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# Infinite Talent's Reset Life — Chapter 2
Rumble!
The universe suddenly shook.
It meant that someone was stimulating it from the outside.
The boy opened his eyes and stared puzzledly at the mother wolf licking his cheek.
“Growl.”
“Ah.”
The boy turned his head, then spotted Larry, who had come out the door and frozen in place. He got to his feet.
Oh my God!
Larry's mouth fell open.
Part of it was because he was frightened by the wolves lying all around the clearing, but another reason was the boy approaching him while tying up his long hair.
Now that he was seeing the boy's appearance properly beneath the sunlight.
Bright brown eyes like the finest topaz, sharp and large eyes that seemed far too mature for a child his age, a high-bridged nose and defined jawline.
Combined with his dark blue hair, which seemed to have a hint of ash-gray running through it, the boy gave off such a mysterious aura that he looked almost like an actual wolf.
No, this place simply felt like the world of Mowgli from a fairy tale.
It was pretty exciting, though.
“Why. Come out? Walk. Can't.”
“I came out to tell you I'd finished eating… K-kid. Where the hell is this place?”
“……?”
Tsk. What a hassle.
After looking through countless lives, the boy had naturally picked up a wide variety of languages.
On top of that, as far as he could remember, this was his first time actually having a conversation with another human being. As a result, his words wouldn't come out properly, and understanding what was being said was difficult as well.
He knew that what Larry was speaking was English, so if he simply absorbed the life of someone who could properly speak English, the problem would be solved.
But for now, even "Survival Expert, Johan Jaeger" was already pushing him close to his limit.
Isn't there a way to increase that limit?
It had increased little by little as he grew older, but until now, he had never thought about it because he hadn't felt the need.
But now, suddenly, a deficiency had appeared.
He would have to seriously think about it from now on.
“Ah!”
Seeing the boy frown between his brows, Larry understood the situation and spoke slowly, enunciating every single word.
“Here. Where?”
“Ah! Rocky.”
The Rocky Mountains, located in the western part of the country known as the United States of America, or USA.
“Rocky? The Rocky Mountains?! Oh, God!”
Thank God. It was still America.
“So, so… I introduced myself as Larry, right? What's your name? I'm Larry. You?”
He understood what the man was asking.
But the boy crossed both hands in front of his chest, forming an X.
There was no way he had a name.
If he had known his name, he would have already looked into his own life long ago.
If he had, he probably would have found out who his parents were, too.
Although even if those parents were to see him now, they probably wouldn't recognize him.
No. It wasn't as though he wanted to meet them anyway.
As far as he was concerned, his only parent was the mother wolf.
They were people he couldn't remember at all, so he felt neither longing nor resentment toward them.
“Go. Walk. Won't heal. Quickly.”
The boy pushed Larry from behind.
“W-wait! At least tell me how long I was unconscious for…!”
---
The boy's day started late.
It wasn't until after noon that he quietly got up, chewed on some dried fruit, sharpened the blade of his spear, and strung his bow.
Only then did he stir through the completely burned-out ashes in the fireplace and light a fire. He took down the meat hanging from the ceiling and threw most of it outside the door.
The wolves then slowly woke up, still half-asleep, and tore into the meat.
Only after that did he roast some meat himself, then take water from the jar sitting in one corner of the cave and boil it in another earthenware vessel.
Water for drinking, as well as for washing his body.
There was even soap. It was crude beyond belief, as though he had made it himself.
Watching him move almost as if following a predetermined route, without wasting even the slightest bit, naturally left Larry speechless.
Who taught him all this?
He had definitely lived with someone who possessed specialized knowledge.
That person had either abandoned the boy here, or had lived with him here before dying and leaving the boy alone.
Larry glanced at the clay tablets and wooden boards covered in languages from various countries.
Then, a question suddenly came to mind.
A question he had wanted to ask, but hadn't been able to.
“Kid, how long have you been with those wolves?”
“Don't know. Remember.”
“Y-you don't know how long you've been here? Okay, winter! White snow, that stuff falling outside. How many winters have you gone through?”
Larry pointed at the snow that had fallen overnight.
Because of it, he had been forced to sleep alongside the wolves in the spacious cave.
“Hmm. Eight?”
He really is Mowgli!
Mowgli, the jungle boy who had been abandoned in the wild as a baby and survived among animals.
“W-with whom? You alone? Or…”
“Wolf mom.”
Flinch!
No way!
“You've been with that mother wolf since you can remember? Without any other people?”
“……No. Dad was here.”
The boy invented an imaginary person.
There was no other way to explain it. It made no sense for a child who had grown up alone in the mountains without any education to know English, even if imperfectly, let alone know how to make metal weapons at such a young age.
On top of that, the clay and wooden boards had already revealed that he knew several different languages.
“Th-then where's your father?”
“Four years ago. Didn't wake up. He's up there.”
“Oh, my God.”
He had to take him out.
He had to save him.
The boy thought of those wolves as his family, but wolves were ultimately still wolves.
It might have been different if the boy had lived like a beast, like them, but he was already living like a human.
Humans had to live with humans.
Larry gritted his teeth. His expression became serious.
“Kid. You can tell just by looking at me, but you and I are the same.”
“I know. Larry human. Me human too.”
“Humans are supposed to live with other humans, not animals like those, in a forest like this.”
“……?”
“Let's go there together. Somewhere where there are other humans.”
“Ah!”
He thought he understood what Larry meant.
He wants to leave the Rocky Mountains with me and go to a city?
Going outside was something the boy had wanted.
He couldn't leave for now because the mother wolf had prevented him from leaving the forest, but once he was old enough to leave the pack, he had planned to go beyond the forest.
“What do you say? Will you… come with me?”
The boy looked back and forth between the hand Larry had extended and Larry's eyes.
As time passed, the desperation in that hand and those eyes grew stronger.
Please…
They seemed to be shouting that he couldn't stay here.
The boy had no choice but to make a decision.
“…Okay. Wait. Talk to Mom.”
“Ah, do you need to get her permission?”
“Yes. No.”
It seemed to mean that she might not allow him to go.
That's right. Larry said wolves needed the leader's permission before they could leave the pack.
Wolves didn't abandon even sick or old members.
Larry swallowed hard as he watched the boy get up and approach the mother wolf.
“Mom.”
The boy placed his hand against the mother's face.
“Time to go. Has come.”
The startled wolf rose to her feet.
The helpless little creature who, when she had first found him, couldn't even run properly or chew the prey she had hunted.
At some point, he had become something different from them.
He had broken branches and struck stones together, creating new forms of fangs.
And now that child was finally preparing to leave.
He was going to leave his mother's embrace and create a new pack of his own.
A moment she had always known would eventually come.
“Growl.”
The wolf's enormous tongue licked the boy's face.
As tears filled the wolf's large eyes, the boy clenched his teeth and wrapped his arms around his mother's neck.
“Thank you. I'll live well.”
“……Awooooooo!”
The wolf howled toward the sky.
The wolves that had already awakened also raised their heads toward the sky, tears in their eyes.
The boy raised his head as well, his eyes red.
“Awooooooo!”
The sound of farewell echoed through the forest.
The mother wolf pushed the boy's chest with her head.
Then she turned toward the forest and took a step.
Her siblings followed behind their mother.
“Growl.”
Don't look back. Don't grow weak.
The wolf siblings sighed and fixed their gazes forward, forcing themselves not to turn around.
The mother wolf gritted her teeth.
My child. My helpless child.
Form a pack. Become strong.
With fangs stronger than anyone else's, overcome every threat wisely.
“Awooooooo!”
“Awooooooo!”
Yes. Mom needs to stay healthy, too.
I hope my younger siblings can live for a long time.
I hope they can die as wise wolves.
The boy turned around and looked at Larry.
“Mom said… Huh? Larry?”
“Ah, no.”
Crazy.
For some reason, his eyes were burning.
Something hot surged up from inside his chest.
Was this really right?
Was it really right for him to separate them?
But that thought lasted only a moment.
The farewell was already over.
I'll take good care of him.
Larry silently moved his lips toward the place where the mother wolf had disappeared, then looked at the boy.
“Did she give you permission?”
“Yes! Now Larry. Ankle heals. One day.”
It had already been a week since Larry had twisted his ankle.
By tomorrow, he would be able to move around well enough.
“Larry.”
“Yeah?”
“Need money outside?”
“Uh… yeah, I guess?”
The boy nodded as if that was what he had expected, then went into the cave and came back carrying a rolled-up bear hide.
“This worth money?”
“…Probably?”
There were many hides inside the cave—bear, wolf, leopard, rabbit, and more.
The bear hide spread across the floor had hardly any damage on it. If he sold it, he would probably receive a fairly substantial amount.
“Really? Good.”
The more money he had, the better for his settlement fund.
In the forest, weapons and instinct were directly connected to survival.
Outside, however, money and awareness of one's surroundings were essential conditions for survival.
Having learned that through the library, the boy had steadily collected hides for a day like this.
The boy's eyes shone as he clenched his fist.
Let's go!
Into the world.
Finally.
---
“Larry!”
Larry, who had come down from the mountain with the boy, spotted Ada, a female investor and his friend, and his eyes widened.
“Huh? How did you know we were here? And those people…”
Unable to contain herself after seeing her bewildered friend, Ada finally launched herself at him.
“You fucking bastard!”
Wham!
“Gueeck!”
“Die! Die!”
“Argh! Argh! It hurts! I said it hurts!”
“Shut up and take it!”
Even though time had passed, she hadn't been able to get in touch with her friend.
And that friend had gone into the Rocky Mountains in the middle of winter.
She had genuinely thought he was dead.
So she found the point where Larry had begun his ascent and organized a rescue team to search the Rocky Mountains.
To find his body if he was dead.
And if there was no body, at least to find his belongings.
But for him to show up like this, perfectly fine…
Ada burst into tears as she stomped on Larry, while the rescue team collapsed to the ground with sighs of relief.
The search had already been going on for three days.
Now that the tension had finally been released, laughter escaped from them.
But only for a moment.
Their eyes fixed on the boy, who was looking at Ada and Larry while repeatedly clenching and unclenching his fists.
The boy was covered from head to toe in animal hides, and he was even carrying a spear and bow.
Ada, exhausted from beating Larry, finally noticed the boy as well.
“So who's he?”
“Ah, well…”
Her eyes widened at Larry's explanation.
“You turn it like this.”
“Okay.”
Whoosh!
At a hotel, Ada clicked her tongue as she stared toward the bathroom, where the sound of shower water could be heard.
“Mowgli… A wolf boy…”
Larry had photographs he had taken, so she couldn't simply dismiss it as a lie.
“If he lived in that forest with his father from before he could remember, there's a high probability he wasn't even registered at birth.”
“…There's a high probability that his so-called father was a wanted criminal.”
America might have been home to countless crazies, but there were extremely few people who lived in forests so deep that even radio signals couldn't reach them.
Larry shook his head.
“Or he could have been one of those crazies who blindly worship the old ways.”
Crazy people who threw away every convenience of civilization and lived like primitive men because they believed humans were supposed to live in nature.
They were featured in the news every few years.
Whatever the reason, it was child abuse.
Child abuse, one of the crimes Americans hated terribly.
Ada narrowed her eyes as she watched Larry grit his teeth.
“So what are you planning to do? Don't tell me you're…”
“Yeah. I'll take responsibility.”
“Larry!”
“I brought this kid out.”
If it hadn't been for him, the boy would still be living with the wolves in that forest.
He would have continued living without knowing anything about the outside world.
Since Larry had brought him out, he had to take responsibility.
He had been prepared to do that from the beginning.
“…Whew. It's probably going to be pretty difficult.”
Larry was still unmarried.
Even a single man could adopt if he was over twenty-five, but the requirements were bound to be strict.
And the boy's appearance clearly didn't make him look American.
If he wanted to adopt a foreigner who wasn't a U.S. citizen, even more procedures would be necessary.
“Even if you successfully adopt him, you'll have to undergo inspections every year.”
“I'm prepared for that much.”
“Well, if you and I had a sham marriage, it would make things a lot easier, but…”
“Ah, it's okay. You need to get married too.”
“……”
Whack!
“W-why?”
Ada snorted and turned her head away before eventually sighing.
“Fine. I'll try.”
“Thanks! You're the only one I have!”
Ada Wong.
His friend, investor, and the company's legal counsel.
She was a friend who never disappointed him, so she would surely handle this well too.
Ada pushed Larry away as he clung to her.
“So how old is he?”
“He doesn't remember. Probably twelve or thirteen?”
“Hmm. Looking at his height, he seems even younger.”
Could he be only around ten?
“That's the problem with Asians.”
It was surprisingly difficult to tell their age.
“What about his name?”
Larry shook his head with a bitter expression.
“Whew. Fine. I'll take care of that problem too…”
The boy, who had heard that much, closed his eyes with a languid smile.
Comfort he had never been able to feel in the forest.
There, some part of his mind always had to remain alert in every direction, and he had to keep an eye on the youngest wolf, who was constantly looking for an opportunity to challenge him.
He had weapons, but he was still practically the weakest member.
But as he soaked in the warm water filling the bathtub, both his body and mind relaxed endlessly.
Enter.
The library reconnected.
“I don't need this anymore.”
The boy placed a hand against his chest and pulled.
A large green orb emerged.
"Survival Expert, Johan Jaeger."
At the same time, the nerves that had always been stretched taut became calm.
The survival instinct and sixth sense he had no use for in the city.
The sensation that had allowed him to detect everything around him without consciously thinking about it, like a third eye, dispersed and disappeared.
The talent of "Survival Expert, Johan Jaeger," which had helped him countless times until now, was disappearing.
However, the experiences and knowledge the boy himself had accumulated over the years while absorbing "Survival Expert, Johan Jaeger" did not disappear with it.
The talent of "Survival Expert, Johan Jaeger" was gone, but its fragments remained within the boy.
“Thank you.”
Thanks to it, he had overcome countless dangers and survived as a member of the wolf pack.
But now it was time to let it go.
It was time to absorb what he would need to survive from now on.
After organizing his thoughts, the boy opened his mouth.
“Search. Language. Oratory.”
The thing he needed most right now.
The ability to speak well.
He felt as though he was going crazy from frustration, with his tongue spinning like a broken machine and his thoughts constantly getting tangled.
The boy quietly gazed at the turbulent galactic river and the celestial bodies of the universe.
Click!
Larry and Ada, who had turned their heads, opened their eyes wide.
“Oh, my God!”
The boy's body, reddened from washing in the hot water, was covered in scars.
Two large scars crossed his chest, as though some enormous beast had raked its claws across him.
Another scar ran along his side, as though he had been bitten by a canine animal.
There were numerous other large and small scars scattered across his body.
“…We should probably go to the hospital first.”
“I agree.”
Their faces twisted as though they were about to cry as the two approached the boy.
The boy tilted his head to the side.