Hogwarts: From Selling White Peppers to Becoming a God

Chapter 405 That Country

"A fish-man?" Patrick looked at the photo Murphy handed him, glanced at the grotesque corpse in it, and frowned. "So this is the killer?"

Recently, several horrific murders have occurred in coastal cities across Britain, with Muggles being disemboweled and dying in extremely gruesome manner, causing great panic in society. As a result, President Patrick is aware of these incidents.

He had initially thought they were some vicious criminals, but they turned out to be magical creatures.

"These merfolk have very low levels of magic, so we can't monitor them all the time. The Aurors only realized that the merfolk were attacking humans after they discovered that wizards had been killed. Upon further investigation, they found that Muggles had also been attacked."

"No wonder there was a fishy smell and lots of water at the crime scene; they must have entered the city through the sewers," Patrick said. "But these things don't have legs, do they?"

"Giving fishmen legs isn't particularly difficult; that's how the story of the little mermaid came about," Murphy said. "However, their mutations might not be due to wizard magic, but rather from some other power."

"You mean..." Patrick looked at Murphy, who nodded, then asked doubtfully, "But why? What good does this do them?"

"They're asserting their presence," Murphy said. "They want more people to know about magic so they can speed up the magical resurgence."

Murphy then handed a few more photos to Patrick.

The first photo shows a giant tree of light, tens of meters tall, hanging down on a beach, with people kneeling and praying around it.

In the second photo, clouds in the sky form a giant eye, overlooking the earth.

The third photo shows a giant cross formed by fish swimming on the seabed, hundreds of meters long and wide.

"Their power is still weak, so they can only use these illusionary things to create some 'miracles' to attract the attention of Muggles. But as the magic resurgence accelerates, they have more and more methods at their disposal. Recently, I heard that believers in various cults claim to see God in their dreams dozens of times more frequently than before."

"Is there... anything I can do?" Patrick asked.

Murphy sighed. "It's a matter of faith; there's not much you can do."

Atheists are a minority in this world, making up less than one-fifth of the total population. The vast majority of the rest of the population believe in one or more gods to varying degrees.

Even though the Soviet Union carried out round after round of religious suppression under Murphy's vigorous promotion, it could only ensure the purity of government and other official institutions, while believers still made up the majority of the population.

"Let's not talk about that. The US is waging another trade war. How are you going to deal with it?"

Since the Soviet missile incident, the United States has been relentlessly promoting the Soviet threat, which has dragged Britain, a Soviet ally, into the sanctions list. This time, the United States has gathered a group of its allies, including a number of European countries, to impose punitive tariffs on Britain several times higher than usual. As a result, Britain can no longer sell any electronic products under its protection, not even a bottle of whisky.

Patrick was also under immense pressure. His actions in the country had already offended almost everyone he could, and he was facing the risk of assassination at any moment. But with the United States causing trouble, Britain's foreign trade was reduced to only one channel: the Soviet Union. This would have a huge impact even on ordinary people.

"Tighten fiscal policy and develop domestic demand," Patrick sighed. "Fortunately, the Orgas Project is gradually getting on track, and key industries have been brought back into our hands one after another. We still have a good degree of control over the domestic market."

Murphy nodded. "I have a suggestion."

As he spoke, he picked up a map and pointed to a location in the east. "The Soviet Union has already made contact. You can give it a try too. In any case, we are basically on the same side now. This market is big enough to solve the problems between Britain and the Soviet Union, and it is still in its early stages with great potential to be tapped."

"The Arctic Ocean transport route has already made some progress. In fact, I'm prepared to provide them with magical technology. If we can connect our magical network with theirs, we can build a new global trade network with the help of the Flygate."

Patrick suddenly realized, and then asked, "But they used to have a pretty good relationship with the United States... Could they be hesitant to cooperate with us because of their relationship with the United States?"

"Ha," Murphy chuckled, "You don't understand that nation. They're not easily intimidated. Besides, they value loyalty and gratitude. They still have some old ties with the Soviet Union. If they had to choose between us and the United States, I think they would definitely prefer to stand on our side. Of course, given their logic, they'd probably want to benefit from both sides."

"Are you familiar with them?" Patrick asked.

"I'd say I know a little bit about them," Murphy smiled. "And there's another crucial reason for cooperating with them."

"The influence of deities on the secular world is largely reflected in faith. And they are, as a whole, a more thoroughly atheistic nation than the Sukhothai."

Patrick nodded. "I understand. I'll give it a try."

After saying that, Patrick remembered something else. "Recently, we've captured quite a few spies from the United States, and some from other countries as well. They're all after Umbrella's magical technology, and they should already have some guesses about the magical revival."

Murphy nodded. "Nobody's stupid. This can't be kept secret. Our secrecy policy can only delay the full disclosure of the truth as much as possible. However, their current stance is probably similar to ours. In order to gain more of an advantage, they will likely keep this matter within a small circle and not disclose it completely."

"I think the revival of magic will eventually become an open secret among the major powers."

"Is this process really unstoppable?" Patrick asked.

"Unless I can find the method that once sealed the gods, which might serve as a reference to drive them away again," Murphy said. "However, there are no clues yet. And as more and more people become aware of the existence of magic, the possibility of stopping its resurgence will become smaller and smaller."

"All we can do now is prepare for what to do."

"As for Muggle society, I don't need to remind you much. The Orgas Plan and the nationalization of the economy will help stabilize society. In this extraordinary period, they are beneficial to the future, and we must resolutely carry them out."

"We also need to tighten our grip on the ideological front. I've heard that the Americans are already smearing research on void particles. Even our enemies know the importance of information warfare, so how can we not be prepared to deal with it?"

"However, our propaganda should still focus on materialism and reason. Human thought may be our ultimate battleground. Although it is difficult to change people's beliefs, we should at least let them know that there is another voice."

"As for other things, such as unusual phenomena, we can leave them to the countermeasures bureau to handle."

"Recently, the Transformation Research Group has developed many new technologies, and the Countermeasures Bureau's strength is now vastly different from what it used to be."

(End of this chapter)