[Dear Mr. Black:
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of necessary books and equipment.
Term begins on September 1st. We await your owl by July 31st.
Deputy Headmistress
Sincerely, Minerva McGonagall]
Reyes White looked at the letter delivered by the owl messenger with excitement and a hint of peculiarity.
The letter was sealed with a rather rare wax seal, shaped like a shield crest and an H, surrounded by a lion, an eagle, a badger, and a snake.
The envelope was made of heavy parchment, and the text on the envelope was written in emerald green ink.
It listed his location when he received the letter and his full name, which he himself was unaware of: Reyes White Black.
Amidst the noisy urging of the owl to reply quickly, Ryze first offered it a piece of dried meat so that it wouldn't disturb the rest of the other children in the Orphanage.
"I finally waited for this Acceptance Letter..." he muttered under his breath. "But Black... am I still part of the House of Black in this life?"
As a Transmigrator, and one who started in a London Orphanage.
Reyes White's surname was chosen by staff from the London Children's Services Department from common and neutral surnames for orphans whose origins were unknown, while his first name was assigned sequentially by the Dean of the Orphanage according to the alphabet.
It could be said that his name had no meaning, merely a temporary name created for household registration.
Ryze himself never expected that after being called White for 11 years, his true surname turned out to be Black.
Ryze scoffed, and then began recalling the story of Harry Potter.
He had never met any characters from Harry Potter throughout his life.
But when he was previously going through old Orphanage newspapers to learn English, he accidentally saw a strange event reported in the evening paper on November 1, 1981: flocks of owls flying around in broad daylight, and many strange people in cloaks celebrating and pulling others into the festivities on the streets.
From that moment, Ryze began to suspect that he might have transmigrated into the Harry Potter world.
However, Ryze never actively sought out the whereabouts of Harry Potter or other original characters.
Because even finding Harry Potter wouldn't change his current life.
Before he turned 10, Ryze's goal was simple.
First, survive—
After all, the fact that he was physically sound, academically excellent, and reasonably handsome, yet remained in the Orphanage until age 10 without being adopted, clearly indicated that his physical condition was not good, perhaps even terrible.
He probably developed chronic illness due to the terrible weather when he was abandoned; he would become sickly whenever the weather turned slightly cold, and by the age of 10, his body was much frailer than his peers.
Moreover, his wound healing speed had always been much slower than average; while other children's scrapes healed in a few days, it took him almost half a month.
For this reason, in order to live longer in his second life, after Ryze mastered common English vocabulary, he continuously submitted short stories to local children's magazines and newspapers, while occasionally writing tear-jerking, pitiful stories using his identity as a sickly orphan to gain social sympathy and attention.
Ryze used part of the earnings from his articles for medical treatment and conditioning, invested another part in the bank, and gave the remaining small portion to the Dean of the Orphanage to improve the food and living environment there.
After all, the atmosphere of the Orphanage he was in was decent, and without their early care, he, the Transmigrator, might have died before he even started earning money.
This also helped solidify his persona as a weak but kind and upright good child, raising his status in the Orphanage and school, so he wouldn't have to worry about simple-minded individuals bullying him due to his poor health.
Ryze originally planned that if he didn't receive an Acceptance Letter, he would write a modified version of Harry Potter after starting secondary school to earn a large sum of money, then invest in stocks, aiming to recover his health and achieve financial freedom before the 21st century.
However, his plans changed last year.
On September 1st last year, he suddenly awakened a strange rune system in his sleep.
The System's function was simple: it merged popular game modes from League of Legends—teamfight tactics, Hextech Mayhem, and soul fight arena.
He didn't know if it was because his name was Ryze, which coincidentally matched the Rune Mage in League of Legends, that the System chose him.
In any case, on the day the System bound to him, Ryze received a Golden Attribute Forger, a basic equipment forger, and a random Golden Rune as rewards.
The golden forger produced an Health Shard, providing him with 375 Life Points and raising his limit.
The vitality brought by this Health Shard made his body feel much more comfortable.
Although it didn't drastically improve his physique as he had imagined, his physical development finally caught up with his peers this year, and last winter he was surprisingly energetic.
Ryze guessed that attributes like Life Points, Armor and Magic Resistance, and HP Regeneration should all be part of one's physique, and pure Life Points offered limited improvement to overall constitution.
His previous physical condition meant his Life Points was likely quite low, and his HP Regeneration attribute might even have been negative; the increase of 375 Life Points limit only brought him back to the level of an ordinary person.
From the basic equipment forger, he received a useless big stick, about 1.5 meters long, which looked no different from a fire poker.
In terms of attributes, it provided him with 60 Spell Power.
As for the Golden Rune, he obtained the Keystone Mage rune and unlocked two Talents.
Summon: Ailey and Arcane Comet.
In the game, the damage from both these Talents was quite lackluster; they barely dealt any damage in a match, and no one would pick them if there were better options.
But in reality, this rune still gave Ryze a pleasant surprise.
The former allowed him to summon a small Magical Creature, Ailey, as his Familiar.
It didn't consume his Magic Power, was connected to him telepathically, and could provide him with various conveniences in life, essentially acting as a mini House-elf.
The latter allowed him to summon a small Arcane Comet near himself to attack.
Furthermore, the power of the Arcane Comet was fully controlled by Ryze himself, benefiting from a dual bonus of Spell Power and Magic Power Value.
Coupled with the 60 Spell Power provided by the useless big stick, Ryze's full-powered strike could blast a crater about one meter wide in the grass. Later, as Ryze's Ability Power and Magic Power Value increased, it might one day achieve the true power of a Falling Star.
In short, after obtaining this System and seeing the words in the System description: "System functions will officially open after the Host unlocks the next stage," Ryze was basically certain that this world was highly likely to be the Harry Potter world.
Since then, he had been waiting for the Hogwarts owl to deliver his Acceptance Letter.
However, receiving the owl letter now did not trigger the next stage of the System.
It seems the System will only react once he officially enrolls in Hogwarts.
"In any case, there are two problems facing me now," Ryze continued to mutter, looking at the Acceptance Letter.
One is whether he can bring Ailey, the Magical Creature, to Hogwarts.
The other is confirming whether his surname Black is the Black he imagines.
Thinking of this, Ryze looked at the owl by the window, which was starting to get impatient, and took two pieces of dried chicken from his small drawer and handed them over, asking the owl to wait a little longer. Then, he took out paper and a pen and began writing a reply to Professor McGonagall.