Feeling Dudley's gaze fall upon him, Harry's face immediately showed unease.
"This fat pig isn't cooking up another bad idea, is he? Damn it."
Harry secretly became wary, he absolutely couldn't get too close to Dudley today.
"Oh, my little darling, come and see your birthday presents this year."
Aunt Petunia didn't notice Dudley's expression; she covered his eyes with both hands and led him towards the table where the presents were laid out.
"Happy Birthday!"
Petunia removed her hands and, along with Vernon, shouted their congratulations.
"Wow."
Dudley looked at the dazzling array of gifts before him; it had been a long time since he had celebrated a birthday, and in that strange world, he hadn't even had his own birthday.
"At this moment, if it were the old me, I would probably be counting the number of gifts."
Dudley secretly recalled for a moment, then glanced at the gifts.
"Thirty-seven gifts," Dudley said.
Hearing this, Vernon and Petunia immediately exchanged glances; they keenly sensed that their son's mood seemed off.
"Darling, you haven't counted Aunt Marge's gift yet. Look, it's under the big gift package your mom and dad gave you."
"Besides, although there's one less gift this year than last year, they're bigger than last year's."
Petunia said cautiously, afraid of making Dudley angry.
"I see," Dudley nodded.
He had actually noticed that there were other gifts under the large one, but he thought that, with his former intelligence, he wouldn't have thought of this.
But it didn't matter; for the current Dudley, gifts and such were not important.
Seeing that Dudley didn't get angry about this, Petunia and Vernon became even more flustered.
This was not a good sign.
Not getting angry might mean that the anger later would be even greater.
"How about this, we'll go out later and buy you two more gifts, what do you think?" Vernon quickly said.
"Oh, alright then," Dudley said casually, then, not bothering to eat breakfast, he waved to Harry and said, "Harry, come over and help me unwrap the gifts."
The dining room suddenly fell silent at that moment; Petunia and Vernon's eyes widened, seemingly unable to believe what their son had said.
Harry also looked incredulous, yet very wary at the same time.
"Damn it, he definitely wants to take this opportunity to mess with me." Harry almost immediately made a judgment in his mind, "He's thought of some new way to prank people and wants to try it on me. I absolutely cannot go over there."
He made up his mind not to go over.
"Come on, there are so many gifts, I can't unwrap them all by myself," Dudley smiled at Harry and said gently.
Harry's expression fluctuated for a moment; he suddenly felt that Dudley was right, unwrapping so many gifts by himself was indeed quite troublesome, and helping out seemed like a good option.
Moreover, Dudley's words seemed to carry a certain authority, even though his tone appeared very gentle, it made Harry involuntarily want to obey.
Harry slowly walked over and began unwrapping gifts with Dudley.
Petunia and Vernon looked incredulous, but since it was Dudley's birthday today, they decided to go along with his wishes.
As Harry unwrapped the gifts, in a daze, he felt that he shouldn't trust Dudley so much, but this thought was quickly cast aside, and he began happily helping Dudley unwrap his birthday presents.
He had never unwrapped a birthday present in his life, and even though they were someone else's, he still felt happy.
"Take whatever you like," Dudley said generously, "This toy gun is nice, do you like it?"
Dudley felt guilty towards Harry.
After experiencing those terrifying things, he was now the person who understood Harry the most.
Harry was a little flattered; he didn't know what was wrong with Dudley today, he was completely like a different person.
But no matter how he looked at him, the person in front of him was still the same cousin who had bullied him since childhood, not one bit different.
Although he still remained vigilant, Harry still hoped that Dudley would continue to be like this, even if he was pretending, he hoped he would pretend for a long time.
As they unwrapped the gifts further down, they were all very ordinary items. Dudley felt very happy; although these things were no longer what he wanted, seeing so many birthday gifts from this normal world again still brought some emotion.
Harry opened the bottom layer of gifts and found a book there.
It was a bronze book with thin pages, looking very ancient, as if it had been unearthed from an ancient tomb centuries ago, exuding an old and mysterious aura.
"Someone actually sent Dudley a book, they must be out of their mind. I'll eat my hat if Dudley even glances at it!"
Harry picked up the bronze book, wanting to flip through it.
If nothing went wrong, Dudley would never open this book. Maybe he could choose this gift, that way Dudley wouldn't get angry, and he'd have a book to pass the time with, which was pretty good.
However, it was the first time Harry had seen a book with a bronze cover.
Just as Harry was about to pick up the book, Dudley seemed to sense something. His gaze fell upon the book, and his entire breathing froze at that moment.
"Trensorst's Brass Book!"
This book—no, how could this Grade 0 sealed artifact appear here?
Dudley's mind went blank for a moment. He widened his eyes, repeatedly confirming that the bronze book was identical to the Trensorst's Brass Book in his memory.
The next moment, just as Harry's hand was about to touch the Trensorst's Brass Book, Dudley leaped up, knocking over several gifts, and grabbed the bronze book before Harry could.
"I…"
Harry was stunned for a moment.
Then, he understood.
"Boy, who told you to touch that book? Hurry up and apologize to Dudley," Vernon glared at Harry.
Petunia also pulled a long face, looking at Harry coldly.
"I'm sorry," Harry quickly said.
Although such an apology was humiliating, he knew that if he didn't apologize, the consequences would be even more severe.
Dudley was indeed trying to make fun of him.
Dudley, on the other hand, paid no attention to anything else. The moment he got his hands on the bronze book, he confirmed that it was a sealed artifact from that strange world, the 0-02 sealed artifact, Trensorst's Brass Book.
The smaller the number, the higher the ranking, indicating the higher the danger of the sealed artifact.
Although the number doesn't represent absolute danger, only being named according to the order of discovery, the fact that this bronze book could become 0-02 shows its level of danger.
Dudley's breathing was somewhat rapid; for a moment, he didn't know how to deal with this sealed artifact, his mind a blank.
This was not an ordinary sealed artifact with just a slight negative effect. Once it started to activate, it could even modify the underlying rules within an entire area, establish a set of extremely strict legal provisions, and even alter the world's underlying rules.