Hmm, Sophia told me there was a rare fruit she really wanted to eat inside of Thunder Tree City, but the problem is, I have no idea where that is! Also, Ilya is nowhere to be found…. I wrecked her lab, but she didn’t show up, so she must’ve been bogged down with something important. Ah? Will she mind me wrecking her lab? Nah, I’m sure she’ll understand once I explain it to her. Mm, she probably won’t ask anyway.

Alright, I’ll move on to the next smartest person I know. Myself! Do I know where Thunder Tree City is? Nope! Mm, moving on to the next smartest person! “Hey, Mrs. Feathers. Do you know where Thunder Tree City is?”

“Thunder Tree City?” Mrs. Feathers stared at me. Was she … reading a book? Can she even turn the pages without fingers? “Let me check.” She closed her eyes and hummed. A few seconds later, her eyes popped open. “There’s seventy-two different locations named Thunder Tree City in the Immortal Continent. Which one do you want to go to?”

Uh…. “The one with the delicious rare fruits!”

Mrs. Feathers raised an eyebrow. “Not the one where Ilya’s planning on using Bloodmoon as bait to catch all the invaders?”

“What the heck? No, why would I go there?” Sophia wants to eat a delicious fruit, not an invader. Besides, even if she wanted to eat an invader, Ilya already has plenty of their heads. “Tell me where the one with the fruits are.”

“You got it, Boss,” Mrs. Feathers said and raised one wing in salute. She closed her eyes again and hummed. Another few seconds passed, and her eyes popped open again. “This place is pretty far away—even Ilya’s army of cultivators haven’t reached it yet. There aren’t any teleportation portals leading to it, and if you try to go there by yourself, I’m afraid you’ll get lost, Boss.”

Hmm…, that’s pretty tricky. Hmmm. Hmmmmm. Hmmmmmmm.

“Boss, if you’re not in a hurry to get that fruit, you can post a request.”

Eh? “What do you mean?”

Mrs. Feathers stared at me. “You…, you do realize you’re part of a sect, right, Boss?”

“Of course! I’m the leader!” Why would I not know I’m part of a sect? “What’s that have to do with me getting this super rare fruit for Sophia to eat?”

“You know sect members get contribution points by completing missions, right?”

Gah! “Stop asking leading questions and just tell me what I want to know!” Ilya always does this, and now Mrs. Feathers is doing it too! I hate it when people try to make me figure things out on my own. If I wanted to do that, I wouldn’t be asking them questions!

“Right, right, sorry, Boss.” Mrs. Feathers bobbed her head up and down a few times. “You can post missions on the mission board. If you want to get the rare fruit without going yourself, you go to the office, turn in some treasures for contribution points, use those contribution points as rewards for completing your mission, and someone will accept your request.”

What. That’s so convenient! How come I’ve never heard about this before? Mm, I probably forgot if I did. “What other missions can I post? Can I make a mission asking people to bother Ilya?”

“I’m not sure why you would want to do that,” Mrs. Feathers said. “But yes, you can create a mission asking people to bother Ilya. I don’t think anyone would accept it though, and is a mission like that really worth your treasures?”

Wow. This mission board thing is even more incredible than I thought! “Is there anything I can’t ask people to do?”

“Well, illegal things, basically,” Mrs. Feathers said. “If you want to hire assassins or have people break the law in other manners, you’ll have to go to the underground mission board. That’s where all the darker requests are posted.”

I can even hire people to do illegal things? That’s amazing! “Where’s the underground mission board? Hmm, actually, where’s the normal mission board?”

“Both boards are in the task hall,” Mrs. Feathers said. “It’s on that mountain peak over there.” She used her wing to point at a window. There really was a building on top of a mountain. “The mission board is in the lobby, and to get to the underground mission board, you have to go down a flight of stairs.”

“If that’s the case, why not have all kinds of missions on one board?” I don’t get it. Isn’t it a hassle to have two different boards? If I want to assign a mission, I’ll have to do research on whether or not what I want people to do is illegal first!

“It was Ilya’s idea. I think it’s for plausible deniability or something.” Mrs. Feathers shrugged. “If someone wants to inspect our sect, she can close off the entrance to the underground mission board and claim we’re a bunch of upright people.”

Ah? “But aren’t we a group of upright people? Why would anyone think otherwise?”

Mrs. Feathers stared at me. Mm, maybe she doesn’t know the answer either. That’s okay. After a short while, Mrs. Feathers coughed. “So, are you going to the mission board?”

“Yes!” Definitely! I have to go there. That way, I can hire people to find rare foods for me! I won’t have to do it myself! Hmm, it’s definitely more fun to do it myself though, but there’s just so many foods, and the Immortal Continent is so darn big. Ah! “I almost forgot! How do you do that thing?”

Mrs. Feathers tilted her head. “What thing?”

“When I ask you a question, you close your eyes, wait a bit, then automatically know the answer!” I want to do that too. It’s almost like Mrs. Feathers is a better encyclopedia than Ilya is. “Are you checking something somewhere?”

“Uh, no?” Mrs. Feathers blinked at me. “It’s easier for me to remember things when I close my eyes.”

Oh. I thought there would be a special trick or something. Wait. “Why do you know so many different places named Thunder Tree City?”

“Ilya crammed a bunch of information into my head with this weird invention of hers,” Mrs. Feathers said and sighed. “She said it’d help me be a better librarian.”

Mm, sounds painful. I hate it when information is crammed into my head. If Ilya ever uses that invention on me, I’ll smack her.