civilwarnovels Chapter 4170 is about the Supreme Mage ( ).
Chapter 4170 is about the Supreme Mage ( ).
Chapter 4170 is, The Supreme Mage (Part 10)
The ring sector was bustling as usual in the early morning. Countless standard-issue ships shuttled back and forth, their pale blue exhaust plumes intertwining and overlapping, tracing graceful arcs. Among them were also private ships from the three great empires. The Kree and Skrull empires' ships were very unpretentious, mostly gray or black shuttle-shaped vessels. Although their interiors were quite stylish, revealing a mechanical, orderly beauty, the truly magnificent ships belonged to the Shi'ar Empire.
The ship Strange used to travel to the election wasn't even the most luxurious in the Shi'ar Empire; it was merely a noble's vessel. The most luxurious royal ship, however, was not only much larger than the previous one, but its decorations were also far more extravagant. The arches were made of solid gold. While gold isn't as valuable in space as it is on Earth, it's still a rare precious metal. It's scarce in every star system. This single arch could buy an entire set of mining equipment, or a civilian version of a gravity tractor.
Not to mention the 360-degree panoramic skylight in the spaceship's rest area. It's not made of glass, but of some kind of high-strength, transparent crystal. Not only is it crystal clear and bright, but it also doesn't compromise the ship's structural integrity in the slightest.
Even more outrageous is that the metal under the bed in the bedroom is made of vibranium alloy. Vibranium is several times rarer than gold. Although Earth isn't vibranium's native habitat, so far, even the three great empires haven't found a place with more vibranium than Earth. Although Earth has opened up its exports and the three great empires have some reserves, it's still extremely rare. Using it for a bed frame is practically a waste.
However, vibranium, also known as sound-absorbing steel, boasts unparalleled earthquake resistance. Using it to make a bed would ensure that no matter how much the spaceship jolted, the person sleeping in the bed wouldn't feel a thing, making it extremely comfortable.
Of course, there are also all sorts of precious green plants. It's important to know that greenery is rare in the universe; otherwise, Earth wouldn't be called a cosmic greenhouse. Two of the three great empires have absolutely no need for plants, and green vegetation is rarely seen on the civilizations and planets under their control. The Shi'ar Empire is somewhat better in this regard, but only to a limited extent. This is mainly because there are too few green plants suitable for the space and spaceship environments. Even on starships built by a civilization like humanity, which has a long tradition of cultivating flowers and plants, the green decorations are mostly artificial flowers.
These Shiar nobles managed to grow real plants on their spaceship, and of all kinds. Whether it was delicate grass or vibrant flowers, they all twined around the archway, complementing the golden decor perfectly, creating a scene of lush greenery and golden splendor.
One element that deserves special mention is the feather motif, a favorite of the Shi'ar Empire. These aren't their own feathers, but rather various types of feathers they've scoured the universe for. For example, they can obtain peacock feathers from Earth and use them to decorate walls with all sorts of patterns. This undoubtedly requires a tremendous amount of time and money. However, the Shi'ar people don't consider this extravagant at all. Nobles supported by the entire empire deserve this kind of prestige.
Just as the ministers were heading to their new departments to hand over their duties, a document was placed on Strange's desk. Schiller greeted him: "Good morning, Sorcerer Supreme. The ministers have reported to their departments. Aside from routine matters, this project is the first long-term task we need to complete. The workflow and outline are here."
Strange took the document and saw that it read "Seeking Comments on a Comprehensive Review of the Level of Interstellar Environmental Protection".
The title wasn't hard to understand, and the keywords were even highlighted in bold. Anyone familiar with government affairs should understand what it meant, but unfortunately, Strange wasn't a politician; he was even an American. So he asked, "So what does this job entail? Is it to gather opinions, or to review environmental regulations?"
"We need to solicit everyone's opinions before reviewing environmental protection measures."
"Why do we need to solicit their opinions?" Strange asked, somewhat puzzled. "If we're going to review something, why should we care whether they want to or not?"
“This is a reminder,” Schiller said, “meaning to give them a chance to conduct their own self-examination first. Only then will we initiate the review process.”
"So, you mean we'll review it regardless of whether they agree or not?"
"That's not necessarily true; it depends on their performance."
Strange looked bewildered again. Schiller sat opposite him, gestured with his hands on the table, and said, "The worst thing we can do when we want to get people to do something is to give orders directly. I believe that with the Supreme Intelligence as our permanent secretary, none of your decrees will be implemented."
"Then what are we going to do?"
"First, we need to review it."
"But if he doesn't want any of my decrees to be implemented, then he can simply choose not to review them."
“That won’t do,” Schiller said. “He can find a reasonable excuse in that thick code if he doesn’t want to carry out your orders.”
"Then can't he use the same reason to avoid conducting the review?"
"Yes, but we can immediately launch an investigation into him. Once the investigation begins, he will have to recuse himself. Any excuse he makes will sound like a sophistry."
“But he shouldn’t be afraid of being investigated,” Strange said, frowning. “He shouldn’t be that stupid. The entire Interstellar Council is under the control of the three great empires. He has no reason to do anything that would give others cause for criticism.”
"That's the essence of censorship. You don't actually have to find anything; you just have to keep investigating. As long as you keep investigating, he has to keep avoiding suspicion and can't do anything else."
"But how can we keep checking?"
“A person is the sum total of their social relationships, so there is an endless amount of information that can be investigated. Moreover, the higher one’s position, the more information can be investigated. On a certain day, month, and year, who one met at the coffee machine in the morning, what one talked about, and where one went afterwards—all of these can become the subject of investigation. As long as the truth is not found out, one cannot return to work.”
"So you're threatening him by interrogating him?"
"Yes, when we play the 'review' card, he can imagine that if he disagrees, we will change the target of the review. So he has no choice but to investigate."
"But what if he doesn't investigate properly?"
"Of course he won't investigate properly. But we don't need to investigate properly either, because we don't really want to find out anything, we just want people to do certain things."
“I’m a little confused again,” Strange said. “You say you want to investigate, but you don’t want to find anything. But how can you motivate people to do something if you don’t find any evidence?”
"The review itself is a signal, meaning that we are going to do this work in the coming period. And if we want the work to be effective, we must make an example of some people. No one wants to be the one to stick their neck out and get punished, so they will restrain themselves and even do things in accordance with the direction of the review. In this way, we will achieve our goal."
“I see,” Strange said with a sudden realization. “We were just sending a signal that we were going to find fault with them, and they would naturally investigate and reflect on their actions. But I don’t understand, why don’t we really investigate? We should be able to find something, right?”
"Of course we can. But if we do investigate and find something, we have to deal with it. If we don't, we're just letting things run wild. But if we do deal with it, we have to be careful not to be too lenient or too harsh, and we have to develop different strategies for different types of people. If we mess up any part of the process, we'll end up making a fool of ourselves."
“I get it,” Strange said. “It’s too much trouble to deal with them, so just scare them a little.”
“That’s right, especially when it comes to environmental issues. Whether interstellar society is environmentally friendly or not has nothing to do with us, so there’s no need to actually investigate. Just scare them into doing it themselves.”
"But why should they be asked to conduct their own environmental inspections?"
"You and I both know that self-examination is never effective. They might restrain themselves a little, or do some superficial work in the short term, but it will never change the essence. What they were like before the self-examination will remain the same afterward."
"Yeah, so what's the point of doing this?"
“This gives us a more legitimate reason to act,” Schiller said with a smile. “In political work, this is a very important point. If you directly seize on their weaknesses and then deal with them, it might seem like you’re making a mountain out of a molehill and being unreasonable. Especially when the other party is very powerful, many people will come out to plead for them, and in the end it will seem like you’re making a big fuss over nothing and are bound to cause some trouble.”
"But if we launch a series of well-known investigations and warnings before taking action against them, repeatedly issuing orders and instructions, and showing an extremely serious attitude and a great deal of momentum, then if anyone commits another offense, it will be considered defying the wind and lawlessness, showing no respect for you, the Supreme Mage, at all."
"If anyone pleads for him now, they'll become the same kind of scapegoat. Like I said, nobody wants to be the scapegoat. Especially since you're not only the Speaker of the Interstellar Council, but also the Sorcerer Supreme. Anyone who wants to offend you will have to think twice, and even fewer will stand up for those who break the rules. We can't let them fall into a helpless situation."
“I understand,” Strange laughed. “In other words, we need to repeat a task over and over again, then increase publicity for that task, and then target specific individuals, and the other party won’t be able to escape.”
“That’s right, exactly. And to prevent them from actually changing their ways, we need to put these things in long and tedious decrees like the documents you have in your hand, so that they think you’re just doing this to show your authority, just a new broom sweeping clean. That way, they’ll be even less likely to change, and when they’re caught, they’ll have no room for excuses.”
“Alright, so who is your target?” Strange asked, then thought for a moment and said, “Shouldn’t we deal with the Kree Empire first? After all, that robot secretary controlled by the Supreme Intelligence is really annoying. If we take him down, you can become the secretary.”
“No, we can’t touch the Kree Empire now. If something happens to the Supreme Intelligence, everyone will know it was you. This kind of elimination of dissidents must be done perfectly, without leaving any loose ends. Ideally, we should get him to resign.”
Strange seemed to be listening to a fantasy. He said, "For thousands of years before we arrived, this place was the territory of the three great empires, and the Secretary General has always been the same electronic life form. You actually want him to withdraw voluntarily? How is that possible?"
Schiller withdrew his hand, sat up slightly, smiled at Strange, and said, "You know, he had no choice."