"One percent? I think even that is too much for him… perhaps 0.1 percent. That would be a more accurate estimate of his chances of survival or success."
The old man sighed with a tone heavy with indifference before turning away and retreating, leaving behind the Gate of Mist as it closed its lightning-like fangs around the youths.
****
Jumanji stood at the heart of the spiritual farm and quietly examined its surroundings with cautious calm.
Nature around him seemed perfectly still.
He found himself standing on a green hill that carried the refreshing scent of mint, while the sky above was a pure blue that reminded him of the innocence his heart once had before tragedy shattered the peace of his village and overturned the balance of his life.
Jumanji gazed toward the horizon with sharp eyes.
There was nothing but a small forest stretching before him like a green guardian, and behind it rose a towering mountain that dominated the land with overwhelming majesty.
Jumanji immediately realized that this towering peak was the destination his grandfather had mentioned in his final whisper.
He began moving toward the mountain.
However, before he could go far, strange creatures blocked his path—beings he had never seen before.
They looked like glowing gelatinous masses floating lightly in the air like feathers.
The creatures began circling around him in orderly patterns, as if they had sensed the presence of a strange outsider within this quiet spiritual world.
"What are these things?" Jumanji murmured curiously.
He stretched his hand, trying to gently touch one of them.
But before his finger could reach its glowing body, the creature skillfully evaded him, slipping away with smooth and intelligent movements.
When he failed to catch any of them, he decided to ignore them and continue walking.
Yet the curiosity of those gelatinous beings refused to leave him alone.
They began following behind him like glowing shadows, as though observing his destination and attempting to understand his intentions within the depths of the farm.
Along the path, Jumanji saw a thriving natural life.
Deer roaming freely, wild boars wandering, wolves lurking within the shadows, while birds sang melodious tunes upon the branches of the trees.
Jumanji eventually stopped beside a flowing river and sat down to rest for a moment.
Time had only just begun, and he still had five full days within this dimension.
At that moment he wanted to recall Galvan's words about the "Leech" and analyze their meaning.
But his mind remained closed to any new thought.
He closed his eyes and surrendered to the symphony of nature he loved so much—the chirping birds and the dancing murmur of water flowing over the stones.
Yet something felt missing from this perfect scene.
The sound of wind brushing through the branches was absent.
In this place, the air was completely still, filled with a deep silence that suggested time itself had stopped flowing.
Meanwhile, the glowing gelatinous creatures continued hovering around him like loyal spirits that refused to leave, as if they had found in him a magnet that drew them close.
Jumanji allowed himself a brief moment of peace and quiet.
But suddenly a flash of memory struck his mind, causing him to rise to his feet.
He remembered Mayroomi—his wife.
The woman who had once laid beside him near rivers just like this one, where time dissolved into their laughter.
Those days had once been filled with beauty.
Now they rested in a distant corner of his memory as painful echoes within his soul.
Sorrow squeezed Jumanji's heart as he remembered those distant days.
A deep loneliness and overwhelming longing almost consumed him.
Yet he quickly gathered his resolve and muttered firmly,
"I don't have time to waste… I must go."
He shook off the lingering comfort that had begun to weigh upon his spirit.
A faint bitterness lingered in his heart.
Every second spent simply admiring this place felt like a betrayal of the promise he had made to himself.
Time here was more valuable than gold.
There was no room for delay if he wished to awaken his spiritual farm and increase his strength.
Jumanji continued walking.
Soon he noticed other youths from his tribe scattered across the land.
They ran wildly, chasing those glowing gelatinous masses with intense excitement.
Yet none of them noticed his presence.
Their entire focus was devoted to capturing those elusive lights that skillfully slipped away from their grasp.
At that moment, Jumanji paused and looked closely at the glowing beings that still followed him like silent guards.
"Why are you following me so calmly while running away from everyone else?" he wondered.
But he could not find any clear answer.
He knew nothing about these creatures.
Jumanji continued traveling across this strange spiritual landscape.
He passed through vast cornfields, followed by stretches of rice fields, and then golden fields of wheat.
He saw a muddy oasis where pigs rolled peacefully within the thick soil.
Nearby were orchards heavy with apple trees.
He even attempted to pick a fruit, but it seemed impossible, as though the apples were an inseparable part of the world's fabric.
In the distance, herds of goats grazed across remote meadows like scattered clouds resting upon the earth.
Yet the sight that truly shocked Jumanji was the faint white glow radiating from everything around him.
Plants.
Animals.
Even the living forms scattered across the land.
This glow rose in thin threads toward the sky.
Once it reached a certain height, it vanished completely as if it had never existed.
Near the edges of those fields, Jumanji noticed other youths sitting on the ground in strict meditation postures.
Their eyes were closed as if they were racing against time.
The scene was familiar despite its strange nature.
They were attempting to extract the "Leech" from the surrounding crops and animals, dedicating every ounce of their awareness to transforming that rising glow into energy capable of awakening their spiritual farms.
Jumanji paid little attention to them.
He did not attempt to imitate their methods.
Instead, he continued forward, as his grandfather's final words still echoed within his heart.
After a long journey, Jumanji finally arrived at the foot of the mountain.
At that moment he noticed something strange.
The gelatinous creatures that had been following him suddenly stopped.
They shrank back as if they had encountered a barrier born of instinctive terror.
They remained frozen in place, refusing to advance even a single step toward the mountain.
Jumanji turned toward them and asked calmly,
"Aren't you coming with me?"
The only response he received was faint trembling from those glowing spirits, as if they were silently begging him to remain with them.
Ignoring their silent warning, he continued climbing the steep path until his feet finally reached the summit.
And there, before him, a breathtaking sight appeared.
A colossal legendary tree stood before him.
It was so enormous that even the largest ten-story building would look like a dwarf beside it.
Its twisted branches were unbelievably massive.
A large carriage could travel across a single branch as if it were a suspended bridge.
The tree's bark was far from ordinary.
Natural patterns resembling living veins covered its surface, radiating a dense purple glow that colored the surrounding sky.
Around the tree, the ground was not ordinary soil.
Instead, transparent crystals grew like grass, producing faint musical tones that were almost impossible to hear.
It was as if the entire place was singing in an ancient forgotten language.
Long ago, this tree had been nothing more than a small shrub.
It had grown under the care of its owner while he was still alive.
Even after his death, it remained small for a very long time.
But something mysterious suddenly happened to it.
It transformed into this immense and majestic form whose true nature no one could fully comprehend.
Forgotten legends claimed that within this tree lay an extraordinary secret.
Many people had attempted to reach its core and seize that secret.
But none had succeeded.
It was as if the tree itself gazed upon the world with arrogance and disdain.
Nothing in existence seemed worthy of its attention.
Jumanji raised his black eyes toward the sky.
He was shocked to see seven youths suspended in the air, hanging from the branches like human fruits.
Among them were Kairos and the mysterious white-haired boy.
The remaining youths were unfamiliar to Jumanji.
All of them hung silently with closed eyes, as if trapped within a spiritual coma.
Jumanji stepped closer to the trunk, attempting to examine the tree before making any move.
But the tree did not grant him the luxury of time.
Suddenly, one of its branches shot forward with terrifying speed.
Before Jumanji could react, it pierced his back and lifted his body into the air just like the others.
In the blink of an eye, a strange numbness spread through his body.
His eyes closed against his will.
When Jumanji opened them again, the mountain and the tree had disappeared.
Instead, he found himself surrounded by endless white emptiness.
A vast blank space stretched as far as his eyes could see.
There was no color.
No trace of anything.
It was as if reality itself had been erased.
"Where am I?" he whispered softly while looking around in confusion.
At that exact moment, a small book suddenly fell into his hands.
He had no idea where it came from or who had thrown it.
Even when he lifted his eyes toward the endless white horizon, he could not find a single living presence.
Jumanji examined the cover of the book.
Two sentences were clearly engraved upon it.
"Looking Forward."
And beneath it:
"Looking Back."
Jumanji stood there in confusion before this strange puzzle.
He began turning the book in his hands, examining it from every angle.
Eventually, he decided to open it, hoping to find some kind of answer.
The moment his fingers touched the pages, a torrent of dense information flooded his mind like a raging storm.
Then the book disappeared completely, as if its contents had merged with his very existence and become part of his consciousness.
Jumanji stood there in absolute shock.
A level of astonishment he had never known before appeared on his face.
Meanwhile, in another corner of that white void, the white-haired boy smiled as he gazed into the emptiness with eyes shining with cunning determination.
"O arrogant Leech… I have come for you today."
"You will become the embryo that nourishes my spiritual farm."
He held a copy of the same book in his hand.
But he did not open it.
He already knew its contents well.
He whispered softly to himself,
"Looking Back and Looking Forward… I searched for you for a long time after the tribe was destroyed."
"But you vanished and never appeared during the thousand years I spent traveling through the future."
A proud smile appeared on his face.
"Once someone fails to obtain this Leech and is expelled from the tree's domain, all of their memories are erased."
"That is why this secret has remained hidden for centuries."
"Otherwise, a great storm would have shaken the entire world long ago."
His eyes flashed with wild ambition.
"A Second-Rank Leech… the Leech of 'Looking Forward and Looking Back.'"
"What a creature that defies the laws of heaven."
"I have dug through your secrets for two hundred years just for this moment."
"So that you will belong to me alone."
"In the future I came from, you were the reason our tribe was destroyed."
"But now… once I seize you, the tribe will survive."
"And no one will ever discover where you are hidden."
End of Chapter.