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# Infinite Talent's Reset Life — Chapter 4
## 2. Rocky
Bright brown eyes resembling topaz.
They were a black hole that sucked in people's gazes.
“You know that Asians have considerable purchasing power, right?”
“Don't talk nonsense. Even if Asians make up a large percentage of the population in America, how many could there possibly be?!”
Barely five percent.
“I'm going crazy here. Do you know how many people that five percent amounts to?!”
The total population of the United States was a little over 300 million.
Five percent of that.
Roughly 15 million people.
Even if children accounted for only 20 percent of them, that was still around three million children.
“Even if just ten percent of those three million make a purchase, that's 300,000 sales! Do you think that number is a joke, Larry?! Why is the president of the company being so irresponsible?!”
“If we debut him as a model, I won't be able to legally adopt him as my son!”
Johan nodded at Larry's shout.
Not because he agreed.
He had simply remembered something he'd momentarily forgotten.
Johan recalled all the photographs of people hanging throughout the house.
No, the photographs that filled the place from the first-floor entrance all the way up to the second floor.
People who passed through Larry's company and people currently under contract.
That's right. Larry was the president of a management company.
A management company that signed contracts with models, actors, singers, and others, found them jobs, managed their schedules, and took a certain percentage of their earnings as a commission.
Larry was the president of a management company based in LA.
“And don't say that kind of thing in front of him! He understands everything!”
“…No way.”
Until recently, the boy had lived with wolves.
Normally, he shouldn't even have known A, B, C, and D.
“Larry. Am I a product? A model is a product, right?”
“…See?!”
“Oh, God.”
Larry's colleague's face twisted in shock as he hurriedly dropped to his knees and grabbed Johan's hand.
“I'm sorry, kid. I didn't mean it that way.”
“That's enough. If you say anything more, I'll fire you.”
“M-Ms. Ada…”
At the appearance of Ada, who wore a sullen expression, the colleague's face went pale.
Ada Wong.
The management company's second-largest shareholder, its legal counsel, and a notoriously strict witch.
“No wonder I had this urge to come back early… Get out, Johnny.”
“Whew… I really didn't mean it that way. See you next time, kid.”
“Next time, please call me Johan.”
“…Thank you.”
The colleague stood up and glared at Larry.
“You know the whole country is in chaos right now, don't you? Get back to work quickly. There are a lot of things waiting for your approval!”
“I know.”
The colleague hesitated while looking at Johan before finally leaving.
Ada kicked Larry in the shin.
“Ow?!”
“You should at least say things like that somewhere Johan can't hear you!”
“S-sorry…”
Even if he had ten mouths, he wouldn't have anything to say.
“You did well, though. Looks like you're definitely prepared to become his guardian.”
“Huh?”
“Get out.”
Ada kicked Larry in the waist and closed the bedroom door.
“Now, Johan. Would you like to look at this?”
Ada held out a document.
“It's your birth certificate. It's temporary for now.”
Thanks to the photographs Larry had taken and the interview Johan had given to the child-protection agency, obtaining the birth certificate had been relatively easy.
The official certificate would be issued in a few days.
“For now, I registered you as eleven years old. You should be able to keep up with classes at that age, right?”
Larry had said Johan was exceptionally bright, so even if things were difficult at first, he would probably catch up quickly.
“Classes?”
“The ones you'll have to attend a month from now… Ah, it would be better to discuss this with Larry too.”
When Ada opened the door, Larry, who had been nervously pacing outside, hurried inside.
Ada repeated what she had just explained to Johan.
“Hmm. School…”
Honestly, Johan didn't want to bring up school yet.
He had never interacted with another human being before.
Johan was still unfamiliar with and overwhelmed by this society, so it seemed too soon for him to start attending school.
But if he was a U.S. citizen, he was required to attend school.
More precisely, if Johan wasn't sent to school, it could be considered child abuse and create problems with his adoption.
If I have to go anyway…
“Is that really necessary? I think it would be better to enroll him directly in middle school.”
“What are you talking about? He can't even properly speak English yet.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“Huh?”
“Larry, school is an educational institution where you study subjects like history and language, right?”
“…My God.”
Ada looked at Johan and Larry, her eyes silently demanding an explanation.
“A genius?”
This wasn't simply a matter of being smart.
He was speaking like an adult.
He's a genius.
A much greater genius than Larry had described.
Is this even possible?
Johan's father was presumed to have died around four years ago.
That meant Johan had been living alone since he was, at most, around eight years old.
And yet he supposedly knew more than ten languages.
That wasn't all.
Even after listening to a language for only a few months, a person's mind would begin to break down if they weren't able to speak it, let alone a child as young as Johan.
And yet he was using languages properly.
It meant he possessed mental strength beyond imagination.
Could it be…
Did Larry really bring an absurd genius out into the world?
Ada's body trembled.
“Ada?”
“Larry, maybe you're right. It might be better to enroll him directly into sixth grade.”
Most elementary schools in LA followed a curriculum through fifth grade.
From sixth grade onward, students attended middle school.
“Right?”
“But we can't.”
“Why?”
Ada pulled Larry outside the room and lowered her voice.
“Why do you think? He's too small.”
Johan was Asian.
His eyes were larger than those of most Asians, his eye and hair colors were unusual, and his muscles were well developed, but he still fell within the category of Asian.
Asians, who were discriminated against even by Black people, who themselves faced discrimination in America.
“Even I, as a quarter Asian with barely any Asian features, was discriminated against because of my surname Wong. With Johan's Asian appearance and small stature, there's no telling what he'll face.”
He could be bullied, beaten, and harassed by the so-called popular kids.
If he skipped grades despite being younger than everyone else, it would make him even more likely to become a target.
“How many geniuses have fallen apart after being pushed ahead without preparation, only to be crushed by jealousy and bullying from those around them?”
How many geniuses had disappeared that way in America?
“Pfft!”
“What…?”
“Ada, Johan was the one who saved me when I was almost eaten by a cougar.”
As he fell from a high place, Johan had accurately driven his spear into the back of the cougar's neck.
Johan was accustomed to killing living creatures.
“We shouldn't be worried about Johan getting hurt. We should be worried about whether he'll cause trouble.”
There had been kids like that when Larry was in school too.
Kids who bullied weaker children because of their natural size and hot-blooded temperaments.
But Johan was fundamentally different from them.
Those kids might swing their fists or kick someone.
Johan could take someone's life.
“He's a predator. Don't forget that.”
If the school ever called them, it would probably be to say that Johan had nearly killed someone.
“W-wait. You were almost eaten by a cougar?! When?!”
“Ah…?”
Larry's eyes rolled around.
“A-anyway! I'm saying there won't be a problem with enrolling him in middle school!”
Any gaps in his knowledge could simply be taught.
Larry himself and Ada had both received proper higher education at private schools, so they could become good teachers for him.
Then Johan should have no trouble passing the entrance exam for middle school.
“You and me, together?”
“You're not seriously going to refuse to help, are you? Oh, Ada. Please…”
“Ahem. If you're asking me that earnestly…”
Her afternoon schedule had just been decided.
“Johan? Get up.”
“Huh?”
“We're going shopping now!”
There were so, so many things to buy.
Textbooks.
Toys.
Clothes.
Johan felt an inexplicable chill as he watched her eyes sparkle with excitement.
---
Murmur, murmur.
Inside a department store bustling with people.
Two wilted vegetables trudged along slowly.
“Johan, people need a guiding principle in life, something like a motto. Through what you see and experience, you establish your own philosophy of life…”
“You mean I should record the saying, ‘Never go shopping with a woman’?”
“Exactly.”
Johan nodded deeply.
It was certainly a new experience.
But for some reason, he felt completely drained.
They had only been walking around for two hours, yet he already wanted to sit down.
He wanted to lie down.
Even Johan, who had excellent stamina because wolves were active constantly from the moment they woke in the evening until they went to sleep again, was exhausted by the act of shopping.
Why are you agonizing over clothes that look exactly the same?
The equation "Ada = incomprehensible creature" was beginning to form in Johan's mind.
“You two men over there. Shut your mouths.”
It was an unreasonable demand, but Johan wisely erased his questions from his mind.
“Hmm. Is this enough clothes?”
“Really?! Johan!”
“Then next…”
“N-next?”
Johan and Larry high-fived before both of them went pale.
“Are we not going to buy some toys for Johan to play with?”
“Toys?”
“Ah, toys are…”
“You mean those wheeled wooden boards and furry animal-shaped bundles at Larry's house?”
“Those are called skateboards and dolls. And the doll was a gift, by the way.”
“Hmm… Fine!”
Honestly, he wasn't interested.
His mental age was far too high for him to take much interest in such things.
But this was also a new experience.
It would help increase his capacity limit.
Once Johan gave his permission, Larry and Ada's faces brightened.
They looked at each other, excited to finally see Johan behaving more like a child his age.
“Let's buy some Lego and transforming robots first… Oh, let's get a Nerf gun too!”
“…Am I imagining things, or does it seem like you're buying things you want?”
“Should we get a computer and a laptop too?”
“I approve of those.”
Growl!
The two, who had been busy deciding what to buy, burst into laughter when they saw Johan's reddening face.
“Should we eat first?”
“Let's do that. Johan, how about a hamburger?”
“Ham… burger?”
A hamburger from the memories of Larry and the Being Who Became a Star.
“Is it better than chicken soup?”
The chicken soup he'd eaten after meeting the rescue team.
The rich savory taste of chicken clinging to his tongue and the sharp taste of ginger had shocked him.
Then there were the seasoned foods he'd eaten in the hospital.
The flavors had been so shocking that he had regretted not absorbing the life of a chef while living in the forest.
Of course, even if he'd obtained a chef's talent, he wouldn't have been able to get seasoning ingredients, so he probably would have only ended up frustrated.
“Puhaha! There's no comparison! Let's go! There's an amazing hamburger place in the basement of this department store!”
The three enthusiastically headed forward.
The moment they entered the department store's food court—
“I'm telling you, it wasn't me!”
A shout froze the entire food court.
Johan, Larry, and Ada looked toward the group causing the commotion.
A Black teenage girl in a jumper was jumping up and down while several people in suits wore troubled expressions.
A middle-aged white man held the hand of a girl who looked around ten years old and glared angrily at the Black girl.
“You're the only one who could have taken it!”
“What did you say? Ha! So because I'm Black, I'm automatically the thief?”
Black means criminal.
The expressions of the Black people nearby changed.
So did those of people from other races.
The suited employees trying to mediate between the two became even more troubled.
This wasn't good.
“Now, now. All you have to do is show us what's in your pockets. We're just asking you to prove you're innocent.”
“Don't touch me! What you're saying is that once a person's a criminal, they're a criminal forever! Yeah, you white people have always been like this!”
Click!
The girl pulled a box cutter from her pocket and brought it to her own neck.
“Aah!”
“Oh, my God!”
“W-wait!”
“I'm supposed to die here, right? That's what you want, isn't it?!”
The Black girl's suicide threat made the atmosphere among the crowd even worse.
The middle-aged white man wrapped his arms around the girl who looked like his daughter, shielding her from the scene.
The girl trembled and sniffled, seemingly frightened by the hostile looks around her and the commotion.
The men in suits carefully spoke up.
“Sir, she's insisting this strongly that she's innocent…”
Perhaps it would be better to settle this peacefully.
“This can't be…”
He was certain that the Black girl had taken the wallet.
Judging from the timing, there was no one else who could have taken it.
The wallet contained precious family photographs, so he always kept it on his person.
And the only person who had bumped into him after entering the department store was that Black girl.
“D-Dad…”
“Ugh…”
It had been such a long time since he'd gone out with his daughter.
Should he give up the wallet like this?
Should he simply walk away while knowing he'd been wronged?
But if he refused to give up, he felt he might leave his daughter with nothing but a terrible memory of the day.
The middle-aged white man clenched his teeth and finally had no choice but to nod.
That was when—
“I saw it earlier…”
Everyone's gaze turned toward Johan, who had somehow approached them.
“This big sister took the man's wallet.”