Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics

"What about the funds for your new GTO?"

"About one-third."

Shiller gently furrowed his brow, which made the pale knight's heart skip a beat. The pale knight said, "I know it's a lot, but this squad plays a huge role. They have significantly improved the security situation in Gotham."

"How exactly did they improve it?"

"The crime rate has drastically decreased, mainly the Super Villain crime rate which has dropped to one-fifth of its original."

Shiller took a deep breath and said, "Have you ever considered that the crime rate isn't dropping, but it was supposed to be this low in the first place?"

Now it was the pale knight's turn to frown.

Shiller recalled a quote from a comic by the elites – "In Gotham, crime is the best investment."

"You dump a large sum of money into maintaining security, and the crime rate will never drop," Shiller pointedly stated, "because if someone can profit from this money, they will keep making the crime rate soar so they can keep collecting money."

"But it has dropped now..."

"It won't drop for long... Forget it, you seem not to grasp this aspect," Shiller thought for a moment then said, "Can you assure you'll cooperate with me? If not, perhaps I need to consider other options."

"First, tell me your plan," the pale knight said.

"If you're willing to cooperate with me, I'll use conventional methods to make them spit out the money, at least some of it enough for you to get by."

"If you really don't want to cooperate, I can take some unconventional methods. I can guarantee no ordinary people will be hurt, but it will cause a big scene and look quite frightening."

If Shiller forcefully demanded cooperation from the pale knight, that would comfort him somewhat since during the cooperation process with Bruce, there were often frictions like this, similar to Batman and Gordon.

But Shiller acted as if he had his own way even if you don't cooperate with him coupled with his performance in that previous game, this approach is likely to be disastrous.

"What will you do if I don't cooperate?"

"There's a nuclear power plant in New Jersey State," Shiller suddenly said, "The state government has been considering lifting the nuclear ban, we can start from there."

The Salem Nuclear Power Plant is well-conditioned, close to Gotham, but still plagued by the common issues of pipeline aging and tritium leakage seen in most American nuclear power plants. A major leakage accident could drastically affect Gotham's land prices.

The pale knight shivered, immediately saying, "I am very willing to cooperate with you! Do whatever you want, just don't touch the nuclear power plant!"

Shiller smiled and said, "That's more like it."

"Now let's talk about what I should do if you cooperate with me. First, I need to separate the funding for GTO from the municipal funds."

"Of course, I understand the benefits of doing so, but we don't have that much money. No one can afford to spend a hundred million US dollars every quarter to maintain an anti-terrorism squad, it's not beneficial for them."

"Batman can," Bruce interjected.

"We can't let Batman do it," the pale knight frowned and said, "It's not that I don't trust him, but the elites are determined to use him to consolidate wealth. They are watching him very closely, and if he comes up with the money, it will be completely siphoned off, just like the natural disaster fund."

"I didn't say let the government not pay," Shiller said, "I'm saying let's separate the funds, but the money still needs to be spent."

Bruce's eyes flickered.

"The funds were originally part of the basic security maintenance funds, right?" Shiller asked.

The pale knight nodded.

"From now on, the money won't come from the basic security maintenance fund."

"From where then?"

"The advanced security maintenance fund."

"What?"

"Now we're going to start a municipal project, name it something like 'Gotham Security Efficiency Enhancement Plan', then apply for a special grant for the project, from now on this money will be referred to as 'advanced security maintenance fund.'"

The pale knight listened somewhat dizzily, he said, "What's the use of this?"

"The people who used to handle the basic security maintenance fund can't touch the advanced security maintenance fund anymore, to move the advanced security maintenance funds, new people need to be hired."

Bruce suddenly understood.

"But…" the pale knight was slightly troubled, he said, "We're already unable to afford more salaries for employees, even just to maintain the status quo, we must cut salaries by 10% next quarter to barely keep it running."

"The people managing the basic security maintenance funds are no longer in charge of the advanced security maintenance funds, so there's no need for so many people." Shiller said, "Just cut them off."

The pale knight was stunned, he said, "But they weren't taking care of the advanced security maintenance fund in the first place."

"Yes, but after all, the responsibility of allocating funds to GTO has been cut off, the workload has at least reduced by 50%, naturally, you can cut people."

"What about managing the new project? Don't we need to hire new people?"

"Yes, we need to hire, but whether we can actually hire is another matter."

"Huh?"

"This project is very important," Shiller said, "We must have graduates from Babson College with majors in Marketing and Financial Management, who also have internship durations at police departments or other administrative units, with heights between 1.79 to 1.80 meters, myopia between 190 degrees to 200 degrees, and preferably, to care for disabled employment, having six fingers."

"Huh???"

Bruce finally understood everything, he said, "Mr. Mayor, this isn't to touch GTO but to cut down on civil servants."

The pale knight also realized this had nothing to do with security management funds, it was really just about subdividing projects and then using the decreased workload of the small projects as an excuse to lay off people, then using the incessant inability jButtonNewstaff for projects as an excuse to let the old staff continue to manage.

In this way, the original 50% of the workforce could operate, naturally reducing the funding in the personnel department.

"But this will cause a lot of people to lose their jobs," the pale knight worriedly said.

"Yes," Shiller didn't deny it, he said, "But have you thought about how the funds that didn't reach the poor but were robbed midway were robbed? Who moved them?"

The pale knight opened his mouth and said, "They might be desperate."

"But they have eaten enough," Shiller said, "If you really don't believe it, you can check, you are the poorest in the whole city hall."

"But if so many people are laid off at once, won't it cause chaos?" Bruce also asked with some concern.

"It's exactly the chaos we want," Shiller said, "My next plan is to bribe a few people to strike."

"Strike?!" the pale knight widened his eyes and said, "We can't strike, I have a ton of work to..."

"Whether the government strikes or not has nothing to do with your work."

The pale knight was about to speak when Shiller continued, "Or are you saying you must have a spacious, brightly decorated, and expensively furnished office to work?"

"Of course not, but if the government goes on strike, where will I work?"

"Wayne Manor."