Reset Life with Infinite Talents - Chapter 126
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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 126
35. What Represents California
“That’s ridiculous! How can we go now?!”
Emily protests.
“Yes, Edward. I’m going to kidnap your daughter starting now.”
-…Just wait right there. I’m coming now.
“Kyaa! Don’t call Father!”
The chaos soon settled down.
“Yes, yes. Don’t worry. Haha. Yes.”
Phew.
The Main PD wipes away cold sweat.
‘Sherman’s father is the BlackRock LA Branch Manager!’
BlackRock, the world’s top asset management company that took care of America’s collapsed economy at the Obama administration’s request during the subprime mortgage crisis.
She’s the daughter of a branch manager from such a place.
‘She didn’t look like it at all!’
Though she did show signs of being loved and raised like a wealthy white middle-class family, he didn’t know she was from the highest tier of the upper class.
“H-how did it go?”
“Ahem. Fortunately, he gave permission.”
The fact that it wasn’t a trip alone with Johann but a group filming seemed to be effective.
Emily, who lives off her recognition as a model.
As a father with a daughter himself, he could understand that aspect.
“My goodness. Really?”
Emily is confused.
Honestly, she thought he would refuse.
“Call him quickly, Emily. Otherwise he’ll sulk, won’t he?”
“…Father will?”
“One hundred percent. Give him kisses too.”
“O-okay.”
Since Johann doesn’t say empty words, Emily quickly calls Edward.
“Yeah. Yeah. I love you. Kiss. Kiss.”
“Right?”
“Yeah…”
When she first answered the phone he was blunt and cold, but as the conversation continued he gradually softened, and by the end he said he loved her.
Just like usual.
“How did you know?”
“All fathers are like that originally.”
Johann points to the Production Staff as if to show her.
They nod their heads then startle in surprise.
“I see…”
Even though she’s been loved for 15 years, it’s disappointing that Johann knows aspects of her father that she doesn’t, and she feels sorry for not recognizing those aspects of her father.
Johann pats the head of her tearful face.
“Just do well from now on.”
“Yeah.”
“Now then, please give it to us.”
If you’re going to take the wallet, hand over the money.
“…Oh! We’ll give you the expenses when you secure transportation!”
Terminal, train station, port, airport, car rental company.
It doesn’t matter how you travel.
Once you get tickets, then they’ll give you money.
“Personal cars are fine too!”
However, Manager or corporate-owned vehicles are not allowed.
At those words, Mark Wahlberg furrows his brow.
“Wait. Then how are we supposed to get there?”
“Figure it out! Well!”
“Oh-. So that’s why…”
I guess they said you don’t have to bring your own car.
That’s why Mark came in a corporate-owned car.
“Lord.”
Mark crosses himself, and being a devout Christian, he rolls up his sleeves.
“Hey, absolutely don’t roll the camera!”
“Pfft!”
“Hehehe.”
Staff Members and onlookers burst into laughter.
The Production Team looks at the guitar and sound equipment beside Johann with a meaningful smile.
Johann also gives a meaningful smile in response.
“As long as it’s not Manager or corporate-owned, it’s fine, right?”
“…Huh?”
“Ahahahahaha!”
Emily burst into laughter.
* * *
‘Escalade.’
Cadillac Escalade.
The Production Team’s eyes waver at the large SUV in the Beach Parking Lot.
“Why is this…”
“My birthday is in January.”
“Damn it!”
The Production Team hurriedly holds a meeting.
“W-what should we do?”
They expected some activity like Busking to earn travel expenses. That got twisted from the very beginning.
“…Ah! How about we do it like this?”
The Producer from Arirang TV spoke up, and the Production Team’s eyes widened.
Soon the Main PD smiled and held out a thin envelope.
“Use this to solve today’s food and lodging.”
“How much is it, Mark? Huh? One fifty?”
“That’s it?”
Fifty dollars per person.
It’s barely enough to cover motel fees.
“We bought you lunch.”
“Wow…”
“But! If you take this, you cannot stop by each other’s houses!”
The rule that if you don’t take it, you’re allowed to stop by each person’s house for 1 minute.
“Which will you choose!”
It’s impossible.
It would take a minute just to get from the entrance to Mark’s own room.
“Someone lend me a gun…”
Swoosh!
Johann and Emily simultaneously grab the bag.
“Johann?! Miss Sherman?”
“Hehe. It’s okay. Right, Johann?”
“Yeah. Most things…”
Beep! Clunk!
“Are all here.”
Inside, with cooking utensils, sleeping bags, fishing rods and other items fixed to the walls and floor, there’s a box marked H&M.
Leftover clothes from those Ben Wood of H&M sent when filming the movie.
“What’s your size?”
“Wh-why are these here?”
“You never know when or where we might go.”
You never know what might happen.
So he carries most things in the car.
“Wow…”
Clap clap clap!
Mark and Emily applauded, while the production team looked dismayed.
They had carefully planned their scheme, only to be blindsided again.
Rattle! Crash!
“Ahhh! Co-come together!”
“Get up quickly, you idiot!”
“LAPD! Move aside! Move!”
Two men running away and the LAPD chasing them.
“Phew. LA is quite the variety show today too.”
“Indeed.”
Since it’s a scene they see often, everyone just accepts it.
Johann’s gaze sweeps over where the criminal had fallen.
Something scattered on the ground.
“Hmm.”
‘Should I use that?’
Johann’s eyes light up as he looks at the main PD.
“Today we just need to earn money at a place that represents LA, right?”
“Oh! If you could…”
“Doing anything?”
“…”
Johann has exceeded expectations several times today.
The main PD and production team’s throats bobbed.
Near LA in Burbank, in front of Warner Brothers Headquarters.
“This is a rare opportunity! Take photos with famous actor Mark Wahlberg and get autographs wherever you want!”
Johann is raising his voice to gather passersby.
“Bring one cosmetic item you have and challenge the dice game! If you roll higher than me, you win! Take photos and get autographs!”
“Puhaha!”
“Oh, is this a broadcast filming?”
“Should we try it too?”
As people gather taking photos, the production team watches Johann shaking a cup with dice in disbelief.
Johann bought the cup and dice, persuaded Mark Wahlberg, and rushed here to create this event.
“…What kind of kid is he?”
“An American teenager.”
An unpredictable American teenager.
An age where they’ll do anything for fun.
“And after today, he’ll be a blue chip of American broadcasting.”
Main PD Walton laughed incredulously as he watched Johann, Emily, and Mark shouting with their hands cupped as megaphones.
* * *
Scribble scribble scribble!
“That’s enough, Officer.”
“I’m letting you off just this once.”
“Of course.”
“You kids shouldn’t do this again either.”
“Yes!”
As the female police officer who winked walked away, Mark raised his hand toward Johann and Emily.
Smack!
High five.
The three of them laugh loudly.
“Johann, how much did you win?”
“This much.”
A small basket is full of cosmetics.
“Gasp! That’s Yves Saint Laurent. There’s Biotherm too!”
Biotherm, one of the brands acquired by L’Oréal Group, the world’s largest comprehensive cosmetics company.
It’s famous for men’s cosmetics.
“Did you know you could collect this much?”
Cosmetics are one of the things they currently need. Though mostly samples, it’s enough to last several months from basics to color cosmetics.
“Originally, these kinds of events do benefit the organizers.”
Like Las Vegas casinos.
‘Honestly, I thought about using Absorption Reading on a gambler to sweep everything clean…’
But since victory wasn’t desperately needed, he didn’t do it.
“For people, it’s just a moment’s memory. It’s not like they have to bet expensive cosmetics.”
“True.”
Mark nodded at Johann’s words.
“Certainly, even I would have bought cosmetics nearby to challenge if Ryan had done this kind of event during my prime.”
If you win, you get the chance to take photos with a celebrity and get autographs, and if you lose, you only lose surplus cosmetics.
Plus you get memories to savor for life, so it was something you had to challenge.
“Ryan?”
“My God. You don’t know Meg Ryan? You’ve Got Mail! Sleepless in Seattle!”
When Johann and Emily tilted their heads, even the production staff were shocked.
“Dear God.”
Pat pat.
“It’s okay. What’s wrong with a bit of a generation gap? It’s not like anyone’s dying.”
“Right. Just like it’s my freedom to smash your mouth!”
“Hahahaha!”
“Hahahahaha!”
“Sigh. Men, really.”
She doesn’t understand why they get worked up over such trivial things.
Emily claps her hands.
“Now that we’ve collected all the cosmetics, where should we go?”
Father Edward Sherman gave permission too.
Her first overnight trip away from home.
Her heart was pounding violently.
“First, we should pick something that represents California. Everyone gather around.”
The three people come together in one place.
“What represents California, Emily?”
Excluding things like gold mines.
“The ocean and beaches, Silicon Valley?”
Recreation and romance, leisure, the world of IT. California.
“Almonds, In-N-Out Burger.”
“Foodie, shut your mouth.”
“Yes, Mother.”
Smack!
Mark and Emily put their heads together, ignoring Johann who got hit on the back and is writhing around.
“Right, there’s also the desert.”
“Isn’t the desert a bit ambiguous?”
When it comes to deserts, it’s Nevada rather than California. Nevada, with Area 51 famous for alien conspiracy theories and Las Vegas the city of entertainment, could be considered the best.
“Smuggling and trafficking, illegal immigration… that won’t work.”
In that sense, Indian villages won’t work either.
Indian villages famous for drugs and various crimes.
An uncomfortable truth.
“Hmm. There are many famous cities…”
California has various cities with unique charms or functions besides LA, San Francisco, and San Diego, such as San Jose, Lompoc, Santa Clara, and Sacramento.
‘Which of these should we visit to show California well?’
It’s a total week-long schedule.
The production team said they’d tell us places to visit in between, but those would be representative tourist spots like San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge or LA’s Griffith Observatory.
For the rest, he, being the eldest of the group, had to become the leader and take charge.
‘And in an educational direction too…’
It’s a trip with minors.
They couldn’t go to places suitable for adults.
“Ah! There’s one more!”
There’s one more thing that represents California.
Everyone’s gaze turns to Emily.
“Wine!”
“…Napa Valley!”
California, truly America’s largest wine production region.
Among them, Napa Valley, the home of red wine, is a representative wine region not only in California but in all of America.
“Yes! There!”
“Oh! Good!”
Since it’s January now, they won’t be able to pick grapes, but they should be able to do farm experiences and wine tasting.
It was a place that could easily get a passing grade in terms of educational meaning.
Just as his body was already getting excited as if he could smell wine, he was about to turn around.
“There’s also Santa Rita Hills.”
“Huh?”
Everyone looks at Johann with puzzled faces.
Emily’s eyes widen.
“D-don’t tell me, Johann, your grandmother?”
Johann’s grandparents who run a large grape farm.
“Yeah. There should be a winery too.”
If we’re going, let’s go there.
At Johann’s look, Emily lowers her gaze.
Short jeans that reveal her entire thighs and a silk sleeveless t-shirt.
“No! No! No!”
Absolutely, absolutely couldn’t go looking like this.
* * *
Vrooom!
Inside the car heading toward Santa Rita Hills.
-Good heavens! How can such a mischievous coincidence exist!
Winter, when grapevines don’t grow.
Melanie Jefferson had come on a couples’ trip to the warm south with her husband and the neighborhood elderly.
-No. Don’t do that, come tomorrow. If you take a plane now, by late evening…
“N-no!”
Larry had practically cut ties with his parents.
He couldn’t lose points with his grandfather whom he’d never met.
“I can’t disturb your intimate time. Then I’ll see you next time.”
‘Yes!’
Johann chuckles seeing Emily clench her fist excitedly.
-Hmm. Then how about this? Grandma knows a lodging place.
“Oh, really? I’d be grateful if you could introduce us. Yes, yes.”
Johann, who ended the call, looks at Emily.
“Are you that happy?”
“N-no? I’m disappointed I can’t see her?”
“Take your hands off your skirt and talk.”
“…”
Emily, who had brought her hands to take off the long skirt that came down to her ankles, cutely stuck out her tongue, and Mark sitting in the back seat feels disappointed.
“Ugh. Then we can’t do the farm experience?”
“That’s not it. Grandmother said she’d contact a winery she knows.”
She said it was a winery where you could experience winemaking 365 days a year.
“Oh! Really? Where?”
“Lompoc.”
The city of flowers and art, Lompoc.
It was one of the small cities representing California, located right next to Santa Rita Hills.
“Wow.”
“Whoa.”
The place they arrived at was a small, pretty white building in an alley with hanging vines that reminded one of fairy tales or the European Mediterranean.
“A-are you sure this is the right place?”
“Yeah. The address is here.”
He said they talked to the owner and rented this entire place for today.
Of course it’s not free, but the eyes of the surrounding production staff, especially the women, light up.
“Wow. Your grandmother has good taste.”
“You two would get along incredibly well.”
They would get along like childhood friends.
He could guarantee it.
“R-really?”
“Yeah. Let’s go inside now.”
There’s a lot to do after unpacking.
“Yeah!”
Just as they were about to enter the building.
Click-clack!
A White woman in her 40s walks out from inside and stands before Johann.
“Hmm….”
An indifferent gaze that looks him up and down as if examining merchandise.
“Hey!”
As Emily steps forward in anger, Johann extends his hand to stop her.
“Hah! Good instincts. Hello? So you’re the puppy Larry picked up.”
Puppy.
At those words, even Mark steps forward.
“It’s fine, I tell you. I know this person.”
“What?”
“Hello, I’m Johann Jefferson. Um. Should I call you Aunt Lisa?”
Thud!
Lisa Jefferson. She was Larry’s older sister.
As everyone looked on in surprise, Lisa Jefferson twisted her lips.
‘Well, look at this?’
Lisa Jefferson stared intently into Johann’s calm eyes.
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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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