Subjugating all the new Summon Element stars took five days. Several birds attacked me in that time—mostly Servants, but a couple pack Chieftains snuck in. But they couldn't distract me; Pikachu kept perfect watch and defended my peace—huge thanks to him.
I didn't get down from the branch but headed to my usual spot for Servant and pack Chieftain souls—the Frost Dragon Horses. With my current power, I could wipe them fast, so two days later my new ice Element stars were boosted two tiers, letting me cast third-tier High-level magic in my current state.
I'll hold off massacring a specific junior Supreme Commander for now—need to stretch my legs. Jumping down, I stretched with cracking bones and set off hunting. After a full day of fruitless search, I got bored playing fair and stepped into a parallel world lagging just a day behind mine.
I appeared in a Shanghai alley and calmly exited, heading to the nearest free-WiFi cafe. There, I casually logged into the Hunters' League site and searched keywords for what I needed. Since I stuck to free public sources, I skimmed tons of junk before finding it.
There: mid Supreme Commander Rainbow Martin, killed with its peak pack Chieftain mate. Happened during a bird attack on Hangzhou a century ago. Old case, but nothing more in free civ sources.
Could've returned to my world, flown to the city, and used my League account. With my rank, a token fee would dig up plenty in a couple hours. But suddenly I just couldn't be bothered.
It's like when you drop a sock and instead of bending to pick it up, use your foot. Irrational, wastes time, but bending sucks. Same with me now.
After jumping to the parallel world, I realized teleporting during the Hangzhou attack was a huge mistake. The second I arrived, a whole swarm of birds at various levels piled on—including a junior Supreme Commander.
To dodge, I cast "Septuple Speed Boost," activated artifact boots, and dashed aside. Then I unleashed High-level second tier ice "Thousand Ice Spears," killing all weak birds around and badly wounding the junior Supreme Commander, whom an enhanced "Ice Chain" finished by piercing his head. Only then could I look around.
Chaos reigned. Military and civilian mages defended the city walls but took heavy losses. Spells flew everywhere, monster bodies and mage corpses rained from the walls, blood everywhere—lots of blood. For a second, I felt nostalgia for the Shanghai naval war, but shook it off quick.
Impossible to find my target in that mess; worse, I'd teleported outside the walls while defenders were on them, making me the monsters' top priority as the closest.
Several incoming Supreme Commanders of various levels, plus a Warlord's gaze I sensed gut-deep, finally hit my self-preservation, and with a "fuck this" thought, I returned to my world.
Catching my breath, I shoved down the urge to "show off" once more—foot instead of hand for the sock—and activated artifact wings to fly to Hangzhou properly and check the info.
While I was flying, occasionally killing off the cheeky birds that decided to peck at me for flying so brazenly through their forest, I was thinking about how inefficiently I was using my resources. I had a ton of money and could, for example, hire a professional team of searchers for all the information I needed. Seeds, rare monsters, or even people with interesting talents. I wouldn't mind shelling out a bunch of cash for that, since for me, it basically meant nothing.
Pulling Ling Ling every time for such info wasn't an option; she simply didn't always have the time. And let's be honest, despite all her great talents in strategy, information gathering, and planning, she couldn't replace a whole staff of employees that I'd pay a fortune to, and who would specialize SOLELY in information.
Sure, she had high-level access to data thanks to her rank, but I could get the same without issue by hiring a retired Master Hunter for my team. And I wasn't planning to use my own access, because I'd definitely hire such a staff in a parallel world, not my own.
After all, such extensive info searches could attract attention, especially if someone noticed that the things I asked to find in the historical chronicles suspiciously ended up in my possession soon after. And in the parallel world, I wasn't planning to flaunt my acquisitions; I only needed info on them from it.
I could even disguise all these searches as something noble. For example, create a project called "Stars of Humanity," which would feature mages with the biggest achievements in any aspect. Artifactors, people with unique talents, those who snagged Seeds with the tastiest abilities, mages who assembled the best builds from plant combinations at various levels, and so on. Info on all of them would be collected. I could even create a magazine that would publish articles about some of them weekly. Then the info searches wouldn't be suspicious at all—quite the opposite.
Plus, many clans might even post info on their outstanding ancestors publicly to get featured in the magazine and get some PR. Hm, decided. I'll create such a magazine and name it "Stars of Humanity." And its official goal would be to boost humanity's confidence in itself, as well as patriotism.
I could easily set up branches of the magazine in different countries, publishing info only on outstanding people from their own nation. I bet many country leaders would even be willing to sponsor my idea and give my magazine's journalists limited access to national archives, where there should be tons of info that's useless to people now but extremely valuable to me.
Anyway, the idea's worth it. Right now, I'll just finish the business with killing the Rainbow Finch at Mid Commander-in-Chief level and get to implementing it. With this magazine, it'll clearly be much easier for me to find and pick suitable builds from various plants for the girls.
So, the time spent will definitely pay off. As they say, everything's already been invented before us. No need to reinvent the wheel when some mage in history already solved the task I face. At minimum, I couldn't compete with true virtuosos of plant element magic in building combinations from them.
Eh, the Warlord's piercing gaze really cleared my head; smart ideas immediately popped up. If only they appeared before I nearly drove myself into a deadly situation, my skull would be priceless.
Flying to Hangzhou, I plopped down in a café with Wi-Fi, logged into my Hunter League account, and using my high access, quickly found what I needed. Eh, why did I complicate everything? Sometimes people are so irrational, myself included.
A month ago, a Rainbow Finch of the level I needed attacked a small town in Great Britain, solo. It luckily couldn't breach the defenses but killed a bunch of defenders and flew off with light wounds. I figure the military forces protecting that town won't mind if I eliminate the threat to their home.
Especially if I do it for free, without even asking for thanks in return. Eh, sometimes I'm amazed at my own altruism and selflessness. With those thoughts, smiling, I slipped into the parallel world.