Harry's words were like a bolt of thunder, exploding without warning inside the office.
In an instant, the air seemed to freeze under the impact, and time itself felt like someone had hit pause.
General Ross's hand, still holding his teacup, stiffened unconsciously. The tea inside sloshed, spilling a few drops onto the desktop.
As for Tony, he first nodded on reflex—then, as if he'd been struck by electricity, he snapped his head around and stared straight at Harry.
That look was full of shock and disbelief, like it was saying: Bro, what happened to you? You usually seem pretty steady—why are you going this hard today?
If even Tony—someone who actually understood Harry—reacted like that, then Ross had no chance of keeping his composure.
Ross's expression practically solidified. His features twisted together in extreme astonishment, the wrinkles on his face stacking up in layers like an old chrysanthemum battered by a storm.
"Y-you…"
Ross lifted a hand instinctively, his finger trembling as he pointed at Harry. His mouth opened, but for a long time he couldn't squeeze out a complete syllable.
I'm just applying a little pressure and you're talking about war? Are sorcerers all this extreme?
Not to mention, he didn't even have the authority to fully speak for the entire military. And even if he did, he would never recklessly start a war with a mysterious organization of sorcerers.
Just Harry alone, with the strength he'd displayed, was already a headache for the military.
Magic that looked like portals. Repair magic. A devastating electromagnetic cannon. Possibly even invisibility-type magic.
Sure, his physical strength couldn't compare to a monster like Abomination, but his abilities were far more comprehensive—meaning if he ever turned hostile, the danger to society would be even greater.
And more importantly, no one knew how many even nastier, more destructive spells the sorcerers of Kamar-Taj had hidden away.
So going to war with sorcerers had never been within Ross's considerations.
Ross's face flushed red, then pale, then red again—like someone had splashed random paints across a canvas. It was almost impressive.
His lips twitched unnaturally as he forced out a smile that looked worse than crying, and spoke with difficulty.
"Mr. Potter, don't get excited. I was just joking. I truly believe you don't know where Hulk and Abomination are."
Hearing that, Harry put on a gentle smile, nodded slowly, then broke into a bright grin.
"What a coincidence. I was joking too. How could we possibly declare war on a country over something so minor?"
Ross's taut nerves loosened, and he let out a long breath.
But almost immediately, he sucked that breath back in.
Because Harry continued, looking sincere, sounding calm—yet with meaning hidden between every line.
"Kamar-Taj's mission is to safeguard Earth. In that sense, our goals are actually aligned with the military's.
Over the years, Kamar-Taj has driven off 'aliens' that tried to invade Earth more than once, and we even destroyed an evil 'alien planet.' Don't worry—Kamar-Taj will never take action against any nation."
That's a threat. That is absolutely a threat, right?
Ross ranted furiously in his head, but on the surface he remained composed—if anything, he looked even friendlier.
But then he caught the real point: these sorcerers were powerful enough to destroy a planet?
Can humans really possess that kind of terrifying strength?
Or did they use some sort of planet-killing superweapon?
Or… was it all just a lie they made up to intimidate us?
Tony's pupils tightened sharply. Unlike Ross, Tony didn't think Harry was lying.
It reminded him of something Harry had said back in Asgard—that on other planets or in other dimensions, his reputation wasn't exactly good.
Tony hadn't taken that seriously at the time, assuming Harry was joking.
But now, a guess began to take shape in his mind.
Could it be… because Harry had destroyed a planet before, or done something even worse, that his reputation was bad?
Damn. That might actually be true.
Harry sat there as if relaxed, but the corner of his eye never stopped watching Ross.
Seeing the constant shifts in Ross's expression, Harry silently nodded to himself. He knew his goal had been achieved.
He'd said those things to make the military wary.
Now they would probably rein themselves in a lot more, and not dare to casually use shady, underhanded methods.
With Harry's abilities, he wasn't afraid of the military making things difficult.
But if he really had to deal with them, it would be endless hassle after hassle—wasting huge amounts of time and energy for no reason. Just thinking about it made his head hurt.
Harry flashed a sunny smile. Seeing Ross still tense, and not wanting to push too far, he spoke up to soothe him.
"The natives on the planet we destroyed were a bunch of scum. They deserved it. General Ross doesn't need to worry—Kamar-Taj is, after all, a righteous and friendly organization."
Ross nodded rapidly, forcing a stiff smile. He didn't dare offer even the slightest rebuttal.
And so, under Harry's lead, the meeting ultimately ended on a smooth, "mutually agreeable" note.
During the meeting, both sides reached a consensus: Harry would carefully select some promising candidates with magical talent from among the soldiers.
Those chosen soldiers would sign a special magic-lending contract with Harry, becoming his borrowers.
According to the contract, every time those soldiers cast magic in the future, they would have to pay a significant amount of U.S. dollars as the fee for borrowing magic.
This was completely different from the preferential terms Tony and S.H.I.E.L.D. received. The lending conditions Harry opened to the military did not include any option for permanently obtaining a spell.
That meant the soldiers would have to pay for every single cast according to the rules. And at specific times, they would also be obligated to assist Kamar-Taj in jointly exterminating demons invading Earth.
To put it simply, if Aunt May's family counted as Supreme VIP with the highest-tier treatment, the Dursleys were Premium VIP with slightly worse perks, and Tony was Basic VIP while S.H.I.E.L.D. were Premium Members…
Then the military was Basic Member.
Harry decided that from now on, any borrower who wasn't personally close to him would have to follow this system—leveling up step by step.
Spend ten million dollars to upgrade to Premium Member. Spend one billion dollars to upgrade to Basic VIP. Provide sufficiently powerful and rare items to upgrade to Premium VIP.
And if a borrower wanted early access to the permanent usage rights of a specific spell, they'd need to participate in a special gacha event.
Every gacha draw had a chance to produce a magic shard. Only when a borrower collected exactly one hundred identical magic shards could they successfully exchange them for permanent access to that spell.
As for Supreme VIP… that had to be the closest of close family.
Ha—Dimension Demon God—rry, after all, doesn't do business at a loss.
After reaching a preliminary agreement with the military, Harry took two days off from school and focused fully on studying the lending network.
He carefully designed the lending-tier rules, dividing borrowers into five levels. From highest to lowest, they were: Supreme VIP, Premium VIP, Basic VIP, Premium Member, Basic Member.
Different levels corresponded to completely different borrowing privileges.
The higher the borrower's level, the higher the cap on how much magic they could borrow—and the lower the cost they had to pay when using magic.
After finalizing the rules, Harry began improving the lending app.
Using the computer knowledge he'd learned from Tony, Harry successfully created a fully functional lending app. He also linked it to Hedwig and handed the app's operation over to Hedwig.
Even though the current lending app could already run stably, it still had plenty of room to improve.
His next plan was to implant the lending app into the borrower's consciousness, forming a more advanced awareness system.
Once successful, borrowers would be able to interact with Hedwig directly through thought, making magic-lending far more convenient and efficient.
However, progress on that crucial "consciousness implant" step was painfully slow.
He needed more knowledge about the soul to break through that bottleneck.
So for now, he put that line of research aside and redirected more of Hedwig's computing power toward studying new magic.
The most important one, without question, was electrifying the Sacred Sword of the Vishanti.
Harry envisioned the Sacred Sword of the Vishanti being formed from high-density plasma, serving as a carrier for the electromagnetic cannon.
When that time came, he'd be able to launch ultra-long-range electromagnetic strikes.
——————
In a bustling shopping mall, Gwen carried over one outfit after another, making Harry try them on nonstop as she searched for the one that suited him best.
But Harry's build was well-proportioned—everything looked good on him. That made Gwen even more troubled, unable to decide.
A few days ago, Gwen had invited Harry to visit her home. Of course Harry agreed.
After school that day, Gwen brought Harry to the mall, wanting to buy him a new outfit.
A saleswoman stood nearby, eyes sparkling as she stared at Harry. Every time Harry changed clothes, he looked like a walking mannequin, perfectly showing off that youthful, slightly awkward charm.
After a long while, the saleswoman finally dragged her gaze away with reluctance, swallowed, then turned to Gwen with a bright professional smile and praised her enthusiastically.
"Miss, your boyfriend has an amazing build! These clothes are basically tailored for him—he looks perfect in all of them."
Hearing that, Gwen's cheeks flushed. She glanced at Harry in secret, and when she saw he didn't deny it, the corners of her lips lifted without her even noticing.
Gwen had saved up quite a bit of allowance. On a sudden impulse, she swiped her card right away.
"Alright, then I'll take them all!"
Outside the shop, dusk spread like ink, and the sky gradually became shrouded in gray.
A plane tree leaf tinged with red drifted down in the breeze, fluttering like a light butterfly and tracing a graceful arc in the air.
Right then, a sleek Lamborghini sped in.
The leaf couldn't dodge in time. The rushing car knocked it aside, spinning it in a small whirlwind before it finally landed at the edge of the road.
The Lamborghini stopped in front of Gwen's house. The two of them got out. Harry took the gift he'd prepared in advance and gently knocked on the door.
Knock knock knock~
Soon, steady footsteps came from inside. The lock turned, and the door slowly opened.
A tall, broad-shouldered middle-aged white man appeared—Gwen's father, George.
George's expression was severe. Years of being in a position of authority gave him an imposing presence.
When he saw Harry, he looked openly unfriendly. After all, his precious daughter had been "stolen away" without him even noticing—what father could tolerate that?
George studied Harry seriously, trying to use his many years of investigative experience to judge what kind of young man this was.
But very quickly, he froze.
This young man looked extremely similar to the figure he'd seen in the recordings not long ago.
Almost like… that mysterious sorcerer.
He asked instinctively, "Have we met somewhere before?"
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