In the end, Douglas decided to remove the curse first.
Although he still had seven months left, more than two of those months would be the summer holidays.
In other words, during the remaining four months or so, an accident could happen to him at any time.
So staying alive came first.
At the same time, Douglas decided to devote the rest of his life to education at Hogwarts.
After all, the system had so many wonderful things that still required points to buy.
For example, the Nine-Thousand-Year Peach that cost a billion points, the Nine-Revolution Golden Elixir, and so on.
Perhaps those goals were a little too ambitious, but he could set some smaller goals first.
For instance, some Decades-of-Life-Extending Pills only cost a few tens of thousands of points.
Looked at that way, they were quite a bargain.
After Douglas chose to remove the curse, the countdown disappeared as well.
He faintly felt a subtle tremor in his soul, but it lasted only an instant.
A relaxed, satisfied smile appeared on Douglas's face.
The reason he had put off opening the Chamber of Secrets was that he feared the curse would suddenly strike while he was dealing with the Basilisk and get him killed.
Now that the curse was gone, he could finally go all out.
Seeing that he had 17 points left, he glanced at the Shop. It could still be opened, but there were very few things available to buy. Of course, that only applied to extraordinary items; he could still afford things like Muggle books.
Sigh. Time to work hard earning points!
It was monthly exam week at Hogwarts.
Douglas still got up in the morning to lead the students on their run as usual.
The running group was growing larger and larger, mainly because