Chapter 2435

2435 - Austerity

Young Sector 99—

Emily was sitting in her office as usual, both hands placed over her head, her eyes unfocused.

A long time ago, she had taken a break from work pressure and gone to her new friend Morgana to ask for help… The reason at the time was that she had too much money but no one to buy enough from to feed the Greed Crucibles.

Morgana at the time helped her in two ways… The first was that she introduced her to the Sons of the Behemoths, and they had already begun trade operations with them that significantly alleviated the problem.

The second was that Morgana helped her compress her first Royal Star using the Arkalonian Method for Compressing Royal Stars, then gave her a later appointment after she had expanded her range enough and helped her compress the second star!

With Immense Soul Power and Two New Independent Consciousnesses, Emily returned to work with a clear mind and great energy.

Her new relationship with the Sons of the Behemoths, her effective soul power, the dedicated trade network that His Majesty had completed… All of this made working on it easy for a while, to the point that she forgot how difficult it had been in the past.

But now she remembered clearly again…

Qarun's announcement struck everything she was doing like a truck.

People across the universe stopped buying Lord Human's products after the disasters leaked against him, and organizations emerged copying his old works and selling them for their own benefit at lower prices.

It was true that the Soul Society itself still prevented these copies and maintained Lord Human's legitimacy over his properties, but other means of selling were also widespread everywhere… all of them had ties to the Syndicate or the Stellar Academies in those Sectors.

At first, people themselves attacked any such copying attempt, wanting to support Lord Robin so he would produce better and more things for them, but now this was no longer a problem—no one wanted to support the killer of the Cosmic Elder and tamer of The Plague, agent of the ancient entity and starter of wars, shedder of blood and mastermind of the universe's ruin… Robin Burton.

This caused the largest portion of The Empire's profits to witness an immediate freeze.

Not only that, all products of the empires affiliated with His Majesty witnessed stagnation and no one wanted to buy them anymore, whether raw materials or the curse and talisman packs whose secrets were decoded from The Curse and Talisman Galaxies and became income sources for The Cradle and Grave… all of this stopped.

No major power wanted a relationship with His Majesty in any official form.

The only remaining outlet for them was the dedicated trade network, where exchanges took place securely and in complete secrecy.

This network remained fully operational for a while; even those who did not want official dealings would resort to the network to trade with the forces under Lord Robin… but even this did not last.

That network relied on two parts: first, the methods of communication, negotiation, and payment through the Soul Society, then delivery through the sectors of the Great Space Gates.

The Soul Society part remained operational as usual… but the Tyrant Galaxy began exposing any dealings conducted through that network.

The gate officials began tracking the movement of individuals from the moment they left their clans and empires until they reached The Cradle and the Grave or any force under Lord Robin, even if there were intermediaries, they were monitored… and any force doing this was exposed as partners of the universe's saboteurs.

Therefore, even that sole outlet had been disabled and became useless…

And this was not a disaster only for the forces under His Majesty, but for the entire universe.

For this calamity did not befall the universe because of Lord Robin's products, The Cradle, and the Grave alone; Arkail, Grafour, Kiryān, Kaylis, and Zavarus were among the boycott list, and every one of them had products that everyone was waiting for.

Especially Zavarus, who relies on his products for 90% of the universe!!

But even if they were forced, under the pressure of the Syndicate, the Tyrant, and the Lord of Thrones, everyone swallowed their tongues and endured, watching the losses fall upon everyone without exception.

In a great stagnation that struck the entire universe...

Emily had nothing but what was under her hand.

The production of their subordinate planets, the money and resources they had already gathered in warehouses before the stagnation, and perhaps exchanges with the five Behemoths under their command — that was all she had to feed the 35 Greed Crucibles, the weapon factories, talismans, curses, doses for the armies, and everything else related to the military or internal affairs.

Fortunately, she had learned from the past and exploited the large amounts of money to buy double the required resources each time, so a massive stockpile remained with her... but there is no such thing as a massive stockpile in the face of the tremendous productivity they need daily.

Only about ten years had passed since the announcement, and the stockpile had dropped to half.

Most of the Crucibles' productivity was directed toward transport and excavation vehicles so that the Empire could expand internally and stop relying on purchases, and this was beginning to show results.

But this also affected war funding over the last ten years… fleets production nearly stopped, even though this was the time they needed military production the most.

But under these circumstances, self-sufficiency became more important.

The Marshals were told to restrain themselves and hold their borders during the austerity period until they reached the goal of self-sufficiency — a goal that was no longer far off with the five Behemoths and the massive excavation and transportation network…

But if the Marshals restrain themselves, who will restrain the enemies?

Marlik the Butcher gathered the alliance and attacked Middle Sector 89. Within three years, a massive war will erupt, and huge urgent orders came for Arrays and fleets and~ and~

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Where will all this be provided from?!