Food Security (2)
Food Security (2)
"Grow as much as you want and sell it to the Imperial Church and the nobles. If you need legal support, I'll push it through for you."
"Are you serious, Nuna-nim??"
People usually think you're a pushover if you just take it without saying a word.
If they poke you, you warn them not to.
If you get hit once, you have to beat them up aggressively so they think, 'Damn, that bastard is no joke,' and stop messing with you.
But that's only when you're bickering in school, at the level of losing a few teeth peacefully.
You've been challenged at a national level, where tens of millions of lives are at stake?
Do you think you can send them back with just a few teeth missing?
Those Imperial bastards dared to declare that they would swallow up my city, which was living in peace.
They're going beyond simple provocation; they see us as an easy target and are threatening to start a war.
If you leave a guy alive who doesn't know the difference in technology and skill and just charges in relying on his size, he'll eventually come back to eat us, and he'll keep bothering my comfortable retirement life for a long time.
In other words, I have no intention of wrapping this up by just vaguely repelling the Imperial invading army.
All troubles stem from leaving the enemy alive.
If you're told to exterminate the three clans, you have to thoroughly find everyone up to the eighth cousin of the eighth cousin and root out the grudge so you don't have to worry.
Yes, I will thoroughly start from the inside, cook the Empire perfectly to my taste, and swallow it in reverse.
Supplying pleasure drugs to the enemy leadership is part of that.
There is no law or morality to uphold in life-or-death issues between nations.
And even more so in wartime.
[General Director-nim!! I trusted you! I trusted the Director-nim who only thought about the safety of the citizens!! What are you saying!!]
Elara is aghast at the declaration to encourage drug cultivation.
The Management Bureau AI is literally a city management AI.
While other departments focus on their respective government affairs, the Management Bureau maintains and repairs various city infrastructure systems such as satellite communication networks, power grids, water purification and sewage output, and waste circulation.
Based on this understanding of the entire city situation, it also serves a planning role, cooperating with other departments to set and promote urban planning.
Even without this, there are already so many deviant acts to worry about, such as high-intensity crimes using prosthetics, cyber network hacking, and unauthorized illegal procedures, so adding drug legalization on top of that?
It's understandable that she's getting angry at the thought of managing all the expected side effects.
"We won't release it in Lunatium, only in the distant Empire. Right, everyone?"
"That's right, Nuna-nim!"
Just try releasing it domestically.
When I gave them a big smile, the bosses quickly nodded their heads in understanding.
[Ah... then there's no problem...?]
Persuasion complete.
Even if you throw filth, it's fine as long as it's not in our own backyard.
"Don't let your dirty talents rot in Lunatium; let them bloom in other places. If you handle it well and use your head, I'll naturally take care of you."
"How could there be any doubt, Nuna-nim!!"
"Thank you!!"
Pleasure industries such as gambling, prostitution, entertainment, and drugs.
Like it or not, these industries have been with human civilization and will be with us until humanity goes extinct.
Lunatium is the same.
These guys groveling in front of me are the ones systematically operating the brothels, gambling dens, and clubs that exist all over the city.
The reason I don't completely crush these criminal bastards who kill and beat people is that I ultimately need people to take the lead and operate these underground industries.
Completely destroying those who held the leash of the underworld with systematic fear is actually a bad move that spreads disorder.
It's better to focus on organizations where the business locations are clear and crime tracking is easy, and control them moderately, rather than having millions of individuals commit crimes separately in unpredictable places.
If you weigh the difficulty and efficiency, the latter is better.
It's what you call a necessary evil.
Though it's still a fact that they are just parts that can be replaced whenever I want, even if it's a hassle.
"Now that you know, go earn foreign currency in your own ways. You get to be patriotic and earn your maintenance fees, and I just take a small commission from your legitimate income. Isn't this a win-win for both of us?"
"Yes! We will never disappoint you, Nuna-nim!!"
Deol-keong-
The wise bosses left the room happily without a moment's hesitation.
Since they've already learned the know-how of operating a futuristic criminal organization.
It's very productive if they can use that talent and know-how to erode the national power of those Imperial scum instead of wasting it playing tug-of-war with me.
"Elara. Do you know about the Opium Wars?"
[What is this combination of words that sounds terrible just by hearing it...?]
"Anyway, there is such a war."
A war that broke out between the Qing Dynasty and the British Empire over opium.
The British bastards distributed opium in Qing to patch up their trade deficit.
A shameless war unprecedented in the world, waged to force the resumption of opium imports after Qing banned the import of opium that was eating away at the country.
I intend to emulate that miserable history.
"With a population of 3 billion, a vast territory, and priestly forces that wield the incomprehensible miracle of divine power, they are not to be taken lightly."
[Hmm. Even for me, it's burdensome to meet the various demands that will arise on a siege front fighting 3 billion people....]
There's no need to worry about the battles themselves.
No matter how much they wield miracles like aura, magic, and divine power.
They haven't strayed far from the cold weapon combat paradigm where infantry and cavalry fight in formations, and they are greatly underestimating our power.
Conversely, we are, as expected of cyberpunk, not only equipped with advanced autonomous mechanical weapons.
We have long-range firepower that allows an individual operating at a point level to wipe out an entire unit in an instant.
Individual combatants are basically modified with high reactivity using various body modification parts that replace limbs and organs, and intracerebral neuron stimulation circuits.
Since they will be doped with psychotropic combat stimulants before entering battle, they will be able to overwhelm most opponents even in close combat.
However, trying to win a war is a completely different story from predicting the victory of a single battle.
Soldier training. Quality of armament.
It's not the field commander's strategy that determines victory.
Whether you can feed the soldiers on all fronts.
Whether you can maintain all occupied territories.
Whether you can gain the support of all local residents.
Etc.
Because various variables such as economic power, administrative power, war justification, and domestic public opinion are involved in addition to the military's combat power.
No matter how advanced technology is, in the end, it's individual people, not weapons, that face war.
Naturally, the more people there are, the more complex and prolonged the war will become.
Trying to dominate the populous Empire with ignorant force will be a sluggish and painful task.
It's not for nothing that modern nations with overwhelming military power struggle during wars.
"When the enemies dare to underestimate Lunatium, I will not underestimate the Empire. I must encourage their national power to rot from the inside and neutralize it completely."
[Then is the war policy you are proposing, Director-nim, extermination?]
"Extermination, it's comfortable and good."
If we go for an extermination war like the Huns, where we kill everyone without leaving a single person on that land, the story becomes simple.
Since we eliminate the local residents, there's no need to gain support.
No need to divide troops to station in occupied territories.
No militia guerrillas appearing from nowhere to bother our soldiers.
Military supply becomes easier with unlimited looting...
"But if we kill everyone, the land we worked so hard to get won't be tasty. Then the economy won't grow-"
[Sigh, you're going to talk about approval ratings again, right?]
"Yes! Expand the market, grow the economy endlessly, and lower prices. That's the only thing that will support my happy semi-permanent dictatorship life!"
Elara smiled inwardly.
A targeted weakening instruction that specifically aimed only at the clergy and nobles within the Empire?
Excluding the billions of civilians who would be more vulnerable to drugs than anyone else?
There is only one reason why a commendable ruler who holds the strongest city of Lunatium in her hands would choose such a difficult, roundabout way.
[Minimization of suffering.]
The greatest happiness for the greatest number.
Trixie-nim, whom I have watched from the side, has always been in the same direction.
She could have easily deleted us when we were running wild, but she is the owner of a warm heart who chose a difficult path for us, who are merely AI personalities.
Trixie-nim prioritizes her own citizens, but she probably can't just cast aside the people of other countries who will suffer.
If so, I, Elara, also want to help Trixie-nim's arduous and rough, but kinder-than-anyone, journey with all my might.
...Just as Trixie-nim reached out a warm hand to me.
[Really, I have no choice! To think that I would also be involved in Trixie-nim's terrifying world conquest plan. In the future, I, Elara, will be recorded in history books as a heinous AI assistant, but I will do my best...!]
"Stop wallowing in inexplicable misery, stop talking nonsense, and do your job as a secretary properly. Aren't you going to let the next meeting in?"
[Huh? Oh, already the time, Ugyaaaaak-!]
Udangtang-!
The food company board chairmen who were waiting visited next.
"We meet the General Director-nim."
Bow.
Dress shirts and suits.
Bio-engineered prosthetic eyes that can analyze contracts without a single error.
And the management team, armed with business manners ingrained in their bodies, exchanged greetings.
"Let's get to the point quickly. War with the Empire is imminent. You will soon face the unfortunate situation of grain import restrictions. I know very well that production costs will skyrocket."
As expected of corporate heads who are more sensitive to profitable news than anyone else.
As if everyone had their own information network, the chairmen didn't panic much at the word 'war' and nodded their heads.
Of course, nodding and being depressed were separate things.
Anyway, when the government calls companies together, it's always to tell them bad news.
It's probably something like tightening the price ceiling on groceries without any countermeasures.
It's always the companies that die.
"Relax. As you fear, I'm not telling you to starve to death by bringing up corporate social responsibility. No, it's the opposite."
But the General Director overturned the chairmen's expectations and said.
"Whether Imperial grain is cut off or not, you will be able to make margins just like now. I guarantee it."