Published at 18th of December 2025 8:36 am

Chapter 1846 Chasing the Ghost of Perfection 1

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After half a century- year 650 After Coronation.

Young Sector 99-

Inside a vast, empty chamber that contained nothing except a massive desk piled high with stacks upon stacks of books and tablets-so many that the room, by sheer size alone, could have easily housed an entire palace. The lighting was gentle, neither harsh nor dim, creating a calm, steady atmosphere. Behind that mountain of documents sat a young woman, barely visible from between the towers of paper.

A brown-haired girl wearing glasses, her hair tied neatly in a ponytail-this was Emily, the Lady of the Headquarters. In the middle of that overwhelming stillness, she stared deeply at the thick book in front of her, eyes narrowed in total concentration.

"...Aaah It's impossible!"

After hours of flipping through page after page, she finally let her head fall onto the book with a dull thud. "No matter what I try, I can't balance the budget at all!!"

That massive volume held the entire state budget of the True Beginning Empire for the year 650 A.C.-a compilation so terrifying that if any government from a typical millennial empire were to glance at it, they would probably suffer a heart attack on the spot.

The role of the governmental headquarters was not just to coordinate between military and civil institutions. It wasn't merely about mobilizing the police force or enforcing regulations. No... its most critical responsibility was the careful, meticulous management of the Empire's resources-optimizing them to satisfy every sector and ensure smooth operation across all branches of the state.

Meaning...

Suppose there was a mine producing Adamintal, a metal used in inks, ordinary energy equipment, parts of commercial spacecraft, and countless other industries. The duty of the headquarters was to ensure that this mineral was extracted in quantities sufficient for every party that needed it-allocating each sector its share, storing the surplus, and preventing shortages.

And if the mine's output wasn't enough, then the headquarters would issue a directive to the Star-Scout Divisions to locate distant planets containing similar minerals and to wage a resource war if necessary to boost the Empire's supply.

If that failed as well?

Then the next step would be to order the Cradle Empire and the Grave Empire to purchase massive quantities of the metal from foreign dealers-usually stockpiles large enough to last for decades, ensuring not a single industry halted for even a moment.

Problem solved?

Good. Then they would move to the next resource, then the next... and the next...

Resource management was no simple logistical task. It was the razor-thin line separating rich, flourishing empires from poor, deteriorating ones. Some millennial empires survived millions of years, placing even a Nexus-State cultivator in charge of resource administration-yet despite ruling thousands of planets, they still failed to extract true value from them.

Typically, a millennial empire owning fewer than two thousand planets produced natural resources equivalent to about fifteen million Pearls annually. They consumed a portion and sold the rest-let's say a revenue of five million Pearls. These five million were what accumulated in the treasury, rising over time until they eventually reached the billions one day.

But in the True Beginning Empire...

things were drastically, dramatically different.

With the presence of Emily, the numerical prodigy-the woman who views every aspect of existence as nothing more than pure numbers and formulae, a woman who tirelessly pushes herself toward the very peak of perfection in her work, never allowing herself to be distracted by pleasures, indulgences, or even the pursuit of her own personal strength- the situation became slightly different. In fact, it became extremely different.

The True Beginning Empire produces natural resources every single year with a total value reaching nearly 1.2 billion Pearls, an amount so immense it would be considered a mythical figure in the ledgers of other empires.

Thanks to Emily's unparalleled efficiency and the colossal administrative cell she built within the Headquarters -a structure refined under centuries of relentless pressure, meticulous discipline, and absolute precision- there was no longer a single speck of dust on any imperial world that did not have a value, a purpose, and a designated place within her system.

Greenland's renewable soil, for instance-a soil that is extraordinarily fertile due to the concentrated Law of Life and the vegetative essence running through it, soil capable of nurturing every type of crop-was no longer merely "soil." Under Emily's management, it became an exportable strategic resource. The fertile layers were scraped, refined, and transported to other planets to expand agricultural zones, allowing multiple worlds to enjoy thriving harvests. Meanwhile, soil from those planets would be brought back to replace what was taken, and Greenland's natural laws would purify and convert the replacement soil in a remarkably short time.

A certain soft metal that normally required colossal amounts of energy to compress into its optimal state? Instead of wasting power, it was shipped straight to Nihari, where the monstrous gravity would crush it effortlessly- saving time, labor, and tens of millions of pearls in energy expenditures.

Through this relentless, hyper-efficient approach, Emily managed to increase the natural production rate of resources from the standard 15 million Pearls to a staggering 1.2 billion Pearls.

A number so overwhelming that the officials of any thousand-year empire would drop to their knees in awe. It wouldn't even be an exaggeration to say that some of them would bow and prostrate themselves before Emily, begging her to work for them for just a handful of years.

And yet... Emily herself was far from satisfied.

The reason was painfully simple: the entire 1.2 billion Pearls of natural resources did not go to the market to be exchanged for Pearls, or any form of hard currency. Not a single grain of it.

Every last portion was diverted straight into military affairs, the continuous expansion of cities, and the long-term development plan of His Highness Caesar's Empire of Tomorrow.

1.2 billion Pearls in natural resources produced annually...

Against 1.6 billion Pearls in yearly expenses-the needs of the army, the cities,

the police, the Shadow Swords, the Imperial Guard, the craftsmen, and every other critical institution responsible for maintaining the empire's colossal

structure.

Meaning that even after wringing her brain dry and nearly reshaping economic theory by multiplying the natural output nearly a thousandfold, she was still left facing a deficit of 400 million Pearls every single year.

This deficit had remained manageable until a century ago, back when a single

fleet required two years to construct. But after the creation of the five Greed Crucibles and the massive expansion of the shipyard arsenal, six full fleets could now be manufactured every year.

And those crucibles did not conjure starships from thin air. They devoured raw materials, metals, and resources equal in volume to constructing every ship the traditional way.

A twelvefold increase in manufacturing speed meant a twelvefold increase in

resource consumption.

Which meant:

twelve times more mies,

twelve times more transport vessels,

twelve times more extraction labor,

twelve times more salaries...

and the list went on endlessly.

Perhaps the only silver lining in this entire maddening equation was that one of

the core materials required to build the Greed Crucible had completely vanished. It could no longer be found on any world under their care, nor in the entire Soul Society. The last remaining amount had been used by Her Highness Zara and the Disciple of His Majesty to create the final Greed Crucible.

Now, Her Highness Zara was searching for an alternative, and the Shadow Swords were trying to acquire more of that substance from underground auctions across the universe.

If it were still possible to build additional Greed Crucibles... the empire would have been drained to absolute dryness by now.

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