Hogwarts: From Selling White Peppers to Becoming a God

Chapter 240 Bubbles

Murphy had a fever for two days, and when she woke up, she felt as if a layer of skin had been peeled off all over her body.

However, his condition has improved a lot. The terrible feeling of being on the verge of sudden death has disappeared, and he no longer feels pain or fatigue. His appetite has also improved, and he always feels hungry after waking up.

The medical team extracted tissue from his body and conducted some tests, which confirmed this: "The aging of your body's cells has been slowed down. We tested the epithelial cells and found that their lifespan has been extended and they can still divide four to five times."

"However, although the genetically modified virus repaired some of the cell damage, due to your genetic defect, the damage continues to accumulate, and some of it is difficult to repair with current technology."

"Until a better solution is found, you should try to avoid using any shape-shifting abilities or taking any shape-shifting medications, so as not to stimulate the progression of the disease."

Murphy didn't intend to solve the problem all at once, and wasn't too disappointed.

Over the next few days, he made some arrangements for the work of the research institute, increasing the number of people assigned to the vampire gene research group, raising its priority to the highest level, on par with the shapeshifting research group and the spell research group, so that the institute's resources could be mobilized to the maximum extent.

If they can achieve another major breakthrough—such as finding key anti-aging genes and improving the effectiveness of cell repair technology by several orders of magnitude—he might not even need the magic stone anymore.

On the other hand, Umbrella's efforts to recruit cancer cell markers are also progressing steadily.

He had already established rules for the subsequent arrangements and workflows for these individuals, and had Boris recruit several professional managers to oversee them.

The process of a Marker signing a magical agreement upon joining the company and unknowingly joining his mind network follows standard procedures in the Muggle workplace, with nothing particularly unusual.

In the research institute, he had prepared more than a hundred groups of pathogens, applied the Seed of Communication, and set up a timed feeding mechanism for them.

Once the sample labeling process is on track, he will only need to send labeling information and feedback results before and after sample feeding.

With his body no longer at risk of sudden death, Murphy breathed a sigh of relief and turned his attention back to the Philosopher's Stone.

Has Tom pulled himself together yet?

I still have work to do; I can't stay depressed forever.

Moreover, the task of obtaining the magic stone is currently being imposed on him, so he lacks the motivation to complete it. We must make him genuinely willing to do it.

The darkness of the soul has lasted long enough; it's time to move on to the next act.

However, we still need to see if there is a suitable opportunity.

……

Tom has been in a daze these past two days.

Harry and Ron tried very hard to cheer him up and offered him a lot of comfort, but he didn't get much better. He didn't even know how to tell them what had really happened to him.

After all, even he himself hasn't fully figured out what's going on yet.

He still doesn't know his true identity, and still doesn't understand why the notebook chose him.

He no longer knows what is true and what is false, nor what he should believe.

All the clues seemed to point to his dire situation, but one thing seemed certain: the notebook was untrustworthy, it was using him, and it wanted him to obtain the Philosopher's Stone to revive it.

He no longer wanted to be controlled by the notebook.

He even tried to destroy the laptop at one point.

But ordinary spells didn't seem to work. He used almost all the spells he knew and tried many potions, even fire, sulfuric acid, and needles, but none of them could damage the notebook in the slightest.

If magic doesn't work, what about Muggle weapons?

While learning those experimental methods, he learned a lot about Muggle things from Professor Murphy, some of which seemed to have great power...

But before he could come up with a solution, another, more pressing problem made him abandon the idea.

[Isn't there something more important? What exactly does the notebook mean by saying "you are dead"?]

His words didn't seem to be an exaggeration.

To verify this, he prepared a bottle of water of life and death. After drinking it, although his body became unusually heavy, he did not fall asleep and could even continue to control his body's movements.

It wouldn't make sense if it were simply because the Water of Life and Death had no effect on him—he experimented on his skin with a needle and felt no pain at all.

The Water of Life and Death seemed to merely isolate him from bodily sensations, putting his body to sleep, but his soul remained conscious.

The soul and body are not in sync; this is clearly abnormal.

He went to the library many times and searched for a lot of information about death and the soul. He did find some information that could explain these phenomena.

He now knew that there were dark magic spells that could control corpses, making them move, and the most advanced ones could even give corpses a heartbeat and breath, making them look as if they were alive.

However, even the most sophisticated black magic-crafted undead cannot possess a soul. It is precisely for this reason that they are immune to most mental magic, and some effects that might affect the mind have no effect on them.

This gave him renewed hope, after all, he should have a soul.

But soon, he remembered the magic that Tom Riddle had mentioned in a conversation with a professor.

If fragments of a soul can be stored within an object, isn't it possible to store a soul within a body?

Perhaps that notebook—or rather, Voldemort—used some kind of terrifying dark magic that is not yet fully understood to simply seal his soul within this living corpse?

This conjecture left him extremely frustrated.

If he is truly dead, if he is truly just a ghost in the guise of a corpse, then perhaps the only way to truly live is to obtain the Philosopher's Stone.

Perhaps that's why the Book of Guidance told him the truth.

He couldn't resist at all, could he?

Just as the mission description stated, to survive, he had to obtain the Philosopher's Stone no matter what.

……

"Tom." On the third day of Christmas, after dinner, Harry quietly called out to Tom, pulled him aside, and said, "We'll be waiting for you outside the Slytherin common room at ten o'clock tonight."

"What?" Tom didn't quite understand.

"We've found something amazing, you absolutely have to see it!"

"Sorry, I don't really want to go out. Thank you for your kind offer..."

"No, it's not some surprise party..." Ron said. "Really, Tom! You have to see this thing!"

Tom hesitated for a moment. Since that day, he had been like a walking corpse, and he probably wouldn't be able to sleep tonight either.

[Should I continue to stay alone in my dorm room thinking about problems that are ultimately unsolvable?]

That seemed to be completely useless.

"Tom..." The two little wizards looked at him expectantly.

They probably really wanted to cheer me up.

A light bubble seemed to rise from the black sludge in his heart, and that slight warmth gave him a bit of strength. "Okay."

"Great!" Harry and Ron exclaimed excitedly, their faces beaming. "You definitely won't be disappointed!"

(End of this chapter)