Food Security (1)
Food Security (1)
Calm down your sockets and think this through step by step.
It's not like those scum from the Empire are acting up without something to back them up.
"Elara. Bring out everything from the market research."
[Yes!]
Chwareureuk-!
Cheker Green Onion flavor, Corn Frost flavor, Arthropod Protein flavor...
Nutritional Blocks produced by Lunatium's leading food companies are laid out.
Lunatium is a strictly efficiency-oriented, cyberpunk, lumpen-capitalist city.
To efficiently snatch away even the meal times of the millions of poor working-class people, and to ensure sustainable life activities for workers, the elite Ph.D.s in the sleepless crunch think-tank created these healthy, square, solid foods as the staple diet.
I peeled open the Nutritional Block packaging and read the ingredient labels one by one.
"This is Empire-made, too. That one is Empire-made as well. There isn't a single product that doesn't contain Empire-grown grain."
[Well, for efficiency, Empire-imported grain is the cheapest and most convenient to supply.]
The problem is the source of the food ingredients.
Mass cultivation across a vast territory that encompasses the entire southern part of the Yggdra Continent.
Billions of people overflowing as much as the territory, and cheap labor costs due to the slave system.
Above all, the Empire's grain production, cultivated by pushing the resilience of farmland and crops to the limit based on the divine power of priests, is simply overwhelming.
Thanks to that, it was safe to say that there wasn't a single country in this world that didn't consume Empire-grown grain.
In other words, the moment any country crosses the Empire, they face a situation where they absolutely lack the food to feed their countless citizens.
Naturally, the Empire must know this fact better than anyone.
The moment they cut off grain exports, millions of Lunatium citizens will starve. They're using food as an asymmetric weapon.
"They're basically saying, 'If we don't feed you, do you have any way to survive?'"
[We'd live just fine without food, though—gasp!]
"Install some human sensitivity instead of machine logic."
I immediately grab her holographic ears and preach to her.
"Unless you're from the middle class or higher, who have replaced their stomachs with nuclear fission artificial stomachs or transferred their consciousness into mechanical bodies to be free from the act of eating... the working class, who can barely afford a simple exoskeleton, will collapse the moment the supply of Empire-grown grain is cut off, unable to withstand the increased food prices."
[I-is that so? We have over a year's worth of stockpiled grain. The unit price would go up a bit, but colloquially speaking, we could dig up dirt and synthesize substitute nutrients as much as we want—gasp!!]
"I'm telling you, that unit price is the serious problem."
Squeeeze...
The result of developing high-intelligence autonomous personality AIs that learn by judging for themselves and finding answers was a minor downside: they could become as stubborn and stupid as humans.
Let's skip the sad reflection that Lunatium, having reached the pinnacle of technology, stuck AIs into government head positions with the complacent belief that these idiots would govern the city better than anyone else.
Anyway, the point is.
"I must remain in power permanently. To stay in power, I need the support of the citizens. Therefore, prices must not go up, not even a little. Under my rule, prices must continue to go down, or at the very least, be maintained."
[Yes???]
"I'm sitting on this throne because the citizens support me. If consumer prices rise and public sentiment hits rock bottom, won't I eventually be physically kicked out?"
[No, whether viewed institutionally or physically, even if someone wanted to kick out the General Director, there is no one with the power to do so-]
"I can't lose this sweet-ass job. Therefore, stabilizing the cost of living is essential, even during wartime. I have to think, so don't talk back anymore."
[.]
Management Bureau AI Elara.
She watched the General Director, who was making absurd demands about securing approval ratings, and thought quietly.
Even though she had been watching from the side for years, Trixie was a truly incomprehensible weirdo.
A strange machine personality that was more human than a human.
The position of General Director is one that is elected only when all four autonomous personality AI assistants—including the Management Bureau that Elara herself oversees, as well as the Defense Bureau, Administrative Bureau, and Enforcement Bureau—express no objection.
As it is a position that represents and leads the four departments and all of Lunatium, if even one AI objects, one cannot become General Director.
Since each AI has a different field of expertise and personality, even if someone managed to become a candidate for General Director with great difficulty, there was always at least one who objected.
Thanks to that, she thought the position of General Director of Lunatium would remain vacant forever.
"It's a headache even if I tell the food companies to stop using Empire-grown grain immediately. The price is a problem, but the fact that the raw materials to be put into the Nutritional Block production process will be empty is the problem..."
[General Director, you are so cool.]
"What kind of bullshit is that all of a sudden? Use the memory you're allocating to contextless, useless flattery to think of a constructive solution."
She's always like that.
On the outside, she grumbles, gets annoyed, and puts on a cute show of being more selfish than anyone else.
But on the inside, she cares more about this entire city than anyone else, not herself.
What does it matter to Trixie-nim if food prices skyrocket and workers suffer from hunger?
If Trixie-nim only wanted to take care of herself, she would be confident even if the whole world, including Lunatium, came at her.
But because she truly empathizes with the pain others will suffer, she must be hiding her kind heart by making up such forced excuses.
It's cute how she hides it by framing it as her own benefit, even though there's no need to hide her good intentions.
Because she smells like a 'person' like that.
Is that why even I and the AIs from other departments unanimously agreed to Trixie-nim becoming General Director?
[...But General Director. I can transmit the data table into your mind map, so do you really have to check it with your naked eyes? The posture you're taking, leaning your face in to read the small text printed on the packaging one by one, looks extremely uncomfortable...]
"I find this comfortable."
[If that's the case, then I can't help it ㅠ]
Even her way of handling work smells like a person, which is a facet I just can't get used to...
Instead of capturing every single ingredient label with her lens, it would be easier to just receive the table uploaded to the database.
Could it be that one can only become a ruler who truly cares for the city if they try to emulate humans with such all-out effort?
Sigh. If that's the case, it seems I'm still a long way from catching up to Trixie-nim.
"Okay, plan complete. Elara, prepare to execute exactly as I say."
[Ah, yes! What should I process?]
"First, summon all six former crime syndicate bosses. Make sure they assemble in the Management Bureau Director's office within 30 minutes."
[Yes?]
What on earth does food have to do with rehabilitated crime syndicates?
[I can't even guess the General Director's intentions, but I understand. Mass message transmission to the encrypted server complete! What are the next instructions?]
"Call all the board chairmen of the food companies. Coordinate them so they can all enter the Management Bureau Director's office exactly 60 minutes from now."
[Yes!]
Ding-
Transmission complete.
Hmm, I don't know how she's going to proceed with this, but...
It's certain that Trixie-nim's methods have always been hot-blooded and reckless.
I'm sure it'll be the same this time, right?
///
30 minutes later.
"Alright, alright, un-furrow your brows and lift your heads. Someone might think I'm going to eat you alive."
"Y-yes, yes! Understood, Noona...!"
The Director's office.
A pink-haired beautiful girl sitting with her legs crossed.
An incomprehensible scene unfolded before such a girl: six underworld bosses kneeling on the floor, trembling.
Black Society, Duhan, Dalks Family, Albus Mafia, Teruzuki Yakuza, Rejiogi Cartel.
The heads of the criminal organizations that used to control the dark shadows of Lunatium were all unable to even lift their heads, wary of the 140cm-tall machine girl.
"The reason I called you all here is nothing special."
Gulp!
Every time that psycho said it was nothing special, an organization would be physically dismantled and their business would be wiped out entirely.
They knew all too well from experience that they wouldn't get anything out of it if they stood up to her.
The bosses, who had long since lost their fighting spirit after being harshly educated by Trixie, waited quietly for what was to come.
"Although you are ex-convicts, you are still precious citizens that I must take care of. However, I've been thinking that I've been tightening the screws on you too much lately. I intended to give a small gift to you all who have successfully rehabilitated by following the authorities' guidance so far."
What kind of unreasonable demand is she going to make to set the stage like that?
The bosses all had nothing but ominous premonitions.
Sure enough.
The General Director smiled, clasped her hands together, and dove straight into the main point.
"Your turf. I mean, there were a lot of unregistered side-extending vertical structures attached to the forest of buildings in District C, where the workers are."
"H-huk...!"
They flinched as if their reverse scales had been touched.
Side-extending vertical structures.
In other words, Parasitic Architecture.
An architectural style of attaching new structures to the walls of existing buildings.
And ah, these cute underworld friends have packed vertical farms so densely that sunlight can't even reach inside the buildings.
"It is truly mysterious how, without me knowing, a special zone for promoting vertical agriculture has spontaneously formed in District C. I am very curious about what kind of groundbreaking genetically modified crops are growing here. Just how productive and upright are the plant seeds growing here that you were hiding them so tightly, not saying a word, and proceeding with a surprise without me? Hahahaha."
"N-Noona! This is, so that means...!"
Naturally, because it is a form that floats in the air without pillars, it is a building method that is very strictly regulated by modern safety standards.
And that is the same even in a cyberpunk world where material engineering and construction methods are developed.
Given the conditions of a vertical city where the floor area ratio is already packed, regardless of the fact that it is openly practiced for space expansion, it is clear that it violates the safety standards listed in the city's regulations.
This alone is enough to find fault and have it demolished...
What kind of commercial crops were these friends, whose limbs I had cut off here and there and who were desperate for maintenance costs, growing?
It was obvious.
"You know I hate people who talk in circles more than anything in the world."
"Yes. You've always been lenient if we answered honestly, Noona..."
"Answer."
Hemp.
Poppy.
Cocaine.
Tobacco flowers.
Hallucinogenic mushrooms.
Belladonna.
As expected, a variety of colorful drug crops.
They are certainly things that are desperate for the painful lives of the common people.
Though they can't fill their stomachs.
"Geez. The items don't even overlap, you're all so diverse."
"Yes! You told us not to fight among ourselves, so we planned it out in advance!"
"No, why are you revealing that so pitifully like it's something to be proud of? I'm truly dumbfounded."
"Then does this mean we have to fold this business too, in the end? It hasn't even been a week since we painstakingly brought in unpolluted soil from outside the city..."
"Ah."
Depressed-
Watching the former underworld bosses who had quickly reached a conclusion among themselves and become dejected, I said.
"No. I'm going to encourage it like crazy. Grow, process, and package as much as you want, and churn out high-purity products in mass quantities."
"Yes?"
"I didn't hear you correctly??"
[General Director??????]
Grin.
I smiled, unbothered by the shock of the crowd, and continued the story.
"You are all my precious citizens, too. Humanly speaking, I should give you at least one hole to breathe through."
Naturally, this is not about improving the food situation for our Lunatium citizens.
Even dog shit is hard to find when you need it for medicine.
If they are playing games with food, shouldn't we also respond with a hot counter-attack?