Judging from the absurdly long genre description attached to Forager, it was obvious this was a game with a ton of content.
Fishing, mining, hunting, farming vegetables, fruits, and flowers—everything was there. On top of that, you could upgrade equipment, explore dungeons scattered across the world, and hunt for hidden treasures.
Setting aside whatever practical rewards the game might eventually bring him, Arthur was genuinely pleased with this draw.
It was a game he'd liked quite a lot in his previous life.
And there were more than a few in-game items that had already caught his interest.
The only unknown was the system's final reward after clearing it.
This time, the system's completion condition was brutal: unlock every single achievement in the game.
There were 103 achievements in total.
Which meant that, in the short term, Arthur had zero chance of seeing the clearance reward.
As he finished checking the conditions, Arthur turned his head—only to see Hermione holding her iPad and staring at him with bright, expectant eyes.
Considering what he'd just overheard from her conversation with Ranni, plus the way she was clutching that thing, Arthur didn't need a second guess to know what she wanted.
"Give me a moment," he said helplessly. "I'll load the game in."
With a thought, Arthur extracted Forager and recorded it into his Magic Book.
Then he took the Magic Book out and synchronized the game across all its copies—the iPads.
"All set. You can play now."
He gave them a quick rundown of the gameplay basics and main systems.
The moment he finished, Hermione grabbed his arm.
"I want to play with you," she said without hesitation. "We've never played a game together before."
Ranni also looked over at him, her meaning unmistakable.
She wanted in too.
Arthur sighed.
It wasn't that he didn't want to play with them—every game drawn by the system was strictly single-player.
No co-op. No multiplayer.
But… maybe the system could bend the rules a little.
With that thought, Arthur asked internally:
"System, can you add a multiplayer mode to Forager?"
[Yes. Would you like to add a new gameplay mode?]
"Yes."
[Modification complete. Enjoy your game.]
The system promptly returned to standby.
Arthur turned to the two girls.
"Alright. I tweaked it a bit—added multiplayer. We can play together now."
"That's amazing!" Hermione cheered.
She jumped straight onto Arthur's bed and leaned against him.
Ranni followed, sitting down on his other side.
The three of them crowded onto one bed, opened Forager, and each chose their preferred role.
Ranni, fascinated by the new world, focused on exploration and treasure hunting—though most of the time she wandered around aimlessly, her efficiency… questionable.
Hermione took charge of base building, planting crops and organizing their home area. She didn't really care what she was doing—playing with Arthur was what mattered.
Arthur handled fishing, mining, hunting, equipment upgrades, and tech progression.
As someone who'd played before, he naturally became the overall coordinator.
And just like that, the game hooked them.
Before they realized it, the three of them had spent the entire night gaming together on Arthur's bed.
...
Defence Against the Dark Arts.
Or rather—Defence Against Dark Magic and Countermeasures, as it was now called.
The name had changed, but the curse hadn't: the professor still changed every year.
The good news was that ever since the rename, every teacher had at least managed to survive their full term.
No more Quirrell-style situations where not even ashes were left behind.
Apparently, renaming the course really had helped.
That said, this year's "luck" clearly wasn't going to last.
After all, the current professor wasn't actually Alastor Moody at all.
With Polyjuice Potion as sloppy as his disguise, exposure was only a matter of time.
Arthur, as usual, chose a seat in the very back of the classroom.
To him, seating made no difference—he spent most classes "spacing out" anyway.
Of course, that didn't mean he wasn't listening.
At his level, multitasking was effortless. He just looked like he was slacking off.
Right now, Arthur sat in the back row, eyes half-closed, resting.
After pulling an all-nighter gaming with Hermione and Ranni, this was him "recovering."
With his godlike physique, he didn't actually feel tired—but some old human habits still stuck.
Back in first year, Hogwarts professors had already grown accustomed to Arthur's behavior in class.
At first, they tried to trip him up with off-syllabus questions.
Every single time, he answered with ease.
They kept raising the difficulty.
He kept answering.
Sometimes, his insights even gave them new ideas.
Eventually, they gave up.
Then they realized something worse.
Arthur had spawned two more slackers.
Hermione and Ranni.
Strictly speaking, they weren't slacking either.
Hermione would judge whether the lesson was useful or whether she'd already mastered it. If so, she'd pull out another book and continue studying at her own pace.
Ranni thought the method was excellent and copied it wholesale.
Whenever either of them ran into something they didn't understand, they'd just ask Arthur.
Right there.
In class.
The three of them had essentially formed their own private classroom inside Hogwarts.
They weren't disturbing anyone, so the professors let it slide.
After all, these three were the best students in the entire school.
Unfortunately, the new "Mad-Eye Moody" didn't know any of that.
Other professors had warned him not to interfere with Arthur during lessons—but hadn't explained why.
So Moody ignored the advice completely.
Whether out of ignorance, arrogance, or Barty Crouch Jr.'s own impulses…
"Alastor Moody" slammed his cane on the floor and roared:
"Arthur! I don't care why the other professors tolerate you doing unrelated nonsense in their classes—but I won't!"
"Open your eyes and pay attention!"
As he spoke, he hurled a piece of chalk straight at Arthur.
Before it could reach him, Ranni casually flicked her wrist.
The chalk vanished into a blur—then shot back the way it came.
So fast that "Moody" didn't even have time to react.
It skimmed past his cheek and punched clean through the blackboard behind him.
A few seconds later, pain finally registered.
Blood trickled down his face.
He tried to raise a hand to wipe it away—
—and realized he couldn't move.
When Ranni deflected the chalk, she had released her divine pressure.
Unrestrained.
In her eyes, no one was allowed to shout at her King—let alone interrupt his rest.
This was a warning.
She could tell Arthur disliked this man.
Which meant her actions wouldn't put him in an awkward position.
Though the pressure wasn't aimed at the students, they were still affected.
The air itself felt heavy. Breathing became difficult.
As for "Moody," it felt as if a mountain was crushing him from above, with a bottomless abyss yawning beneath his feet.
The sheer terror froze him in place.
Arthur opened his eyes and gently patted Ranni's hand, signaling her to stop.
Ranni complied.
The pressure vanished.
Students all around the room gasped for air.
"Moody" gulped greedily, not even bothering to wipe the blood from his face.
Only after a long while did he fully recover—then realized his back was soaked through with cold sweat.
Arthur looked at him calmly.
"Now you understand why the other professors let me do my own thing?"
"Moody" swallowed hard and nodded.
"Good." Arthur nodded as well. "Then focus on your job. And don't disturb me unless you have a reason."
His gaze lingered meaningfully on "Moody."
In that instant, it felt as if every secret he carried had been laid bare.
Panic flashed through his eyes.
Almost reflexively, he pulled out his flask of Polyjuice Potion and took a deep swig.
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