One More Doesn’t Matter

"I’ve already made it, but the server terminal is just too big. You know that, right?"

Tony looked at the books on Noah’s desk, his mind already drifting elsewhere.

The books looked ancient, but their titles were extremely eye-catching—History of Ancient World Magic, History of Modern World Magic, and History of Contemporary World Magic.

The three books divided up the history of the entire magical world, making it easier to understand.

Revising these three books had indeed been quite troublesome. They were essentially masterpieces jointly compiled by historians from across the magical world.

The sheer thickness of each volume was enough to make one’s heart tremble, but for anyone unfamiliar with the history of the magical world, they were undoubtedly the best choice.

Noah had long since finished reading them, because the Archmage examination included a history test.

However, even as the person who had initiated the examination, Noah himself did not know what exactly would be tested. So he simply memorized all three books.

"Of course I know. So why didn’t you bring it over?" Noah propped up his head, displeasure appearing on his face.

"Well, can you tell me what you want this stuff for?" Tony was puzzled. He truly could not figure out why this wizard wanted an artificial intelligence terminal.

Seriously, could it be that Noah found memorizing books troublesome and planned to dump all the knowledge from them into the intelligent terminal?

Or perhaps magical testing was too troublesome and dangerous, so he wanted the intelligent terminal to simulate it instead?

Damn it, Tony had never seen those spells and did not know how they worked. He had not designed those functions for the intelligent terminal.

"Take a look at this." After thinking for a moment, Noah simply tossed his phone to Tony. It was Tony’s own creation anyway, so there was no harm in letting him see it.

"Whoa? Wizards use phones too? A BlackBerry?" Tony froze for a moment, then took the phone with an amused look.

But the next instant, his smile stiffened.

The display on the phone showed the social networking app Tony had designed for Noah four years ago.

Looking at the densely packed chat windows and the hundreds upon thousands of unread messages, Tony went blank.

He casually tapped the "Space" button. Tony knew exactly how that feature operated.

But when he saw all the posts inside, updates published by wizards from all over the world, his hands began to tremble.

After a long while, he finally took a deep breath and handed the phone back to Noah. "You shameless bastard!"

"?" Noah looked at Tony in bewilderment. "Are you insulting me?"

"You’ve made quite a fortune from this app, haven’t you?"

Tony said indignantly, "I have nothing to say about you making money, but why did you change the creator’s name to yours? Noah Finneal? Damn it, this is the work of Tony Stark!"

"But the wizards don’t know you. Who knows what corner of the world you crawled out of?"

Noah shrugged. He had indeed asked Charles to change the app’s creator name to his own.

Tony was already ridiculously rich, so it was perfectly normal for him not to care about money.

But the man had one particularly obvious trait: he loved showing off. He could go without making a cent, but that did not mean he could tolerate someone else taking credit for his work.

Especially when it was a chance to show off in front of a bunch of wizards!

"How shameless!" Tony crossed his arms and said unhappily, "So what do you need the artificial intelligence terminal for? To help manage all this information?"

"That’s right."

Noah nodded. He was not surprised Tony had guessed it. "Freedom of speech is one thing, but we can’t possibly let everyone spout nonsense. Otherwise, who knows what sort of people might stir up trouble and incite others, provoking conflicts between wizards and ordinary people and leading to terrible consequences?"

Put bluntly, it was public opinion control. Some things could be said, but needed to be phrased as subtly as possible. Other things simply could not be said at all.

Over the years, the magical world had basically brought all wizards onto equal footing.

No matter what background you came from, the education you received and the services available in the magical world were essentially the same.

But there was no denying that some people thought, I come from some great family. I’m a pure-blood. I was born with every advantage!

Yes, such people did exist. Though on a global scale, they were not particularly numerous.

But who knew whether such people’s rhetoric might attract the attention of pure-bloods in a given country, spreading from one person to ten, then ten to a hundred? No matter how one looked at it, that would be a major problem.

Noah had already lived through Voldemort’s mess once, even if he had only been passing through as a bystander.

He had not been around during the British Ministry of Magic’s great reshuffle either, but one lesson was enough.

Was Noah supposed to let it happen again?

"Tch, so that’s how it is."

Tony shook his head. He understood Noah’s approach, but he was still confused. "I took a look just now. There seems to be moderation already. Aren’t you afraid your plan will get a lot of wizards fired?"

"Those aren’t people either. They’re intelligent terminals." Noah shook his head. "They’re pretty good, but as the user base keeps growing and the areas covered become broader, even though we’ve added quite a few servers and intelligent terminals, we still can’t manage everything perfectly. We can only barely maintain stability."

"You have people in the magical world who can make intelligent terminals?"

"Yes, but they only joined the magical world six years ago. You might even know them. They’re Mutants."

"Mutants? Damn it! No wonder there were rumors a few years ago that Mutants had been wiped out en masse, and that only a tiny number remained. So they all entered the magical world?"

"Mm-hmm."

Noah nodded. As Charles and the others performed well in the magical world, the Ministries of Magic in various countries gradually stopped arguing.

They cautiously began integrating the Mutants into the magical world, little by little. Aside from a few places where some trouble arose, they integrated perfectly in the vast majority of regions!

It could be said that the Mutants had basically secured their future, and their abilities were quite impressive as well.

With Charles’s help, whenever a Mutant was born, Ministries of Magic all over the world would know about it and quietly arrange for them to enter the magical world.

Charles’s abilities also became known to all wizards, which brought some trouble.

Charles had been born in New York, so why should an American join the British Ministry of Magic?

And Charles had a good relationship with the Sanctum?

Did New York not have a Sanctum?

Because of this, Dumbledore had argued with Kou Haog more than a few times.

Everyone knew exactly how capable Charles was and what he could do. He could make enormous contributions to the magical world, so who would not want him in their own magical community?

But in the end, the decision was left to Charles himself, and Charles ultimately chose to remain with the British Ministry of Magic.

His personal wishes were clear. The British Ministry of Magic had been the first organization to invite them in and help them adapt to their new world. They would not, nor did they wish to, become ungrateful wretches.

"Alright, I understand." Tony nodded. "Charles Xavier, right? I know of him. He’s an incredibly talented geneticist. I never expected him to be able to make intelligent terminals too."

"He’s quite impressive." Noah nodded as well. "But this thing doesn’t seem to be enough anymore."

"Of course not. Tony Stark didn’t make it." Tony wore a smug, matter-of-fact grin. "I can take care of that for you. I even updated that social networking app through several versions when I was bored. The version I have now is already several generations ahead of yours."

Noah pursed his lips. He updated the app when he was bored?

And it ended up several versions ahead of the one Noah had?

Noah did not ask what exactly had been updated, nor did he ask whether Tony was joking. For someone who had designed the thing in four minutes and fifty seconds, Noah really had nothing to say.

"Tell me, then. What are your conditions?" Seeing Tony’s expression, Noah knew the man probably had some conditions. "But don’t go too far. At worst, I’ll use some special methods like I did four years ago."

"Damn it! Don’t mention what happened four years ago!" The terrified Tony from that night four years ago was absolutely a dark chapter in his history. Tony did not want anyone bringing it up!

"Fine, we won’t talk about four years ago. Tell me your conditions. If they aren’t excessive and I can meet them, I’ll agree." Noah shrugged, though there was one thing he did not say: if they were excessive, he would use the Cruciatus Curse.

Noah considered himself a good person, but among good people there were spineless pushovers and those with a firm attitude. Noah believed he belonged to the latter category.

His heart was not evil, so the Cruciatus Curse was not as effective in his hands as it was for Dark wizards, but controlling someone was not a problem. Besides, he would remove it afterward.

"Three questions. First, that Homeland Security thing. Damn it, that stupid name is too long!"

Tony rubbed his brow, unable to recall S.H.I.E.L.D.’s full name for the moment. Then he simply pointed at Coulson. "What’s your relationship with his security agency?"

"I know their director fairly well. Thirteen years ago, when aliens invaded, Phil, their director, and I dealt with the problem together. You can ask him for the details." Noah answered directly.

"Aliens? Damn it, aliens exist too?" Tony glanced at Coulson, and Coulson nodded seriously. That left Tony speechless. "Are wizards the people protecting Earth?"

"I’ll count that as your second question." Noah tilted his head. "You can understand it that way. The universe is vast, and Earth isn’t the only planet. Aliens aren’t necessarily friendly people either. Earth is only a primitive civilization, and the fact that it has not been invaded is thanks in no small part to its protectors."

"Alright, then the last one." Tony was already feeling dizzy from the news, and he could not be bothered to dwell on the fact that he had somehow lost a question. "This is a request, or rather, a demand. I want to use this social networking app. I want to learn more."

"Of course. Their director is using it too." Noah smiled. "There’s already one Muggle, so one more doesn’t matter."