Hermione, watching the explanation with deep suspicion, slightly parted her lips in shock—her surprised expression was quite adorable.
Unfortunately, the other chat group members couldn't see it.
And with final exams over, the library was empty—no one else could witness "Miss Know-It-All's" reaction.
[Hermione Granger]: Listen, it's not that I don't believe you, but how can you prove that you're from another world and not just some kind of dark magic?
[Tony Stark]: Magic? Hey, Miss Hermione is from a world with actual magic? That's amazing! I mean, I've been interested in magic since I was a kid. How about we be friends?
[Tony Stark]: Photo.jpg of Tony Stark standing in front of Stark Tower
[Ai Haibara]: Ugh, this playboy again... here we go.
[Random Guy Trying to Cling to Luo Feng]: Uh, @Tony Stark, Mr. Stark, I feel obligated to remind you: the person you're talking to might very well be underage.
[Hermione Granger]: This guy seems awfully shallow.
[Ai Haibara]: Couldn't agree more. I think we're going to get along just fine.
[Tony Stark]: Oh, unbelievable! Is this group targeting me? Why are all the new people always little girls?!
[Kizaru]: Hey, Random Guy, mind giving us a rundown of Miss Granger's world? Or should we let her explain it herself?
[Hermione Granger]: I'll do it. I attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, in the Gryffindor house…
Hermione seemed to realize something and had no intention of hiding her situation—none of it was truly secret anyway.
Even the Statute of Secrecy only prohibited revealing magical matters to Muggles outside one's family.
But in Hermione's view, the chat group members appearing on the pages of her book clearly weren't Muggles. Even if they weren't wizards, they must have some kind of extraordinary abilities—how else could they contact her in such a mysterious way?
Yet just as she finished describing life at Hogwarts, the next comment nearly made her explode.
[Orochimaru]: Hogwarts… sounds kind of like a ninja academy. But sorting students based on personality into different houses? That's a foolish system.
[Hermione Granger]: Hogwarts is the best magical school in Europe! The Sorting Ceremony has been around for over a thousand years—how can you call it foolish?!
[Orochimaru]: Heh. According to your own description, the four founders chose students aligned with their ideologies through the Sorting Ceremony. Then, they encouraged inter-house competition to strengthen those traits and mold students to resemble themselves.
[Orochimaru]: That's brainwashing. Ideological assimilation. It makes students unknowingly conform to outdated beliefs under the pressure of group identity.
[Orochimaru]: In other words, the four founders are still competing with each other even after death—seeing whose students turn out better.
[Orochimaru]: For over a thousand years, countless living people have been manipulated by four dead ones. Isn't that foolish?
[Random Guy Trying to Cling to Luo Feng]: Holy crap… that's one hell of a take. My dreams of being a wizard just got crushed by Orochimaru.
[Kizaru]: Brilliant, truly brilliant. As expected of Orochimaru.
[Kobayashi]: That's terrifying…
[Tony Stark]: Wow, they really are a twisted bunch. Even after death, still trying to control the living?
[Hermione Granger]: …That's just your speculation! There's no actual evidence!
[Ai Haibara]: @Hermione Granger Don't take Orochimaru's words too seriously. That guy sees everyone as villains—he's got issues.
[Orochimaru]: Heh, it seems Miss Haibara has quite the misunderstanding of me.
[Tony Stark]: Hey, enough of that grim talk. Let's talk magic, Miss Granger. Do you know about the Elixir of Immortality? Or turning things into gold… okay, maybe not that useful—but how about raising the dead?
[Hermione Granger]: Uh, are you talking about the Philosopher's Stone? Nicolas Flamel created it in the 14th century. It can produce the Elixir of Life and turn anything into gold—but it can't bring people back from the dead.
[Tony Stark]: Whoa! Seriously? That sounds even more amazing than pure gold… I mean, as incredible as pure gold!
[Random guy hoping to cling to Luo Feng]: I guess it's real, but if I had to choose, I'd still go with gold. The Elixir of Life has flaws.
[Hermione Granger]: That's nonsense! Nicolas Flamel used the Elixir to live from the 14th century until now—several centuries! How can you say it's flawed?
[Random guy]: A few centuries counts as eternal life? And what about the "youth" part? Flamel was so old he didn't even want to keep living. That's not eternal youth!
[Tony Stark]: Oh man, living forever without staying young? That's a curse. Yeah, gold wins. Hands down.
[Ai Haibara]: Hermione, can you get the Philosopher's Stone? Or just the Elixir it makes? I can pay with dimensional coins… wait, you probably don't know what those are yet.
[Fubuki]: Oh, new member alert! Philosopher's Stone? That's wild. Ai-chan, why do you want the Elixir? Don't you already have pure gold?
[Ai Haibara]: I'm just curious if the Stone or the Elixir could give me new ideas. Compared to gold—which defies all logic—Elixirs are at least a little closer to my field.
[Orochimaru]: If the Elixir can be mass-produced cheaply, we could sell it to nobles and lords obsessed with life extension. I bet they'd pay everything they have to stay alive.
[Tony Stark]: Whoa, genius idea! I'm sure rich folks and senators would throw all their cash at something like that.
[Hermione Granger]: The Stone's already been destroyed. Unless Nicolas Flamel makes another, there won't be a second one.
[Random guy]: Huh, that probably means Hermione's timeline is right after the end of Book One.
[Hermione Granger]: "Book One"? I don't understand—what are you talking about?
[Kobayashi]: Well, let me explain. Mr. Random here is apparently a transmigrator. In his original world, everything we go through—our lives—exists as TV shows or movies. That's how he knows things we don't.
[Hermione Granger]: Are you saying my life is a movie? That's ridiculous!
[Random guy]: Not necessarily a movie—it could be an anime, manga, or novel. Upload a photo of yourself. If you're Emma Watson, it's the movie. If not, it's probably the books.
[Borsalino]: Don't worry about that. We're all real. Just because some "plot" says you're supposed to marry some ugly idiot doesn't mean you actually have to, right?
[Random guy]: Whoa, if I didn't know Kizaru-senpai was a native… uh, I might've mistaken you for a fellow transmigrator. Wait—you know Hermione ends up marrying Ron Weasley?
[Hermione Granger]: No way! Me? Marry him? The guy who copies homework? Absolutely not!
[Tony Stark]: Ah… the mysteries of love.
[Kobayashi]: Sounds like one of those top-student-falls-for-slacker-boy school comedies… with a touch of magic romance.
[Ai Haibara]: Good girls do tend to fall for bad boys…
[Kobayashi]: Eh? Really? Girls are so mysterious!
[Ai Haibara]: Kobayashi, you are a girl too, you know…
[Hermione Granger]: Enough already! That's impossible! There's no way I'd ever fall for an idiot like Ron!
Hermione tried her best to argue, but the group of silly trolls who clearly knew better were just messing with her on purpose. No matter how passionately she denied it, they kept teasing her about ending up with Ron.
"Miss Know-It-All" was so angry she wanted nothing more than to grab the heaviest textbook in the library and head straight to the Gryffindor common room to flatten a certain obnoxious redhead.
[Borsalino]: Alright, that's enough. Hermione, would you like to join the dimensional coin system? You'll get 100 coins each month, and you can exchange them for gold, U.S. dollars, or equivalent items.
[Borsalino]: The rate is 100 coins for either one million dollars or 20 kilograms of gold. You can also earn more coins by selling items, knowledge, or even offering services.
[Borsalino]: Everyone in the group also shares items unique to their worlds. You can check the group storage space for available trades. I recommend exchanging for a Devil Fruit first—to boost your power.
[Random guy]: I second that! Devil Fruits are insane—super useful!
[Random guy: Kong-like Gorilla Chest-Pounding.gif]
[Ai Haibara: Dumb mutt, get lost! That's disgusting, you'll scare the newcomers!]
[Random User Trying to Cling to Luo Feng's Leg: Tch, you sharp-tongued girl just don't appreciate it—this is muscle, the beauty of masculine power!]
[Kobayashi: Well… Mr. Random, a bit of muscle is attractive, sure—but too much is just an eyesore~]
[Kizaru: Ahem, my guy, muscles do look good, but maybe… don't post them next time.]
[Fubuki: If the Hero Association sees you like this, they'll definitely mistake you for a monster.]
Hermione from the HP world glanced nervously around. She didn't quite grasp what a million U.S. dollars meant, but she did have a sense of how heavy 20 kilograms of gold was.
She currently had a few Galleons in her pocket, and even holding those felt a bit heavy. Compared to 20 kilos of gold, though? Not even close.
And this was just a monthly allowance from the group? If the Weasley twins knew, they'd be bawling and begging to join.
[Hermione Granger: You mean I get that just for joining? But I don't really have anything to offer… Um, maybe I could teach you all magic?]
[Tony Stark: Whoa, real magic? Count me in! Sign me up!]
[Ai Haibara: Magic, huh… I haven't even managed to extract chakra yet. Not sure if I could learn it…]
[Random User Trying to Cling to Luo Feng's Leg: Pfft, don't even think about it, poison-tongue. Magic in the Harry Potter world is nothing like what you imagine.]
[Random User Trying to Cling to Luo Feng's Leg: Unless you have innate magical ability, you can't learn it. People with magic in that world usually had… let's say, unspeakable ties to magical creatures in their ancestry.]
[Hermione Granger: That's nonsense! I've never heard anything like that at Hogwarts, and it's not written in any book I've read!]
[Random User Trying to Cling to Luo Feng's Leg: Professor Flitwick has goblin blood, and Hagrid's a half-giant. Just sayin'.]
[Ai Haibara: Half-giant?! Don't they have, um… reproductive isolation or something?]
[Orochimaru: Heh, sounds quite similar to Kizaru-kun's world.]
[Kizaru: Half-giant, huh… spicy.]
[Hermione Granger: That's impossible! Humans can't… with magical creatures… I don't believe it!]
[Random User Trying to Cling to Luo Feng's Leg: Believe what you want, but the HP world has some incredible stuff—Felix Felicis for insane luck, the Invisibility Cloak, even a Time-Turner that lets you go back in time.]
[Tony Stark: Time travel? Get outta here! What's the science behind that? How do I get one?!]
[Orochimaru: Intriguing… other worlds have such wondrous artifacts?]
[Ai Haibara: Wait—can those work across worlds? Could it really change the past and bring back someone who died?]
[Kobayashi: W-Wait, this is magic?!]
[Hermione Granger: I've heard of Felix Felicis and the Invisibility Cloak, but I've never heard of a Time-Turner…]
[Random User Trying to Cling to Luo Feng's Leg: Ah, okay okay, don't get so worked up… The Time-Turner exists, sure—but it can't really change the past, and it only works within certain limits…]
[Random User Trying to Cling to Luo Feng's Leg: Alright, alright, it's not just a trinket, but it's not as godlike as you're imagining either…]
Realizing the others were about to jump him, Li quickly explained the Time-Turner's limitations and how it couldn't truly alter the past.
Once everyone learned that its effects were limited and couldn't change past events meaningfully, they couldn't hide their disappointment.
Many of them had regrets.
Ai Haibara wanted to go back and save her parents—prevent them from dying at the hands of the Black Organization.
Orochimaru wanted to witness Kaguya and the Sage of Six Paths, to delve into the ultimate origins of chakra and ninjutsu.
Even Tony Stark wouldn't mind a chance to see his parents again.
But the random user had effectively poured cold water on all of them.
And since they knew his personality, they were sure he wouldn't lie without a good reason.
°°°
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