That interview could have gone so much worse. Returning to the Basilicom nearly had my stomach give out on me due to stress. Between it and the raid, I nearly was sick with worry. But the interview could have gone worse, and the after-action reports of the raid painted a promising picture. A considerable amount of ASIC's production capacity in both pirated software and their monster disks had been wiped out, as were a considerable amount of finished products were destroyed. We'd caught them with their pants down, thankfully enough. There were in truth, more arrests and destruction of ASIC criminal assets, than a whole lot of fighting.

A good job that deserved a proper reward, giving those who partook the rest of the night off, and those I couldn't afford to, as we needed to be ready for ASIC's retaliation, vacation time to compensate, and I was thinking of other measures, too, but I was going to have swing things by finance before I said anything publicly on the matter.

But tonight's events sadly revealed some disturbing information. Possibly. I might be paranoid, but it might not hurt to be prepared, and start putting countermeasures in place. But the ASIC sympathizer was a curveball I had not expected by any stretch of my imagination. This meant a few things. Either she was somehow replaced by someone more willing to toe the ASIC line, and I did mean 'replaced' quite literally. Which was its own extremely concerning issue in its own damn right. The ASIC being able to body snatch people was positively nightmarish. Just in general. Invasion of the Bodysnatchers was creepy as hell, and this would just cause a panic and be an Intel disaster.

The other option being, we had a mole. One way or another. And that was really, really bad. The interview was set up by PR, meaning at the very least, they were infiltrated. And where you found one rat, that was usually a sign you had a few dozen of the things. Ideally, it would be contained to Public Relations, but it would be prudent to assume that wasn't the case. Given the lack of tips for tonight's raid, it was clear that the military, police, Basilicom guard, and Guild connections weren't compromised.

For now.

But if there was a mole, something needed to be done. Intel was important in any conflict, and keeping our stuff out of ASIC hands was important. However, I couldn't just swing a hammer around and hope I got lucky. Purges of leadership, unless those people were incompetent, sabotaging, or simply corrupt, were not a good thing during a time of crisis. I'd just managed to get a good win under my belt, and while cleaning house was important, I had little idea how far things went. I could just end up undoing all the goodwill I managed to gain.

ASIC may have had its people on the inside, but that was something that went both ways. Even before Vert was captured, there were people on the inside, and I had access to the same network. Part of the reason we'd been able to find everything. And the chaos of the raid had given us a fairly unique opportunity to sneak in more informants that were 'lucky enough to flee from the raids'. Could I use them to help sniff out who was feeding the ASIC information in our camps?

I was going to have to bounce some ideas off advisors. Op-spec was important, and I'd prefer that there weren't any major leaks. And if there were, I'd prefer we'd be able to use them to our advantage. I'd read The Art of War, though it had been a few years since I had an opportunity to read it through, and sadly, it wasn't like there were any copies here. Disappointing, as it would be a book I desperately wanted to review, but sadly, that wasn't going to be the case for some time. I could check with Nepgear, but I was already too busy for something like that, and I felt the workload was only going to increase from here on out.

Please, given how Nepgear was in Planeptune, she likely had much, much larger fish to fry than an interdimensional portal. It'd come to my attention that both the CPU and CPU candidate of Planeptune went into the graveyard. That was going to prove to be a nightmare in it's own right, I felt. Whatever could be said about the other nations and their respective candidates, those nations at least had a secondary leader to call on in a crisis. With both gone, that had to have just left the Oracle. Hopefully, Planeptune had a good one, because otherwise?

Oh, who am I kidding, there was no otherwise. Planeptune was out of the fight at best, and practically an ASIC base at worst. And a nation where the ASIC could pretty much do whatever it wanted this early was already far from ideal. I'd like to help to prevent that from happening, but sadly, like I had said during the interview, did we have the resources to spare? I'd love to help, and frankly, would prefer it, as having our neighbor nations in order would help keep our situation in order, but alas, that didn't seem to be the case, for the time being.

Hopefully, things turned out okay for Nepgear in the meantime. But I had to focus on the numerous problems on hand. And unfortunately, I wasn't going to be able to replicate Vert being running the nation on nothing but coffee. I didn't like the drink in the first place, and letting my tired mind run wild was not something anyone wanted in a crisis, least of all myself. No, I was going to have to sleep, no matter how much the thought made me want to vomit. Though that could be the post-speech anxiety talking. But regardless, I was going to need sleep.

Hopefully, nothing major would happen in the meantime.

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Thankfully, nothing of critical importance happened when I slept. ASIC had been driven to ground, at least for now, but they would be back in time. There was no way it would be that easy. Of course, it wasn't like criminals also had to sleep. Sleep may have been a refuge, but it was a temporary one. Which meant it was back to the disaster, no, literal national crisis by the time breakfast was over.

Good news? The operation had been a resounding success, in every sense of the word. Combined with the interview, there seemed to be an upswing in support, and not a small one, either. Though what parts of it where my reveal about what the ASIC had done, or the speech I chose to give were up for debate. Truthfully, I found it mattered little, as it accomplished what it set out to do, but finding out how people responded to what parts were, if nothing else, useful data. Hell, it even seemed to cause the slip in the economy to at least stabilize.

The bad news? That stabilization was only temporary, and it wouldn't take long for things to resume their downward trend. Even with most of their manufacturing and stores of pirated games being captured or destroyed, the ASIC did have foreign assets to call upon, and there was no doubt we'd missed something or another that they could make use of. Which meant that if I had to bet, smuggling operations, if they weren't already underway, would soon be starting. Something I was going to have to nip in the bud.

Those sources would have to be dealt with as well. So long as the ASIC existed in other nations, they would be able to get their claws into Leanbox as well, if simply by it being the only place they could grow into. Though I couldn't just go into a foreign country and smash stuff up. Even if it was the most straightforward solution, it would also be a gross violation of sovereignty. It would make the Candidate of the respective nation look weak, something they couldn't exactly afford.

Coordination would be key. This is why I needed to make sure my statements last night didn't ruffle any feathers, and if they did, do my best to smooth them over.

However, that was a problem that I had to push to the side. The larger and more pressing issue was how to keep the economy from exploding. Or, at least, minimize the damage of it going off. Because it very likely would explode.

Had to hand it to the ASIC, they knew how to do damage. Gamindustri, as its name implied, had a strong focus on games, and their development, to the point it was easily the most common hobby on the continent. With the more untamed areas prone to spawning all sorts of deadly monsters, people turned to the virtual world. Making video games a considerable portion of the economic engine, employing developers, coders, beta testers, and countless other jobs. Gaming as a whole was a considerable part of the economy.

One that the ASIC undercut. Hard. While Earth left me with my personal feelings about large corporations, that didn't change the fact that the current situation was bad. Really bad. Games sold for a lot of money. The ASIC "made" the same games at a considerably cheaper rate, which meant they could sell them for cheaper. When you have the same good, but you can buy it cheaper, well, a lot of people would go for the cheaper option. It saved them money. Of course, there were nuances there. A lot of people weren't going to break the law. Not unless they didn't have any other choice but to do so to make ends meet.

However, that meant companies weren't making as much money, meaning they had to lay people off, which created more desperate people trying to make ends meet, which turned them to cheaper alternatives, which undercut profits, which undercut pay, creating a vicious cycle. I didn't need advisors to have that picture painted for me.

It wasn't like there weren't solutions I could play.

"How much money do corporate heads make in relation to their workers?" I knew this was not a line of thinking that they were going to particularly like. The ASIC was a growing power, and I had little doubt that they had feelers within such organizations. Sure, the ASIC was undercutting their profits, but there was the logic that if you can't beat them, join them. It wouldn't surprise me if some already were working with the crime group, in an attempt to preserve their profits. Those would have to be rooted out.

But I had my combination of carrots and sticks. Businesses loved stability. A stable environment was the best place to make profits, after all. Yes, the ASIC was stirring things up, and some would defect to them out of greed, or at least, a mistaken sense of it. But the public was swinging hard against the ASIC, if the rumblings were true. I'd watched a few different stations, and I was frankly surprised.

Either things had gone even better than I imagined, or the PR department had taken initiative and deserved, all the gift baskets. They deserved gift baskets anyway, but even I was impressed by what channels I'd watched.

And frankly, a bit frightened. They broke out a word I hadn't expected to hear in that particular tone again.

Terrorist.

Given the Fenrir attack was, well, an attack meant to terrorize and create fear, it wasn't an unearned label. But at the same time, I'd seen what happened when that type of talk reached its final form. Part of my plan was to cut off lower-ranking recruitment among criminals, to isolate the more radical leadership from disposable manpower. I mean, the plan still could work, as being part of a group your family and friends considered a terrorist group was effective, and could cut down on new criminals joining the organization.

But all seriousness aside, I might have to try and dial things back. I wanted people to be against the ASIC, but I had no interest in creating a tiger. The ASIC was a monster, yes, but I did not need to raise one of my own to match it. Riding tigers always ended up with the person on it's back devoured, even if they were the tiger's last meal. I would have to keep an eye on things, in case of further developments.

"A, considerable amount more. But not enough to wholly make up the difference," that wasn't exactly the news I wanted to hear, but I accepted it anyway. It wasn't like payment standards were bad by any stretch of the imagination, either. In need of Ford using his head, realizing that making his goods so that his workers could afford them improved his own profits, Leanbox was not.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

No, it was clear Businesses were not entirely like the ones back home. Pirating had to be made, uneconomical, as well as programs to support those who were losing their jobs in the first place. Security would have to be amped up along the border, to help prevent external supply from making its way in. And that wasn't the only thing I had in mind.

Some games, if I recalled correctly, had ways of making themselves unplayable, if they were pirated. Hell, some of them acted as if they worked, before they started to brick-like crazy. I'd heard of a lot of practical jokes game developers had gotten out of doing things like that. It could be possible to get a similar system going. How to get the coding to work, I wasn't exactly sure. But I knew it was a security feature some games possessed, even if such knowledge was purely secondhand. Something to bring up during discussions.

And sadly, Leanbox didn't have infinitely deep coffers.

"Unemployment benefits for those who have lost their jobs need to be implemented," it was a stopgap measure, but it needed to be implemented. "And an expansion of the agencies that handle unemployment cases."

Such jobs were unlikely to pay as well as their old ones, but it would be better than nothing.

"That might take a bit of time, Ma'am," as a folder slipped my way. I began reading through its contents, only to become more and more aghast as I went.

"When exactly was the last time there was a major recession?" I found myself asking aloud, as I continued to read. The system existed, but largely on paper. Most of it had atrophied away over the years, more likely decades. It had started to be rebuilt recently, but it hadn't recovered to the extent needed to take on such a workload. Which was, went without saying, not good.

I was thankful that I hadn't drunk any water either when I got the answer. More than a century ago? Sure, that didn't sound long, but during a century, the United States had the Great Depression in the twenties, which lasted for a considerable length of time, the stagflation of the 70's, the early 80's recession, the economic hiccups that ultimately resulted in the Great Recession, and lastly the pandemic.

So, yeah, it didn't sound like a whole lot, but that was a considerable length of economic stability. That may just be because of an immortal being in charge might lead to at least a degree of long-term planning. But at least it made sense why such programs had been downsized. Home didn't have that type of excuse though.

"Well, work on building up operations and expansion. I unfortunately expect the program to be inundated, in spite of our best efforts," I said. It was annoying, to have a lynchpin program be more underdeveloped than I originally thought, but hindsight was 20-20. And trying to blame the people doing their best in the here and now isn't going to undo the mistake.

"Any further advice before any meetings with executives?" I asked. Public speaking may have been something I was surprisingly good at, but not all those skills carried over. With public speaking, you were playing to a crowd. A group of people.

Not a person. That was, at the end of the day, a different barrel of fish, requiring a different set of skills. Skills I certainly didn't have as many of.

Thankfully, I was getting more used to my transformed state. How it felt. How it made me feel. It was tied to my emotions. Quite strongly, frankly. When transformed, I felt more confident. Stronger. Not overbearingly so, but I had more control over myself. I think. Maybe it just, exaggerated what I was feeling. Right now, I wanted confidence to back up my spite towards the ASIC, thus, I got it, but for the first time.

Hell, maybe what I thought was the first time.

Regardless, I could use the transformation as a crutch. I didn't exactly like that I had to, but those were the tools I had, and I would make the most of them. But it was a useful one all the same.

Vert, as far as I knew, had used her guise as a Goddess, and outside of the Basilicom staff, nobody knew her face. On that front, I was unsure, but at the same time, it felt like an embarrassing question to ask, fitter for Chika's ears than anyone else. But as far as I knew, I was doing the correct thing when it came to using the form. The combat boosts were important, sure, that went without saying. But right now, if I was going to get more out of it by using it for utility purposes, then I was going to make the most of that option.

"They'll most likely want two things. Stability, and money. You could lean into the current change in narrative against the ASIC, as their flipping would cause greater harm to their profits if such information came to light at the moment," one of the advisors spoke. "The former is hard, but the latter?"

"Would pitching it as short-term pains for long-term gains work?" I asked. Selling it as taking pains to guarantee that you get a bigger piece of a larger pie later down the line could work, but that would require the economy to cooperate with me on that front, which was not how the economy worked. My control wasn't anything like I could just fudge the numbers and make everything seem like it was fine. And that was just papering over the cracks and only served to make things worse and worse over time.

"That could work. The problem comes from being able to deliver on such claims," that was the crux of the problem. How long would this crisis last? Banking on having long-term profits banked on there being a long term. If there wasn't a long term, what did those profits matter?

Did I like large businesses? No, but I needed them right now, to at least help keep things stable. That meant there was going to have to be some form of trust between us. I might, keyword, might be able to get away with lying to them once. But doing so would burn a considerable amount of capital I had, as well as any trust they had in me. For one crisis, I might be able to do without during the aftermath. But if there were other crises, and I proved my word was less than dirt? That was going to be incredibly damaging. Ideally, there would be decades of calm, possibly long enough for those scars to be forgotten over time.

Of course, time didn't heal all wounds, and trust was particularly hard to re-earn, once it had been lost. It would be better to prepare for the worst and not bank on immortality to be the solution to my problem in this case. Provided I was unaging in the first place.

Frankly, I hoped to get more use out of soft power on this one. How did the saying go? Speak softly, and carry a big stick?

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"This is, an interesting security proposal. I will have to run it by several people to make sure something like that could work, but," the man rubbed his chin, lost in thought. "This combined with your paperwork and anti-smuggling operations, would certainly hurt the ASIC's ability to make a profit."

"And reinforce the industries' ability to turn a profit at the same time," I offered, a slight smile on my empowered face. "I would suggest that let the developers have fun with the anti-pirating systems. An interesting experience could help boost sales for the legitimate game."

"Indeed. I'm a bit surprised by the developments of the past few days. First the interview, and now this," he hummed, still scratching his beard. I kept my expression blank, so as not to show any sign for him to interpret. "I haven't met any of the other candidates, but I have heard about them. Even their sisters kept them sheltered, but word does slip out. They were like children, as I recall. Almost a blank slate."

"Then there is you. You make an appearance on the national stage, almost by pure luck and happenstance, before going to ground up until after your sister's kidnapping. Nobody expects anything from you until you come out swinging out of nowhere. As if you expected that nobody expected anything from you, and you wanted to use that to your advantage," he paused for a moment. "A blunt maneuver, but it changes the situation, at least for now, overnight. Now the ASIC is being portrayed as the enemy, one that needs to be fought. Almost all the ASIC infiltration efforts are either undone in a single night, or simply drowned out. I'm forced to ask myself, how much of it is your doing?"

"That would be telling," my eyes narrowed slightly. This man was smart. Smarter than a few of the business leaders I'd met so far.

"Would it also be telling to ask what you plan to do once this crisis has been resolved?" he asked, returning my gaze. Was he, implying something here? He had to be.

"Hand everything back to my sister when she is rescued," I said honestly. Or at least, somewhat honestly. I fully intended to hand Leanbox back to Vert the moment I could, and that's what mattered as far as I was concerned. He paused for a moment.

"I don't think you're lying, but there are some who are concerned," I didn't grace the comment with a change of expression. Of course, there would be people who thought I was planning some sort of coup.

"My goals are to keep the people of Leanbox safe in her stead," I answered calmly. "She built this nation, and I don't want it to fall over because of some lunatic cultists and criminals."

He nodded for a brief moment, taking in my words. "And punishing the ASIC is just a bit of icing on the cake, is it not?"

"Dealing with the ASIC means keeping the people of Leanbox safe," I said firmly. "Which will require everyone lending a hand against them."

"Yes, they are bad for our long-term profits," for a moment, the man suddenly felt as if he were decades older. "Though, it does feel like both you and the ASIC are trying to use me for your ends."

He wasn't exactly wrong in that statement. Sure, I intended to help Leanbox, but I was trying to convince him to see things in a way that at least aligned with my goals.

"And which do you think is more open to manipulation in turn?" I asked, cautiously. "The one approaching you with a closed fist, or the person willing to negotiate?"

"That is a peculiar outlook," he said, after some thought.

"Side effects of compromise. But that does not mean our goals are mutually exclusive," I paused for a moment. "I want to keep the economy steady. You want to make money. To keep the economy stable, you and your company need to continue to turn a profit. A stable economy helps you get a better return on said investment. Our end goal intersects, it simply starts at two different places."

"True, but it will still have a cost," the man sat down. "You offer me a carrot. That I recognize. But you wield the ASIC as your stick."

"However, from what I've seen, they only have a stick. And their stick hurts more, something you have capitalized on," he let out a sigh. It sounded like there was a but there.

"And?" I prompted, trying to get him to continue. He gave me a silent look. "Look, I'm aware of the dangers of riding on the back of tigers. Nasty business, that is."

The man raised his eyebrow in response but said nothing.

"As you said, I'm blunt. But right now, that bluntness is one of the few tools I have. Subtly requires enough soft power and systems in place that are only now being constructed," I continued. "And frankly, soft power is better. The pen is mightier than the sword, after all."

"And of hammers?"

"If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Which is why I'm investing in projects beyond the hammer," I said simply. "The ASIC isn't something that can simply be punched out of existence. To deal with it, one needs both the pen, and the sword, to deal with it in calculated measures."

"I see. I do think such an arrangement will prove beneficial for the time being, so long as you know when to use a carrot, and when to use a stick," he extended his hand. "I believe the terms of the deal are most acceptable."

"Thank you for your cooperation," I grasped his hand. "Your knowledge will be most appreciated."