Money Keeps Piling Up No Matter How Much I Spend

Chapter 203

Translator: DreamscribeIt really isn't long now.

"Until I'm finally out of this godforsaken White House."

With retirement just around the corner, Aiden did only what absolutely needed to be done and pushed everything else off. Let whoever became the next president deal with it.

"Mr. President."

But the world, it seemed, had no intention of giving Aiden any rest.

Hillis, the Democratic Party's Presidential Election candidate, came flooding in with her Advisors in tow.

"Folks, please. I'm just an old man with retirement staring him in the face."

"Don't say that, sir. You are still the representative of our great nation, and currently the most influential person in the world..."

"Stop. What's the point of saying that to the man who created a Lame-duck Administration? So, what brings the whole crowd here?"

"Mr. President. These are the polling results that came out today."

Hillis had always been ahead in the polls.

But this time was different.

Remarkably, Trump had finally overtaken Hillis in approval ratings.

"How reliable is this?"

"Very. He's leading in nearly every poll."

"I see."

"...?"

Hillis and her Advisors had expected Aiden to say something more.

But that was all he said, and nothing else followed.

"Mr. President...?"

"What? What do you want me to say?"

"W-we need the Democratic Party to win this election, don't we?"

"It seems none of you heard what I told the Democratic cabinet before. If I'd really wanted to win this election, I would have run myself. Why do you think I put Hillis forward?"

"...Pardon?"

Hillis and her Advisors froze on the spot.

"You're all aware that our party's approval ratings, and mine, skyrocketed because of the China situation, right? That's why you, Hillis, benefited despite your short political career."

"......"

"But I never put you in that candidate's seat with the intention of getting you elected. I was just filling the slot."

"M-Mr. President."

It had been a long time since Aiden, usually mild-mannered by nature, had spoken this harshly.

"I'm not saying this because I dislike you. It's the opposite. I'm saying this because I genuinely care about you. I don't want anyone I care about sitting in this chair."

"...Is this because of Kwangwoon?"

"Yes. The American presidency is no longer the seat of the world's greatest power. I gave it everything I had while I was here. I fought tooth and nail to keep Kwangwoon from controlling our country however they pleased. But you all know how that turned out, don't you?"

For trying to keep Kwangwoon in check, for standing against them, Aiden had been saddled with the disgrace of turning his administration into a lame duck.

"You watched that happen right beside me, and yet you still covet this seat. I can't understand it."

"But if our Democratic candidate wins, we can fully carry on that spirit and lead the country well. More importantly, Trump is mentally unstable, isn't he? Handing the country over to someone like that..."

"I wouldn't say he's mentally unstable. It's more like a strategy. If he'd played it safe and conventional, do you think Trump would be getting this kind of attention? What drives people crazy is always the provocative. That's exactly why Kwangwoon used the shooting on Trump to flip the approval ratings."

At those words, Hillis and her Advisors flinched.

"Mr. President, do you truly believe the assassination attempt was staged by Kwangwoon and Trump together?"

"The moment Trump reached out to Kwangwoon asking them to flip the polls, this incident happened. Something similar occurred with Japan, too. A horrific event where a former prime minister was assassinated. And remarkably, the ruling party's approval ratings rose afterward, and they won the election."

"But Congress conducted an extremely thorough investigation, and even the Democratic Party conducted a detailed probe into whether Trump had staged the whole thing. Nothing came of it."

At that, Aiden let out a dry laugh.

"We're talking about Kwangwoon here. Not a single agency in the United States has been able to find any trace or weakness of theirs. So how do you expect to find anything?"

"......"

"So just let it go, cleanly. The truth is, Kwangwoon chose the Republican Party over the Democrats a long time ago."

The American presidency was, at this point, little more than a figurehead position anyway.

Rather than sitting in such a meaningless seat, it was better to do something else entirely.

"I'm sorry for being so blunt. But that's all I have to say. If there's nothing else, let's call it a day."

"......"

Everyone rose from their seats, all the energy drained out of them.

Hillis, who had been following the Advisors out, stopped in her tracks.

"Mr. President. I didn't come here today to ask you to raise my approval ratings."

"Then?"

"As you said, my political career hasn't been very long. My base of support is thin. People only backed me because of the Democratic Party name. That's why the assassination attempt on Trump was enough to flip the numbers. If you had been the candidate, that never would have happened."

"What are you trying to say?"

"Mr. President."

Hillis turned around and looked Aiden straight in the eye.

"The candidate registration deadline. There's about a week left."

"...?"

"The exact period varies by state, but there's roughly one week left to change our party's candidate. This might be the last chance the Democratic Party has to win."

Aiden smiled and shook his head.

"I respectfully decline. I'm already retired, for all intents and purposes."

"......"

Hillis left the White House without another word.

Watching her retreating figure, Aiden did feel a twinge of guilt, but...

"Well, what can you do. That's how you learn."

Honestly, it was someone else's problem now.

With retirement right around the corner, and his retirement plans meticulously laid out, all he was doing was counting the days with a grin on his face. Swap candidates now?

"Absolutely not."

He'd suffered enough here already.

He didn't want to saddle Hillis with this burden.

If anything, he hoped Trump would sit in this chair and come to bitterly regret it.

"And I'll be watching it all, nice and easy, with a beer in hand."

Imagining Trump stuck in the White House, gaming with guild members all day while suffering through the job, Aiden was already grinning from ear to ear.

* * *

"Congratulations, Mr. President."

"Congratulations, sir. It looks like you've secured your reelection."

"Tsk. Anyone listening would think the election's already over. Hm? I'm still just a candidate."

Laughter could be heard from every corner of Trump's camp.

This was the approval rating that Hillis and the Democrats had been commanding by an overwhelming margin.

And yet they had flipped it.

Any human being would have dopamine surging through their veins.

"There's still quite a bit of time before the election, but... is there any chance the numbers could reverse again?"

"Virtually none. As you know, Hillis never had a strong base to begin with. But as the collapse of the Chinese regime accelerated, approval ratings for the Democrats, who had been pushing sanctions on China, exploded upward, and Hillis, who had no name recognition to speak of, gained support riding the slogan of becoming the first female president."

"Whereas my support base is rock solid?"

"Yes. Your concrete support base is incredibly thick. People can feel that something is going wrong with America. That's why they're rallying behind you even harder, and the shooting only amplified that effect."

In other words, Hillis didn't have the firepower to flip the polls the way Trump had.

She may have ridden the wave from China's collapse for a brief surge in popularity, but she lacked the ability to close the widening gap.

"So victory is within reach, then."

"Yes. Even though there are still a few months until the election, we're essentially there. If you could just tone down your remarks a little until then..."

"Tone down what? I speak forcefully for the sake of America. And everyone knows, don't they? That's exactly how I got here."

"That's true, but..."

"Enough. Just keep doing what we've been doing. You said it's almost impossible for the polls to flip back, right?"

"Yes. The Republican side is also heavily promoting the courageous actions you showed at the shooting scene that day, and they're continuing to drive your numbers up."

There were plenty of people opposed to handing the presidency to Trump.

But there were even more who thought that rather than giving it to Hillis, it was better to hand the next presidency to Trump, who at least championed putting America first.

"Of course, without the shooting, it really would have been tough."

"...About that incident. There's really nothing tying it to Kwangwoon? Nothing at all?"

"No. We've continued investigating, but nothing has turned up. This was definitively a solo act by someone named Thomas."

Terrifying, how thoroughly they had erased their tracks.

As expected of Kwangwoon.

How on earth did they manage it...

"Sir. That's precisely why we can't afford to leave Kwangwoon alone."

"But they're the ones who had me shot. To flip the approval ratings, no less. They even killed a former prime minister in Japan. And that's not all. They're supposedly causing earthquakes on purpose!"

"Honestly, some of those might be our own speculation. We don't even have proof that Kwangwoon was really behind them, do we?"

"You're saying it's just us assuming they covered their tracks well?"

"Yes. Some of those might just be misperceptions. Things that were really nothing, but we attributed to Kwangwoon because we've been thinking too big of them."

That would be a relief if true.

But there had been too many incidents to simply write them off that way.

"So what's your point?"

"For now, you need to pretend to cooperate with Kwangwoon. And we need to prepare internally as well. Whether Kwangwoon truly caused those incidents or not, they're an enemy that must be eliminated."

"Agreed. And we will ensure your personal safety, sir. Security has already been tripled, and we're maintaining a constant perimeter watch. What happened to you will absolutely never happen again."

Trump nodded slowly.

In truth, the thought always lingered: was it really right to become president this way?

If he actually took office like this, he would only end up dancing in Kwangwoon's palm.

If he gave in to everything they demanded, how could he possibly make America great again?

"Then the moment my term begins, find a way to root out Kwangwoon. As long as they exist, we'll never be able to carry out our vision."

And so Trump, too, had to make a decision.

Whether to remain a puppet like a fool, or to restore America to its former strength.

And he had already made his choice.

* * *

"It really looks like Trump's going to win, doesn't it?"

"Yes, CEO-nim. The gap in the polls is widening more than expected. As we thought, Hillis just wasn't up to the task."

I was going through the American polling data with great interest.

I felt genuinely sorry for Hillis in a way.

She had been so close, and then of all things, someone had to go and shoot at Trump right at that moment, handing the momentum right back to the other side.

"What about the stocks we bought?"

"They've been hitting Upper Limit Price after Upper Limit Price. They surged again after the latest polls came out. Everyone seems to think Trump has already won."

If that was the case, then it was time for us to decide when to cash out.

"Here are the charts."

We had quite a few holdings.

Given how much capital we'd poured in, it was inevitable that the investments would be spread across a wide range of stocks.

"They're all breaking through the charts, though."

"Yes. The numbers are staggering. And the remarkable thing is, this is just the beginning."

A Trump presidency honestly seemed like a big risk, but watching stock prices climb still felt good.

"When do you think would be the best time to Sell?"

"Probably after the election's over, wouldn't it? The stock market runs on anticipation, after all. Once Trump's election is confirmed, Theme Stocks will naturally start to dip."

That was the nature of Theme Stocks.

Before an election, they skyrocket, but after, they crash right back down as if nothing happened, unless there's some special Positive News.

"Then we should also find the right time to Sell and..."

Just as I was flipping through the documents while talking.

"!?"

A powerful Intuition struck, racing from my fingertips through my entire body.

Hard enough to make me stagger involuntarily.

"C-CEO-nim?!"

"CEO-nim!"

Every employee in the room leaped to their feet in alarm.

"Ah. I-I'm fine."

"You're not fine! I thought you were about to collapse just now! Deputy Manager An! What are you standing around for? Get a car ready, now! We're taking him straight to the hospital."

"N-no. I'm really okay..."

"It's the aftereffects from your car accident, isn't it? And you've been pulling all-nighters lately buying up all these Theme Stocks!"

"Just stay still!"

Even the bodyguards stationed outside came rushing in and forcibly escorted(?) me away.

"I'm telling you, I'm really fine?"

"No exceptions. Chairman-nim told us that if there's even the slightest sign something's wrong with you, we're to take you to the hospital by force if necessary."

I wanted to resist, but there was no way I could.

With these hulking guys holding me down, how was I supposed to pry them off?

'But what was that just now?'

Trump's Theme Stocks were going to keep climbing.

The election was still a ways off, after all.

'That signal felt like...'

As if my Intuition was urging me to Sell, right now.