Reset Life with Infinite Talents - Chapter 110
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Infinite Talent Reset Life Episode 110
Thwack!
“Woof!”
“You can’t run away from home again. Got it?”
“Woof! Woof woof!”
“No buts. Father worries about you.”
“Whine…”
Inside Onward High School next to Chinatown.
Behind the gymnasium, Johann flicked the Golden Retriever’s nose as a warning, then lifted it with both arms in case it tried to run away again, but was slightly surprised.
‘Huh? This child?’
“Woof?”
The Golden Retriever looked at him with large, clear black eyes as if asking what was wrong. Johann smiled and turned around.
“Habitual runaway dog Sally, rescue complete.”
“…It doesn’t really understand what you’re saying, does it?”
Or maybe its sense of smell transcends human capabilities.
Johann had responded to a report and searched everywhere, eventually coming all the way to Onward High School to find the Golden Retriever.
“You were asking something to the dogs you met on the way here too.”
“Since the language system is similar to wolves, maybe it works?”
“Huh?”
“I’m joking. As I showed you earlier, I just found the fur.”
When Johann grabbed the Golden Retriever’s fur, a handful of hair came out.
“…Wow. Golden Retrievers indeed.”
Golden Retrievers are a famous breed among firefighters.
Because of their mischievousness that rivals Beagles, which Americans love but elderly people should never raise.
Golden Retrievers pack all the mischief that Beagles would cause over a lifetime into 3-4 years. Their fur sheds incredibly, making them difficult to raise unless you’re quite diligent.
However, Oliver and Senior, who had only heard about Golden Retriever shedding but never witnessed it, shook their heads as if disgusted.
“Haha. But after 4 years, they’re angels. Oh, can I stop by that mart for a moment?”
“Why? To buy treats?”
“I want to eat too… Hm?”
In front of the mart across the street, a white girl was looking around restlessly. A girl who appeared to be about 12 years old.
“That kid is…”
“Do you know her?”
“Only I would know her.”
“Huh?”
Johann pushed the Golden Retriever into the fire truck and crossed the street to approach the girl.
“Hello? Do you need help?”
“Gasp?”
The girl, startled, looked up and froze when she saw Johann.
‘Oh, my goodness!’
Mysterious eyes like topaz, and handsome features that seemed to draw you in.
Her face turned bright red at the maturity of this high school student who carried a fresh woody scent.
Her tongue twisted and her mouth stiffened.
“Ah, uh…”
‘No!’
She had to speak quickly.
But her mouth wouldn’t move.
With her mind in chaos, the girl instinctively moved her hands around.
“Sign language?”
‘Ah!’
No. That wasn’t it. She could speak.
“Uh…”
Just as the girl desperately tried to open her mouth, Johann’s hands moved.
“If you mean Japantown, you’re talking about Little Tokyo, right? You need to go that way.”
Little Tokyo and Chinatown are almost adjacent, and since both areas use Chinese characters, LA citizens interested in Asian culture often get confused.
Her emerald eyes grew wider.
‘He knows… sign language?’
“Your guardian is…”
“Phew. Kenny, Little Tokyo is that way if you go… What’s the matter?”
“The child seemed lost, so I was trying to help.”
The girl hadn’t done anything wrong, so there was no need to worry.
“Oh, thank you.”
“Not at all. Well then. Kenny, was it? See you tomorrow.”
Johann waved and entered the mart, while the girl stared blankly at him and touched the head he had patted.
A warm breeze blew through the girl’s heart.
‘But tomorrow?’
That was a strange thing to say.
Meanwhile, Johann chuckled as he entered the mart.
“She’s already on standby, I see.”
“Who is she?”
“An actress. She was in Breaking Dawn.”
“Breaking Dawn? The vampire movie? Ah! The Cullen baby! Wow! She’s already grown that much?”
The daughter of the main couple Edward Cullen and Isabella Swan, Renesmee Carlie Cullen.
‘And…’
She was also the girl who would play his younger sister in this movie.
One of the three main characters, the mute daughter Lily.
It seemed like Matthew Payton had projected his hearing-impaired son Jerome.
Coincidence could be so ironic.
‘But she doesn’t know I’m playing her older brother?’
If she had known, there would have been a different reaction.
“Oh, maybe she fell for you? That’s why she was flustered and used sign language!”
Oliver exclaimed in admiration of his own deductive skills.
“Ah, but when did you learn sign language?”
“I learned it recently.”
No. ‘Firefighter’s Prayer, Alvin William Lynn’ knew sign language.
To reassure rescue targets who were terrified in a world without sound.
‘Come to think of it, they’re quite similar.’
‘Firefighter’s Prayer, Alvin William Lynn’ and Eric, the role he was playing.
Their life trajectories and even the reasons they became firefighters were very similar.
“Hmm.”
Johann narrowed his eyes.
* * *
The elderly man threw down his cane and hugged the puppy.
“Thank you so much. Thank you.”
After cutting ties with his child, he was truly grateful for finding this precious family that had become the meaning of his life.
“Not at all. I just did what I had to do. Well then.”
Johann also smiles and turns around, then suddenly remembers something.
“Oh, right. Congratulations, Reporter. You’ll be getting new family members soon.”
“What?”
Everyone’s gaze follows Johann’s to the golden retriever’s belly.
“When I held her earlier, I could feel the babies inside.”
“Oh, my goodness.”
He had simply thought she was just fat because her belly was sagging.
“What kind of rascal did you meet?! Is that why you kept running away, Sally?!”
“Woof!”
‘Hello.’
Oliver and Senior shake their heads once more at the dog’s promiscuity.
They soon returned to Fire Department Station 3.
“So today’s the end.”
“Yes, it is.”
Today marks the end of the 9th grade first semester job experience.
No, to be precise, work hours had already passed.
They were only together because of the recent emergency call.
“How do you feel about it?”
“It’s regrettable.”
Although he couldn’t go to actual fire or accident scenes, he was able to see and feel many things firsthand.
The hardships of firefighters.
The pain of citizens.
He’d like to do it a bit longer if he could, but that would be a burden.
“Still, I learned a lot.”
“…Never go near accident scenes again.”
“Haha!”
“I’m not joking.”
“Yes.”
Only then does Oliver show a satisfied expression as he looks at the fire station they’re almost reaching.
For some reason, all the firefighters are standing outside.
As Johann gets out of the fire truck looking puzzled, the firefighters all approach him at once.
“Jefferson?”
“Yes, Fire Chief.”
“You’ve worked hard all this time.”
The Fire Chief smiles warmly and holds out a paper bag.
“We all pooled our money to buy this, so please don’t feel burdened.”
A foldable multi-purpose shovel, firefighting gloves, and a Red Fire badge.
The Red Fire badge was a symbol that only winners of each category in the California firefighting competition could obtain.
“Ah…”
“As you know, we can’t give you an official commendation.”
A civilian who isn’t even a firefighter, and a minor at that, rescued a young child from a fire scene.
The moment that fact becomes known, not only the firefighters who responded that day but even the Fire Chief would face disciplinary action.
“So…”
“No. Really…”
His throat tightens and words won’t come out.
He’s thinking of the firefighters who must have worried about preparing this gift.
Warm people who treated a boy who only worked for a month, and only 4 days at that, with genuine care.
Johann ponders for a while about how to express his gratitude, then finally says the first words that come to mind.
“I’ll use them well.”
For good things.
For things that need this.
Johann forces a smile, and the Fire Chief, Oliver, and other firefighters also smile warmly.
“Everyone, attention! Salute!”
Snap!
A salute toward Johann.
Johann also puts down the paper bag and salutes.
“At ease!”
“Take care!”
“Don’t play with fire carelessly!”
“If you witness a fire or accident, you know what to do? Take out your mobile phone and dial 911!”
“Haha. I’ve learned well!”
Johann rubs his moistening eyes and turns around, passing by Rick Bottom who’s approaching.
“Let’s go.”
If he stays any longer, he might show an unseemly appearance.
Walking toward where they parked, Johann calms his heart, then stops for a moment and looks up at the sky.
“Phew.”
‘Finally tomorrow?’
The one month that Andrew Pearson promised.
That promise has been kept.
‘Script reading.’
Tomorrow is the day when all the actors appearing in this movie gather to match their chemistry for the first time.
Something only real actors do.
“First script reading.”
Johann’s eyes begin to sparkle.
* * *
The script reading location was set at Rocky Management’s old building, which is Wolf Pictures’ current building.
A building that became ordinary again after all the lobby murals Johann painted were moved to the new building.
In the parking lot of that place, about ten people are gathered smoking cigarettes.
“Ha! Really amazing! Someone gets a movie made for them because they found a good guardian, while someone else is stuck doing supporting roles!”
At the words full of sarcasm and spite, several nearby people agree.
“Right. Otherwise, does it make sense for an Asian to get the lead role?”
“Wow, why didn’t my father win the lottery?”
“Look carefully. There might be a lottery-winning dad somewhere.”
“Puhahahaha!”
Some agree, some frown.
“How funny. A dad like that wouldn’t think of someone like you as his child.”
“Who is it?!”
Five actors who were gathered next to those insulting Johann approach them with anger in their eyes.
“You, what are you guys?!”
“Us? We’re actors from the management company that the person you just badmouthed belongs to.”
Actors from Rocky Management.
“Hey, hey. Calm down. Those guys are Rocky.”
“…Ah, what.”
The late-teen boy who was briefly scared bursts into mocking laughter.
“So you were the prince’s subjects?”
“Oh, subjects. That’s a nice word.”
“Pfft. So Johann is my king? Oh, my lord.”
“Hahahaha!”
“…Are they crazy?”
The Boy frowned at the sight of the Rocky actors who weren’t affected by his sarcastic words, and one of the Rocky actors, a young man, twisted his lips and shot back.
“Of course we’re crazy.”
In Hollywood where thousands of movies are produced each year, the number of actors and aspiring actors desperately trying to get even a single cut is dozens, hundreds of times that number.
The young man was one of those people.
He had distributed thousands of profiles just to land even an extra role as passerby number 1.
However, no director would hire him, and his dreams gradually crumbled.
The world was too harsh to survive on part-time jobs alone.
His life changed four years ago when Rocky Management expanded the Directing Studio on a large scale.
Johann, who had debuted ordinary people as models.
Hoping he might catch Johann’s eye, he registered at the Directing Studio and was able to make his official debut as a supporting actor in a movie two years ago.
His acting skills had improved dramatically through the Directing Studio’s advanced classes, but it was also thanks to the exceptional profile photos.
‘The profile photos that bottom-feeders like us could usually take were at best hundred-dollar shots from third-rate writers.’
Terrible photos that looked like passport pictures.
Even those could only be taken after saving and saving money and making a big decision.
But what Johann took was different.
Photos that looked like they were taken by photographers whose daily rates were tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of dollars.
He brought out every expression he had, to the point where he wondered if he even had such sides to himself, and eventually he was cast as a supporting actor.
All the Rocky-affiliated actors rushing at those mocking Johann were people who had received such grace.
Though they couldn’t even tell their families for fear that Johann might be troubled by the media.
‘But what?’
Touching such a Johann meant asking to die.
He twisted his lips again.
“Well, I guess we should understand since you’re a stupid fool who doesn’t even know what real acting is.”
“What?! You bastard!”
“Hey, you’ve never even seen Johann’s acting, have you?”
“Ha! Some Asian’s acting….”
“When Jackson, played by that Asian, died, it hit the highest ratings of that season.”
Even now, there would be many people who would tear up at the mention of Jackson.
“But you? What do you have?”
“Right! Where and what role did you play?”
“I!”
“Hey, hey. Stop it. We’ll get kicked out at this rate.”
People coming out of the building were looking at them.
“…Damn it!”
The Boy threw down his cigarette and went into the building, while the victorious young man bumped fists with his colleagues.
“Ah, but yesterday was really crazy.”
“Johann?”
“Yeah.”
After the announcement for the tentatively titled ‘Fire Always Targets Us’ went up, Johann practiced acting in his office at the Directing Studio every week.
He wanted to practice together, but he didn’t have the courage and could only watch from outside the door.
“He was amazing before too….”
How should he put it.
Yesterday he felt something that went beyond that.
Just like Jackson from Grey’s Anatomy four years ago.
“Oh! 30 minutes until the reading starts!”
“Oh, shit!”
They quickly put out their cigarettes and went into the building.
The parking lot where they had disappeared.
Click!
Mark Wahlberg got out of an SUV parked nearby.
“Hmm.”
Mark quietly stared at the spot where the argument had just taken place.
“I’ll know when I see it.”
Leaving behind those cryptic words, he too went into the building.
* * *
“We’ve arrived.”
Johann got out of the parking lot and looked at the building.
‘Finally, today’s the day.’
His first script reading in life.
It was a new experience.
His heart was racing so much that he couldn’t sleep last night.
“It’s been… quite a while.”
Acting for the first time in four years since Grey’s Anatomy.
Johann’s lips trembled.
What kind of acting would Mark Wahlberg do?
What kind of acting would Kenny show?
And how would the supporting actors and minor roles have analyzed their characters?
He was dying of curiosity.
“Whew!”
‘I’ll know when I see it!’
“Let’s go.”
Johann headed to the reading room that had been announced in advance.
The reading room, which had been the largest classroom of the Directing Studio when it was Rocky Management’s headquarters building.
When he opened the door and entered, everyone who had been looking at their scripts turned to look at Johann.
‘Oh, so those people are also appearing in this movie.’
Johann, who had been greeting the Rocky Management actors with his eyes, looked at Mark Wahlberg with sparkling eyes.
‘As expected, successful people are different.’
Even though he was just looking at the script, he could feel a heavy aura.
Just like Giselle Buncheon.
“Hello, Mr. Wahlberg. I’m Johann Jefferson.”
“Mark Wahlberg. Nice to meet you too.”
Mark Wahlberg, who had shaken hands, looked at his script again, and Johann thought he must have a quiet personality unlike in movies and took out his phone.
‘He’s not even taking out his script?’
“Tsk.”
Mark Wahlberg clicked his tongue and looked at his script again, while Johann glanced at him and shrugged his shoulders.
With the two leads silent like this, the reading room became quiet.
How much time had passed?
Burst!
The door opened and a young girl rushed in.
“Huff! Huff! Sorry for being late… Kyaah!”
‘Didn’t we say we’d see each other today?’
Johann waved at Kenny, who was looking at him in shock.
Soon when the time came, Matthew Payton entered and stood at the head seat.
“Nice to meet you all.”
A scene he seemed to be seeing for the first time in almost 8 years.
Matthew Payton calmed his trembling heart and opened his mouth.
“I’m Matthew Payton, handling the screenplay and directing for this film.”
Clap clap clap clap clap!
Applause pours out for him.
After the introductions of the assistant director and other staff members end, Mark Wahlberg stands up.
“I’m Mark Wahlberg, playing the role of father Steven. Please take care of me.”
No lengthy introductions are needed.
Script reading has another name: the guillotine.
There’s no guarantee how many of the people gathered here today will be seen again. Greetings can wait until then.
Hollywood was a place that had to be cruel because actors were a dime a dozen.
Johann rises to his feet.
He straightens his chest under the pouring gazes.
‘This much is nothing.’
It’s weaker than the glaring stares of audience members during busking.
“I’m Johann Jefferson, playing the role of son Eric. Please take care of me.”
As Johann sits down, Kenny, who had been staring at him blankly, stands up.
“I’m Mackenzie Foy, playing the role of mute daughter Lily! I appeared in Breaking Dawn and The Conjuring. Please take care of me!”
Clap clap clap clap clap!
After the introductions finish, including the supporting actors, Matthew Payton claps to gather everyone’s attention.
“Now that all introductions are finished, let’s begin the reading. Scene number 3, bar. Steven limps toward his bartender friend Jimmy. Bartender friend Jimmy greets him warmly.”
“Wow wow wow. Look who it is. Isn’t this my hero friend Steven?”
Flinch!
“…What hero.”
Mark Wahlberg glanced at his ruined knee with a bitter smile as he looked at his friend, and Johann pursed his lips.
‘This is insane.’
He becomes immersed in an instant.
The deep regret and pride felt intensely from just two words captivates his ears and eyes.
Johann pressed down his racing heart again and stared intently at Mark Wahlberg.
* * *
“Scene number 5, Eric coming home from school.”
‘Finally my turn.’
Everyone’s gaze turns toward Johann.
The son of the Rocky Management CEO who established Wolf Pictures.
The annoying guy who snagged the lead role thanks to that.
‘Let’s see how well he does.’
An unpleasant atmosphere begins to fill the reading room.
“Classmate Mad taps his shoulder from behind.”
Thump!
“Mad covers his nose.”
“Ugh. Hey guys, doesn’t it smell like garlic somewhere?”
The boy who had cursed at Johann in the parking lot speaks cheekily as the surrounding extras laugh noisily.
“Eric ignores him and passes by. Mad mocks him even more.”
“What, are you deaf? Can’t you hear? Well, if your sister’s a retard, I guess her brother would be too!”
Flinch!
Johann’s body stiffens.
And then…
‘…?!’
Everyone suddenly holds their breath.
Some kind of aura is felt from Johann, who has his head down.
It’s as if something sharp is stabbing through their entire bodies.
‘What, what is this?’
‘What the hell is…’
‘Yes! This is it!’
This is exactly what he wanted from Johann.
Matthew Payton excitedly reads the next stage direction.
“Eric stops. He raises his head!”
Swoosh!
“Gasp!”
“Mmm.”
Pale groans echo through the reading room.
Everyone avoids eye contact, unable to meet Johann’s bleakly dead eyes.
Even the boy playing Mad who had picked the fight.
“Eric immediately throws a punch!”
Bang! Bang bang!
‘Crazy… are those the eyes of a human being?’
No. That’s not human at all.
A beast, a predator.
The kind of look a predator standing proudly on a hill would have when trying to kill an invading enemy.
‘So that’s what he meant earlier!’
This was the meaning behind what Jake Gyllenhaal had said.
The wayward son Eric, damaged by divorced parents, whom he had envisioned while reading the script, was alive and breathing right before their eyes.
Mark Wahlberg thought he should apologize.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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