The next morning, the star zone where the interstellar council is located was still a scene of bustling activity. Public service spaceships shuttled back and forth, and the lobby of the office building was packed with people. However, unlike before, everyone was now wearing suits.
Actually, the human race's creativity is quite strong, especially compared to mechanical life; they are much better at dressing themselves up. But unlike the Shi'ar Empire which goes overboard with decoration, humans emphasize moderation and put a lot of effort into developing a diverse aesthetic style. Take suits for example: there are Italian-style suits, British-style suits, and American-style suits, and among these styles, there are vintage and modern versions, old-school cuts, and new-style decorations. Attention is also given to matching accessories like ties, cufflinks, and lapel pins. In short, there are plenty of styles to choose from.
The Supreme Magician issued a strict order prohibiting the wearing of imperial attire, and no one dared to challenge him at this critical moment. So, despite some reluctance, they had no choice but to look up what exactly the suit he mentioned was.
As mentioned before, many humans appearing in the cosmos wear tight-fitting clothes, so there was a stereotype about them, leading to very low expectations. Even if they wore tight-fitting clothes, they were resigned to it. However, a quick internet search revealed that humans don't just wear tight-fitting clothing; their everyday clothes aren't much different from what other humanoid creatures wear.
When the creator created life, there was a universal template, so most beings in the cosmos are humanoid. Those that aren't are mostly secondary civilizations that emerged after humanoid civilizations were destroyed, generally aren't very advanced. Advanced civilizations are predominantly humanoid; even if they differ in height, skin color, and facial features from humans, they all walk upright with two hands and two feet. Consequently, the clothing culture that evolved is similar to that of humans.
They were amazed to find that in terms of leisurewear, humans are actually quite similar to them, typically wearing loose, soft-fabric clothing. As for suits, considered formal wear by some humans, they viewed them as a style between formal and casual wear.
Most aliens have very ornate and complex formal attire, with imperial attire already being a simplified version, while the noble costumes of the Shi'ar Empire are even more extravagant. Unexpectedly, human formal attire is simpler than imperial attire, requiring no adjustment of sashes, no medals, and no elaborate belt styles.
When they saw the style of the suits, most people breathed a sigh of relief: on one hand, they no longer had to wear tight-fitting clothes, on the other hand, this attire seemed more comfortable than imperial attire, almost like wearing casual clothes to work. No worker ever complains about wearing casual attire; previously, under the weight of the Three Great Empires' authority, they had to wear those impeccably tailored military uniforms, unpleasantly restricting. With Strange's order, they could now comfortably coast along.
Hence, staff members crossed this hurdle without any mental burden and genuinely hoped the Supreme Magician would continue to serve as Councilman for a while so that they could dress comfortably for work.
There were particular considerations when purchasing suits; they certainly couldn't order from Earth, as it was too far away, and even if they didn't understand suits, they knew these clothes had to be tailor-made. They couldn't access Earth's Magical Defense Network, and given that this clothing style was not complicated, it was intuitive, so it might be better to find their civilization's tailor to add some unique flair.
Some clever individuals were already planning to use this opportunity to show themselves in good light before the Supreme Magician. They paid special attention, hurriedly seeking the best tailor in their civilization overnight, analyzing numerous images of humans. Some skilled enough even managed to find Mutants to acquire a few suits for analysis, aspiring to be the sharpest-dressed at the next day's meeting.
The vast majority of aliens opted for British-style suits, primarily because British-style suits also evolved from military uniforms; some old-school British double-breasted suits closely resembled military uniforms and somewhat reminded them of imperial attire, making them suited for serious work settings.
Meanwhile, some members from the Shi'ar Empire or its outlying star systems preferred the colorful Italian-style suits. Nonetheless, even Italian-style suits paled in comparison to the typically ornate imperial attire they usually wore, being only slightly livelier than British-style suits while remaining relatively modest.
Some meticulous Little Smart Ghosts conducted a significant investigation into the Supreme Magician's background and learned he was American, so they purposely tailored American-style suits to bring a taste of his homeland.
Once the meeting commenced the next morning, Strange entered the office and was astonished: the room was full of people seated neatly in an orderly manner, regardless of whether they had yellow, purple, blue, or green skin, whether they were High Elves or Dwarf Goblins, even those with wings on their backs or tails behind them — all dressed in human suits, sitting seriously in their seats.
Seeing this, the scene actually seemed rather odd, bordering on that uncanny valley effect. However, Strange paid no mind to such details; he felt that suits indeed looked more pleasing to the eye. Hence, he himself employed magic, changing into his most frequently worn suit, and took his seat at the head of the table.
He said, "It seems you have taken my words from yesterday to heart. That's very good. I hope you will continue to be this attentive in your work moving forward." Strange surveyed the room and then said, "Alright, as I mentioned yesterday, the upcoming tasks may differ from your previous ones, and departmental roles may be adjusted. So, I will now rearrange the seating: the heads of the Finance and Business Departments will sit to my right, the head of the Resources Department to my left..."
Strange proceeded with reallocating the seating, as expected, everyone engaged in another round of eye contact exchanges. But it was very evident that certain individuals exchanged glances more frequently, and when looking toward others, they carried not a small amount of hostility.
"I don't understand," a Big guy spoke up suddenly, "I'm the head of the Armed Forces Department; how can I be seated at the back?"
Everyone looked in his direction, a long table, he sat in the last row, very far from Strange, while he originally sat in the second row, second only to the Department of Commerce and the Security Department.
The difference between the Armed Forces and the Security Department is equivalent to the Army and the Police. The interstellar council has its own military, called the Interstellar Peacekeeping Force, a joint force of the Three Great Empires, managed by the Armed Forces.
The Security Department also has its own armed forces, officially known as the Interstellar Security Guard Police, but mainly composed of local armed forces from various star systems. This may sound unfamiliar, but it's much simpler when you start with the Guardians of the Galaxy.
In the Guardians of the Galaxy comics, there is often a force that appears; it is the Nova Corps from Sando Star. They have guarded the Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy for many years, often fighting side by side with the Guardians of the Galaxy, and the Nova Corps is organized under the Security Department's Security Guard Police.
On one side is the elite forces of the Three Great Empires, on the other is the militia cobbled together from local armed forces; it goes without saying who is stronger, so the status of the Security Department has actually always been inferior to the Armed Forces—the Armed Forces is the military guarantee through which the Three Great Empires control the interstellar council.
And the head of the Armed Forces has always been a personnel of the Three Great Empires, this time is no exception. In the list submitted by Shiller, there were two Generals of the Kree Empire, one General Skrull, and the final choice was General Skrull, who is the big guy speaking now.
"Alright," Strange waved his hand saying, "I've said, the focus of the next stage of work has been adjusted, we need to focus on environmental efforts. And in terms of going deep into local grassroots, your Armed Forces are not as reliable as the Security Department. Do you know how many civilizations are in Cygnus? Do you know their relationships with each other? Who are the strongest in the star system, who are the decision-makers? How about in the Andromeda Galaxy? Or the Triangulum Galaxy? Your Armed Forces are dealing with the most dangerous wars in the cosmos, how can you handle these trivial matters every day?"
These words both praised and criticized, leaving General Skrull speechless, as Strange spoke the truth: their Armed Forces do not understand the grassroots situation of the cosmos, and he is just a General good at leading troops, the thought of doing environmental work gave him a headache. Thinking like this, not being moved to the front is actually a good thing, after all, he has soldiers in hand and no one can do anything to him.
So, he remained silent. At this moment, another tall skinny person stood up and said, "Supreme Magician, if we are to work on environmental efforts, our Media Department should be at the forefront. Do you plan on relying on the Department of Diplomacy to do media work? Although they are well acquainted with the grassroots civilizations of the cosmos, they are amateurs in the field of media; we are the most professional media personnel."
"Indeed, you're quite professional, the agenda of my topics hasn't been sent out yet, but our environmental efforts have spread throughout the interstellar society, the efficiency is indeed very high."
"But to carry out environmental efforts, of course, we must heavily promote it, we need to make them realize how important environmental efforts are before we can carry on the subsequent work."
"I did not say you're wrong, this lady, uh, or perhaps sir, I just want to ask, the budget for purchasing the Interstellar News Network headline, scrolling banner broadcast for a full day, through which department's account is it coming from?"
"It uses the promotional budget of the Media Department." The Media Department head said confidently. He has confidence because he comes from a financial background, the budget approval process and usage methods cannot have problems, and the person from the Finance Department is completely an outsider, probably cannot even understand the budget approval report, certainly cannot nitpick issues from him.
Unexpectedly at this time, the head of the Finance Department stood up and said, "Supreme Magician, I was just about to bring this up. I completely understand the importance of environmental efforts, and know that publicity should be intensified to educate citizens of the interstellar society on the importance of environmental efforts, but they are spending too much money. If this continues, we will be in deficit before the end of the quarter."
Strange nodded and said, "Environmental efforts are important, but resources cannot be squandered without restraint."
"But the influence of the Interstellar News Network is vast, most citizens of the interstellar society would turn to the Interstellar News Network for the latest information; buying their headline for promotion yields great effects." The Media Department head was not flustered, he brought out a PDA, projected data onto the middle of the table, and then said, "Moreover, with the effort of the hardworking staff of the Media Department, the related environmental campaign posts have been written in an engaging and captivating manner, achieving a click-through rate of 26%, with a complete reading rate of 70%. The editors at the Interstellar News Network have even stated that this is an unprecedented success, although the budget was a bit high, it was completely worth it for such results."
Strange looked at the data displayed on the panel, nodded with satisfaction, and said, "Good, the Media Department head makes a valid point, although a bit expensive, the end result is impressive; we should focus on effectiveness in our work, if excessive cost-cutting and efficiency increases slow work progress, it wouldn't be worth it."
"Supreme Magician, although the Interstellar News Network headline has great promotional power, to be really appealing to young people, it has to be on New Circle Video. It's the largest video platform in the interstellar, hosting billions of popular podcasts from all over the cosmos, and if we can advertise on this site, the promotional effect will improve immensely."
"No, Supreme Magician, because this site is the hottest video platform in the cosmos, the podcasts there ask for exceedingly high prices, easily going for tens of thousands of Universal Coins, with charges only for ads inserted in breaks between videos; if we want them to dedicate a full explanation video, the price might soar into millions. It's just too expensive!"