When Strange led his men into the office, the Minister of the Propaganda Department was still bragging to others. Leaning back in his chair, feet on the edge of the desk, and shaking his head with his arms crossed:
"Ha, that Minister of Finance is completely useless; he doesn't understand finance at all, and he actually handed over this quarter's budget to me. That's over sixty million! I want to see what he does when other departments come asking him for funds!"
With a "bang," the door was pushed open. Strange, dressed in Supreme Magician attire, said nothing, extended a hand, and a golden glow lit up, trapping the Minister of the Propaganda Department instantly in a cage formed of golden lines.
"Oh my God!" Everyone screamed and fled wildly in other directions. The Minister of the Propaganda Department was even more terrified; he let out a scream and then started shouting for help.
At this time, the Supreme Wisdom also rushed over, shouting: "Stop!"
The next second, he was also grabbed. Honestly, he panicked for a moment because he realized that if he used his domineering attitude from the interstellar council on the Supreme Magician, it was more likely to make him lose his mind and go on a rampage. So he quickly amended, "I mean, Honorable Supreme Mage, please calm down! Let's talk it over!"
Strange cast him a cold glance before silently putting him down. The moment the Minister of the Propaganda Department landed, he began to protest:
"Supreme Magician! The Propaganda Department has always been diligently promoting environmental work; where did I offend you?! Yes, the funds we applied for are a bit much, but you emphasized in the morning meeting that as long as there are results, it's all worth it! If you go back on your word like this, who would be willing to work for you in the future?!"
The Supreme Wisdom sighed, knowing the Minister of the Propaganda Department would definitely try to argue.
The Minister of the Propaganda Department also felt justified. He wasn't unaware that the Supreme Magician wouldn't be fooled into seeing their intentional fund deception to cause damage. However, even if they were to be caught, it should be after the work was complete and results were questioned. After all, he himself said in the morning meeting, "As long as there are results, everything is worth it," which means at least wait for the results before discussing work quality. So even though he funneled so much money, the Supreme Magician would have to grit his teeth and accept it for now.
Unexpectedly, the Supreme Magician was even more reckless than he thought. Never mind the results; the work hadn't even started, and he barged in to reclaim the funds, truly ignorant of politics.
But alas, this fool was indeed too powerful; no one here dared to confront him head-on. If he were too stubborn, not even the Supreme Wisdom could save him. Yet feeling resigned was unacceptable for the Minister of the Propaganda Department. Repayment was inevitable, but why not use this opportunity to tarnish the Supreme Magician's reputation a bit?
He wasn't slandering on purpose. Everyone heard in the morning meeting that the Supreme Magician encouraged them and approved their high fund request. Yet, it didn't take long for him to go back on his word, hardly the trait of a wise ruler.
As he spoke, indeed many onlookers looked towards the Supreme Magician. Although it was known the human race lacked moral boundaries, the speed of betrayal was still startling. No one liked a leader who was capricious, unclear between right and wrong, and who praises you one moment and blames you the next.
Seeing the atmosphere had been stirred enough, the Minister of the Propaganda Department rolled his eyes and said, "I'm sorry, Supreme Magician, I didn't mean to contradict you. Since you think the funds allocated to us are too much, let's have the Finance Department take them back..."
The Supreme Wisdom wished he could rush up and cover his mouth, but with the room under Strange's control now, without his order, no one could move. He could only stand in place, frantically signaling to the Minister of the Propaganda Department with his eyes.
Unfortunately, the Minister of the Propaganda Department, being from the Shi'ar Empire and having no mechanical modifications, couldn't understand the robot's signals or receive any signals from others. So, stiff-necked, he walked to the computer to check the budget accounts.
Yet at this moment, he was shocked to see the millions on the budget sheet he had just been looking at had turned into twenty trillion, changing right before his eyes, numbers increasing as if there were a system error.
"This... the system might have a problem," the Minister of the Propaganda Department said, "I don't know why the figures suddenly went wrong. Mr. Secretary-General, we should check the system first..."
The Supreme Wisdom no longer had the time to deal with him, as he had already connected to the Propaganda Department's system long ago.
He accepted the possibility that the Finance Department's system data might have been altered. After all, humans have super scientists like Stark, and the interstellar council's systems were inherently lax in design to facilitate minor tampering by these mechanical civilizations, making invasion quite normal.
The Propaganda Department's data hadn't been modified, which led the Supreme Wisdom to think they simply hadn't had time. However, if the Propaganda Department's data wasn't changed, then the blame couldn't fall on the Minister of the Propaganda Department. So, they would certainly have to alter it, and it had to be done immediately.
Therefore, the first thing he did upon entering was connect to the Propaganda Department's system, install various monitoring plugins, and watch every bit of data meticulously. For a super electronic lifeform like him, this was a piece of cake.
He was confident that those emotional beings who could only rely on their senses to read data absolutely could not alter the data right under his nose. Even if they could forcibly change it, he would definitely discover it. If caught in the act, the Supreme Mage would be utterly disgraced.
What he did not expect was that after guarding it for half a day, he not only caught nothing but also had the data altered right under his nose, and the perpetrator got away without a trace. This was an utter humiliation!
The opponent destroyed all surveillance plugins in an instant, and their method of modifying the data was swift and decisive, catching the Supreme Wisdom completely off guard. Now the problem arose: if the Supreme Wisdom were to alter the data like the human race, there was a certain chance of saving the Minister of Propaganda, but the opponent's strength surpassed the Supreme Wisdom. If caught in the act by the opponent, he would no longer remain the secretary-general.
To take a risk or give up entirely, the main brain of the Supreme Wisdom pondered for a long time, steaming with indecision, yet it still could not weigh the pros and cons.
"No, someone has tampered with the data!! Someone has tampered with the data!!! Secretary-General, someone has altered the system data!!!"
If the Supreme Wisdom had emotions, his expression would probably be, "You're really annoying." The data was altered right under his nose; how could he not know someone changed it? The question was, how did they do it?
The Minister of Propaganda was no fool; he immediately realized it might be a trap set against himself. Because if the data showed a 20 trillion budget and the Ministry of Propaganda's account didn't have that much money, where did the money go? Who would believe he didn't take it?
Though the amount was slightly exaggerated, he had also mentioned in the morning meeting that propaganda costs were high. Not only was the Interstellar News Network expensive, but the new video ads they wanted to launch were even more so. The figure, while large, was not entirely unimaginable; this move, indeed, was shooting himself in the foot.
So he could only pin his hopes on the Supreme Wisdom because he knew there was only one way to break the situation now: the Supreme Wisdom had to find a way to alter the data back.
The Supreme Wisdom was busy searching for the person who altered the data, but he couldn't find them or any traces. He was still baffled and had no time to care about the Minister of Propaganda.
Seeing his demeanor, the Minister of Propaganda felt disheartened. Biting his lip, shaking all over, the shortcomings of the emotional beings became evident in this moment.
Logically speaking, since the situation was irreparable, he would soon be proven guilty of embezzling colossal public funds. Even if he defected now, not many would believe him, and he might even endanger his family.
The right move would be to take the blame, betting that the Supreme Wisdom, in an effort to win people's hearts, would be lenient in punishment. Even if brought to court, at most he'd get a few years, and after that, he could return to politics as if nothing had happened. In consideration of such loyal scapegoating, he might even advance further.
But emotional beings, unfortunately, lose their reason when angry. If the Minister of Propaganda were a good-tempered smart person, he wouldn't have stuck his neck out from the start. So he gnawed his teeth and lashed out at the Supreme Wisdom: "You bastard! After all I've done for you, now you want to abandon me?! In your dreams!!!"
"Honorable Supreme Mage, it was him! It was he who found me before the meeting and said that if I could pressure the Minister of Finance during the meeting, I'd obtain more propaganda funding, thus creating a budget crisis in the council to hinder your progress!!! It was him!!!"
The Supreme Wisdom's cooling system began to operate at full speed again. Since Strange arrived, he felt the aging speed of his cooling system had increased by hundreds of times, to the point where the fan was getting stuck, creating particularly loud cooling noises. Strange couldn't help but look back at him, worried he'd break down.
At this moment, Strange heard a cough coming from behind. He turned around to see Shiller signaling to him with his eyes.
Strange was a bit dumbfounded. Now it was the dogs of the Three Great Empires biting each other; he was enjoying the show. There should be no lines for him here, right?
Shiller sighed helplessly, stepped forward, and said: "Minister, I entirely understand, the incident occurred so quickly that you didn't have time to think of a proper defense, thus you wanted to push the blame onto someone else to minimize your own culpability. However, blaming and slandering the Supreme Mage's secretary just because he exposed this incident does not diminish the Supreme Mage's prestige. It only makes you appear to be a petty person resorting to frame-ups, trying to incite discord between the councilman and his secretary, which is not clever."
"Since the Supreme Mage took office, Councilman and Secretary have always worked in harmony, without any conflict. What necessity would the Secretary-General have to disrupt the Supreme Mage's environmental initiatives? It's utterly nonsensical. Fabricating such low-level rumors merely to draw attention and divert everyone's focus, I believe all present are wise enough not to be deceived."
Strange widened his eyes at Shiller: No, why are you speaking up for people from the Three Great Empires?
Then he suddenly remembered that they had previously mentioned that Supreme Wisdom and he were from the same department, both belonging to the office of the councilman. In other words, no matter how much discord there might be, it should be resolved behind closed doors and definitely not aired publicly.
So he cleared his throat and said: "Exactly, your form of sophistry is useless. Distinguishing right from wrong is a basic personal quality, and no one will listen to your incitement. I advise you to quickly disclose the flow of the embezzled funds; otherwise, no one can save you."