gi didn't want a future where public authority was unnecessarily intimidated. A future where a murderer escapes because the police can't fire their guns, leading to the pursuing officer being shot by the murderer's homemade weapon. While the massive corruption of the future police force was the biggest problem, it was also true that the "frontline police" suffering was a problem in itself.
'I need to maintain public authority while keeping the police and prosecutors from being corrupt.' It was one of Yoon-gi's small goals. That was why he had deployed the PMC this time. If he could at least create a precedent for this kind of "justified, strong suppression," the guys with useless ideas in the future would disappear.
"By the way, the vote counting will be starting soon."
"Are you excited?"
"To be honest, I'm nervous."
"Don't worry. You will definitely win, sir."
Today, the title "Sir" made N's heart flutter even more than usual.
N elected! N was proudly elected in the 13th presidential election with 54.7% of the vote. DJ's vote share was 37.1%. Having become president with a 17.6% margin, N was able to start his term with solid public support, unlike in the original history.
"Congratulations."
N looked moved by Yoon-gi's beaming smile. "It's not something to be congratulated for; it's something I should be thanking you for. Thank you... thank you... If it weren't for you, I probably would have lost this election. Thanks to you, I no longer have to feel inferior to JD."
N still harbored an inferiority complex toward JD, who had served as president. But now, having become president through the democratic process, N had perfectly shed even the last of that complex.
"We were able to work together because you have the fundamental capability. I look forward to working with you in the future."
"Yes, I look forward to it too!"
Yoon-gi and N reached out and shook hands firmly.
'Come to think of it, in the original history, there were suspicions of ballot box swapping in the Guro district, right?'
At the time, Seoul was an opposition stronghold, so N's vote share in the entire Guro district was 28.6%. However, in the 'Guro-eul' ballot box, N received a staggering 72.4%. There was no way to know if this was a coincidence or if it was election rigging involving N. But in the history Yoon-gi was creating, N would not face any suspicions of election fraud. After all, Busan was N's stronghold, and a ballot box swapping incident had occurred right there. Furthermore, the vote share in the Busan region was not so high that it could be considered "rigged," so the citizens didn't blame N.
If anything, it was DJ who was left in a difficult position. Choi Bu-seok, Im Seong-uk, and the others who had colluded with them, all currently under arrest, were testifying that they had "done it for DJ," which only dealt a political blow to him.
"By the way, DJ's political life might end because of this. It's a pity; he's not the kind of person who deserves that."
It was N's honest assessment. If DJ had heard this, he probably would have been pleased inside.
"No, DJ's political life won't end."
"Why?"
At N's puzzled question, Yoon-gi smiled.
"Because you will have to reach out a helping hand to DJ, sir."