As I walk back to the office, I start to sort the priorities of the nation, as always in the early stages of the mandate it was difficult to correctly raise the reputation between the factions, and you need to do it quickly, or else you run out of money, and it's game over. Usually the strategy used to counter the cost of each turn consists of building two oil derricks at the beginning, covering the cost of each decision, and also build a bank and a propaganda system, the first one to gain some interest from the oil derricks, and the second one to passively gain reputation among the citizens.
When I reach the office I go straight to the desktop chair, and I await the arrival of my adviser. Not many seconds later I hear someone knocking on the door, and this time Carmen enters more relaxed, possibly knowing that I was already there.
"You did excellent out there Alex" she highlights. "I'm sure that with all the support we are getting from the people we will be able to make the cause worth it, I mean, just look at the social media! Everyone Is talking about you!" She congratulates.
"Thank you, but remember that actions speak louder than words, so as the first movement, I want to build two oil derricks on the northern sector of Silveria, and also we are going to open a bidding to build a public bank, and finally, we will need a broadcast system to inform the people of new laws." I inform her.
"You are really eager to start the change, huh? Ok, I shall make sure that all the needed documents get redacted to start the buildings as soon as possible" She claims.
"You are the best, Carmen" I compliment her, and before she retires, I ask her, "And also, could you bring Jessica here? I'm sure that she wants something, and It would be great to start attending to the concerns of people now".
"Just give me a second, please?" she asks.
"Take your time."
After she gets out and closes the door, I decide to take a look at the initial statistics of this mandate. In order to do that, I just need to think about it, and it appears.
'Stats'. As soon as I think of the word, a screen appears out of nowhere.
Statistics
Money: 350.000
Tyrants: 118.476
Turn N°: 1Reputation
Oligarchs: XXXXXXX (0)
Police: XXXXXXX (0)
People: XXXXXXX (0)
Army: XXXXXXX (0)
Opposition: XXXXXXX (0)
Mafia: XXXXXXX (0)
Buildings
Banks: 1
Propaganda systems: 1
Oil derricks: 2
Prisons: 0
Well, probably now you are wondering what the fuck is going on. Let me explain. If you have ever played Dictator 2 on your phone you surely understood the screen, but for those that do not, this is a statistics window. At the top in green you have the money, and you always start with 1.500.000 on your account. In yellow you have the tyrants A.K.A currency that you would buy with real money in a free to play game, but that here you can only gain from making decisions. At last in red you have the current turn. You advance one with each decision you take when meeting a faction.
Under the stats you have the reputation you have with each faction, and you always start with seven crosses on each one. You may gain or lose crosses depending if the faction liked or not a decision. Go as low as 3 crosses and you enter a red zone, and if you don't pay attention to that faction in 3 turns it will rebel. Go as high as 10 crosses and you will start earning green crosses, Which will give you 20.000 credits per cross. But watch out, If you reach 20 crosses with one faction, they will also rebel. Of course you can try to calm down a rebellion, but that is for another time.
At last you have buildings. Each one helps you in a different way. Banks give you an interest depending on your income. One gives you 5% interest, two 10%, and so on.
Propaganda systems gives random crosses to any faction. At 1 you get a cross every 3 turns, and by building more you reduce the number of turns. Once you reach 1 turn, building more increases the number of crosses given per turn.
Oil derricks gives you a fixed income of 50.000 credits per derrick per turn.
Finally, prisons let you imprison a faction that has fallen into the red zone, at the cost of losing 1 cross per free faction. The first 4 levels are for cells, which can be a maximum of 4, and then you start extending the number of turns which factions are imprisoned, being 5 by default.
Building the first of any building costs 150.000, and then the second one costs 500.000, and a new one after that costs the double of the last one, so a third costs 1.000.000 and a fourth 2.000.000 , and so on.
Now, you may want to know that every turn costs 100.000 credits, and that's why I decided to build two oil derricks, to make the net balance zero. The bank gives me 5.000 from the derricks and the propaganda guarantees me a cross every 3 turns.
So long story short, I'm quite in a delicate situation, since I'm gaining little money, but if I make the right decisions, I will be in the green zone before I even realise.
pop
Because you received the people's faction on your balcony, your reputation increased by one an all factions.
Oh right. If I receive a faction in the balcony, reputation increases, but if not the opposite happens. Still, It's not a frequent phenomenon so I must always pay attention in case that someone comes.
Anyways, as I was taking a look at the statistics, I hear that someone knocks on the door, so I make that person know that it can enter the office, and I see Carmen escorting the people's representative, so I wait for my adviser to exit the office before talking to Jessica.
"Please, take a seat" I invite her after Carmen closes the door. "You told me back at the balcony that you wanted to ask me something, isn't it?"
"Um... yeah. Do you remember that during the coup your organisation closed the borders to prevent the escape of the president and it's ministers?"
"Yes, that border blockage proved successful to capture them. It was very predictable that they would try to flee the country at the minimal signal of conflict, but I might be failing to see what does this have to do with your request". A lie, yes, I already had a possible idea of what she wanted, but I still needed to see if she wasn't fearful of asking the question.
"Well, um... There is a lot of people that is going to be affected by the closure, mainly farmers that are in harvest and want to export their surplus, and also many foreigners and tourists had been affected because they had been held back at the frontiers, so we want you to open the borders again."
pop
Decision detected
Open the borders? [Yes / No]
Oh yes. If this decision is appearing already then getting into the green zone was going to be easier than what I expected.
"Well, consider it done, but first give me a second to order it now" I tell her, and I see a small smile forming on her face. I take my smartphone and I dial to the general.
"Sarah, how are you?" She congratulates me for the speech. "Yeah, thank you. Are you near the Army headquarters now?"
She confirms it. "Well, could you issue an order to open the borders again? The representative of neighbours in alert told me that the blockage is causing problems to many people, so I want them open as soon as possible." She asks me if already. "Yes, already. I know that it might not feel good to some soldiers, but is for the benefit of everyone so, please?" She tells me that yes. "Ok, thank you Sarah! Bye!" and the line cuts. "Well, there you go. Borders should open within the next hours."
"Thank you sir."
"Oh please, don't call me sir, It makes me feel old. In any case call me Alex or Alexander, ok?"
"Oh, ok."
"Well, it was a pleasure meeting you, Jessica. I hope that we can change everything for the better" I tell her before ending the conversation. "I'm looking forward to more suggestions. Remember that everyone is important for the country to succeed, so let the people know that they should not be shy about recommending changes to the government, ok?"
"I will make sure to let them know that. Thank you Alexander." Then we shake hands and she leaves the office.
pop
Decision results
Your reputation among the people increased by 1.
Your reputation among the oligarchs increased by 1.
Your reputation among the opposition increased by 1.
Your reputation among the mafia increased by 1.
You randomly lost a cross from the oligarchs.You lost 100.000 credits from the decision.
You gained 100.000 credits from the oil derricks.
You gained 5.000 credits from the banks.
Net balance: +5.000
Yep, this run was going to be easier than what I expected.
This day passed faster than usual, as it was more of a day for people to get used to the new government, so I went home earlier. There was a presidential residence of course, but I still liked much more my house, because I was more familiar with it and it was closer to my workplace, but mainly to remember that at the end I was still a person, and that If I did things wrong It would end badly.
But most important, It reminded me that this was not my world.
I park my Mercedes In the side of the road and I enter my house, which after all this years looked the same as back home; a one floor property in which the design screamed modernism, and had a living room at the entrance, a kitchen, a bathroom and two bedrooms. In the back there was a garden which... which I didn't use since THAT day.
Anyways, I decided to go to bed as I had already eaten at work and getting out from work soon was relative, as it was 8 pm already and I usually get home at 10, In order to get more free time during the morning, as I would trade it off with a later arrival at work.
After I took off my clothes and I was left with my underwear and a shirt, I sat in the bed and suddenly, a thought crossed my mind: How much time I have been doing this?
pop
General statistics
Time spent: 863 years, 36 days, 4 hours, 15 minutes, 42 seconds.
Best expansion: 2 nations
Longest rule: 10.346 turns
Money earned: 96 T
N° of rules: 100
...
...the actual fuck?!
I knew that by now I should have outlived any normal person, but the fact that it was for more than a factor of 10 was what actually surprised me, which left me thinking for a long time If this was going to last forever.
The only thing I knew was that if this continued, then it meant that I was going to be stuck forever ruling and repelling the invasions of my not so friendly neighbours.
Oh boy, how wrong I was in that moment.