*Labucha Mountain Range*
In the same forestry, in the same swampy area, in the same position, we see a boy who looks like a monkey that just stole a purse from some poor tourist.
*Zain POV*
'Damn… this is no coincidence.'
'I'm sure of it…'
"So… will this be the last of the sequence?"
His voice, tinged with longing, he carefully secured the crystal bottle inside the crystal box and shoved it into his space bag.
'Welp… if it is, it is…'
Suddenly resigned to his nonexistent fate, he started moving.
"Hmmm…"
'Now that I think about it…'
"Where… am I?"
Zain looked east, west, north, and south... or at least tried to.
After failing miserably to regain direction, he noticed the sun waiting patiently to hide behind the largest peak.
"Should I look for a tree?"
He spoke aloud while scanning his surroundings.
'But… I need to change… yuck…'
He looked down at himself.
Covered in muddy water and tree filth.
A gift from some brain dead guy… at least in his mind.
After cleaning himself up and changing into a fresh set of gear, courtesy of dear Butler Khan.
He began searching for a tree that could give him a decent vantage point, hoping to spot the designated path.
Filtering through the trees, he came across one that was decently tall.
'Oh… this'll do.'
Prepping for a quick climb, he stretched and made sure his bag and safety equipment were secured.
"Here goes nothing!"
He shouted, psyching himself up before ascending, slowly savoring his surroundings.
"No wonder those influencers are nature fanatics…"
He mused in astonishment, absorbing the scenery.
'This is considered barren?'
"So… what's full then?"
Amazement flickered through his voice as he tried to imagine something even more breathtaking.
Reaching the top, he carefully chose a branch sturdy enough to hold his weight and sat.
Inhale…
Exhale…
Our Extra... finding a place that truly calmed him for once... looked almost humane.
'Why was I summoned?'
'Was it my imagination?'
"Did I… die?"
An existential crisis atop a tree, the sun hiding behind a peak, its last rays barely proving it still existed.
As the shadow cast like a divine hand pointing to...
"Hey...!!!"
As the shadow...
"It's pointing!"
…
"It's pointing at a fkn tree…"
"Damn...."
"The sequence isn't over."
"Luck… thanks, babe…"
…Well.
His voice did carry the joy of a crack addict.
Good for him.
As if the god of cliché himself was giving pointers, the shadow.... roughly outlined like a pointing hand... indicated a tree just across the main path.
Yes....
The real objective, finding the assigned route, was discovered whilst reaching the zenith.
Putting even monkeys to shame, Zain climbed down recklessly, as if afraid he'd forget what he saw.
'It had to be so…'
"I was just thinking this, but damn…"
'Inside, middle, outside…'
"This should be… hmm…"
'Protagonist's stolen luck… check.'
'A villain's loot… check.'
'A hidden cheat… check.'
"So… next… it should be something related to someone?"
He reviewed every cliché he'd ever seen extras stumble into across countless novels and reached a conclusion.
His thoughts shifted to probability, despite having zero evidence that there had to be something more.
Consumed by genre logic, he moved forward with purpose, as if to prove to the world that this really was just a novel.
He sprinted past the main route into the opposite stretch of forest, startling a few locals struggling up the climb.
As he neared his destination, he found a tree.
Ordinary, utterly unremarkable, with nothing out of place.
'So…'
"Will there be a hole? A space? Or some hidden area?"
He circled it, knocking for hollows, shifting rocks, probing for secret entrances.
'Nothing?'
The tree remained stubbornly normal, blending perfectly into the forest.
"Dammit…"
His frustrated voice echoed through the shrubs, scattering insects.
His earlier enthusiasm burned into embarrassment.
'Sigh…'
'Should've been happy with what I got.'
"Sequence my as—"
His self reproach halted as something he'd ignored earlier caught his attention.
'It should be…'
He slowly approached an entangled mess of trees deeper in the forest.
Visible only if one wasn't actively searching.
They resembled an ancient banyan, formed from multiple trees twisted together.
Confidence returned as he approached.
"This has to be it…"
"I've read enough to know this has to be it."
And honestly… it did look like the perfect place to hide something.
As he closed the distance, he saw it.
"That's it… oh…"
He cooed softly.
"That definitely is it."
His eyes locked onto a slightly larger rock resting beside a root, cracked, displaced, as if pushed up from underground by the penetrative roots.