Dudley's Past and Present

He opened the door to the large bedroom on the second floor and entered Dudley's private room.

Tall, densely packed bookshelves filled one wall of the room.

The shelves held Muggle books on psychology, mysticism, genetic biology, Classical Latin linguistics, sociology, boxing, and combat, as well as encyclopedic and practical wizarding books with covered bindings: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Magical Theory, Modern Wizarding History, Standard Book of Spells, Complete Potions, Envisioning the Origins of Wizards, and more.

Besides books, Dudley's room contained Muggle technological items such as a refrigerator, computer, camera, and music box, along with a soft, comfortable bed, a desk, and numerous storage cabinets and boxes of various sizes holding all sorts of ordinary and unusual little trinkets.

Three bags of Harry's blood were refrigerated inside, while a large wooden chest beside it contained an entire box of Harry's hair.

A hidden drawer beneath the bed held a withered severed limb from a Bowtruckle, a Diricawl feather, several Galleons, and a raw ruby the size of a pigeon egg.

These were the valuable items Dudley had gathered over the eleven years and fourteen days since he had been reborn into this world.

Their sources were legitimate, everything followed the rules, and it was all perfectly aboveboard... well, perhaps.

The three bags of Harry's blood had been kept from the blood draws during their visits to Muggle hospitals for checkups over the past decade. Dudley had drawn his own blood as well.

That box of Harry's hair had been collected from the haircuts he received during his wild growth spurts. Harry's magical outbursts had greatly stimulated his hair; when he was seven or eight, it would often grow down to his waist overnight.

The wizarding books and Galleons had been obtained through fair trades with Harry's fan, Mr. Diggle.

The withered Bowtruckle limb and Diricawl feather were rewards Dudley had received for helping others through the Dudley gang.

Besides wizards and Muggles, this world also contained many magical creatures. Though most Muggles knew nothing of this, it did not change the fact that they all lived together on the same planet.

Over the long years, items related to wizards and magical creatures had inevitably found their way into Muggle hands.

Some visibly unusual items would be searched for and confiscated by members of the Ministry of Magic, but less conspicuous magical materials always slipped through the net.

Bowtruckles and Diricawls could both be found in England. It was perfectly reasonable for their shed remains to end up in the hands of unsuspecting Muggles.

If the Dudley gang had not merely been a group of domineering children Dudley had developed at Little Whinging Primary School, with extremely limited influence and territory, he might have acquired even more and higher-grade magical materials.

As for that valuable raw ruby, Vernon had spent a considerable amount of real money to buy it from Africa as Dudley's birthday gift.

This magical-free ruby, with its excellent appearance and tempting candy-like shine, would be of great use in his operation three weeks later.

"System, open my personal panel!"

After giving his room a cursory glance, Dudley walked over to the bed and sat down, silently issuing the command in his mind.

A translucent panel immediately appeared before his eyes, visible only to him.

[Host: Dudley Dursley]

[Identity: Muggle (magical medium, magical enhancement)]

[Trait: A bloodline medium maintaining the stable Ancient Magic—Love Protection (a modified version born from a mother's loving sacrifice).

Living together as a family with the protected target of this magic, Harry Potter, as well as his own blood and marital relatives, can recharge the protective magic on the protected target, allowing the protected target to be immune to and reflect killing attacks until adulthood.

While the protective magic is active, anyone harboring murderous intent toward the protected target who touches the protected target will suffer a passive counterattack from the protective magic. The damage received is proportional to the intensity of their killing intent.]

[Supernatural Ability: Strength Enhancement (modified through magical enhancement from the long-term Brute Force Enhancement cast by Harry Potter, granting the host three times the physical strength of a healthy adult male, along with corresponding control over that strength.)]

[Currently Unlocked Regret Events:

Petunia Dursley—Rejection by the Wizarding World (D-rank), the Tragedy of Her Freak Sister (B-rank), Unspeakable Tangled Affection (D-rank);

Harry Potter—The Savior's Gloomy Childhood (S-rank), Missing Parental Love (S-rank);]

[Regret Event Details:

Rejection by the Wizarding World (D-rank): Petunia was a Muggle, yet she had a sister gifted with magical talent. Jealous of their parents' favoritism toward her sister, she developed the desire to learn magic as a child.

Filled with hope, Petunia wrote to Dumbledore asking to study, only to be politely refused by him. From then on, the door to the wizarding world was completely shut to Petunia—perhaps it had never opened for her in the first place.

The Tragedy of Her Freak Sister (B-rank): On the night of October 31, 1981, Harry lost his mother, and Petunia lost her sister.

Unspeakable Tangled Affection (D-rank): Omitted.

The Savior's Gloomy Childhood (S-rank): The savior of the wizarding world was raised in the oppressive, rejecting home of his aunt. In the original storyline, Vernon's confinement, Petunia's mockery, and Dudley's bullying made Harry's childhood incomparably bleak.

Missing Parental Love (S-rank): Harry Potter, whose parents had died when he was young, missed them terribly and longed to personally experience a father's and mother's love.]

[Current magical item fusion opportunities: None.]

After reviewing the system panel he had seen countless times over the years, Dudley silently sank into thought and memories.

He had originally been a middle-aged man from the Blue Star world, weathered by the warmth and coldness of human nature. He lacked neither boldness nor courage, only the slightest bit of luck. He had died young in an accident.

He had thought it was all over, yet he had neither drunk Meng Po's soup nor followed the proper cycle of reincarnation through the underworld. His consciousness had passed directly through a pitch-black tunnel, and he had been reborn into this strange yet familiar world as Dudley Dursley.

It was strange because he had become a little Westerner he had barely encountered in his previous life, leaving behind his original country and era. It was familiar because he had read the original Harry Potter series and watched the films in his previous life. He had loved them deeply and remembered them vividly.

As a bona fide transmigrator from Blue Star, he naturally possessed the ever-popular cheat ability.

Namely, saving regretful events from the original storyline to obtain magical item fusion opportunities of corresponding ranks, fusing magical items, and advancing the Super Mage God System.

In short: a cheat!

Dudley's system cheat was neither particularly powerful nor particularly weak.

Its function was already made perfectly clear by its name.

Stories related to Harry Potter were said to be fairy tales, but in reality, they were incomparably tragic, filled with countless regrets, large and small.

As long as Dudley encountered a corresponding original character, he could unlock regretful events from the original story that had already happened to that character at the current point in time, or were about to happen to them.

Barring unforeseen circumstances, the timing for unlocking regret events followed the original storyline's timeline.

If the plot changed because of the influence of Dudley, this otherworldly "butterfly," then when he encountered the corresponding original character, he could also unlock the relevant regret events ahead of time.