Chapter 4: System Library
The Burrow
Ronald Bilius Weasley
July 3, 1989, Monday
After arriving at his room, Ron immediately got to work.
First, he removed the Chudley Cannons posters from the walls. Then he began tidying his room.
It took him about an hour to get everything tidy, longer than he'd initially planned, but he finally finished everything.
He wasn't particularly pleased that most of his room was still in orange, the colors of the Chudley Cannons, but for now, he'd have to make do.
Ron lay on his bed and began to think about what he needed to do.
With the Library and Workshop System features, he was bound to become a famous and powerful wizard, but Ron didn't just want to be powerful and famous. He also wanted to be rich.
One of his primary goals was to transform the Weasley family from one of the poorest wizarding families in Magical Britain into one of the wealthiest and most powerful.
To achieve this, he first needed to find a way to earn money, and his best chance of doing so was the legendary level crafting talent he'd acquired from the starter pack.
Crafting, as the name suggests, was a talent based on creating things.
Wandmaking, crafting flying brooms, making multi-compartment trunks...
In short, all kinds of magical tools created by wizards and witches fell within the realm of crafting. Some were simple, some complex and difficult, and some were significant enough to have earned their own name.
Like wandmaking.
This field of crafting was fundamental to the wizarding and witchcraft world and survived only through knowledge preserved and passed down from generation to generation by certain families.
In fact, it would be fair to say that crafting was the field equivalent of technology in the wizarding world.
Today, crafting is the field dedicated to creating new things using various techniques, such as potions, ancient runes, charms, spells, wards, enchanting, and more.
However, due to its lack of systematic structure and its reliance on individuals pursuing a goal solely through experimentation, it was considered expensive and often yielded inconsistent results.
But this wasn't a problem for Ron.
With his Muggle mindset from his past life, Ron could systematize his crafting knowledge when necessary and avoid incurring significant expenses while experimenting with the System's Workshop feature.
But Ron's Legendary talent only enabled him to learn, understand, and gain insights faster.
Therefore, he had to learn everything about crafting from scratch. And all crafting-related resources were costly.
And while Ron could minimize the cost of experimentation by using the Workshop feature, he would still need to pay for materials when he moved into actual production.
Whether he sourced raw materials externally or purchased them through the Mass Crafting Factory, he still had to pay for them.
Therefore, he needed to start somewhere in the crafting field, however small, and while making a name for himself, he could also earn money for bigger projects.
And at the same time, he needed to set aside some money so his family could have a more comfortable life.
Luckily, the system starter pack gave him 1000 galleons. With this money, he could fund his first project, but he had to be careful.
If the product he created with this money didn't sell, he would lose his capital.
This left Ron with the fundamental question: Which area should he focus on first?
Crafting was a vast field, and he needed to choose the right area to start with.
He needed to create products that wouldn't take too much time, didn't require in-depth knowledge, and had high sales potential.
But no matter how much he thought about it, he couldn't find an area that perfectly met his criteria. Moreover, as a 9-year-old child, he couldn't choose an area like crafting a flying broom, which required extensive research; otherwise, everyone would start asking questions.
"Ah... nothing comes to mind. Maybe I should rethink it after playing gobstones with Ginny. A little distraction might help. Wait a minute..."
Ron felt he was getting closer to the answer when he remembered the gobstones he'd promised to play with Ginny.
"How could I forget that? The Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. Fred and George made almost a fortune selling their prank gadgets there in the future."
But Ron's idea was to address the issue more broadly than focusing on prank gadgets like Fred and George did.
Entertainment. Or rather, toys and games.
That was one of the fundamental shortcomings of the wizarding world. There were so few things for fun.
There were very few things for children and teenagers to play with. Besides wizard chess, exploding snap, and gobstones, there were hardly any other games.
And the fact that those under 17 were forbidden from using magic outside of school made their time even more boring.
Zonko's Joke Shop existed, and it produced various products, but these, like the gadgets Fred and George made, were based on jokes.
Kids and teenagers would use them a few times, lose interest, and then get bored again.
However, Ron's mind was full of games and toys that could fill this void of entertainment, both from his old world and from those already existing in this world.
Muggles had long surpassed the wizarding world in this regard. All Ron had to do was turn these games into something magical.
Because he knew that many wizards and witches looked down on Muggle artifacts, they would never buy anything that was clearly Muggle-made.
And Ron couldn't just obtain them from Muggles, apply magic to them, and sell them.
That would be considered misuse of Muggle artifacts, and doing so would severely harm his family, mainly since his father worked in that department.
Arthur Weasley nearly lost his job when it was discovered that he had enchanted a Muggle car during Ron's second year at Hogwarts.
But that wasn't a problem for Ron.
He could create many games and toys from scratch and then sell them. And while doing so, he would adapt these games and toys to the wizarding world, making them more fun with his crafting talent.
Additionally, he would make these games and toys as complex as possible so that no one could easily copy them.
After all, he owned the Mass Crafting Factory, and this factory didn't charge him labor costs. As long as the raw materials remained the same, Ron could mass-produce as many complex products as he wanted at the factory for the same price.
All he had to do was produce the first functional product himself and then instruct the factory to mass-produce it.
"Now that I've defined the area I'll start in, the future looks more promising. But before deciding on the specific products I'll create, I need to learn about crafting and general magic knowledge. Otherwise, working on product design without knowing what to do will just be a waste of time." Ron muttered to himself.
'System, do I need to wait until I'm asleep naturally before I can use the library feature?'
[Negative. The host will automatically go to sleep when you want to use the library and workshop features. Please ensure you are in a safe place and lying down before using these features.]
'Oh. That's useful. By the way, System, is it possible for me to call you by another name? System is a bit of a cold way to address you.'
[Positive. Please specify a new name, Host.]
'Hmm... How about Alfred? When you call me, I'd appreciate it if you could address me as Master Ronald rather than 'host'. Also, if you could adopt a voice and speaking style like Alfred J. Pennyworth, portrayed by Michael Caine, that would be perfect.'
[Instructions received and accepted. Do you have any further requests, Master Ronald?]
"Haha... This is great. Now I want to try the Library feature," Ron said after a short laugh.
[As you wish, Master Ronald. Library access will be activated in 10 seconds. Please be ready.]
[10… 9… 8…]
And as the time ran out, Ron's eyes automatically closed, and his body succumbed to a deep emotion.
But his consciousness awoke in a completely new place, inside a Grand Library.
However, even though it was a vast Grand Library with seemingly endless shelves, all the shelves Ron saw were empty.
"Alfred, is this library empty? Honestly, I expected to find many books here, since it's a library."
[This library will only contain the books you have read, purchased, and scanned. So, it's perfectly normal for it to be empty right now, Master Ronald.]
"I see..."
[But your inventory contains various books from the starter pack's educational materials. If you wish, I can move them to the library.]
"Oh... Are these books in my inventory, physical, real books?"
[Yes, Master Ronald.]
"If I move them to the library, can I use them again in the physical world later?"
[Of course, Master Ronald, you can physically summon any book added to the library at any time.]
"Oh... another useful feature. Please go ahead, Alfred, and move all the books from my inventory here."
[Understood, Master Ronald.]
Alfred said, and soon Ron heard a notification sound.
-Ding
[The first books have been added to the library. You can now use the material search panel, Master Ronald.]
"Material search panel?" and as Ron thought of it, a panel resembling a system screen appeared before him.
But Ron could see that this panel was separate from the system interface. And on this panel, there were various search features and filters for finding library resources.
Ron immediately understood its necessity.
There weren't many resources in the library now, but in the future, when the library filled up, it would likely be impossible to find what he was looking for by wandering around.
Ron looked at the panel in front of him and saw a list of all the books he owned, without having to use any filters. After all, there weren't that many books.
However, after selecting the Hogwarts educational materials and first-year materials filters, he selected all the books on the list and pressed the "summon" button.
And then, immediately, a desk and chair appeared in front of him, along with all the Hogwarts first-year books on the desk.
"Hermione would love this," Ron said, then sat down in a chair and pulled the first book in front of him.
Transfiguration.
"Well... I'll have to learn them all. It doesn't matter which one I start with," Ron muttered to himself.
And then, doing something the original Ron Weasley would never have wanted to do… he began to study. Willingly and voluntarily.
After all, if he wanted to become a famous and wealthy crafter, he first needed a solid foundation.
End of Chapter 4.