"Oh," said the Supreme Wisdom, "isn't this a good thing? Promoting the term 'environmental work' across the entire interstellar space, directly putting it under the nose of every race, will surely trigger a backlash..."
"The problem is, he approved twenty trillion!"
"How much??!!!!"
A silver figure "whooshed" through the corridor, catching everyone's attention.
What's going on? Is the sky falling? Have those executive secretaries finally remembered that they are robots that can fly?
Although interstellar anti-discrimination efforts have been doing well, in general, these executive robots will not display their robotic traits. They act very much like carbon-based life forms: even if they can fly, they take a spaceship; even in urgent matters, they walk; they even hang a life-sustaining collar on themselves before entering the cosmos, just to appear more human-like.
But this time, who knows what big event has occurred, you could actually see an executive secretary robot "whooshing" past. Has the Human race attacked? Or is it the Mutants?
The Supreme Wisdom doesn't want to fly either, but just because he's a robot, he checked the database and found that the executive secretary of the finance department was not lying; the finance minister indeed approved a goddamned twenty trillion for propaganda!
Logically, this is a good thing for the Three Great Empires because what's being promoted is environmental work, and this work was initiated by the Supreme Magician, which means he's taking the burden upon himself.
But that's not the case at all; the key lies in what Strange said at the meeting: as long as there are results, it's worth it; the head of the propaganda department won't disappoint me.
If you approved several million, or even tens of millions, it's about enough for news website headlines, and ads by video bloggers; but approving twenty trillion means Mephisto and Vesanti have to join hands to sing the environmental song, with big signage at the Temple Gate of Eternity, and the Court of Life has to be dragged in for a lecture; if a single-cell organism hasn't heard an environmental slogan, that's negligence.
It seems like the blame is on the Supreme Magician, but in fact, the blame falls on the head of the propaganda department, and the head of the propaganda department is their person. Tomorrow morning, the Supreme Magician can claim poor propaganda results and directly dismiss the minister or reasonably transfer the work to the ministry of foreign affairs, which has already leaned towards the Supreme Magician.
"Damn Shiller! I knew he didn't have good intentions!" cursed the Supreme Wisdom in his mind. Although his name is "Supreme Wisdom," he named himself, and he is not the smartest person in the cosmos, not even among the sharpest group. Though he sensed that Shiller's attitude was odd, he didn't anticipate he could pull off such a big stunt!
Just entering the finance minister's office, he saw Shiller sitting there, causing the Supreme Wisdom to swell with anger, with the mainframe constantly reporting errors, with nothing to do but ramp up the cooling system.
"Good evening, Secretary-General," Shiller greeted him with a smile, "What brings you here so late?"
"Minister, I heard you approved a budget of twenty trillion for the head of the propaganda department?"
"Oh, yes," the finance minister nodded, "A single day's headline on a news website costs 6 million, and video bloggers are even more expensive. Hiring a top-tier influencer means several million per video, not to mention hiring stars, celebrities, and singers for the promotion, these twenty trillion might not even suffice."
At this time, the Supreme Wisdom realized: the head of the propaganda department is one of his people; how dare he demand so much?
"Where is the funding application? Let me see."
The finance minister passed over a tablet, the Supreme Wisdom took a look, and the application amount was 4,000 million. He flung the tablet and said, "This reads 4,000 million, how did it become twenty trillion?"
The finance minister raised a brow and said, "It seems you don't know? Oh right, you haven't attended the meetings for a few days; naturally, you don't know the Supreme Magician's directive. The Honorable Supreme Mage intended that environmental work is a long-term, continuous effort, and our plan is a 'ten-thousand-year plan,' meaning throughout these ten thousand years, we must continuously promote environmental protection. And the head of the environmental department only applied for quarterly expenses, three quarters a year, thirty thousand quarters in ten thousand years..."
"But even then, it's just over ten trillion!"
The finance minister seemed to understand suddenly and said, "Oh, I seem to have miscalculated... However, since it's already approved, the funds have been transferred..."
"Where did you get the money to transfer?!"
"I don't know, I transferred all the funds. Let me see... Here, see, this account record: after the transfer, there's a twenty trillion deficit, it should already be in the propaganda department's account; if there is no money in his account, then I wouldn't know what happened."
The Supreme Wisdom was about to say "There isn't that much money in the account, so it's impossible for the funds to be transferred." But saying that raises the question of why the account would be so deeply in deficit?
Actually, borrowing money from the Three Great Empires, cash, and budget expenditures are entirely different things, but Shiller made false accounts. The previous finance minister was already dismissed, the new one was clueless, so naturally, whatever he says goes.
Moreover, because the quotes from these websites and influencers are indeed high, and based on a long-term plan, a trillion-dollar budget is quite normal. The numbers are slightly off, but not outrageous, and on the surface seem reasonable.
The Supreme Wisdom couldn't investigate further; the goal is to smooth over the incident, pretend nothing happened, so it's no option to dig up old accounts to scrutinize carefully, making it impossible to mention any deficit, so he had to accept it.
"Speaking of which, it's thanks to the diligent previous finance minister that the interstellar council has accumulated so much money," Shiller continued, "Never mind this, I'll inform the Supreme Magician and retrieve the funds first."
With that, he went out, meeting Strange who just came out of the office. Shiller said, "It's done."
Strange gave a cold smile: "If there's no money in the account, it's embezzled by the head of the propaganda department; it depends on whether the Supreme Wisdom is willing to offer up a large sum to fill the gap and keep his subordinate safe. If he is willing, we have money to spend; if not, I'd like to see who still dares to work for him."
"He can't cover it," Shiller said calmly, "I deliberately had the finance minister admit to an error of twenty trillion to make it unmanageable, rather than the planned over ten trillion, precisely because he can't pull out such a large sum, leaving no room for remedy."
"Let's go, grab the person," Strange said with a flick of his cloak.
"Yes, Honorable Supreme Mage."