Chapter 23: Handcrafting a Cheat, a Little Hack Doesn't Count as Cheating

“Ahhh!” Harry Potter’s face twisted as if he wanted to say something, but the pain robbed him of words, leaving him to grimace and howl continuously.

Roger could roughly guess what he wanted to say. “This magic starts off like this, but it will get better soon. As the saying goes, when heaven imposes a great responsibility on a person, it first tests their will and exhausts their muscles and bones…”

While comforting him, Roger restrained Harry’s entire body with a spell to prevent him from moving, then waved his wand to begin his magical transformation on Harry.

Roger’s path to immortality through Transfiguration currently faced two main challenges. One was the scale of his spellcasting—his perception was limited to the cellular level. The second was the need for a substance that could be controlled by his will and could reconstruct the body.

Roger’s solution was simple: although he had no current ideas for physical matter transformation, the human body already contained something that could be controlled by will—the neurons in the brain that command the limbs!

So, could he reinforce and transform the neurons themselves?

Humans can control internal organ movements, gland hormone release, and various other underlying bodily functions, but most of this control lies outside conscious awareness, managed by the subconscious.

If he could modify his nervous system to some extent, could he unlock more bodily functions?

And if the body’s control system were enhanced and strengthened enough, might that also solve the problem of perception scale?

Roger didn’t know.

But as a problem-solving approach, it was worth trying.

Scientific progress comes from continual experimentation.

Besides, sometimes research aimed at curing one illness unexpectedly leads to breakthroughs in other areas.

Diligent experimentation might one day lead him to unlock a crucial technology by accident.

In any case, no matter what lay ahead, taking action was better than doing nothing. With his innate experimental body, it would be a waste not to fill his schedule with experiments.

After some time of study, Roger developed a prototype: the Magic Neuron Reconstruction Technique.

This was a shorthand for “a technique based on transfiguration magic that proliferates, optimizes the structure of, and reconstructs the operating logic of the entire nervous system.”

This technique was quite complex; without Roger’s crisis intuition and brute-force trial and error, it would have been difficult to develop.

As for the effects…

After howling in pain for several minutes until his throat nearly went hoarse, Harry finally felt the agony ease.

Though his nerves still burned and it tingled slightly, compared to before, it was like heaven.

Roger waited a moment for Harry to recover from the haze of pain and regain comprehension, then began to explain.

“Because this technique is still immature, I didn’t perform deep reconstruction on you—just a slight optimization of the nerve structures related to your limbs and muscles. It doesn’t involve glands, organs, or other parts. Now, follow me and raise both your hands.”

Because Roger’s modification was a simple beginner-level enhancement, the process was short and lacked the side effects he experienced, like temporarily heightened sensory perception that made wearing clothes feel torturous.

Harry instinctively mimicked Roger’s movements.

“One, two, three, four, five…” Roger raised his fingers one by one.

“Five, three, one, four, two… very good. Now, speed it up.” Suddenly, Roger rapidly changed the number of fingers raised, with the speed rivaling the hand signs of Itachi Uchiha from Naruto, and astonishingly, Harry kept up perfectly, matching every movement precisely.

“Fingers seem fine. Next, the limbs.”

Backflips, triple midair kicks, one-handed handstands, two-finger handstands, jungle parkour, free climbing… the two ran a circuit along the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

When Harry fully came to his senses and looked at the palms of his hands, he was utterly stunned.

“Was that… me just now?!”

Anyone who’s done delicate manual work knows how terrifying it is to perfectly control one’s limbs!

To put it in familiar terms, if Harry became a craftsman now, his manual dexterity would rival an eighth-level machinist—a living machine!

If he tried ball sports, he could learn any skill just by watching once, and as long as his stamina held up, no other competitor would stand a chance.

If this were a martial arts world, one spell from Roger would transform Harry into a martial prodigy.

“How is it? Not bad, right?”

“You should find casting magic easier now,” Roger said with his usual kind smile.

Since Harry had helped him outsource the backup immortality path to Hagrid, Roger didn’t have the habit of letting those who aided him suffer losses.

To Roger, the key advantage of this enhancement wasn’t turning Harry into an athletic genius, but making his spellcasting smoother.

“Casting magic?” Harry asked, puzzled.

“Yes, try it—you should be able to,” Roger said, his voice shifting oddly from a girl’s tone for the first word, to an old man’s for the second, and a middle-aged man’s for the last.

Normally, wizards must wave their wands and recite spells carefully—both steps require precision. Mispronouncing a syllable or misaligning the wand’s angle can cause the spell to fail or, worse, explode or trigger other terrifying consequences.

But after Roger optimized Harry’s nervous system, he could perfectly control his limbs and the muscles controlling his vocal cords. He could easily enter a singing competition and perform “A skilled mimic from the capital” without issue. Wand waving and spell reciting would be flawless, with no technical errors.

Offering knuts, butterbeer, and wizard chess as thanks? Roger felt those trivial gifts were beneath him. Only such a transformation was worthy of a prophet’s return gift!

After finishing all the adaptation processes and explanations, they just stepped out of the Forbidden Forest and back into the heart of Hogwarts Castle.

“Harry, I’m going back to continue my experiments. If you ever need help, just come find me,” Roger said kindly, patting Harry’s still somewhat slender shoulder.

Though Roger felt he had repaid his debt, he wasn’t the type to act cold and indifferent when not in need. Once a connection was established, it deserved nurturing.

After chatting a little more upon returning to campus, Roger waved goodbye and went back to his experiments. While modifying Harry, new magical experiment ideas had sparked in his mind.

“Neurons, self, thought speed, mental power… not sure if it’ll work.”