Hogwarts: From Selling White Peppers to Becoming a God

Chapter 100 We Can't Afford It

"From today onwards, you are me, the founder of Umbrella Corporation. You will attend Muggle events that require my presence. For matters that require my direct involvement, I will appear in your guise, understand?"

Before meeting Patrick, Murphy gave Boris a heads-up.

"You're giving me too much power. If you let me participate in all these external activities, aren't you afraid I'll replace you?" Boris asked.

"Since you already understand that the research and development center is the core of the protective umbrella, and since you've seen the magic research institute, you naturally know what I truly want. External glory is irrelevant to me; on the contrary, it will only bring trouble and distract me."

"Money and these companies are just tools. If you can really replace me and help me maintain this huge external operation, so that I only need to focus on output, I would be more than happy to accept it."

In fact, Murphy is now more like an investor, except that while ordinary investors need money as a return on their investment, he wants knowledge gained during the research and development process that can be used to understand magic.

At a lakeside villa, Murphy and Boris met Patrick.

As one of the founders of a star company, Patrick is now full of honors and has a considerable net worth. After recruiting many talented professional managers, he no longer needs to be involved in every aspect of daily management.

This also gave him more time to think about the company's future strategic direction.

Upon seeing Patrick, Murphy felt a pang of emotion. He had been working with him for two years, and their collaboration had always been very pleasant. Today might be the last time he would see him in his true form.

Patrick was somewhat curious about Boris, but Murphy simply explained that he was his bodyguard—a claim that seemed quite convincing given the latter's physique.

The two drank tea for a while, chatted for a bit, and then went fishing by the lake.

“I’ve bought this lake,” Patrick said, pointing to a large body of water in front of him. “It wasn’t expensive. I never knew there was such a place near London.”

"The scenery is indeed beautiful," Murphy said.

The lake wasn't very big, but there was a hill next to it covered with conifers. Looking out, there was both a mountain and water, which reminded Murphy of the Black Lake at Hogwarts.

It's only been a little over two years since he graduated, but it feels like he's been gone for ages.

Maybe I should go back and take a look sometime? Or maybe I could take a guest professor role sometime.

Defense Against the Dark Arts is out of the question, but it would be quite fun to talk to younger students about the Muggle world and teach them a few self-created spells.

I just don't know if Dumbledore will reject me the way he rejected Tom.

Hmm... He probably won't make the same mistake again. Keeping a potential Dark Lord under his nose is better than letting him run wild outside, right?

With these random thoughts swirling in his mind, Murphy became somewhat distracted while fishing, not even noticing when a fish took the bait.

Patrick watched the bobbing fish but didn't say anything. "What's wrong? Something on your mind?"

Murphy thought for a moment and said, "Patrick, what would you think if I told you that I'm a wizard, and that the white potions we make are actually just very common potions in the wizarding world?"

Patrick paused for a moment, "The effects of the white medicine are indeed similar to magic. If you say that, I probably won't be too surprised."

"You're not surprised that I can use magic?"

"Unless you conjure up a rabbit for me."

Murphy was amused. He took a deep breath, drew his wand, and said, "You've worked so hard all this time. And it's been a great honor to work with you. Forget everything!"

After several Legilimency and Oblivion spells, Murphy replaced the image of himself in Patrick's mind with Boris.

Then he quietly fished by the lake, waiting for Patrick to wake up.

Three hours passed, and Murphy caught two fish. Patrick finally woke up just as the sun was about to set.

Murphy has already transformed into Boris using the compound decoction.

"Sorry, I just fell asleep?" Patrick rubbed his slightly groggy head, as if he had slept for a long time.

"Patrick, you're getting old. You can even fall asleep while fishing."

Patrick's face darkened. "I'm only forty, what do you mean 'old'!"

Murphy put down his fishing rod and said, "You've caught quite a few fish, and you're awake now. Let's get down to business. Didn't I tell you to buy a few electronics and software companies? What do you think? Any good ones?"

"There are several, such as Inmos in the chip industry, Sinclair Research in the personal computer industry, and Fantasy Technologies in the chip design industry."

"Oh, right, you also mentioned looking for talent in computer networking. I found one, Tim Berners-Lee. He's a physicist, but some friends at Oxford told me he's currently working on a computer network to connect the internal laboratories of GERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research), using a technology called hypertext..."

"Who did you say?" Murphy exclaimed in surprise.

"Tim Berners-Lee, you know him?" Patrick was also somewhat surprised.

Turing Award winner and inventor of the global information network!

Although Murphy had never been involved in theoretical research in his previous life, he had heard of the name of the father of the Internet.

So the Internet didn't exist back then!

"We have to bring him over!" Murphy said. "Give him whatever resources he needs. I want the internet to be born in the hands of the Umbrella Corporation."

"Oh, and those other companies you mentioned earlier, let's buy them all. Do they have their own chip manufacturing plants?"

Chip manufacturing is an extremely large industry, from top-level IP core design to IC architecture, to the wafers, lithography machines, and photoresists needed to produce chips, to the actual chip manufacturing, and subsequent packaging and testing. Each link is a sub-industry, and in each sub-industry, a large number of technology companies around the world are constantly rising and falling.

In order to reduce costs, many chip companies do not actually produce chips, but only design IC chips. There are not many manufacturers that actually manufacture chips. Therefore, Murphy asked whether they have their own chip factories.

“Immoth has its own chip manufacturing facility, and Fantasy Technologies seems to be doing cutting-edge IP core design,” Patrick said. “However, we probably can’t afford to buy Inmoth.”

"what?"

"InMoss has always been funded by the government, with the British government alone investing more than £200 million. Although it has never made a profit, it owns eight chip factories and is valued at around £700 million. Even if it is sold at a bargain price, it would still be worth more than £600 million."

hiss……

As expected of the chip industry, they start with units in the hundreds of millions.

With its White Medicine and Venus series, Umbrella Corporation has become a terrifying money-making machine, with revenue reaching £300 million last year and still growing rapidly. However, the construction of biotechnology research and development bases and mansions, the installation of state-of-the-art experimental equipment, and the recruitment of top researchers all cost money like water, leaving Umbrella Corporation with very little disposable funds.

Without raising funds, it's indeed unaffordable to buy.

"Boss, why do you want to manufacture chips?"

(End of this chapter)