The Interstellar Council established four departments in one day. But that wasn't the limit; during the subsequent handling process, various issues arose, forcing The Supremacy to establish five more departments: the Energy Department, Education Department, Communications Department, Development Department, and the Industrial Department, along with three independent agencies, which are the Quick Response Team of the Agent Agency, the Anti-Discrimination Workgroup against Racial Discrimination, and the Efficiency Monitoring Affairs Group, specifically used to coordinate various government departments.
In other words, in one day, the departments of the Interstellar Council went from 7 to 16, more than double.
Initially, because of the hasty establishment, all employees of all departments were The Supremacy alone. But as the departments grew, continuing like this clearly didn't sit well with others, especially carbon-based life forms.
If there were only 10 departments, occupying two or three wouldn't be unreasonable. But having 9 out of 16 departments? That's indeed a bit excessive. The Shi'ar Empire was particularly unrested about it.
During the prosperous times before, I could overlook this, just living with the Great Teleportation Gate. But now, nobody's having an easy time, even the landlords don't have excess food. Is it appropriate for you to take so much alone?
Thus, in the end, they discussed and reverted to the original model. However, The Supremacy kept an eye out and took the minister roles of two departments, one being the Transportation Department, the other the Ministry of Labor. The Skrull Empire took four departments, and the Shi'ar Empire took three.
This way, the new departments were nearly sorted out. But the more departments there were, the more new problems emerged, such as poor coordination or people taking the chance to embezzle funds. Moreover, ministers connived against each other, unwilling to relinquish their powers. The old ministers wanted to undermine the new, while the new ministers aimed to seize a piece of power, resulting in a fierce battle.
Even the secretarial robots were dragged into it. After all, in politics, where you stand determines where you sit. If ministers are involved, and you're not, doesn't that make robots easily replaceable?
Robots lack ambition, but their responsibilities dictate that they must fulfill their duties from specific positions. If those positions are lost, their duties can't be fulfilled. So, to secure their standing, even they had to jump in unwillingly.
The executive bodies were almost entirely engulfed, either choose a side or perish. And choosing a side is complex, factoring not just race but also parties and mutual connections. Any slight mistake could result in irreparable downfall.
The Supremacy diluted the power to ensure checks and balances among them. But since ancient times, checks and balances are another term for 'inefficiencies and waste.' When everyone's power diminishes to the point where maintaining oneself becomes difficult, they are forced to struggle desperately.
Greed is terrifying, but even more so is the will to survive. The Supremacy's method essentially transformed their limited greed for power into a survival instinct, compelling them to fight. No matter how stable or glamorous a political scene appears, it inevitably turns into an Animal Fighting Arena. Unfortunately, emperors who've historically played checks and balances inevitably checkmate themselves in the end.
Although Strange is the nominal emperor, he doesn't manage anything. The real power-holder is The Supremacy. Thus, he found the situation not only unresolved but worsening.
Previously, expenditure approvals were solely hindered by the Finance Department. Now, they rotate among at least four or five departments. Each person sets heavy restrictions, each with special demands, making approval impossible.
The Supremacy isn't foolish. He quickly realized: power is finite, but the desire for power is boundless. In fact, the smaller the power, the greater the desire for its execution, quite like 'holding a chicken feather as a token of authority.'
Since their power is so small, only by exaggerating and making bizarre and difficult demands can they show they have power. They must put on a brave front to secure their positions. As everyone does this, naturally, nothing can be accomplished.
Any application submitted by a department is inevitably unapprovable. Because if it's approved, the opposite party may think you have no real power and are easy to deal with, leading to future troubles. But if it's not approved, everyone views you as difficult to deal with, keeping them at bay.
Therefore, the aftermath of bureaucratic bloat inevitably leads to policy stagnation. And because the government is stalled, yet work needs to be done, new departments are created. Yet the new departments further divide power, making everyone more anxious, clinging to whatever power they have, offering no opportunity for others, and thus avoiding implementing anything. Almost every dynasty's end followed this path of demise.
Within just a week of Strange's arrival, the Interstellar Council sped through the human race's political journey of hundreds to thousands of years, evolving from an ignorant infant to a decrepit elder, as if time had been fast-forwarded.
Unfortunately, reaching this stage triggers a qualitative change. People finally realize that instead of clinging to their power tightly, it's better to block newcomers' paths. As long as there are no newcomers, it's fine to cling to what little they have, living out their days in comfort.
Hence, the Legal Department began researching laws, the Interstellar Court fully cooperated, the Ministry of Labor and the Development Department responded actively, and even the Agent team proceeded methodically, as if everyone covertly worked together on some task.
In areas The Supremacy hadn't noticed, a brand-new Interstellar Code was produced. This new code was forty million times the length of the previous version, meticulously detailing each step of every process. But, it was all written in English.
When The Supremacy finally realized it, the situation had turned where everyone could justifiably do nothing because they were acting according to the law. The law prescribed their irresponsibility, and nothing could be faulted with the procedure.
Even if some actions are somewhat excessive, those actions would be caught by ambiguous legal stipulations, interpreted in any number of reasonable ways. As long as one finds a good lawyer, they could instead embarrass the investigators.
Thus, the first ones to find interstellar employment were not Earth's engineers and scientists, nor the most formidable superheroes, but Earth's lawyers.
Upon hearing that aliens wanted to hire them for lawsuits off-planet, they were initially anxious and specially requested a copy of the code for study. After just two pages, they were completely at ease; they didn't even need to look at the rest, as they could predict the content of the remaining laws with their eyes closed.
The lawyers from Earth didn't even need to change their language. Remarkably, neither the plaintiff nor the defendant required translators; even the judge and jury spoke with an authentic London accent. And since the Shi'ar Empire's staff often mentioned "the Queen," it felt just like being at home.
Many people might wonder: with the interstellar society having developed for so many years, how could it be outpaced by the human modern society that has only been around for a few hundred years?
But in reality, the human race is a rather unique example in the cosmos — truly one of a kind.
The places where all the interstellar council politicians originate develop in a similar manner: First, there is a planet with a fairly decent natural environment, no natural disasters for millions of years, and a race that doesn't have fatal defects, achieving unification at the same time their basic genetic development is completed. The governing system's efficiency is just right, and then they rapidly develop over a few thousand years without interference, and luckily figure out superluminal engine technology themselves, or they gain access to superluminal technology's pathway, and thus enter the interstellar era.
It is not difficult to see that this is the normal development process of an advanced civilization capable of interstellar colonization. It may seem overly idealistic to some, but it's actually a survivor's effect.
The amount of life birthed in the universe is uncountable, and the civilizations that have developed are innumerable. All members of advanced civilizations able to find positions in interstellar society may be the fortunate few among trillions of civilizations. It's like, on a train, all you see are those who got tickets, of course you won't hear tales of how hard it is to get a train ticket from them.
And the fact is, if any aspect is not achieved, such as poor genetic development, a slow pace of unification, being discovered too early by another advanced civilization, or failing to achieve superluminal technology — or not being able to reach that path, or encountering inexplicable natural disasters, or getting caught in some conspiracy — it would end them directly.
Yet the human race is the only one with severely underdeveloped genetics, never having experienced an era of unification in history, having remarkable talents that interstellar society took notice of early on, and until a few years ago hadn't even touched the threshold of the superluminal engine, and yet can today comfortably mingle with this group of normal advanced civilizations.
It's similar to a wolf from Wall Street stumbling into a primitive tribe. Yes, this analogy is not reversed; that is indeed the case. While the Earth is referred to as a cosmic greenhouse, in reality, these other advanced civilizations are the flowers in the greenhouse. Humans are different — their approach to being messed up is uniquely styled and spectacularly flashy, otherwise, with such a primitive level of development, they wouldn't be sitting at the same table with these others.
Therefore, the essence of human civilization may not always be rich, but the dross surely is dross enough, playing no positive leading role, but excelling in the art of dragging others down, unable to create healthy competition, they mainly excel in collective mediocrity. Other civilizations' cultural spread is termed nurturing, while human cultural spread is akin to an infection.
It can only be said that human history, a book full of uncorrected mistakes, is destined for two possible outcomes: either to become an interstellar forbidden book, or to become the new Bible.
Regrettably, those most capable of banning this book missed the best window of opportunity, and due to totally failing to comprehend how bad humans could be, lacking the necessary reverence, they let the situation get uncontrollably out of hand.
However, this is not the end. After all, cosmic legends about humans are merely circulating, and humans, haven't even joined this game yet.
"What did you say?" The Supreme Wisdom looked at the Minister of Development, feeling as though all its processes had halted for a second, "Can you say that again?"
"After careful consideration across multiple departments within the council, we believe that the proposal to sell the Parliament Star is workable, and could bring a lot of benefits, alleviating the issues currently faced by the council. There are no legal impediments, so we may have to trouble you, to ask the Councilman to approve our joint application..."
"You mean, you want to sell the planet beneath our feet? Is that right?"
"Yes, because it indeed is the best proposal to handle the current situation. We..."
Before he could finish, what appeared in front of him was a fist the size of a sandbag from the Supreme Wisdom.
"Bang!"
"Hey, Secretary General, what are you doing?!" Strange, just coming out of the office, was stunned. He said, "Is there nothing you can't say properly? That's your colleague, violent behavior is unacceptable!"
The Supreme Wisdom gritted its teeth and said: "Yes, Noble Master."
```