Oscar Kingston Is God!

Chapter 7: Is This God? (1)

The newsroom of UNC Dog News was unusually noisy.

Anchor Otto Levi was sitting behind the news desk, looking at the large screen in front of him. The screen was showing the town square in the capital city, where a huge crater had suddenly appeared after President Yoka Temples' statue was pushed deep into the ground by something that nobody could see.

The President himself was there.

Several senators were standing around him, together with military commanders and other government officials. Everyone was staring at the enormous hole in the middle of the town square, trying to understand what had happened.

Otto also wanted to understand it.

But more than anything, he wanted to go home.

He had a wife waiting for him at home, and she was already eight months pregnant. He also had two small children, his two-year-old daughter Maria and his four-year-old son, Otto Junior. There was also a helper staying with them whom Otto was trying his best to feed.

Otto was one of the most well-known faces on UNC Dog News.

At the same time, he was one of the poorest.

Every day, he came to work for the government and read whatever information they wanted him to read. He hated doing it, but what choice did he have?

All he wanted was to make sure that every night, at least one kilogram of rice, one kilogram of flour, and twenty liters of water reached his family.

That was what his salary had become. Food. Water. Survival.

If he stood against the government and lost his job, his wife and children would have nothing.

Sometimes, while sitting in front of the camera, Otto imagined himself standing in the middle of the streets with a large banner in his hands, shouting for solidarity and demanding that the government open the locked districts. But he could not do it.

Because his wife was pregnant, his children were only two and four years old. He had to bow his head and continue working.

Otto looked at the crater again.

He had been afraid when he first heard about the President's statue. What if it really was the end of the world? What if something invisible had entered UNC and was preparing to destroy the entire country?

But at the same time, a small part of him had been happy. For once, something had happened that the government could not control.

Otto was still thinking about it when a young reporter suddenly rushed toward him.

“Anchor Otto!”

Otto turned his head, “What?”

The young reporter, Kelvin, was breathing heavily. “Anchor Otto, something is happening.”

Otto frowned. “What now, Kelvin?”

“Something is breaking down the locked doors of houses.”

Otto eyes widened. “What?”

“The doors. The locked doors of houses and apartments. Something invisible is breaking them down.”

Otto immediately stood up. “Do you have people covering up this story there?”

“Yes.”

“Then I need videos.”

“We already have videos," Kelvin quickly took out an SD card and handed it to him.

Otto looked at the card, then he looked at Kelvin. “Are you sure?”

Kelvin nodded.

Otto smiled. This was the kind of news he had been waiting to report. It was anti-government and revolutionary. And for some reason, his heart was beating faster.

“But we can't just report it,” Kelvin said. “We haven't received permission from the Ministry of Information and News.”

Otto looked at him. “Permission?”

“Yes. We have to wait for them to approve the report.”

Otto almost laughed. “By the time they approve it, another channel will report it and we'll be the ones copying them.”

Kelvin looked nervous.

Otto lowered his voice. “The people need to know.”

That was the real reason. He wanted to tell the people. He wanted to give them this goodnews.

For once, he wanted to be the person who delivered good news instead of another government announcement about restrictions, shortages, deaths or another district being locked down.

“Get the camera ready.”

Kelvin nodded.

Otto took his position. “Five.”

The studio became quiet.

“Four.”

The camera light came on.

“Three.”

Otto straightened his jacket.

“Two.”

He looked directly into the camera.

“One.”

The broadcast began.

***

Meanwhile, Oscar was sitting on his mat in Apartment 101. His television was already on, and his rice was cooking on the small stove nearby. The needle was lying on the little stool beside him.

Oscar leaned forward when Anchor Otto appeared on the screen.

“Good evening, everyone. Good evening to everyone watching UNC Dog News. I am Anchor Otto Levi, and we bring you another unexpected development in the United Nigilstar Coast Country.”

Otto looked at his papers.

“As everyone knows, we are currently dealing with the global famine, as well as the strange incident that occurred in the capital involving the President's statue.” He paused, “However, something else has happened.”

Oscar smiled.

Otto continued, “A mysterious force appears to have broken down the doors of households that were previously locked down by governmental resources management rules.”

The screen immediately changed and videos began playing.

A wooden door shook violently before breaking apart. Another video showed a metal door being struck by an invisible force until it became badly bent.

People came rushing outside from the houses of the broken doors. Some were crying, some were shouting for joy and some were simply standing there in disbelief.

Oscar smiled.

He knew exactly what had happened. It was his little wooden stick. To him, it was just a small piece of wood but inside the miniature world, however, it was as large as a giant tree.

Otto continued speaking. “From the shape of the damage, whatever is causing this appears to be extremely large. Some witnesses have described it as invisible giant tree trunks.”

Oscar laughed. “Invisible giant tree trunks?”

He looked at the little stick beside the box.

“What an irony.”

Otto continued, “Could it be a huge invisible tree as they say? An invisible tree somehow have fallen across the streets and caused these doors to break?”

He shook his head. “We honestly don't know.”

Then someone suddenly came to the side of the news desk and whispered something into Otto's ear.

Otto's expression changed. “What?”

The person whispered again. Otto took the paper from him and looked at it.

“There is another report.”

Oscar leaned closer to the television and watched as Otto swallowed.

“We have received reports that government officials in several cities are suddenly collapsing and... and dying...!”