WeChat (Third Update)

Gringotts was the bank of the magical world. When Noah had planned his social software, he had already considered creating an online payment system like this.

Honestly, for those goblins who loved anything shiny, a method that deviated from traditional payment models was practically fatal.

If Dumbledore had not mediated, and if Noah had not controlled the London Sanctum, this matter probably would have fallen through long ago.

Fortunately, although the goblins loved glittering Galleons, they loved ever-growing balances even more!

So, after several rounds of testing, they finally agreed to Dumbledore and Noah’s request and enabled payment functions for Noah’s social software.

As computers and the internet became widespread in the magical world, Gringotts naturally would not miss this opportunity for change.

Even the conservative goblins understood that with new and faster methods of calculation and storage, continuing to use paper and pen would eventually cause problems.

Once the payment function was settled, Noah’s social software officially went live.

As for its name, Noah went back and forth over whether to use WeChat or Facebook.

In the end, Noah could not be bothered to think any further and simply went with WeChat.

George Gascoigne was a very ordinary member of the British magical world. Perhaps the only special thing about him was that his surname seemed to be the same as that of some football star in the Muggle world.

Of course, that brought him no trouble, because the magical world and the Muggle world were two separate worlds.

As a half-blood wizard, George had lived through Voldemort’s first reign. Back then, George had thought he was finished.

So he deeply hated Voldemort and his lot. Then, during the second rumored return of Voldemort, Dumbledore had eliminated him, and George had been sincerely grateful to Dumbledore for it.

What followed was simple. Dumbledore, the former headmaster of Hogwarts, seemed dissatisfied with the Minister of Magic at the time, so he began running for the position himself.

George had cast his precious vote for him without hesitation. Strictly speaking, George had also been a student during Dumbledore’s time as headmaster.

Dumbledore had been elected smoothly, and he had brought unimaginable vitality to the magical world.

The magical world was no longer what it had once been, a world maintained for the interests of pure-bloods. It had become a magical world where all mages were equal.

As for Mage rating, George had not liked it much at first. But after several adjustments, when knowledge accumulation and magical proficiency were placed under the same requirements, George had fully accepted it.

Because only then could a mage’s value be fully reflected, allowing those who were truly talented and learned to take up important positions.

Over the past few years, the magical world had developed so rapidly that George finally understood what breakneck progress meant. After a group of people who looked more like mages had been settled into the magical world, they had learned for the first time what the internet, mobile phones, and computers were!

After learning about them, George found that these things were genuinely useful.

Today was a day off, and George had originally planned to take his family out for a stroll.

Recently, the story of the pride of the British magical world, the pride of Hogwarts, Sanctum Guardian Noah Finneal, had been made into a film, and George’s family had not seen it yet.

The main reason was that there were simply too many people going to see it. Even after several months, buying a ticket was difficult. Today, George planned to take his family and try their luck.

But before George could leave the house, he heard his phone ring.

"What’s going on? Is that the sound of a text message?"

Chas pulled out his phone and was immediately astonished by the message on it.

The message had been sent by the Ministry of Magic, and it was actually recommending a piece of software to every member of the magical world.

George had known what software was for some time, but he was curious what kind of software could make the Ministry of Magic send out a message about it.

"Dear, did you get the message?" Unable to figure it out, George asked his wife.

"I did. It’s strange." George’s wife could not make sense of it either, but she quickly smiled. "We’re not in any hurry anyway. Let’s give it a try."

They got right to it. George quickly turned on his computer, while his wife tried downloading it on her phone.

The Ministry’s message told them that the software could be used on both phones and computers, so they could try it at the same time.

But as soon as they entered, they found an account registration page. After registering, they discovered in stunned silence that downloading the thing actually cost money?

The couple exchanged a look, but soon followed the instructions and registered a payment account.

George’s family was not wealthy, but they could still afford ten Sickles.

As for this payment account being linked to their Gringotts account?

To George and his wife, the current Ministry of Magic was trustworthy, Gringotts was trustworthy, and Noah Finneal, the publisher of this software, was even more trustworthy.

"One-time payment? After paying for the download, entering the account later to download it again won’t cost money?"

After reading the purchase terms, George readily pressed the "Confirm Payment" button. His wife did the same.

After roughly a dozen seconds, the software finished downloading on both the computer and the phone.

After the couple logged in with the accounts they had registered, a simple interface soon appeared before them.

"Real-name registration? Uploading a photo? And a user guide?"

After carefully reading through the contents, George and his wife immediately understood what these functions were for.

The real-name registration simply imported their registration information from Gringotts. Although they did not understand why, they obediently uploaded their photos as required and then slowly familiarized themselves with everything according to the guide.

"Good heavens, this is too amazing, isn’t it?"

After some learning, George had basically figured out how this thing worked.

His friends list was empty because he had not added anyone, while the Moments page was a platform for displaying things to others.

In truth, this "Moments" page was more like a combination of the Weibo and Facebook Noah had used before, though George and the others naturally knew nothing about that.

When they opened the Moments section, they immediately saw countless posts from people who had just registered.

The first pinned post was from "Noah Finneal": "Welcome to WeChat. I hope everyone enjoys this software."

Below the post were several options: "Like," "Comment," and "Share." The Like count had already passed a thousand and was still climbing.

"Albus Dumbledore?"

Sharp-eyed George immediately noticed that the first person to like it was actually Minister Dumbledore. Everything after that was simply represented by ellipses.

After thinking about it, George gave Noah’s post a like as well. Then he scrolled down, only to find that the second post was also from Noah. What he saw left George’s mouth hanging open.

"My teacher came over today too. A photo for the occasion."

Noah’s post was very short, but it came with a photograph. In the picture, Noah and a bald woman dressed in monk-like robes stood in the front row. Behind them stood a beautiful woman, a slightly plump Asian man, and a powerfully built black man.

With the launch of Kamar-Taj University, nearly everyone had become familiar with the attire of Kamar-Taj mages and the appearance of the Sorcerer Supreme.

George stared blankly at the photograph. Clearly, the smiling woman standing beside Noah was the Sorcerer Supreme!

"Oh my god!"

George cried out, startling his wife.

When George’s wife came over and saw the photo, her mouth fell open as well.

The comments beneath the post were even more outrageously numerous. The most common were probably things like "Merlin’s beard!" It was easy to imagine just how unbelievable the post was.

"So this software can be used like this too? It’s a pity the photo can’t move."

After recovering from their shock, George and his wife became even more interested in the software called WeChat.

After following Noah, they continued scrolling, only to find posts from Dumbledore, the current headmaster of Hogwarts, and the four heads of house. At that moment, they seemed to feel much closer to those people!

"This is incredible! I’m going to follow Professor Sprout!" George’s wife shouted happily. "I was a Hufflepuff back then! Of course, I’ll follow the others too."

"Of course." George smiled happily as well. "I was a Gryffindor."

Just as they continued browsing through the posts, George’s and his wife’s phones rang at the same time.

After answering, they discovered in surprise that the callers were all friends or former classmates. Their purpose was the same: urging them to download it immediately.

After saying that they had already downloaded it, they added their former friends. Then they discovered in surprise once more that this thing even had a group chat function.

The two of them actually found old classmates and former close friends in the group!

Watching familiar faces in the group chatting and joking while welcoming them in, they suddenly felt as though they had returned to their Hogwarts days—when their studies had been somewhat demanding, yet they had been completely carefree!

This was not something that happened only to George and his wife. Nearly the entire British magical world was shaken.

Not only did the software have all kinds of functions, it also helped them rediscover the wonderful feeling of their student days.

Who knew how many people sat before computers or phones, looking at profile pictures that had changed so much and familiar names, silently shedding tears filled with all kinds of emotions.

The WeChat craze swept across the entire British magical world, then began spreading into the magical worlds of other countries.

In less than a year, the software had become famous across the globe. Yet many magical communities complained because purchasing and download services had not been enabled where they lived.

Noah knew nothing about any of this, because his experiment had reached a critical stage.

Thanks to Cloudsmoke Tiger for the tip~ Thank you!