"I don't understand… why did you tell me all that?" the girl asked, tilting her head as she tried to connect the threads of the story with their exhausting journey through the bamboo forest.
The old man paused for a moment. A calm smile appeared along the lines of his handsome face.
"You must learn from that fish, little one," he said gently.
"A moment ago, you said boredom had defeated you. But the road ahead of you is still long, and you are still very young."
He looked ahead at the endless forest.
"The secret is not in reaching the destination… but in enduring the journey, no matter how still the horizon may seem."
He bent down slightly and brushed the dust of the road from her crimson dress.
"Whenever you stumble or fall, you must rise again," he continued in a firm, fatherly tone.
"Failure, my child, is not falling. Failure is remaining on the ground."
"Try again… and again… and a tenth time."
"Until the laws of reality themselves shatter before your will—just as they did for the fish."
****
At that very moment, in another realm entirely, Jumanji was still struggling within a formless sea of dense fog.
A white mist swallowed both sight and awareness.
He could not see his own hand before his face.
There was no wind to guide him.
And yet… he did not allow his legs to hesitate.
The fog grew thicker and thicker until time and space seemed to merge into a single monotonous existence.
The competitors gradually lost their sense of time.
No sun rose.
No moon set.
Only eternal whiteness devouring certainty.
Cold fear slowly seeped into their hearts.
Illusions began feeding upon the minds of the boys.
The first victim was the **white-haired boy**.
Then **Kairos**.
And then others followed.
Poisonous questions gnawed at their thoughts.
*What if we fail?*
*What if we never obtain this Leech?*
Amid the confusion, one boy suddenly stopped.
Driven by shaken instinct, he turned his head and glanced backward.
It was only one look.
Only one step.
But that white domain accepted no hesitation.
The moment his foot retreated…
The fog swallowed him silently and expelled him from the trial.
Days passed.
Like that boy, three others were expelled after failing to withstand the pressure of the unknown.
Eventually, only four boys remained within that endless void.
Among them… Jumanji.
Jumanji did not understand the true purpose of this exhausting march toward **nowhere**.
Yet he continued moving forward with mechanical persistence, as though his body had separated from his will.
*Will I keep walking like this forever?* he wondered inwardly.
Then suddenly, a faint smile appeared on his lips.
It carried sorrow rather than joy.
He remembered his family.
"They deserve this hardship…" he whispered coldly.
"They deserve it."
With those memories as chains, he transformed his grief into fuel.
Fuel that pushed him forward.
Yet despite that bitter motivation, something unexpected struck his being.
While he inspected his spiritual farm—as he often did—he suddenly felt a violent tremor shaking its very foundations.
It was no mere disturbance.
It was a spiritual earthquake threatening to shatter the land and crack the sky.
It was as if the trial had grown bored with draining his body…
And had begun devouring what he valued most.
At the same time, the remaining three boys faced the same torment.
The **white-haired boy** frowned deeply as he continued walking.
"What kind of cursed trial is this?" he whispered hoarsely.
"Where is its end…?"
"How long must I keep walking toward nothingness?"
Meanwhile, **Kairos** and the third boy sensed the danger threatening their spiritual farms.
Their determination collapsed instantly.
They turned back without hesitation.
To them, the farm was more precious than any Leech.
If the spiritual farm collapsed…
Where would they even place the Leech?
Their hesitation lasted only seconds before the fog swallowed them completely.
Now only two remained.
Jumanji…
And the white-haired boy.
Jumanji examined the pulse of his spiritual farm every minute.
Cracks had begun spreading across its surface.
"It seems it will perish soon…" Jumanji murmured as he touched his chest.
He bitterly realized that the future he had planned so carefully was now teetering on the edge of total destruction.
As for the other boy, his face had become a painting of tension and confusion.
Even after all the years he had lived before traveling back in time…
He still could not decipher this trial.
If the challenge had been combat, it would have been easier.
But here, survival required only one action.
**Move forward.**
And with time, that simple action had become harder than mountains.
He repeatedly glanced at his spiritual farm as it cracked like shattered pottery.
Finally, he shut his eyes tightly.
His teeth clenched so hard they nearly broke.
Then he forced himself to keep moving forward.
Meanwhile, a massive crack tore through the sky of Jumanji's farm.
The ground split apart into two deep chasms threatening to swallow everything he had built.
"Let it shatter!" Jumanji whispered toward the endless white void.
"What does it matter?!"
He knew very well that this Leech was an irreplaceable treasure.
He had already been lucky just to learn of its existence.
How could he retreat now that he had come this far?
To retreat now would be the height of stupidity.
After losing everyone he loved…
There was nothing left for him to fear losing.
Fear itself had dried up inside his heart.
Only stubbornness remained.
"Are you testing me, you stupid Leech?" he muttered coldly.
"Fine… even if death awaits me at the end of this path, I will continue walking toward you!"
Not far away, the **white-haired boy** was fighting his own demons.
Sweat poured down his forehead.
His face had turned crimson as he watched his spiritual farm crumble under spiritual corrosion.
He had not seen even a trace of the Leech.
At that moment, he truly understood the arrogance of this entity described by the ancients.
It gave no opportunities.
If he had known the nature of this trial earlier…
He would have brought another Leech beforehand to serve as the embryo of his farm.
If his spiritual farm had been safe…
He could have remained here forever.
After all, he had already lived an entire lifetime before returning through time.
He wanted the Leech to strengthen his advantage.
But now…
**Time itself**, once his greatest weapon, had become the obstacle blocking his path.
He finally understood something painful.
Knowledge alone could not overcome every difficulty.
Great gifts demanded complete sacrifice.
He sighed deeply as his farm teetered on the brink of annihilation.
"It doesn't matter," he whispered proudly.
"There are still a thousand years of certainty between me and the future."
"I possess knowledge others do not."
"I know secrets that will not be discovered for years."
"I will leave you for today."
"In twenty years, I will reach Rank Five with my own strength."
"Then I will return before the great catastrophe arrives."
"Just wait for me."
The moment he finished speaking…
He made his decision.
He stepped back.
One single step.
That was enough.
The fog devoured him instantly.
And he vanished.
Leaving Jumanji alone within the endless white void.
Jumanji continued walking.
Each step moved him closer to death—and he knew it.
But he still advanced.
Not only for his family…
But also for himself.
He wanted to see the end of this place that had remained unconquerable for so many years.
Time passed heavily.
It felt like entire ages wrapping around his mind.
He watched his spiritual farm collapse silently.
Just as his village had once collapsed.
Just as his loved ones had perished before his eyes.
But this time there were no screams.
Only cold silence.
The destruction of his soul felt easier than the suffering he had endured in reality.
Then the final catastrophe arrived.
His spiritual farm shattered completely.
The great mountain standing proudly at its center collapsed.
Its crocodile-scale rocks crumbled into dust.
The river that once flowed with life dried up instantly.
The farm fell lifeless.
The cracks spread beyond the farm.
They appeared across Jumanji's own body.
His flesh fractured.
Cold death crept toward his limbs.
He was dying.
He had felt death before…
But this time it was deeper.
More final.
Jumanji collapsed onto the white ground.
Everything was lost.
The promise he made to restore his family.
The golden opportunity he believed would save him.
Yet despite this crushing failure…
No regret appeared on his face.
Instead, he smiled.
A calm smile belonging to a warrior who had fired his final bullet.
He had tried.
For himself.
For his children whose smiles he wished to see just once more.
But fate had chosen otherwise.
He had used his chance to the very end.
And if he had to leave now…
He would leave knowing he had never taken a single step backward.
"I failed you again… my children," he whispered into the lonely white fog.
"I truly am… a terrible father."
As darkness closed over his eyes, an image appeared in his mind.
The red fish.
Leaping again and again toward certain death.
In that moment…
Jumanji saw himself within that fish.
Both had gambled everything for a miracle beyond nature.
Then suddenly—
Something impossible happened.
The fog scattered violently.
Not slowly…
But as if a beast had fled from a greater predator.
Time itself seemed to freeze.
Jumanji found himself standing again.
And before him floated something in the air.
It was no larger than a clenched fist.
Yet its spiritual weight nearly crushed his soul.
It was not a plant.
It was **a law of nature given physical form**.
Black.
Soft.
Writhing like a fragment of raw night that light refused to swallow.
Two opposing heads emerged from its body.
Eyes bulged outward without eyelids.
The **Head of the Past** wept black tears of eternal regret.
As if witnessing every farmer who had failed.
Every love that had been lost.
The **Head of the Future** radiated merciless coldness.
Its gaze pierced the veil of fate.
It looked directly at Jumanji's dark destiny.
As if it could already see the mountains of corpses he would one day climb.
Yes.
This was it.
The **Leech of the Forward and Backward Gaze**.
A Rank Two Leech.
A proud entity none had dared tame.
It had remained alone in this white world—just like Jumanji.
Waiting for a bird that would never come.
At that moment, the Leech stared at Jumanji.
It did not see a human.
It saw the legendary **hummingbird** it had been searching for.
It loved the suicidal determination within him.
And it chose him as the resting place of that unbending soul.
In the blink of an eye—
A sharp black flash tore through the white silence.
The Leech shot forward like a comet.
It did not pass through his flesh.
It pierced his **soul**.
Jumanji felt eternal cold enter his heart.
It was as if roots of frozen steel had grown inside his veins.
A silent scream erupted from his spirit.
Now he carried two sleepless eyes within him.
One mourning what had been lost.
The other watching what was yet to come.
Jumanji stood in stunned silence.
Trying to comprehend the heavy presence planted inside him.
Then the greatest truth revealed itself.
The white world collapsed like a fragile curtain.
Everything had been an illusion.
Neither Jumanji nor the other boys realized that the entire trial had been a web of illusions woven by the Leech itself.
They had remained in the real world only a few minutes.
But that was enough.
Enough to filter souls.
Enough to expose the true nature of hearts.
While the others lost themselves in the illusion of years…
Jumanji alone crossed the false bridge through absolute sacrifice.
And thus—
He earned it.
**The Leech of the Gaze.**
End of Chapter