Your Pick Rate Is Very Low

The prince's status was indeed quite intimidating, but its effectiveness was limited to people who came to this world from the Muya Continent and were also loyal to the Augustus Empire.

Note that it meant loyalty to the Empire, not to any particular person. Although Josh's family was still fairly harmonious at the moment, it would be hard to say what might happen if someone discovered Josh's secret. Anyone with half a brain knew just how much potential this magic had—assuming they could even make it here.

Josh had no interest in explaining all that to Dumbledore. It was enough that Garen and he knew. Besides, after Josh took on such a mysterious identity, Dumbledore looked even more awestruck. He escorted Josh and Garen all the way to the teachers' residential area before slowly departing.

After taking a good look around the room he might be staying in for some time, Josh was quite satisfied. It was even better than he had imagined.

It was a very typical British-style residence. The front room was something like a study—it had a desk, bookshelves, and naturally, a fireplace and chimney. There were many portraits on the walls. They could move and speak, but Josh had no interest in talking to them. His gaze naturally fell upon the bookshelves, which held a wide variety of books that he did not have time to read through one by one.

The back was the resting area, with a large bed and soft sheets. It had everything, including a wardrobe and a mirror. Looking at the mirror, Josh could not help but sigh. He had not looked into one for nearly sixteen years—he had always used clear water before.

There was also a small room behind the lounge, which served as the bathroom and washroom. Josh did not know whether it had been modeled after Muggle architecture, but it reminded him of the hotels he had visited before. There was even a constant supply of hot water.

Overall, Josh thought it was quite good. When he came out, he found a letter on the desk left behind by Dumbledore. He opened it and found that it said there was a magical room called the Room of Requirement across from the troll tapestry on the eighth floor of Hogwarts Castle. As long as one concentrated on what they wanted, they could enter it.

"Interesting." Josh held the letter, and with a thought, Silver Mana emerged and directly covered it. The letter then vanished completely.

Josh had some recollection of the Room of Requirement. It seemed capable of fulfilling any wish. He thought it was indeed a good place, where Garen could have an opponent to practice with and learn to control his Battle Qi. It might only be a dummy, but that would be enough.

Of course, Josh was even more interested in the principles behind the room. Although Josh was a Void Mage, his understanding of spatial principles was mostly based on guesswork. While this world had relatively little Spatial magic, its utilization of space was quite advanced. For example, there were travel tents, the wizarding world's buses, and this Room of Requirement.

They all used techniques of spatial folding and compression. Though they might be only simple applications, they were enough to enlighten Josh. At the very least, he could learn from how people in this world viewed and used space. Better yet, perhaps Josh could make some spatial equipment himself—he was sick of stuffing so many things into his pockets.

Garen's room was about the same as Josh's—in fact, Josh felt that where the two of them lived was more like an apartment. Garen did not have any particular requirements for where he stayed. Whether he had lived in military barracks or in his own home, it had all felt about the same to him. So he felt nothing in particular, only knowing that he now had a place to stay.

They had very little luggage, just a few changes of clothes and some stored food. They had no use for those things yet, and Josh simply threw the food away because it had started to spoil. This was also one of the reasons Josh was so interested in spatial principles.

By noon, Josh directly grabbed Crouch. The unlucky boy had not been able to leave on the train out of Hogwarts for the time being, so he had to stay at the school. Then Josh caught him again and had him lead Garen and him to the dining hall. Josh had seen Hogwarts' dining hall a few times in movies before, and it had looked quite good, so he wanted to try it.

Crouch did not resist. Or rather, he was still thinking about how to earn some points with this future professor. Josh might not necessarily teach them, but there was no harm in building a relationship beforehand, right? Garen, meanwhile, was indeed somewhat hungry. Warriors had always needed a great deal of food, and he also had some questions he wanted to ask Josh.

"Why did you tell them so much? Like where we came from. If something greater in this world discovers us, we could be in serious trouble."

Garen had indeed considered many things. He did not want either himself or Josh to become trapped here. So he felt there was no need to explain anything to Dumbledore. While revealing their identities did bring sufficient benefits, the accompanying danger would probably be even greater.

But Josh did not care at all. He smiled and said, "Relax, my partner. I would not have done this without sufficient confidence. I do not want to get caught by someone too powerful to provoke either, but this world simply has no such being, so there is no need to worry."

"You're that certain? Or do you understand this world?"

"More or less." Josh thought for a moment, then nodded. With a somewhat mysterious tone, he said, "You have to know that every world has a reflection. I once saw some stories about this world in another world. At first, I was not quite sure, but ever since I saw Dumbledore, I became certain. There is nothing too terrifying in this world. The strongest ones are him and a student who betrayed him."

Garen froze, then the corner of his mouth twitched. "So when you said you would protect the school if necessary, I thought you were just saying it casually. Now it seems you had it planned all along!"

"Of course!" Josh smiled faintly.

"I cannot remember that student's name, but his nickname is Voldemort. He supports putting pure-blood interests above all else and wants to kill everyone else. He is crazy and not a good presence in this world. But quite a few pure-blood nobles support his ideas, and his strength should be about the same as Dumbledore's. So either one of us could easily deal with him, couldn't we?"

"Let's hope so." After thinking for a moment, Garen decided to trust Josh's judgment. If it really came down to it, they could just run before the big shots reacted, couldn't they? Thinking back, Josh had done exactly that to him before, and even dragged him to the Muya Continent.

But Garen suddenly thought of something. "Right! Do you know about my world too? I just remembered that when we first met, you actually called out my name! Although you spoke in the language of the Muya Continent back then, and I could not understand it at the time, now I know!"

"Uh, well..." Josh froze. Thinking back carefully, he realized that when he had first seen Garen, he really had shouted, Holy shit, Garen? There was no way to deny that, so he simply admitted it. "Yes, I saw reflections of your world in another world too. But I did not learn about you from books or novels. It was from a game."

"A game?"

"Yes. But the relationships shown in the game were very clear. For example, your name is Garen, your sister is Lux, and you have three close friends, one named Xin Zhao and another named J4. In Demacia, there is also a bird-person called Quinn and a swordsmanship master named Fiora. Of course, you have an archenemy named Darius, whose younger brother is Draven. Oh, right, there is also someone you like but cannot be with—Katarina."

"..." Garen stared blankly at Josh. He had never expected Josh to know so much. He had indeed talked with Josh about Valoran, but most of it had been interesting stories about Demacia. He rarely talked about matters from the battlefield. The only exception had been Katarina, and that was only because he admired that woman and had mentioned her in passing.

"No wonder you asked what I thought of Katarina, and why your expression was so strange. And you mentioned something called Black Cleaver... Could it be that I will defeat Darius in the future and take that weapon?" Garen finally understood. At the same time, he saw Josh's nasty side. That feeling was much the same as Crouch's!

"Of course not. Your story has no ending. But there is a follow-up story that does not really count as an ending: you and Darius both became God Kings." Josh shrugged indifferently. After thinking about it, he simply mentioned the God King skins. As for whether that was true, Josh said he did not know.

"Yours is a rotating selection game. Whoever likes playing you becomes your summoner and recruits you onto the battlefield. Black Cleaver is just an item. It happens to suit your attributes."

"Then is my pick rate high?"

"Hmm... I do not know about that. At least, I basically never see you at my rank." Josh's words struck Garen like a heavy blow.

"Rank? What rank are you? It is very low, right?"

"No. The game ranks are Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, then Diamond and Master, all the way to Challenger. Unfortunately, I am a Master. But there should be plenty of summoners who like you in Bronze and Silver games, since you are pretty brainless to play."

"..."

Josh simply could not stop. Without even looking at Garen, whose face was turning green with anger, he continued, "Darius has a fairly high pick rate, though I will not explain why. But both of you had the honor of making it onto the brute-force ranking list created by summoners. You were even number one!"

Brute force? His pick rate was far lower than that of his archenemy Darius? This time, Garen suffered a direct critical hit. He decided he needed to calm down and stop talking nonsense with Josh. Still, he was rather looking forward to this God King thing.

"Gentlemen, we have arrived at the dining hall." Crouch, who had been leading the way, finally had no choice but to speak. "Also, what were you talking about? It did not sound like English at all. Was it the language of your world?"

Indeed, Garen was still quite meticulous. They had been speaking in the language of the Muya Continent the entire time, so Crouch could not understand a word.