In fact, with Perfikot's abilities, developing cold-resistant materials was merely a side project.
Even though she had no knowledge of materials science, especially special materials, before transmigrating, with the Jade Record and the Philosopher's Stone in hand, developing her desired alchemy materials was a simple task.
However, for Perfikot, her time is very precious.
If she wants to save more people within three years, she cannot afford to waste time on small tasks that can be delegated to others.
Before transmigrating, Perfikot had a period where she was a small leader, a mid-level manager and department head in a company.
Although she wasn't very experienced in management, she learned one key thing: if she didn't want to work herself to death like Prime Minister Zhuge, she shouldn't hold onto everything herself.
Train people you can trust, then delegate specific tasks to subordinates while you manage the overall plan, track progress, and ultimately review results. That's what a leader should do.
Of course, if there's something particularly important and you're not comfortable delegating it, you'll need to handle it personally.
And when you have no trustworthy or capable subordinates, you'll end up having to do everything yourself.
Perfikot had two plans, each with its distinct features. Her first plan was ambitious, aiming to save the people of the Empire's mainland by leveraging the Noble Council to mobilize the Empire's resources against a looming disaster.
Moreover, after repelling the disaster, she designed a rough plan to address the source of the disaster and completely save the world.
But it has to be said, her ambitions were too great, with a sense of superiority as a transmigrator showing through, as if she were the protagonist of the world, and everything needed to revolve around her.
She was neither the Prime Minister of the Empire, nor an all-powerful Empress. She couldn't even convince the Noble Council to believe her, being mocked as "what does a woman know," leaving her with a harsh realization of her ordinary status.
Thus, her second plan was much more pragmatic, removing the unrealistic parts and stripping out elements related to saving the world and more people.
Finally, she arrived at a realistic and pragmatic self-preservation plan.
Yet fate often plays the most unexpected jokes, and just when Perfikot had given up on efforts at the Empire level, she unexpectedly received help from Eldest Princess Annie, gaining full support from the Royal Family.
While this was support at the Royal Family level and didn't involve the Empire, nothing in the world ever exists in isolation.
In this feudal era of stable royal power, the Royal Family is always a trendsetter.
To put it bluntly, if Eldest Princess Annie professed a liking for cats and disliking dogs, upper society in Langton would soon trend towards keeping cats, while municipal departments and the police station would start culling stray dogs on the streets.
And vice versa.
Even though it's a male-dominant society, currying favor with the Eldest Princess doesn't contradict this dynamic.
The same goes for the Royal Family's overt support, especially as it comes from the Empress herself.
Perfikot believes that with the major advantage of Royal Family support, a trend for scientific exploration of the Arctic will surge in Langton and even the entire Victor Empire, with sustained influence as she continues to invest in this project.
There might even be private Arctic expeditions formed by civilians attempting exploration.
It's noteworthy that in Perfikot's pre-transmigration world, an Arctic expedition was something that could bring both fame and riches. Successfully reaching the Arctic and returning alive would certainly make one a new darling in Langton's upper society.
Of course, the precondition is surviving the Arctic's deadly conditions to return.
Indeed, in this era, the Arctic is a complete human exclusion zone, with no one having set foot there thus far.
Even decades ago, during the invention of the steam engine, the Empire dispatched an expedition to the Arctic, but the outcome was a newly built wooden steam-powered ship and its twenty-six crew returned only one and a half persons.
One with severe frostbite dragging half a body gnawed by a polar bear—this was the result of the Empire's first Arctic expedition.
The reason Perfikot chose to use the guise of "Arctic Scientific Exploration" was partly because it aligned significantly with her plan, and partly because Arctic exploration is quite popular and garners substantial public attention.
One shouldn't underestimate this social attention, as before the internet era, such attention could significantly influence societal development over a long timeframe.
To give the simplest instance, if public focus is on manned lunar exploration, related industries will stay hot, and even unrelated products can achieve surprisingly high sales, earning substantial profits.
The most typical case being the ballpoint pen referred to as the atomic pen.
Merchants then used the name "atomic pen" to exploit the hype of atomic bombs, instantly boosting sales.
For Perfikot, this promotional tactic isn't just useful commercially, nor is it limited to products.
She could profit from the Arctic exploration hype to promote new insulation materials, cold-resistant clothing, efficient heaters to Langton citizens, or even leverage related hype to initiate substantial construction of new style residential buildings in the city's slums, providing shelter from the cold for the impoverished.
Though all this is far from reality now, Perfikot has included these in her plan and decided to entrust Eldest Princess Annie with these aspects moving forward.
Given Eldest Princess Annie's character and status, Perfikot can trust her completely with these tasks, and Annie will certainly handle them well.
As for Perfikot herself, she will follow the original plan, making a trip to the New Continent colony; however, this time she will not go just for site selection but directly proceed with inspection and preliminary infrastructure development.
Since it's under the guise of an Arctic exploration, she might as well continue the act by building a so-called Arctic Exploration Forward Base in the New Continent colony.