"Today we gather here to discuss a serious issue." The Minister of Development stands in the central hall of the interstellar council and looks around, saying: "Clearly, due to the council's recent over-expansion, our existing administrative areas can no longer meet our work needs. The Twelve Stars were built only the size of satellites, too small. The distance between the planets is too short to allow ships to shuttle, not to mention the aging dormitory environment, loosened mechanical structures, and slowed fiber transmission speeds, among other issues. This has caused serious employee welfare problems for the entire interstellar council. I have currently received over 60 complaint letters, and I believe many of you colleagues also have grievances."
"But actually, our work environment is not really a concern, as we are not here to enjoy leisure but to contribute to the security and stability of the interstellar society. However, because the working environment is too harsh, most employees cannot focus on their work, leading to three strikes in the Ring Xing District and an incident where an expatriate employee's work mistake caused damage to the teleportation portal. These are low-level errors that should not have happened, but they could lead to a huge cosmic disaster, which none of us want to see. Therefore, I propose a large-scale renovation activity to improve the working conditions of the Ring Region and enhance employee welfare..."
The Supreme Wisdom listens below, and his head buzzes.
To say whether the situations spoken by the Minister of Development exist, they indeed do exist. The Star Area has existed for too long, and initially, the Three Great Empires did not expect this to expand so much, so they did not choose to build the interstellar council within a natural star system but simply created their own star system.
Almost all planets in the Star Area are artificial, and the central rotating 'Star' is not a star, but a Constant-level Energy Reactor provided by the Kree Empire; the gravitational orbit was constructed manually; and the planets orbiting the reactor are modified first-generation planet warships discarded by the Kree Empire.
Although these are retired battleships, they weren't actually broken, just rendered obsolete due to significant technological breakthroughs. Some were even brand new at their launch, but now, after running for so long, they indeed have some inefficiencies.
The first-generation planet warships inherently had some flaws, designed and manufactured during the millennium war period, and even its inventor didn't intend to provide a long lifespan for this thing. Everyone assumed it was a one-off weapon, likely destroyed upon appearance, so the materials and technology used did not aim to sustain longevity, and after so much time, wear has become more severe.
With the change in planetary mass, the gravitational orbit must also be adjusted, even the output of the reactor must be changed; and once these orbits are modified, the ship trajectories must also be adjusted, otherwise, collisions will occur. Although these are adjusted by the Supreme Wisdom himself, the situation is visible to the naked eye, and cannot be concealed, so he doesn't hide it deliberately.
Actually, under the original situation, this system could run for another thousand or eight hundred years without issue, but the problem lies in the rapid expansion of the interstellar council. By the time this conference was held, they already had 21 departments.
This is not just a matter of adding 21 ministers or secretaries; as a department, they must have members. Previously a department had just twenty or thirty members, including some interns only engaged in clerical work; but ever since a large number of new departments were established, the number of members has soared, and a department must have over 200 people now.
The fundamental reason is the idea of wanting to gain advantage without bearing losses: you, Electronic Life, can expand recruitment, create so many departments, then embed your own forces inside, of course, I must stuff more people into my departments to counterbalance you, right?
Thus, they tried various methods by coining excuses, to insert their relatives and friends. Although most of their relatives and friends are elite, fit for regular membership, they are leaders in their own civilizations, used to commanding leadership, suddenly demoted to regular members, would they be willing?
Fortunately, the interstellar council has a tradition of recruiting interns, so what's the fuss, just recruit indiscriminately. Hence, over 200 official members, 4000 interns—of course, not all arrive, but having even half is outrageous.
The stars in the Star Area are not big; the largest one is just a bit larger than the Moon, all at satellite scale, as these were never meant to be regular planets. If the battleship is made too large, the probability of being destroyed on debut increases, they were originally small, making outward expansion more difficult. The buildings on them were constructed long ago, with more people onboard, naturally it becomes crowded, interns squeeze two to three people into one dormitory, complaints have long been widespread.
This alone is still tolerable, but traffic is the main issue. Public ships are too crowded, then use private ships, but these people's private ships are highly varied, from different civilizations with slightly different traffic regulations, collisions occur frequently after every few days. After a collision, towing ships are needed, the towing ship blocks others, leaving no room to fly, everyone stays stuck there.
In general, the innate conditions of the Star Area were insufficient. Despite the naturally created star regions by God having various issues, how could a self-created star region by a Mechanical Civilization developed over many years be better?
This is indeed an urgent problem to solve. However, upon hearing their intentions to sell the whole Star Area, the Supreme Wisdom couldn't resist punching his opponent. He swears it wasn't on purpose, but he was caught by the Supreme Magician. Luckily, the Human race seems particularly tolerant of this aspect, the Supreme Magician merely gave him a casual reprimand, and then let him off.
The Supreme Wisdom knew he had been a bit impulsive, but lately, he's been having too many program errors, sometimes struggling to control himself properly. However, after calming down, he still seriously discussed with this minister, eventually, they changed the plan to renovation.
Although the entire conference lasted for more than seven hours, everyone had their own opinions on how to renovate, chaos ensued with spitting battles: the Shi'ar Empire elbowed the Skrull Empire, the Skrull Empire kicked the Kree Empire, the Kree Empire punched the Shi'ar Empire again, the entire scenario was completely out of control.
The arguments went back and forth with no conclusive results, the Supreme Wisdom attempted several times to interrupt and present his views, but nobody paid him any attention. Everyone was busy refuting opponent views, incidentally showcasing their own intelligence, resulting in seven hours of pure chaos without any research.
After it ended, the Supreme Wisdom decided to individually discuss things with each minister. After all, fixing it sooner would benefit everyone. What reason do they have not to support renovations? Using public funds from the Three Great Empires, without spending their own money, besides after renovations, it will certainly be better than before, aren't they enjoying it too?
When the Supreme Wisdom found them to talk, everyone agreed well, but in practical implementation, reality hit him with a heavy blow.
"You mean, this is the material cost budget given by the Ministry of Commerce?" The Supreme Wisdom looks at the computer screen, a look of complete disbelief, "Forty trillion? Am I seeing this right?"
"No, Mr. Secretary-General, every item in the quote has a detailed explanation. I don't see any issues, do you?"
The Supreme Wisdom had already run all the data through his mind, and the most frustrating part was that there was indeed no goddamn problem.
If they followed the highest standards for repairs, it surely required that much money. But the issue was they were just fixing an office building, not turning it into a solid permanent defense structure—who in their right mind would use Vibranium for the load-bearing pillars of an office building?!
However, having learned from experience, the Supreme Wisdom knew that if he went to question the Minister of Commerce, they would surely have a set of high-standard excuses to brush him off. So he turned to the Minister of Armed Forces, who was still somewhat on the same page as him.
The Minister of Armed Forces was training at the drill ground. Upon seeing the Supreme Wisdom, he couldn't hold back his booming voice, "When will it ever get fixed?! Those two crashed ships are still embedded in the drill ground's wall, with explosions occurring every three minutes. If my soldiers weren't so resilient, we'd have already been finished!"
"I came to discuss this exact matter. Take a look at this budget list."
After taking it, the Minister of Armed Forces clicked his tongue. The Supreme Wisdom expected him to curse loudly, but instead, he thought for a moment and said, "This is way too expensive; we can't afford it."
"Don't you think there's a problem with this?"
"I said, it's too expensive!"
"It's unreasonable," the Supreme Wisdom said. "We don't need such good materials. After all, we're just building a political Star Zone, not the Empire headquarters."
But the Minister of Armed Forces waved his hand and said, "You machine-heads don't understand. To repair it properly, you really need to spend that much money."
"What do you mean?"
"So many people in the council are banking on this project for their livelihood. Once funds are allocated, everyone must have a piece. If you don't distribute more money, nothing gets fixed. You must feed everyone from top to bottom to get results; otherwise, it's wasted money."
The Supreme Wisdom felt a headache coming on again. He said, "I control the entire financial system, with precise records of every transaction. Where do they get the money?"
"What's the current market price of Vibranium?"
"Around 36,000 Universal Coins per Robbo."
"They'll quote Wakanda 50,000, then collaborate with the Wakanda King to claim Vibranium is scarce and raise the price so that the budget data reflects 100,000. How will you investigate this? You control but can you deal with the panther head?"
"But we don't need Vibranium at all!"
"How do you know we don't need it? Once the design drawings are produced, safety evaluations are required. If you don't include enough Vibranium, they won't approve it, because they can share the Vibranium profit too. Now you understand what I mean?"
"I'm really fed up," said the Supreme Wisdom. "I don't see any reason for the interstellar council to exist anymore."
But the Minister of Armed Forces sneered, "Before the Supreme Magician arrived, you had choices. But now, can you really pull your tricks and eliminate them all in front of him? I can guarantee if you dare do that, he'll slap a teleportation portal to your face and punch your main body."
Earlier, when the Supreme Wisdom was filled with murderous intent, it was as if cold water had been poured over him. After a long silence, he asked, "We really can't afford this, and I doubt they'd do a proper job even if we did pay. What should we do then?"
"Sell the Star Area."