I hope all systems in the world have instruction manuals…
Just as Harry and Ron were relieved that the two trolls had been knocked unconscious, Professor McGonagall rushed into the bathroom.
Snape followed, and finally Quirrell—Quirrell seemed somewhat surprised by Cohen's presence; his eyes widened, as if the idea of "Cohen saving people" was as absurd as trolls performing ballet.
However, the theatrical Quirrell still feigned shock, letting out a weak sob before collapsing onto a toilet bowl, clutching his chest tightly.
Snape bent down to look at the trolls—then gave Cohen a strange look, perhaps because these two trolls had survived against Cohen.
"What kind of tricks are you playing?" Professor McGonagall's worry turned into cold anger. "You're lucky you weren't killed by them. Why didn't you stay in your dorms?"
Harry and Ron didn't know how to explain. Cohen was about to speak when Hermione spoke first—
"Professor McGonagall…they came to see me."
"Miss Granger!"
Hermione struggled to her feet from the corner.
"It was…it was me who came to see the trolls…because I—you know, I've read about them in the books, I know a lot about them…"
Cohen had a new understanding of the timeline correction—Hermione's words were almost identical to those in the books, even with Cohen's involvement.
But it wasn't a big problem; the trolls were down, and Cohen's interest returned to the tiara in the Room of Requirement.
Last time he looked, the soul inside the Ravenclaw tiara only had 20 points of soul strength, but Cohen had now raised it to 20 points thanks to the spiders' selfless sacrifice—enough to devour this Voldemort fragment.
"If they hadn't found me, I'd be dead by now…"
Hermione took the blame for violating school rules.
Ron and Harry showed brief surprise at this, then tried their best to appear familiar with the story.
Professor McGonagall added five points to each of the three and deducted five points from Hermione—Gryffindor students had another excuse to misbehave.
Hermione ran off first, while Cohen, Harry, and the others strolled leisurely toward the common room.
"Cohen shouldn't have only won fifteen points," Ron grumbled. "Cohen, I've never even heard of the spells you used—"
"Then you need to look at yourself," Cohen said, shrugging. "They're all spells from the book."
But they weren't in *Standard Spells, Beginner's*…
"Only ten points, plus the points deducted from Hermione," Harry reminded him. "But Hermione's words did get us out of trouble—Professor McGonagall's favorite is Hermione."
"Am I not human?" Cohen retorted. "I've also been trying to gain favor with Professor McGonagall…"
"But you're always taking leave—Professor McGonagall always looks grumpy when she takes attendance," Ron said.
It's just that Quirrell's absences always overlap with Transfiguration; there's a lot of dark magic, and weekends aren't enough to learn it all.
Back in the common room, Hermione stood at the entrance, thanked the three of them, and then hurriedly ran off.
Cohen quickly finished his meal and then slipped out of the common room—everyone was watching the Weasley brothers' fireworks show, and no one noticed Cohen had left.
It's not surprising that Cohen was in such a hurry.
It's like playing a game where there's a level-up gift pack that's only available at level 20. You finally reach level 20 and can open the pack—
but then your mom comes along and says, "Go to sleep now, you can play games tomorrow."
A normal person would probably agree first and then secretly open their phone in bed after their mom leaves to see what kind of junk is in the gift pack.
Upon entering the House of Requirement, Cohen immediately saw the Earl and Hedwig all lovey-dovey—two owls were rubbing against each other in the Earl's little nest.
"Excuse me, don't remind me of something disgusting that just happened."
Cohen thought of the two trolls making love, and seeing the Earl and Hedwig all cuddled together... honestly, it was too similar.
"You didn't knock before entering!" the Earl exclaimed in horror.
"This is my room!" Cohen said viciously. "And you don't need to look at me like I'm taking advantage of you—it's not like I haven't seen it before, your balls aren't even as big as my finger!"
"Evil little pervert single man…"
The Earl flapped his wings, got up, and flew out the window with Hedwig.
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Cohen was practically immune to the Earl's little grumbles.
He took the old crown from the cupboard; its jewels still gleamed in the firelight, though its main structure had begun to fade and blacken due to the Horcrux's evil influence.
"Don't hide, I can see you, little Voldemort,"
Cohen said, tilting his head towards the small soul within the crown.
Why did he feel like a villain?
The way the soul huddled trembling deep within the jewels made Cohen feel a pang of guilt—but even its feigned weakness couldn't change its fate.
Just as Cohen was about to suck the soul out of the Horcrux, the Voldemort fragment seemed to realize that playing the victim wouldn't get the terrifying thing to let it go.
A torrent of black soul surged forth, coalescing into a grotesque humanoid shape.
It was going to fight with all its might, hoping to catch Cohen off guard—
"Burp—"
Cohen burped from the sudden feeling of fullness; before he could even suck, the thing had crawled into his mouth.
One step to the stomach.
"So this is what it looks like when someone slides in front of a tiger?" Cohen clicked his tongue in regret.
Opening the system panel, Cohen saw the upgrade this Horcrux had given him.
[Cohen Norton]
[Race: Dementor/Human/?/?/?]
[Soul Integrity: 22%]
[Special Abilities Unlocked: Spirit Shaping (1/10), Emotional Drain (1/10)]
[Soul Strength: 22]
[Current Goodwill Value: 2000]
[Current Sin Value: 711]
With 2% soul integrity, that's almost equivalent to twenty adult eight-eyed spiders. Voldemort really has a lot to offer.
But Cohen was actually concerned about another point.
The [Goodwill Side Quest] and [Backpack System] that popped up after his goodwill value reached two thousand.
Originally, Cohen thought his system was just a simple shop, but now it seemed that wasn't the case.
The Backpack System was very convenient. After Cohen opened it, the data panel in front of him was replaced by a square screen with nine slots.
Cohen tried it out. One real-world item occupies one slot. Although each slot has a quantity indicator, items cannot be stacked—after all, no two leaves are exactly alike, and Cohen couldn't find two identical pieces of parchment.
Items created by the Copying Charm are purely magical and can't be stored there.
Living things won't work either—he still had one of the rabbits he rescued from Quirrell, which he had originally planned to use as spare food.
Cohen decided to temporarily use it as a wand storage place—this would save him the trouble of taking his wand out of his pocket; the system's inventory would allow items to appear directly in his hand.
Next up is the [Good Side Quest]...
[Good Side Quest (1/7)]
[1. Prevent Tom Riddle from obtaining the Philosopher's Stone]
[Reward: 1000 Goodwill Points, Death Tracker Cloak]
[Note: Subsequent Goodwill Side Quests will change based on your choices; please be mindful of your stance.]
He didn't know what the cloak was, but it sounded pretty awesome.
What about the Evil Side Quest?
Cohen felt that accumulating 2000 Sin Points should unlock the Evil Side Quest—would the rewards be similar to the Good Side Quest?
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(End of this chapter)