"Hey, wake up, get up! What are you playing dead for?! Get up right now!"
A furious voice shrieked in my ear, but it was so tender, soft, and tinged with tsundere pride that it sounded adorable no matter how much it roared.
"Who... someone seems to be calling me..." Rin woke up groggily, and as her consciousness returned, a sharp pain shot directly to her brain, leaving her too weak to even lift her head. She could only lie limply on the ground. Fortunately, the stone room's floor was covered with a luxurious, long-pile carpet; otherwise, Rin's two-year-old body would have been in critical condition.
Although she felt pretty close to it now... Rin lay on the ground, looking at her hand, which she couldn't even clench with all her might. Just a slight twitch of her five delicate, pale fingers took all her strength.
Sure enough, Magic isn't something that can be rushed. Even with many Magic Circuits, the conversion efficiency, maximum capacity, and adaptability of magical power aren't something parents can bestow naturally. It's a good thing they didn't burn out; otherwise, her life would be over.
"Huh? How come I remember someone calling me?"
"Oh, you still remember." The annoyed voice sounded in her ear again. Rin struggled to move her eyeballs, scanning her surroundings.
"Huh? No one! And this voice sounds so familiar, like I've heard it somewhere before?"
"Bastard! After only two months, you've forgotten even my voice! Why don't you just let your Magic Circuits overheat and self-immolate!"
"Oh, I remember now, isn't that Lord God? Sure enough, a God is different, able to directly peek into thoughts and communicate telepathically. Truly high-class. Why isn't she appearing this time, playing at interdimensional communication?"
"It's all because of you! If it weren't for you, I wouldn't be grounded! I was even deemed an unqualified intern, punished, and have to repeat the year! Ah ah ah ah!" A scene of Lord God tearing at her hair and wailing to the heavens appeared in Rin's mind.
"Huh, wait, isn't that God's image the future version of my current body? Huh, that's not right either, what does your punishment have to do with me? I'm not taking the blame for this out of nowhere! You should blame my cheap dad."
"Hey, you come over here first, something big has happened." The "God's" voice suddenly sounded weak. Then, Rin felt herself being lifted by a force, her vision gradually rising from the ground. Rin saw her own body lying prostrate on the ground, a cute loli wearing an exquisite, expensive red butterfly dress.
"Is this me...? Although I've looked in a mirror before, seeing my body from an outsider's perspective like this is truly a first in both my past and present lives."
Her vision continued to rapidly ascend, passing through the ground, through the roof, through the clouds, through the sky, as if re-entering the dark void of a time-travel tunnel.
Suddenly, her vision brightened. Rin was startled. She was sitting in front of a computer desk, with a 22-inch widescreen LCD monitor squarely placed before her. Before Rin could react, the monitor suddenly lit up on its own.
"If I could, I really wouldn't want to see you, you bastard." On the monitor, the "Lord God" in the form of a young Tohsaka Rin appeared on the screen, wearing headphones. A miniature microphone could be seen propped up on one side, making it look as if Rin was a streamer in her previous life.
Rin, seeing this, asked curiously, "Lord God, what kind of act is this?"
As a result, Rin's casual question immediately made "God" explode. "Who do you think this is because of!?" A familiar face pressed directly against the screen, so furious it looked like it wanted to burst out of the monitor.
Rin, inexplicably blamed, immediately refused to stand for it. She slammed the table! "Thump!" "Nonsense! I haven't even settled accounts with you yet, and you're getting aggressive with me! I came to this world to be able to see Tohsaka Rin! For this dream, I was prepared to even transmigrate to prehistoric times, to become an old bug, but now I've taken over Tohsaka Rin's body! You've ruined my dream!"
No one could understand how heartbreaking the feeling of a shattered dream was... However, "God" gave her a look of utter disbelief, like she was looking at a "lunatic," and said into the microphone, "To see Tohsaka Rin? Then who are you?"
"Nonsense! Of course I am..."
"Lin Lin? I'm sorry, Lin Lin no longer exists. Lin Lin no longer exists in any space or timeline of the multiverse."
"Wh-what...?" Rin was stunned by "God's" words. "Didn't you say you would find a 'me' from a parallel world to fill the void!?"
At this point, "God's" expression darkened, and she said, "That was the original plan, but unfortunately, an accident occurred."
"What accident?!"
"God" pondered for a moment, then sighed, saying, "I can't tell you the root problem for now. All I can tell you is that the current situation is entirely accidental, and I didn't intentionally mess with you."
"What do you mean by that?" Rin couldn't help but be puzzled.
"Actually, from the very beginning, the channel I opened for you was meant to directly penetrate the Root and reach the present world, and your soul would maintain its original essence and inhabit a body. However, due to an accident, the channel didn't achieve its intended effect, and the result was..."
"The result was that I fell into the depths of the Root."
"Exactly. And the Root is the cause of all things, the beginning of all things, and the end of all things. Everything flows from the Root and eventually returns to the Root. And everything that falls into the Root naturally reverts to its original state."
"So that means..."
"It means your soul's essence was reset within the Root!"
"But I haven't lost my memories or my past personality; I'm still me!" Rin vaguely felt that something terrible was about to happen and loudly denied it.
"The reason you were able to retain your personality and memories is also because of that accident. Although it's not very convincing, you can try to recall, what did you touch in the Root at that time? You must know that the Root, as the cause of everything, is an absolutely omniscient existence. Any being that touches the Root will be reset the moment of contact. Consciousness and rationality will be overwhelmed by absolute omniscience, including your past, future, and present. The 'you' as Lin Lin ceased to exist the moment you touched the Root."
"Look at yourself now." As the words fell, "God" vanished from the screen, replaced by a Little Girl of only two years old. Her beautiful, jet-black hair was tied into twin-tails resting on her shoulders. Her emerald-green eyes were lively and filled with determination, like shining emeralds beneath a clear spring. Her delicate, smooth, porcelain-like face was as fair and elastic as milky-white jelly. Her small, cherry-blossom mouth was slightly upturned, as if she were pouting at someone.
Paired with that exquisite red butterfly dress designed by a master, she looked exactly like an exquisitely beautiful doll, captivating everyone from nine months to ninety years old!
"Thump!" Rin uncontrollably slammed her head onto the desk, and as if that wasn't enough, she hit it four or five more times. If the stunning loli on the screen had appeared beside her, Rin would have hugged her tightly and rubbed her face against her until the end of time. But the reality was, that exquisitely peerless, unbelievably cute, universally adored, flower-opening-at-her-sight, crystal-eyed, twin-tailed, tender-skinned, childishly tsundere, adorable-beyond-words loli, was herself... It was me, it was me, it was me...