Chapter 130: Chapter130-Future Sight

Under the harsh midday sun, the jungle looked almost blinding with its bright, intense light. The sky was a clear, cloudless blue, and the sunlight pierced through the thick green vegetation, making interesting patterns on the forest floor. The air was filled with the strong smell of wet plants and the occasional hint of wildflowers. In the middle of this beautiful environment, a young man moved slowly, clearly exhausted. His clothes were messy and soaked with sweat, sticking to him as he pushed through the thick bushes. The heat felt like a heavy blanket, draining his energy with every step. Even though he was worn out, he kept glancing around, hoping to find some kind of direction or relief, but all he saw was a never-ending expanse of green. That person was, unsurprisingly, me. You might be wondering how I ended up here. Let me explain. A while agoI'm not sure how long since I don't have my watchI lay down on my bed, ready for some restful sleep after a tough training session. Just as I was starting to drift off into a peaceful dream, my system screen suddenly popped up with a surprising message: Yeah, in my fucking dream... (Ding! Congratulations, Host! "Future Sight" has been successfully activated!) Wait, what? It happened so suddenly that I was completely taken aback. Nevertheless, since it was supposed to happen suddenly, I quickly gathered myself. My dream turned to darkness as a black portal appeared out of nowhere. It sucked everything in like a black hole, and before I could react, the portal opened right beside me, pulling me in first. After being thrown around to random places, I finally ended up in a jungle. A portal had opened in the sky, tossed me out, and I landed face-first on the ground. Thankfully, there were no injuriesafter all, it was just a dream. I quickly scanned my surroundings and realized that the jungle I had fallen into looked strikingly similar to the Ambrosia Jungle. In fact, it could very well be the Ambrosia Jungle, given that I was in a future vision. But... What's happening? Why is nothing changing? Suddenly, my system screen flashed with a message. **(Time left until your foresight dream ends: 49 seconds.)** Alright, let's go. I'm ready for the dream. Yet, even after bracing myself, nothing happened. I just stood there, waiting. Huh? Why isn't anything happening? Shouldn't it have started by now? The timer... I glanced at it, but it was still frozen at 49 seconds. It hadn't moved, even though I was taken aback. I forced myself to stay calm instead of panicking. Taking a deep breath, I checked the timer again. It was still at 49 seconds. But it had paused there instead of going from 50, so it must be working. Maybe Before I could finish that thought, the timer finally ticked down. It now showed 48 seconds remaining... Alright, with that, I was certain the timer was still running. But it wasn't behaving like normal seconds. In the two seconds that had supposedly passed, over 10 minutes had gone by in real time. I kept thinking it over. This is just a dream, after all. Maybe time doesn't work the same way here, since none of this is real. That could explain why the timer was moving so slowly. No point overthinking it. I decided to move forward without hesitation. This was the perfect opportunity to explore my surroundings, so when this event happens in the future, I'll be better prepared and more cautious. *** With that plan in motion, I set off on my journey, and now, about two hours later, I find myself sitting on a boulder, panting and trying to catch my breath. Damn... That's was not hard but exhausting... Along the way, I faced many early gold-rank monsters, leaving my clothes torn and tattered. Though I managed to defeat them all, a worrying thought crept into my mind: "Will I have to fight this many monsters in reality?" This thought kept coming back, and I couldn't stop thinking about it. In the dream, I survived by giving up after battling half the wave of monsters. The injuries I received only caused minor pain, allowing me to keep moving. But in reality, I know it won't be that easy. So, how many seconds are left? I checked my notifications and saw that only 24 seconds remained. Ugh... another two hours to go. After carefully observing the timer for two hours, I finally understood how it worked. It dropped by 1 second every 5 minutes. That meant in an hour, it lost 12 seconds, and after two hours, 24 seconds had disappeared. I sighed, realizing there was nothing I could do but wait for it to hit zero. I leaned back in the boulder and closed my eyes, letting the sunlight warm my face. Strangely enough, even in this dream, I could feel the sun's heat. It felt so real, like the sun was actually shining on me. What kind of dream is this? With that thought lingering, I let myself relax and enjoy the warmth. After all the chaos and fighting, I needed this moment of rest. *** After resting for another 10 minutes, I checked the timer and noticed it had dropped from 24 seconds to 22. Yawn... I still feel sleepy, even in a dream. After stretching my arms and legs, I stood up from the boulder and ventured deeper into the jungle. The further I went, the darker it became, although some sunlight still managed to pierce through the dense forest, giving the jungle a bit of light. The Menara and General Sherman trees seemed to grow even larger as I continued. I just hope I don't get lost in this forest. In a real jungle, I'd have little chance of getting lost, thanks to the system's map feature. But here in this dream, the risk was much higher since the map doesn't work here. What a pain.... *** I kept moving forward, and after another hour of trekking several kilometers, I spotted something in the distance. Is that an open field? About a kilometer ahead, I could see a large, empty areano trees, no thick vegetation, just a wide stretch of grass. Wait has Ambrosia ever had open fields like this? I recalled reading that Ambrosia didn't have any open fields. But what if this was an exception? According to the records, around 75 percent of Ambrosia's jungle has been explored over the past century. Could I have stumbled into an unknown, unexplored region? But something didn't feel right. Why are the monsters here so weak? In areas like this, you'd expect to encounter high-ranking monsters, yet all I've come across so far are Peak Stage Gold or Mid-Stage Silver ones. I haven't even run into a single Platinum-rank monster. It's hard to believe that an area with such low-rank creatures could have remained unexplored for this long... With these doubts swirling in my mind, I quickly headed toward the open field. Within a minute, I arrived and was met with a surprising sight. What on earth is a statue doing here? In the middle of the open field stood an ancient, colossal statue, at least a hundred meters tall. Its sheer size was astonishing. The statue depicted a knight in elaborate plate armor, with seven shining stars carved into his breastplate. He held a massive sword, pointed downward. But the most striking feature was that the giant stone knight was missing his head. What happened to this statue? It was clear that the circular platform at the top of the statue was meant to be its neck, now left without a head. It didn't look like the head was missing by design; it appeared as though something, or someone, had violently torn it off long ago. An elite rank monster? Only an elite rank monster could cause this level of damage to a statue like this. It's hard to believe that a platinum or lower rank creature did this. Whoever caused this damage must have had a specific reason for not destroying the rest of the statue. This points to an elite rank monster. Gold or lower rank monsters aren't very intelligent and usually destroy everything in their path, including statues. So, they're unlikely to be responsible. Even though platinum rank monsters are smart, a ground-based platinum creature would probably have destroyed the entire statue, given its height of about 70 meters. If a platinum monster was involved, it would likely need to be a peak rank and probably a flying type to avoid complete destruction. Elite rank monsters, on the other hand, are known for their precision. They can target specific parts of a statue without ruining the whole thing, which fits this situation. Scientists have shown that elite rank monsters can act with such precision, thanks to beast tamers. It's similar to how monster tamers, like the original Michael, controlled that snake when I first arrived in this world. I'd like to have a pet monster too, but that's not important right now... I moved closer to the statue and reached it after another minute. First, I checked the timer on my skill, noting I had about 8 seconds left before this unsettling dream would end. I then examined the statue and its surroundings. It required a vast amount of space to build this; the area it occupied was immense, even beyond the statue's own size. It probably covered about two-thirds of the open area. Anyway, who could have constructed it? Given its size, this part of the jungle must be unexplored, as such a massive statue has never been known to humanity. Since there are no other species besides humans on this planet, it's most likely that this statue was made by people. Still, I considered the possibility of other species being present, though there was no evidence to support that. For now, I'll assume it was built by humans due to the lack of evidence for other species. I sat down beside the statue's left foot, feeling frustrated. I had been waiting for hours and still didn't know what I was dealing with. I had anticipated facing many monsters, but this situation seemed far less dangerous than expected. So, I decided to relax and wait, as there was nothing more to do but monitor the timer. With 6 seconds remaining, I knew it would be another 30 minutes before this whole ordeal ended. *** Time passed slowly, like water flowing by, and now only 3 seconds remained... Hmm... This wasn't exactly the sight I had imagined. I sighed in disappointment, glancing at the timer on the notification screen. Then, I shifted my attention to my surroundings, taking in the view. The sun was high above, and my shadow, as I sat, had grown much longer than it had been a few minutes ago, leading me to believe that afternoon had likely begun. The rising heat was making me sweat, and my clothes were gradually becoming damp. I decided to move deeper into the statue for some relief from the sun, figuring the best shade would be in the middle of its lower section. Standing up, I started walking in that direction. But midway there, I stopped and muttered, "Now, what's that?" Near the statue's sword, something was glowing brightly. What is that light? I wasn't sure what it was, but it was shining directly at me. Without giving it much thought, I quickly drew my daggers and began heading toward the glowing spot. I could've ignored it, but curiosity got the better of me, and before I knew it, I was instinctively moving toward it. Step by step, I carefully approached the source of the glow, moving slowly and cautiously. When I finally reached the sword, there was nothing there. No object, nothing at all. It was just sunlight reflecting off a specific part of the sword, directing the light toward me. It was the lower part of the sword where the sun was reflecting, but... Huh? I noticed something strange. Not all of the lower area was illuminated by sunlight. There was a small section in the middle, surrounded by bright sunlight, that remained oddly dark. Why isn't it lit up? It should be, considering every part around it was bathed in the same sunlight. So, why wasn't this spot? Curiosity got the best of me, and without thinking, I instinctively touched the darkened area with my right palm. For a brief moment, doubt crept in. Maybe I shouldn't have touched it... but I quickly brushed off the thought. As soon as my hand made contact, a mechanical sound echoed through the area, sharp and metallic. Startled, I immediately pulled my hand back and readied myself, assuming a defensive stance, expecting something to happen. But nothing did, at least not at first. A few tense seconds passed in silence, until suddenly What's that? I felt a strange sensation near my leg. It was subtle at first, but it soon became clearthe ground beneath me was shifting, moving unnervingly. What's going on? Before I could fully process it, the ground gave way beneath my feet, crumbling suddenly and violently. What the hell? The solid ground I had been standing on disappeared in an instant. Damn it. I began to plummet into the ground, frantically reaching out to grab anything that might stop the fall, but nothing worked... I was doomed now... "Fuck!" That was my last word...