amaotonovel Chapter 4177 is about the Supreme Sorcerer (7)
Chapter 4177 is about the Supreme Sorcerer (7)
Chapter 4177 is about the Supreme Mage (Seventeen)
The Minister of Publicity and the Minister of Finance engaged in a heated debate. One side emphasized that to achieve good publicity results, it was necessary to be willing to invest heavily; the other side stressed that it was impossible to allocate such a high publicity budget, otherwise the financial situation would definitely become very bad.
Finally, Strange made the final decision: "Increase the PR department's budget, however much you want. But I need to see results, understand?"
The propaganda minister nodded vigorously and said, "I will absolutely not let you down. Within three days, the publicity for our environmental protection work will spread throughout the universe, and everyone will know about it and even be able to explain our environmental protection policies."
Strange nodded in satisfaction. The Treasurer, however, looked at him hesitantly. When the morning meeting ended and Strange returned to his office, the Treasurer followed him around like a puppy.
"Supreme Sorcerer, please forgive my bluntness, but although I don't have a background in finance, I can at least understand financial statements. The financial situation of the Interstellar Council is not optimistic..."
"Dong dong!"
"Please come in!"
Schiller walked in carrying a stack of reports. He was somewhat surprised to see the finance minister there, and then said, "Oh, Minister, I was just about to look for you. Have you seen the Star News Network?"
“Dr. Schiller, I’ve heard so much about you.” The minister stood up and awkwardly extended his hand to shake Schiller’s. Handshakes weren’t part of their race’s etiquette, but he had read on the interstellar internet that humans shook hands upon first meeting. Schiller stepped forward, shook his hand, and said, “I didn’t expect to meet a Leta alien here. How is your emperor? And Her Highness the princess?”
"Her Highness is much better, thanks to your guidance. She finally dumped that damned bastard. The day they announced their breakup, the entire planet Leta was in an uproar. It's a pity you didn't want to reveal your name, but the Leta royal family speaks highly of you..."
Strange recalled that Schiller seemed to have mentioned to him that during his time in space, he had provided psychological counseling to many social elites from advanced civilizations, and presumably the princess of Leta was one of them.
“Let’s cut to the chase,” Schiller said, placing the file on the table. “I checked with Interstellar News, and the estimated price for a scrolling headline banner is around 600 million Universal Coins.”
Strange gasped. Interstellar currency was incredibly valuable; compared to Earth, it was roughly equivalent to the Euro, or even more, as it was the currency of the three great empires. Six million interstellar coins was an astonishing astronomical figure.
The Minister of Finance sighed with some distress and said, "Our quarterly budget is about 80 million, and he used 6 million at once, and he will continue to use it. In this case, the fiscal deficit will be very alarming."
“Supreme Master, that Minister of Propaganda did it on purpose. He is from one of the three great empires, and he wants to use this method to drain our budget. But he just happened to be doing the work you assigned him, and he did it very well. We really have no reason to cut the budget.”
Strange had already realized that this finance minister really didn't understand financial work, and seemed to have no solution other than sighing. So he looked at Schiller.
Schiller, however, was surprised and said, "Is 600 million a lot?"
The Finance Minister thought he didn't understand the value of the common currency, so he said, "Yes, 600 million is a lot of money. And choosing the Star News Network banner scrolling is very uneconomical; that website always charges high prices."
"So, Interstellar News Network's asking price is acceptable?"
"Yes, that is indeed their actual quote, otherwise I wouldn't have approved the budget," the Finance Minister nodded and said.
"So, if it rolls over for 10 days, it's 60 million, and if it rolls over for 100 days, it's 600 million?"
"If it's a long-term subscription, there might be some discounts, but the price difference won't be too much. This website is shady; they take advantage of being the largest news website to charge exorbitant prices. However, they are backed by three major empires, and no one can touch them."
"Isn't that budget allocated by the three great empires?"
"Yes, it's like they're taking money out of their left pocket and putting it into their right. Only we, the ones doing the work, have to face the pressure of the fiscal deficit. They don't care at all. And I suspect they're deliberately asking for high prices to put financial pressure on us so they can stop the environmental protection work from being carried out. After all, if they keep promoting it like this, they'll run out of money soon."
"What about the new Huan Video?"
"Oh, that's a video website. Lots of streamers post all sorts of videos there, like videos documenting their lives, gaming videos, and travel videos. It's always been very popular. The streamers there charge even more; a few lines of advertising copy can easily cost hundreds of thousands. I'm really afraid he'll send me a budget sheet for tens of millions later."
“Sign it for him,” Schiller said.
"what?"
"No matter how many budgets he sends over, you must sign them off as if it were nothing."
"Should we really allocate funds to him?"
"Dial the money, and give him whatever amount he wants."
"But, but, we don't have much cash."
"There's not much general budget, is there? Isn't there still military spending?"
The Finance Minister was utterly astonished. He exclaimed, "Military spending?! But that belongs to the three great empires..."
“Take it all,” Schiller said decisively. “Whether it’s cash for the general budget, military spending, or money for living expenses, give it all to him.”
“Oh, I see,” the finance minister said, realizing what was happening. “If we do that, the armed forces will definitely come after him.”
Strange couldn't stand it anymore and said, "You said it yourself, the Minister of Propaganda and the Minister of Armed Forces are both from the three great empires, they won't cause trouble for each other. The Minister of Armed Forces will come to you, he will question you about why you approved the budget indiscriminately."
The Minister of Finance was now extremely nervous. He pulled out a handkerchief to wipe his sweat and stammered, "Then I can't... Supreme Mage, it's not that I'm unwilling, but the Armed Forces Department has an army. If the Minister of the Armed Forces Department leads a patrol team to patrol over Leta Star, it will definitely cause panic..."
“I can guarantee that Leta will be alright,” Schiller said. “Even if you don’t believe me, you have to believe the Sorcerer Supreme. He will protect your homeworld.”
The Treasury Secretary looked at Strange again. Strange glanced at Schiller, then nodded and said, "Yes, I won't let him do that, don't worry."
The finance minister breathed a sigh of relief, but still said, "But I don't understand why we have to do this."
“You said it yourself, the money is just being taken from their left pocket and moved to their right pocket. Since it’s all their money anyway, it’s not unreasonable to put it back in their pockets. But we can use this to fill a huge hole.”
The finance minister was still somewhat confused. Schiller handed him the documents in his hand and said, "Do the accounting according to this."
The finance minister picked it up and gasped, then said, "Is this really going to work? Isn't this a bit too much?"
"Just do it."
The finance minister sauntered away. Strange hadn't seen the document, so he said, "You're asking him to falsify the accounts? Do you think he can even do it properly?"
“I’ve done everything for him, all he needs to do is sign it,” Schiller said.
"Who are you trying to frame this time? The head of the propaganda department?"
“I’m not trying to cheat them, I’m helping them,” Schiller said with a smile.
A peaceful morning passed, but after the lunch break, the Supreme Wisdom returned, this time specifically to see Schiller.
"Dr. Schiller, regarding what you said last time about saving Parliament's fiscal deficit..."
“Don’t worry, Mr. Secretary General, I’m working on it,” Schiller said without looking up. “The results should be out tonight. Just wait and see.”
The Supreme Intelligence was somewhat uneasy, mainly because he hadn't seen what Schiller was doing, yet Schiller was so confident, which meant that something had happened that he didn't know about.
Schiller gestured to the chair in front of him, gesturing for him to sit down. After the Supreme Intelligence sat down and pondered for a moment, it said, "The source of the fiscal deficit is complex. The key is that over the past few centuries, we have made thousands of emergency appropriations, all in the form of loans. The interest plus late fees have snowballed into what we are today."
Schiller knew that the Supreme Intelligence seemed to be trying to explain, but he didn't need to explain; Schiller was too familiar with this kind of thing.
The Interstellar Council's finances come from the three great empires, but these empires also collect taxes, and the civilizations under their jurisdiction must pay them. They collect their own taxes separately, and then set aside a portion each quarter to maintain the Interstellar Council's operations.
However, if the budget is insufficient, such as when some emergencies arose this year that required the Interstellar Council to resolve, these situations would incur costs. If the funds run out before the next quarter's budget arrives, but the matter still needs to be addressed, then emergency funding will be allocated.
However, the emergency appropriation is not a handout, but a loan. The three great empires are lending money to the Interstellar Council, but interest will be charged, and timely repayment is required. If repayment is not made, late fees will be charged.
Since its establishment, the Interstellar Council has made countless emergency appropriations, which have accumulated to the point of a trillion-dollar deficit.
Many people will find this system absurd, because the Interstellar Council itself was created by the three great empires to stabilize their rule; it's like a knife in their hands. And this knife has to pay for its own work—meaning it has to borrow money from the three great empires—just to perform its function.
Even more outrageous is that the three great empires also borrowed money. The Interstellar Council's funding originally came from the three great empires, and the repayment was also made using the funds. That is to say, they borrowed money from themselves and then used their own money to repay their own money, which sounds absurd and unnecessary.
Many people think that since taxes are collected, maintaining universal peace is a responsibility, but that's not actually the case. It's less a tax and more a protection fee. Whether the three great empires maintain universal order or not, they all have to pay this fee; those who can't pay must at least pay resources, otherwise they simply cannot survive.
Therefore, the three great empires aren't worried about accusations of tax embezzlement or anything like that; once the money is handed over, it's theirs. Maintaining cosmic peace is a matter of friendship, not principle. The essence of creating this system to maintain cosmic order is that they also want to recuperate and rebuild. But overall, the three great empires don't need to worry about interstellar perception; they can do whatever they want.
Given this, the fact that they went to such great lengths to create a lending system and are now so eager to balance their accounts must have a reason. In essence, it's the three empires misappropriating their own future funds.
Normally, maintaining the Interstellar Council shouldn't cost a lot of money, and many things shouldn't be handled by the Interstellar Council. However, perhaps due to concerns about the hassle, or to enhance the Interstellar Council's status, everything might be handled by the Interstellar Council, potentially exceeding the previously allocated budget and necessitating even more investment.
In reality, these matters didn't need to be handled by the Interstellar Council, nor was the money necessary to be spent. To cover up the truth, they claimed the money was a loan from the Interstellar Council.
In other words, giving money to the Interstellar Council now and repaying it when the next quarter's budget comes through is essentially a form of savings. But clearly, the Interstellar Council has never been able to repay it, and in fact, it has been borrowing more and more, making it impossible to ever repay the money, which has become a typical bad debt.