Chapter 241

Murphy had a fever for two days; after waking up, he felt as if a layer of skin had been peeled off his entire body.

However, his condition was much better; that terrifying feeling of impending sudden death had vanished, and the lingering pain and fatigue were gone. His appetite had improved significantly, and he felt hungry whenever he woke up.

The medical team extracted his body tissues for testing and confirmed this, "The aging of your body's cells has been alleviated. We tested the epithelial cells and found their lifespan has been extended; they can still divide four to five more times."

"However, although the transgenic virus repaired part of the cellular damage, due to your genetic defects, this damage is still continuously accumulating, and some of it is difficult to repair with current technology."

"Before finding a better solution, you must still be careful to avoid using transformation-type abilities or taking transformation-type potions, so as not to stimulate the progression of the lesion."

Murphy didn't intend to solve the problem all at once, so he wasn't too disappointed.

Over the next few days, he made some arrangements for the research institute's work, assigned more manpower to the vampire gene research group, and raised its priority to the highest level, on par with the Transfiguration Research Group and the Spell Research Group, allowing it to draw on the institute's resources to the maximum extent.

If they could make another major breakthrough—such as finding key anti-aging genes and increasing the effectiveness of cell repair technology by several orders of magnitude—perhaps he wouldn't even need the Magic Stone.

On the other hand, Umbrella's recruitment of cancer cell marker personnel was also progressing steadily.

He had already formulated the rules for the subsequent arrangements and workflows for these people and had Boris recruit several professional managers to be in charge.

The process of signing the magic agreement after the markers were hired and joining his mental network without their knowledge was conducted according to standard Muggle workplace procedures, with nothing too unusual.

And in the institute, he had already prepared more than a hundred groups of bacterial clusters, applied the communication Soul Seed to them, and set up a timed feeding mechanism for them.

When the time came, once the sample marking work was on the right track, he would only need to send the marking information and feedback results before and after the sample feeding.

With the risk of sudden death temporarily gone, Murphy felt very relieved, and his gaze returned to the Magic Stone.

Has that guy Tom cheered up yet?

There is still work to be done; he can't stay depressed forever.

Moreover, the task of obtaining the Magic Stone is still forced upon him; he lacks the motivation to complete it, so he must be made to want to do it from the bottom of his heart.

The soul's dark night has been dark for long enough; it is time to advance to the next act.

But he still needs to see if there is any suitable opportunity.

……

Tom had been feeling a bit dazed for the past two days.

Harry and Ron tried very hard to make him happy, and the two of them gave him great comfort, but he didn't improve much; he didn't even know how to open his mouth to tell them about his true encounter.

After all, even he himself hadn't fully figured out what was going on yet.

He still didn't know his true identity, and he still didn't understand why the notebook chose him.

He didn't know what was real and what was fake now, nor did he know what to believe.

All the clues seemed to indicate that his situation was extremely terrible, but only one thing seemed certain in that information: that notebook could not be trusted; it was using him, wanting him to obtain the Magic Stone to help it resurrect.

He didn't want to be at the mercy of the notebook anymore.

He even tried to destroy the notebook once.

But ordinary spells didn't seem to work; he used almost all the spells he knew, tried many potions, and even used fire, sulfuric acid, needle pricks, etc., but couldn't harm the notebook in the slightest.

If magic doesn't work, what about Muggle weapons?

While learning those experimental methods, he learned a lot about Muggle things from Professor Murphy, some of which seemed to have great power……

But before he could think of any method, another more imminent problem made him dismiss this idea.

【There must be something more important; what on earth does the notebook mean by 'you are already dead'?】

That sentence of his didn't seem to be alarmist.

To verify this, he prepared a bottle of Life and Death Water; after drinking it, although his body became abnormally heavy, he himself did not fall asleep because of it, and he could even continue to control his body's movements.

If it were just because the Life and Death Water had no effect on him, that wouldn't make sense either—he experimented on his skin with a needle, and he couldn't feel pain at all.

The Life and Death Water seemed to only isolate his body's sensations, making his body fall asleep, but his soul remained awake.

【The soul and the body are not synchronized; this is clearly not normal.】

He went to the library many times and looked up a lot of information about death and the soul, from which he did find some information that could explain these phenomena.

He now knows that there are some black magic spells that can control corpses, making them move, and even the most brilliant ones can make corpses have heartbeats and breathing, looking as if they were alive.

But even the Undead made by the most brilliant black magic cannot possess a soul, and it is precisely for this reason that they can be immune to the vast majority of mental magic, and some effects that might affect the mind also have no effect on them.

This once again raised his hopes; after all, he should possess a soul.

But soon, he remembered the magic mentioned in that memory of Tom Riddle talking to a certain professor.

【Since soul fragments can be stored in objects, is there no way to store a soul in a body?】

Perhaps that notebook—or rather, Voldemort—used some kind of terrible black magic currently unknown, just sealing his soul in this living corpse?

This conjecture made him feel depressed.

If he is really dead, if he is really just a ghost wearing the skin of an Undead, then to truly live, perhaps the only way is to obtain the Magic Stone.

Perhaps it is precisely because of this that the Book of Guidance told him the truth.

He can't resist at all, can he?

Just as it was written in that task, to survive, he must go and get the Magic Stone no matter what.

……

"Tom." On the third day of Christmas, after dinner, Harry quietly called Tom and pulled him into a corner, "At ten o'clock tonight, we'll wait for you outside the Slytherin common room."

"What?" Tom didn't quite understand.

"We found a good thing; you must come and see it!"

"Sorry, I don't really want to go out; thank you for your kindness……"

"No, it's not a surprise party……" Ron said, "Really, Tom! You must come and see that thing!"

Tom hesitated for a moment; since that day, he had been like a walking corpse, and he would likely not be able to sleep tonight either.

【Continue to stay in the dormitory alone and think about those problems that cannot be solved at all?】

【That seems to be of no help at all.】

"Tom……" The two young wizards looked at him expectantly.

【They probably really want to make me happy.】

In the black sludge at the bottom of his heart, a light bubble seemed to rise; that little bit of warmth gave him a trace of strength, "Alright."

"Great!" Harry and Ron were excited and beaming, "You definitely won't be disappointed!"

(End of chapter)