Democracy Pt2

Even if the world collapsed, people generally tried to stick with what they were already familiar with.

Would society end just because police were gone?

Nonsense!

Justice. Compassion. Regret. Morality. Fame. And everything else under the bright sun still had value.

But things started to change when the environment and the number of people in society were altered.

Without wireless communication being an option, it meant all they could trust now was each other.

The trio worth following arose in that moment.

One was a girl who had the talents, but wasn't valued highly due to her being just a secretary.

She didn't have much 'charisma' to her…

Though skilled, her personality wasn't the type to draw people in regardless of her competence.

The person she'd just subdued was the exact opposite of her. Many of them knew him deeply.

He wasn't overly smart, but they could relate to him much more than the female terminator.

To them, his lack of strengths made him like them.

Just an ordinary guy that had never actually told them to do anything outside their bounds before.

Though Ben himself probably wouldn't know of it.

Clueless of perspectives that weren't his own…

"Phew… Looks like something had gotten into all of us. Your name is 'Ben Turner', ain't it? I'm sure we didn't have any feuds this bad." The last one among the trio starting chattering away endlessly.

He wasn't particularly bad at gathering people. It wasn't like he was unskilled as a leader as well.

The fact that he practically built Micron Entertainment to become so big had proven that.

Most of them had even seen him in commercials and interviews where he'd promote their MMORPG.

However, their faith in him had silently crumbled…

Despite being the most competent leader among them, Augustus Grayson was way too suspicious.

He'd brought a knife with him to kill his secretary even before the world had suddenly went to shit.

This man couldn't be trusted!

It was thanks to the way they didn't hide their expressions that she could figure them out.

This also made her come up with a plan.

*Clap* *Clap* *Clap*

"Alright. For now, let's put the past behind and work together. Does that sound good?" After she got their attention, she made eye-contact with those who acted as bystanders… and those who'd helped Augustus. Her intentions were made clear.

Unless they wanted her as an enemy, they'd better clear all accounts and act based on a blank slate.

That's would benefit them the most.

Perhaps the ONLY people benefiting was them…

She secretly sorted everyone into categories in her head. The patch workers, artists for concept art of new content, animators for the cutscenes, and some who managed the bots pretending to play.

…That last one was an 'unofficial' company job.

It was a good thing most of them spoke clear English, because she didn't have to worry about her next plan of action not going so well. As long as nobody acted out of hand, things should work well.

At least, it'd have been fortunate if that happened.

"Stop there!" She turned to notice one of the guys who'd participated in the earlier incident escaping.

He was crawling out of the gap up above…

The tram window that had been broken earlier.

Just as she was about to take him down, a hand grabbed onto her wrist and stopped her lunge.

"This isn't a good time to leave." Ben, the person who shouted earlier, made sure to explain himself.

He knew she was probably suspicious of him…

Even wondering if he had a skill that nullified Lie Detection. After all, he was still a stranger to her.

She looked up to see the man had escaped. He looked down on the rest of them and laughed:

"I'll scout for you all. This isn't just me running away first, alright~?" The man noticed their faces going darker when he'd spoke that. He wondered if they'd seen a ghost from how terrified they looked.

"G-get down!" Someone amongst them roared before… *splat!* the escapee was swatted down.

Silent screams resounded from the horrified men that watched their coworker turn into paste.

But the giant, hideous insect didn't let him go.

After having fell onto the tiny 'snack' under it, the massive fly used its spear-like mouth to stab into the fleshy corpse and drink it dry. Then started to look around for more food located in the vicinity.

It's thousand eyes looked around…

"Aaaagh!!!" Many screamed when the insect started bashing the tram and prodding its legs.

Ben was especially worried when he'd saw the way the insect was trying to look for more sustenance.

The only thing keeping him calm was knowing that it wasn't smart enough to look within the tram.

That small hope was the only thing keeping the Delusionist sane. His hand gripped Julie tighter.

Slowly, the fly's attention was taken away…

It headed back into the sky to scavenge around.

Definitely looking for more food to devour.

The terror still lingered in their hearts…

"Listen up." The only person still able to retain her rationality. Her words were thorough: "Since we can't make any more careless actions, I'm going to propose we create a small governance among us."

"Perfect plan. As always..." Augustus saying this didn't really make her feel better about earlier.

She only accepted that he'd got along with her.

Julie continued: "As someone who you all know as competent in any duty, I'll be overseeing this new system. Myself and two others will be in charge of decision making, which will be based off votes.

Speak up now if you have any questions."

Of course, there was always a contrarian.

"Why him?" One of the guys who DIDN'T STAND UP FOR HER asked while eyeing the skinny punk.

The only good thing was that he was a bystander rather than an aggravator. Trash more than scum.

To her, that might as well be the same camp.

Julie first slapped Ben's hand off before saying:

"He has a good instinct and tried to stop that tragedy from happening." The bystander shut up.

The Grand Delusionist scratched his head, then found that his boss was paying attention to him.

Looks like he was still curious about earlier…

The fact that no one talked about the escapee who died moments ago just went to show their nature.

Everyone here were the type to rely on the convenience of shifting topics than facing them.

None of them felt the least guilty for the unnamed coworker. They might as well be the same as him.

Friendships were just shallow that way…

Regardless, to prove he would be able to do as intended, Ben stepped forward to ask questions:

"You, what do you think just attacked?" He asked the person closest to the angle with the best view.

The one person who had a glimpse of the creature that flew down and crushed the failed escapee.

"A fly…?"

"Fortunately, it was actually a mosquito."

"How is that a fortunate thing!?!" Another asked with aggressive eyes, the situation was still tense.

That earlier incident was driving them mad.

They couldn't believe someone was just killed.

It wasn't out of pity. These bastards just really didn't want to accept the world they were in.

"Because houseflies are bigger and harder to kill than mosquitoes. One slap can kill the latter, but you need to really stomp on the former to turn them into mush. Plus, insects don't die so easy."

His words brought clarity to many of them. It was the way he framed it than made things easier to comprehend. Many, after seeing the threat themselves, were now cautious of this new world.

"How did you know outside wasn't safe?" This time, Ben was getting his own little Q&A session.

It reminded them of the strange woman earlier…

"It's still bright outside, which is the worst time to go out into an open area." His words held reason.

'Since when did this guy become so tactical…?' Is what the great majority thought when he'd spoken.

The next few things he explained to them really broadened their mindset on how they should live.

Rather than forcing them to fit into the foreign concept of hunting prey, he explained this world as a place that had 'Danger Zones'. That when things were illuminated, that was the worst time to be out.

This included making a light to see the way forward. A subject that got many riled up.

If they couldn't see, how would they know where they were walking? None of them had night vision.

And he explained to them one important thing:

"We have no choice. It's either adapt or die."

This statement finally made them accept him as a vital 'Representative' that'd vote on their actions.

Although they'd lived in a democratic society, the way humans shifted the blame hadn't changed.

Julie was sure that if some of them got killed, the rest would jointly try to take over for themselves.

And if things went too smoothly, the same would happen. Augustus had realised this as well.

Only Ben seemed genuinely happy to have a chance to be a 'Leader' again with his own power.

His eyes looked at the lingering ghost of the man who'd tried escaping. He lightly smacking his lips.

The Grand Delusionist knew that none of them were capable of dealing with 'Insects' at the moment. Even Julie wouldn't win against the smallest type with her lack of supernatural abilities.

It was up to him to save them all…!

Unfortunately, he'd forgotten that his other 'edgy protagonist' from his younger days was arriving.

What happened before night fell shook all of them.