The house construction was meant for practical reasons, but even as a game, “Sim City” turned out to be incredibly fun.
Everyone created various cities that suited their tastes and had a blast unleashing disasters.
However, since it wasn’t a mainstream game, we launched “Sim City” with a light heart.
“Hey, I heard a new game is coming out from the Irene School.”
“A city management simulation? That’s a unique concept!”
“Should we give it a try?”
Naturally, the first ones to engage with “Sim City” were gamers.
These users enjoyed a variety of games like action, RPG, fighting, racing, and FPS, but had yet to try a simulation game.
With the enticing premise of managing various cities in an empire, users filled with curiosity eagerly purchased the game, their hearts racing.
“Whoa, so it’s a game where I manage a city to achieve goals.”
First-time players, understandably, knew nothing.
Through tutorials and campaigns designed for such players, gamers learned everything about “Sim City.”
“So, if I build like this, it works?”
“When I create taverns and shops, happiness levels rise? But what’s the benefit of rising happiness?”
“People are working hard, and taxes are increasing!? So managing a city is like this!”
Once gamers grasped the basics through the campaigns, they started tackling progressively challenging levels and began to sense the absurdities of the world.
“What!? I have to manage the city on a 20% budget this year!?”
“Are you kidding me!? A flood right now!!?”
“Which idiot summoned a demon lord to our city!!!”
Various issues like budget deficiencies, infrastructure, happiness, education, healthcare, taxes, roads, transportation, pollution, public safety, and more stressed gamers out while running their cities.
Then there were disasters like floods, droughts, storms, earthquakes, meteor strikes from passing wizards, and awakened demon lords by sealed dark sorcerers that they had to deal with as well.
Gamers clearly learned that managing a city or village wasn’t easy.
But that wasn’t the only problem.
“‘Lords, awaken!!’”
“I can’t survive from hunger!!!!”
When something went wrong—be it happiness, food, education, public safety, diplomacy—citizens would start riots.
They could understand riots caused by their terrible policies in the early game.
But when they saw citizens rioting over natural disasters like floods, they felt a dictator within rise.
“Ugh…I want to eliminate them all.”
Gamers experienced profound frustration when game overs occurred due to citizen riots not stemming from their mistakes.
But alas, that was the burden of the crown worn by the ruler.
As they nearly cleared the campaigns, users began to grow more curious.
“But… what if a demon lord descends in a city full of wizards?”
“What happens if a riot breaks out in a city populated by elves and dwarves?”
“Can’t we train adventurers as an army to suppress citizen riots?”
Only then did gamers start eyeing the edit mode, eager to experiment with their curiosity.
They heightened the magical concentration to the max in a city of wizards and then summoned a demon lord for a showdown between humanity’s mages vs. the resurrected demon lord.
After creating a city of elves and dwarves, they cut off food supplies to incite a riot, forcing elves and dwarves to fiercely fight for survival.
After hiring adventurers as peacekeepers and suppressing citizen riots, one gamer learned the importance of power distribution when the same peacekeepers staged a rebellion, helplessly watching their character die.
Thus, many users thrilled at this new fun in “Sim City.”
While it may not have shaken the world like “Dune” or “Legend Fighter,” “Sim City” recorded sufficiently respectable sales and maintained the pride of the Irene School.
And from there, another legend of “Sim City” began.
It started with a staff member from the Ministry of Finance who was enjoying “Sim City,” implementing cities he managed into the game.
However, the staff member noticed something strange during gameplay.
“Wait… the tax figures are way off!”
The tax figures from his real-life city, Tex, did not align with those generated by the game.
In the era of nobility, some taxes inevitably went uncollected or were lost due to connections and class issues, something the finance staff were well aware of.
So, some discrepancies were understandable, but the taxes from Tex were a staggering 30% lower in-game.
Not just a small 5-10%, but a whopping 30%!
The staff member, named Bin, thought he must have misread the figures and checked multiple times.
But Bin’s figures were correct, and he sensed there was a significant unseen problem.
And he wasn’t alone. Other gamers across the empire also discovered similar issues while simulating their cities.
People began sharing their edited cities through the World Tree Network and awareness of the problem spread widely.
Naturally, even the genuine gamer Minerva from the Minister’s Office caught wind of this, and it eventually reached Lord Herness.
“Looks like those who have aged my white hair have been found.”
“What should we do, my lord?”
Calmly sipping his coffee, Lord Herness, whose white hair had increased due to stress, spoke in a voice dripping with quiet anger.
“We must thoroughly investigate and find out the price for those who have aged my white hair.”
Thus commenced an extensive investigation from the Minister’s Office, revealing widespread tax evasion occurring simultaneously across cities in the empire.
This later became known as the “Tax Evasion of the Eight Families,” which supposedly reformed the empire’s tax system.
The fact that such a massive tax evasion had gone undetected for so long boiled down to two main reasons.
First, it capitalized on the chaotic period following the war twenty years ago.
The tax system set up during that chaotic time had many loopholes that became entrenched and hard to detect.
Second, it was designed deliberately by eight influential families in the empire.
They took advantage of the differences in tax collection schedules and managed territories to minimize recorded profits compared to the actual profits.
Naturally, taxes were lower due to the reduced reported profits, and they pocketed the excess.
The total tax evasion over the last two decades amounted to an astonishing sum comparable to the yearly national treasury of the empire and was a crime of immense severity, nearly tantamount to rebellion.
The eight families were, of course, obliterated.
The heads of the families who executed the tax evasion faced execution, and the remaining families had to cough up huge fines and relinquish their privileges to survive.
When everything was sorted out, the empire’s treasury had surged by over 30%, with an average annual tax revenue increase of 5%.
A single game truly shook the foundation of a nation.
Meanwhile, while this uproar unfolded in Zephia, Yuren was entirely unaware of the chaos.
Having stepped away from game development for a while, he was busy preparing for the city planning project, reminiscing about fond memories of manual labor from his past life.
The news reached Yuren only after all the events had concluded.
“Yuren, sir.”
“Minerva? What brings you here?”
Amid ongoing construction, Yuren felt a mixture of joy and concern upon Minerva’s unexpected visit.
What incident could have occurred this time?
As those thoughts crossed Yuren’s mind, Minerva quickly delivered the outcome.
“Please come for your medal ceremony.”
“Huh? A medal!?”
“Yes, the Queen wishes to honor you for your contributions, and you are to receive the ‘Empire Hero Medal.’”
“Huh? Me??”
The “Empire Hero Medal,” awarded only to those who contributed significantly to the empire; Yuren couldn’t comprehend why he would be bestowed this honor, despite having bested the Prince of Ra.
What is going on? Why am I receiving a medal?
“You are a great hero who dedicated yourself to the empire’s prosperity, and thus I present you with this medal.”
[“Wowwwwww!!!”]
Receiving the medal directly from the Queen, even as Minerva explained, Yuren had yet to grasp the reasoning behind it.
“Wait, you’re saying I created ‘Sim City,’ and that’s how tax revenue increased by 5%?”
“Yes, in a nutshell, that is correct.”
“Seems like there’s a lot being left unsaid…”
Even Minerva felt sympathetic towards Yuren’s bewilderment this time.
*
In the Minister’s Office, covert transactions were underway following the conclusion of all matters.
Both Minerva and Lord Herness bore serious expressions as Herness passed a photo to Minerva.
“Do you know what this is?”
“It’s a picture of me cosplaying as Curie at a gaming tournament.”
In the photo, Minerva could be seen clearly, dressed as Pink Curie at the gaming event.
As he handed over the photo, Herness spoke gravely.
“Do you know how this won’t get leaked?”
“Yes… if you don’t tell anyone about how you obliterated the palace in ‘Sim City’ using a meteor, it will remain a secret.”
“…”
“Twice, no less.”
Heness nodded, saying to Minerva.
“You understand well. You may go now.”
Minerva quickly bowed her head and exited the office.
Another truth faded into the darkness.
