"I'm very sorry about this, but it's not something I can block. Perhaps you can calm your mood a little? To be honest, it's a bit noisy."
To prevent a certain future Mr. Fool from committing suicide out of shame, or choosing to kill to silence him, Rosen seriously suggested this, even covering his ears with his hands.
"You… I… I will, thank you for the reminder."
Zhou Mingrui took a deep breath — although he had now turned into a cotton doll, he still had the ability to do this — he tried hard to calm his emotions, but still couldn't avoid feeling embarrassed. If there were a crack in the ground right now, he would definitely crawl into it without hesitation.
Destroy it. Destroy this world!
At least in that moment, Zhou Mingrui truly felt that way.
Fortunately, as someone who would one day disguise himself as a god with an expressionless face, Zhou Mingrui still had basic emotional stability, and soon adjusted himself.
He then looked at the little child in front of him, thought for a moment, and said, "So you also don't know what's going on?"
"Unfortunately, that's indeed the truth."
Rosen nodded. This wasn't considered lying — he really did not know why Zhou Mingrui's consciousness had crossed over into a cotton doll.
But thinking of the monocle that had also changed, Rosen raised his hand and pinched the monocle on his face, saying at the same time, "However, maybe I can try something…"
"What?"
Zhou Mingrui was clearly surprised. But before he could ask further, he saw the little child across from him smile.
The other said:
"Ah, looks like it worked. Then, see you tomorrow, Little Zhou!"
The next second, Zhou Mingrui's vision went black, and after a brief darkness, he regained consciousness.
Shua—
Zhou Mingrui suddenly sat up from the bed. Because he used too much force, he even pulled his waist a little, making him inhale sharply in pain. Supporting his waist, he looked at the familiar surroundings with a shocked expression.
He had returned—returned to his own room, returned to his familiar era.
Zhou Mingrui then thought of something and lowered his head to look at his body. As expected, he had recovered his original physical body, no longer the palm-sized cotton doll.
"Just now… was that a dream? No, impossible. If it were a dream, it would've been far too real. And also…"
Zhou Mingrui frowned. He suddenly realized something belatedly — after he crossed into that strange place, the language he spoke wasn't Chinese at all, but a language he had never encountered before.
…
"As expected, like the Marauder's Uniqueness, Zhou Mingrui didn't actually cross over completely into the cotton doll. Only a portion of his consciousness was shared into it."
Rosen pinched the cotton doll that had reverted to an ordinary piece of merch, already reaching a conclusion in his heart.
Although he didn't know why, the merch that had crossed over with him clearly possessed special properties, and Rosen could control these properties to a certain extent.
For example, just now, Rosen could choose to send Zhou Mingrui's consciousness back. And now, Rosen could roughly sense that if he wanted to pull Zhou Mingrui's consciousness here again, he would have to wait around 24 hours.
That was also the reason Rosen said see you tomorrow.
Moreover, Rosen discovered that he seemed able to share the power attached to the consciousness on the cotton doll — just like the monocle shared the Uniqueness's power, the cotton doll allowed Rosen to share Zhou Mingrui's power.
"However, Little Zhou is currently just an ordinary person. He has no power."
Rosen complained, put the cotton doll away, and began handling the remaining merch:
"Since both the monocle and the cotton doll have special properties, what changes do these things have?"
"What triggers them?"
Rosen reviewed the events earlier, then hesitated slightly and thought in his heart:
"I wanted to see Zhou Mingrui just now, and the cotton doll reacted… is this the power of wishful thinking?"
Rosen wasn't too sure. He picked up the Medici keychain and silently thought:
"I want to see Medici."
The keychain showed no reaction.
Rosen waited a bit, then changed his thought:
"I want to borrow the Red Angel's power."
Still no reaction.
After repeating the experiments several times, Rosen had to admit his guess was probably wrong. The merch's activation likely had nothing to do with his thoughts — what happened earlier was just a coincidence.
This disappointed him somewhat. He sorted through the remaining merch — most were like the keychain, completely unchanged. Only one thing surprised Rosen.
It wasn't something he got from a convention. It was a free fan-made item Rosen created himself — a Blasphemy Card containing a self-designed pathway.
Along with a strong light, silhouettes emerged from the Blasphemy Card — not various versions of Roselle, but different forms of Rosen himself.
Rosen pressed his lips together, eyes landing on the projection representing Sequence 9 — a little child brimming with joy.
—Sequence 9: Peter Pan.
Rosen's gaze moved across the remaining sequences, eventually landing on the final projection — a figure full of majesty yet also full of fatherly love.
—Old One: Father of All Beings.
"This thing actually became real."
Rosen couldn't help covering his face — this self-made pathway was originally just made for fun, modeled after the Fallen Mother Goddess.
Back then, Rosen thought, since there is a Mother Pathway, why can't there be a Father Pathway? So he made one for fun.
But he never expected it to actually manifest. So when setting it up, he added lots of nonsense and personal jokes.
"I was wrong, I should've designed this seriously…"
Rosen felt rare regret. He sighed, put the activated Blasphemy Card away, and began thinking, "But… can this pathway really be walked?"
Although filled with jokes and nonsense, he had modeled it after a Pillar-level pathway. Its potential strength was undeniable. If it really could be advanced…
Rosen's eyes flickered.
He understood well that power is the ultimate truth.
"Maybe I can try it."
Rosen then remembered something and let out a sigh of relief.
"Thankfully, when I set the details back then, I was at least somewhat rigorous."
Out of caution, although he had joked around with names and abilities, the potion formulas were indeed something he crafted based on the original setting collection. Even if it was close to cobbled together, the ingredients theoretically existed in this world.
Except for his self-created new Beyonder characteristic…
Thinking of this, Rosen looked down at the Blasphemy Card, held it, and carefully sensed any special traits. A moment later, his eyes lit up.