Response, Action from the Empire
Galactic Empire meeting room.
A group of people were in the meeting place, some were worried, some were mad, while some were totally confused as to why the meeting was called for. Although they weren't physically there, they had to devote time and place to settle for the meeting. A middle-aged woman was leading the meeting this time, her face full of worry and alertness. These were the people that made up the current leaders of the galactic council.
"Serovia, explain the situation." The woman said to the hologram on her right.
"Less than 2 minutes ago, we received a report from the mainframe A.I. managing the virtual reality world. As you all know, our virtual reality space exists in a different dimension and is only accessible through the consoles we have made. One can say that the bits of data they harvest and convert in our dimension are basically the transformation of the matter. Here is the first audio recording of the report." Serovia, a young-looking man, played the audio clip that detailed the battle the A.I. had with the system.
Immediately, the faces of everyone in the council darkened. All of these people were experienced cultivators coming from different backgrounds, and they had one thing in common: the fear and alertness of the unknown, which was faced by the A.I. The middle-aged woman, seeing the change in atmosphere, gestured Serovia to continue.
"Here is the second audio, coming in after 10 seconds."
Everyone intently listened and realized the problem. The mainframe A.I. was forced to restart to return to default settings placed when it was originally created! There was missing data from people's personal storage in virtual reality! No one can identify who or what has these lost data! As they were mulling the situation, Serovia continued to speak.
"As you can see, the dimension was attacked by some unknown being, and it is probable that the being was able to change its state of matter, easily transitioning from physical to digital, and invading our virtual reality server. This led to the problem of the defenses set up by the A.I. to fail because it is possible that it was already inside before it transitioned into its digital form and began to hack through the server's data. In the past 25,000,000 years since the formation of the Galactic Empire, this has been the largest data breach the empire has experienced."
"Not only that, we believe that the virtual reality server will be shut down for an indefinite amount of time while the A.I. system attempts to upgrade itself and its defenses. This would inevitably affect the economy of several tens of planets that were highly reliant on the virtual trade system." Serovia said, causing the God-cultivators of certain conglomerates to whiten.
Although as God cultivators, their focus was understanding the void element, they can only continuously immerse themselves in the Great Void to absorb the Void energy, and make their own universes bigger, more stable, and more complete. The problem is that they would have to take track of where their origin universe is located if they planned to return, and if in the great void they aren't able to do that, it would be like finding a specific protein sequence in a protein solution.
Usually, they didn't have to bother much with the council unless it involved a major crisis for the empire or a foreign God-class cultivator from a different part of the universe began to cause havoc.
This was considered one, as it put a chokehold in the empire's economy and communications. Although it didn't disrupt the two completely, the majority of it is crippled, especially the trading aspect. The virtual world brought about convenience of trading between planets and galaxies under the empire.
"I've gathered this council meeting here today to discuss what modes of action we can take. As you know, the universe is a wide place; it's not just the galactic empire that exists, there are many, many other empires in the universe. We need a way to mitigate the economic impact to create a front against other empires that all is well." The middle-aged woman said, speaking to the God-level cultivators present.
No one rejected the proposal. After all, their foundation was in this empire, so it would be detrimental to damage it for the sake of their descendants and heirs. Anyone who was a member of the council usually represented a force that existed in the empire.
"What do you suggest, Lady Cassandra?" A god cultivator asked the middle-aged woman.
"Well, first and foremost, I will be declaring a state of emergency, rank 0, the highest priority. I will then need to utilize the transportation companies in the empire, as well as all business and commerce alliances. Pricing will be controlled where it breaks even and gives at least 1% profit.
We have to ensure we have enough spaceships, supplies, and protection for these spaceships when transporting from one planet to another. We shall ensure that the supply chains are not completely disrupted, but it is ok however to slow it down for the next couple of days, weeks, or months until the mainframe A.I. has finished upgrading.
This would require a unanimous agreement of all transportation conglomerates, all their subsidiaries, and partners. Not only that, but companies that focus on security must also give a lower hiring rate for these transportation conglomerates, probably at cost value for big shipments, 5% more than cost value for medium shipments, etc."
"At the same time, every major leader of business alliances and families that are members of the galactic council must sign a soul contract that their respective powers will not hinder the transportations directly or indirectly, while ensuring a percentage of 5% corruption or less in this period of time.
In 2 months, this contract will be invalidated, depending on whether the situation had recovered; if it has not recovered, the contract will still be invalidated and another required meeting will be held to discuss the situation." Cassandra, upon saying all these, looked at the reactions of the leaders in front of her. Although she was currently the head representative, everyone had a voice in the council.
The faces of some leaders showed a visible frown, their brows furrowing a bit, some had their eyes squinting, while others looked at her with a curious, interested look.
Emergency Rank 0!
Transportation companies will rise in this period!
No interference!
Soul contract!
2 months period??
Everyone remained silent. That was the process in these meetings. Information would be presented, giving time to think about these things before voting. There were rare cases in which people would butt in midway, but generally those were for more politically-related discussions or issues on economic/military direction.
After observing their reactions and noting their names and faces, she continued the statement of her action plan for the council to approve.
"Ok, the last to solve would be the supplies themselves.
Although most planets are quite self-sufficient, and the majority of the population in the empire have reached Mythic class or higher already, enabling them to forgo the basic functions of eating, drinking, and even excretion, there is still a vulnerable 40% of the population who are below the Mythic Class.
Some planets are not natural exoplanets but rather terraformed for usage, but this had caused the food supplies to be imported from other planets. The planning of the division and transport of supplies can be done through algorithms, but we need to input what do we prioritize: The planet's general economy, or the number of vulnerable populations on the planet when we send in resources?" Lady Cassandra continued on, her voice a bit weary but still contained a hint of her iron will.
The other God cultivators were in thought. Although 5 of the God cultivators that were present are the de facto leaders of the transportation market, there were only 2 God class cultivators who are in the security market, making them have a duopoly in pricing. Concerning the exoplanets under the Empire's rule, the God cultivators technically own a certain number of planets to be considered part of the council, making sure that they are representing a group of people. Each of these God cultivators has established complex trade systems with other planets belonging to other God cultivators.
For a moment, the council was silent, before voices sounded out.
"Agreed."
"Agreed."
"Agreed."
...
Lady Cassandra, upon hearing the decision of the council, nodded her head in silent relief. They have tided over the initial chaos. Hopefully, the economic brunt to the empire would not be so severe in the coming days, weeks, or months. The supplies and trade materials should focus on maintaining the current economic status or slow down the increase of inflation without rapid repercussions. Care packages for the vulnerable populations would be limited to 2 times a month, each package calculated per the planet's economy and living wage; all these can be calculated by other auxiliary AIs within galaxies.
After all, this was the universe. There were so, so many other groups of beings in play. They had to defend against possible excursions of militant and terrorist groups already within their country, as well as some of the older, established, hidden families within the territory.
Although they had representatives and members working within the Empire's bureaucratic divisions, greed can be a problematic thing, even for strong people. After all, cultivation itself is founded on the idea of breaking one's limits by consuming the energies of heaven and earth.
..
..
On that day, the Empire released an announcement concerning the issue to placate the masses, and for the large enterprises and businessmen within alliances, they were issued a more-detailed breakdown of the situation and what their respective members and alliances must do to avoid economic downturn.
Within 3 hours of issuing, all parties of different sectors mobilized, new contracts were signed related to logistics, transport, goods, and services.
Companies began to formulate and investigate their specific virtual losses in preparation to inform their customers, as well as find a way to either replace the lost items or refund them partially. Others began to issue discount vouchers, or value vouchers that had specific spending amount.
4 hours after issuing the statement, prices of physical goods increased, while prices of goods related to the virtual reality plummeted by 20%, the maximum it could fall because it was supported by the government, limiting the price changes within that range.
8 hours later the logistics systems of every galaxy and inter-galaxy transport were beginning to ship out and transport items. Security, especially in warp channel areas, were tightened, so pirates did not dare to target the large ships moving out and about. After all, behind them is generally a large family or corporation. All of them were unable to direct their pirate groups to sabotage their competitor's products or deliveries…for a period of 2 months.
This was because the leaders of these groups had already signed a soul contract with the current leaders of the Empire's council, and they would not risk their cultivation and lives for small gains.
Although a minority disagreed with the plans presented due to their current interests being affected for a short period of time, causing uncalculated losses, the majority still agreed, forcing the rest to sign the soul contract as well.
The 2-month period was the most vital for the Empire, whether it would decide to completely close the borders of the empire as the economy began to spiral out of control, or would they move from Emergency level 0 to level 2. If there was no significant change and the AI systems are still reprocessing their reactivation and upgrade procedure, Emergency rank would decrease to level 2, but still on high alert for external and terrorist threats within the empire, and on their border planets.
If, however, the situation had worsened, the soul contract would increase their active period of 2 months to 1 year. This was a non-negotiable section of the soul contract; at the same time, the other provisions shall be activated, which mobilizes the entire economy of the empire instead of an aspect of logistics and supplies. Forced military conscription will occur to begin to absorb planets in uncontested areas, improving natural resources accessible for the empire.
At this point, if the AI virtual reality is still down, the leader along with a select group of members from the council will enter the virtual world and kick-start the reactivation of certain, minor virtual realms.
However, all they can do right now is wait for the situation to stabilize or turn for the better; after all, none of them were digital lifeforms. They really couldn't proceed to help with the situation.