In a dimly lit bunker beneath the ruins of Manhattan, Solid Snake sat across from Alex Jones at a steel table cluttered with survival rations, history books, and shortwave radios crackling with static.
A faded American flag hung behind them beside a hand-drawn sign reading: NO CENTRAL CONTROL.
Snake lit a cigarette.
“Never thought I’d hear you talking economics instead of nanomachines and secret weapons,” Snake muttered.
Alex leaned forward dramatically, slamming a stack of photocopied papers onto the table.
“Snake, listen to me! The Founding Fathers understood something modern governments forgot. In colonial America, some colonies issued their own debt-free scrip! Pennsylvania did it! They printed currency backed by productivity instead of endless interest payments to private banking empires!”
Snake exhaled smoke slowly.
“You’re saying the colonies operated without permanent national debt?”
“In some periods, yes!” Alex barked. “The people used local colonial notes to build roads, farms, mills — real production! Benjamin Franklin supposedly admired how the system kept unemployment low. Then the British cracked down with the Currency Acts because London bankers hated independent money systems!”
Snake narrowed his eyes.
“So the war wasn’t just taxes.”
Alex pointed a finger like he was revealing classified intel.
“Exactly! Control the money supply, control the population. Same game, different century.”
The bunker lights flickered. Somewhere overhead, drones hummed through the poisoned skies.
Snake tapped ash into a tin cup.
“Sounds familiar. Patriots, AI censorship, information warfare. Different uniforms, same structure.”
Alex stood up, pacing wildly.
“They’ve got people drowning in credit cards, student loans, mortgages, digital surveillance currencies—”
Snake interrupted calmly.
“Debt as social control.”
Alex froze for a moment.
“Yes! You get it! In the colonies, some communities believed money should serve labor and trade, not trap generations in interest payments.”
Snake looked toward an old map of the thirteen colonies pinned to the wall.
“In war, supply lines determine survival. In society, maybe money is the supply line.”
Alex grinned triumphantly.
“Now you’re thinking like a revolutionary, Snake.”
An alarm suddenly echoed through the bunker.
WARNING: UNAUTHORIZED AERIAL SURVEILLANCE DETECTED
Snake crushed out the cigarette and stood.
“Conversation’s over.”
He grabbed a bandanna from the table and tied it around his head.
Alex hurried after him.
“Snake! One more thing!”
“What?”
Alex lowered his voice.
“The real Metal Gear…”
Snake sighed.
“…is fractional reserve banking?”
Alex slammed the table.
“EXACTLY!”
