Chapter 85: The Reason for the Inability to Return
"There we go!"
Stewie, wrapped in a towel, walked out of the bathroom looking refreshed and considerably cleaner.
Ruby followed closely behind him, then began carefully toweling the child dry.
"Damn, sweetheart, your washing technique is incredible!"
Watching Ruby gently dry his body, Stewie praised her with an expression of pure comfort on his face.
Hearing Stewie's flirtatious tone, Chris immediately interjected, "Hey! She's my woman—don't you dare get any inappropriate ideas!"
Stewie looked up at Ruby innocently, then said with exaggerated offense, "I'm just appreciating her bathing skills. Where the hell is your mind going?"
"Hmph!" Chris snorted dismissively, not dignifying that with a response.
Not to mention the cartoons he'd watched before his transmigration, even now that he possessed the Griffin family's bloodline, how could he not understand what kind of perverts ran in that genetic line?
It was just that Stewie hadn't physically matured yet, so he could only verbally express his desires and satisfy his cravings through innuendo.
Otherwise, with this kid's intelligence and moral flexibility, Chris was certain he'd be an even more twisted pervert than Quagmire from Family Guy.
Ruby, observing the two brothers bickering, paid them no attention. After finishing drying Stewie, she said, "I'm going to buy him some clothes. His current outfit is too filthy—completely unwearable."
Chris tossed the truck keys to Ruby, then instructed, "If the store doesn't have anything suitable, just come back. We can shop tomorrow—there's no rush."
Ruby nodded and exited the room, then opened the truck bed, rolled out a motorcycle she'd stashed there, and departed the motel parking lot.
Watching Ruby's retreating figure through the window, Stewie asked with surprising directness, "Is it because of this woman that you're not returning home?"
"What?" Chris seemed not to have heard correctly and asked for confirmation with uncertainty.
But seeing Stewie's unchanging serious expression, Chris realized the kid wasn't joking. He immediately laughed, "How could that be? You're reading way too much into this."
Seeing Stewie's skeptical gaze, Chris explained, "I don't even understand what triggers the return mechanism. How the hell could I control the timing?"
Hearing this, Stewie raised his modified wristband and began scanning Chris with various instruments. Then he looked genuinely surprised and said, "How did you become so deeply entangled with this world? Now my dimensional shuttle device can't even forcibly extract you."
Chris looked curiously at the holographic projection emanating from Stewie's wristband and observed two extremely similar waveforms displayed there.
The two waveforms were tightly interconnected, and judging by their trajectory, they were about to completely merge into one.
Chris asked with confusion, "What am I looking at? Does one of those waveforms represent me?"
"What the hell have you been doing in this world? How could you generate such massive quantum entanglement? Do you understand what the consequences will be if this continues?"
Stewie didn't answer Chris's question directly. Instead, he looked at his brother with an unusually serious expression, which scared Chris into swallowing nervously before asking, "What consequences? Am I stuck here permanently?"
"No, it's even more dramatic than that." Stewie shook his head in denial, then said with a grave expression, "It will cause this world to merge with our home universe."
"Huh?" Chris was genuinely surprised. Just because of quantum entanglement he'd somehow created, it would trigger the merging of two entire universes?
Wasn't that a bit absurdly disproportionate?
Seeing that Chris didn't believe him, Stewie explained patiently, "If we compare two universes to two unconnected rivers, then the quantum entanglement you've created is like digging a canal to connect those two rivers."
"So the key issue isn't the size of the canal itself, but the fact that these two previously separate rivers have now become connected. Then, as water flows between them, they're very likely to completely merge."
Chris thought of videos he'd seen online where people dug small trenches near the ocean, and then seawater rapidly carved out massive channels. He instantly understood Stewie's metaphor.
"Then what should I do to stop this? Break the quantum entanglement somehow?"
Thinking of the potential disasters that merging two universes might cause, Chris urgently asked Stewie for solutions.
However, Stewie glanced at the projection on his wristband with apparent indifference and said casually, "Why stop it? I've never witnessed a universe merger before. This is an excellent opportunity to record data and observe what phenomena occur when realities combine."
Hearing Stewie's response, Chris was stunned. From the sound of it, universe merging wasn't nearly as catastrophic as he'd initially feared!
As if reading Chris's confusion, Stewie smiled and clarified, "My dear brother, you seem to have underestimated the universe's carrying capacity and vastly overestimated Earth's significance in the cosmic scheme!"
"Except for certain special universes where Earth happens to be the literal center of reality, in most universes, our Earth is an utterly insignificant speck of dust. So even if this world merges with our home universe, the impact on Earth would be essentially negligible. In fact, because these two universes already exist within the same multiverse cluster, even their fundamental laws won't seriously conflict."
"The final result will likely just be that both worlds gain elements they previously lacked, expanding their informational databases, and then nothing particularly dramatic will happen."
"That's it? Won't merging two rivers create a larger river?"
Chris's question made Stewie chuckle. He patted Chris's shoulder condescendingly and said, "Rivers are just a simplistic metaphor. The true structure of universes is vastly more complex. The merging I'm describing is on an informational and quantum level—essentially, these two worlds will still remain two functionally separate realities."
Hearing Stewie's reassurance, Chris let go of his cosmic-scale worries and returned his focus to his immediate problem.
"Then does my inability to return have anything to do with this entanglement? How can I get back home?"
"Hmm." Stewie scratched his oversized head thoughtfully, then studied the data on his wristband before saying, "As I mentioned earlier, you can't return because you've established excessively deep quantum entanglement with this world—what some metaphysical traditions would call 'karma.'"
"So if you want to return normally, you simply need to sever those karmic connections. What exactly have you been doing in this world? Normally, it's extraordinarily difficult for an individual to generate such significant karmic ties with an entire universe."
Seeing Stewie's genuinely curious expression, Chris recounted everything he'd done in this universe—particularly emphasizing the Wendigo competing with him for life essence absorption.
"Ah, so that's the mechanism!" Stewie nodded with understanding after listening, then affirmed confidently, "I knew it! Your power level hasn't reached the threshold of affecting universal laws directly, so how could you establish such profound karma with this world through your own actions alone? So that's the connection!"
Chris stared at Stewie expectantly, wanting to know what conclusion he'd reached.
To his slight frustration, Stewie said with an amused chuckle, "You don't need to overthink this. You just need to understand one simple thing: as long as you kill the Wendigo that's competing with you for life essence, you'll be able to return home."
"This is what's called 'settling karma.'"
"It's really that simple?" Chris asked with genuine disbelief.
"Trust me, I'm absolutely correct." Stewie patted his small chest confidently to guarantee his analysis, then explained further, "That Wendigo is a conceptual entity nurtured by the underlying laws of this universe, and because of your predatory absorption talent, you've become fundamentally connected to it. This has caused you to be perceived as essentially part of that Wendigo's existence from the universe's perspective."
"That's why you've developed such a deep entanglement with this world, and it's also why two previously unconnected universes are beginning to interact and exchange information."
"Anyway, the quantum mechanics and metaphysics involved are extremely complex to explain in detail, but to resolve this problem, either you or the Wendigo has to die. Only then will the entanglement collapse."
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