Reset Life with Infinite Talents - Chapter 169
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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 169
45. Opening
Eddie Redmayne seizes the glorious Oscar!
Julianne Moore holds her Oscar with a bright smile!
It truly deserved the award! Whiplash!
The real face of a superhero. It was indeed Michael Keaton!
12 years of production, Boyhood!
Rewriting the concept of time and space, Interstellar Visual Effects Award!
The 87th Academy Awards ceremony was glorious enough just to be nominated alongside Eddie Redmayne’s starring role in The Theory of Everything for Best Actor, and to be nominated for Best Cinematography with Birdman, which swept four awards including Best Picture.
Only the Brave and Mark Wahlberg’s Transformers: Age of Extinction unfortunately went home empty-handed.
* * *
High up in a tree at a wildlife sanctuary near LA.
In the darkness created by lush leaves, the ears of a black shadow crouched with closed eyes flutter in the whispering wind.
The shadow’s whiskers twitch as if dreaming happy dreams.
‘I’m not abandoning you.’
‘I’ll come get you soon.’
‘So please wait just a little longer.’
The warm request from one who was kin, yet not kin.
The strangely shaped kin who had embraced with warmth one who had been abandoned even by mother and wandered the frightening, scary forest.
The shadow’s brow suddenly furrows as it recalls him, whom it had met a month ago.
“Krung?”
A certain scent carried by the wind, brushing past the tip of its nose.
The black shadow opens its eyes wide, revealing blue pupils, leaps down from the tree and cuts across the earth.
And it launches its body toward someone with arms spread wide, toward the strangely shaped kin.
“Gyaaaang!”
“Yes. Have you been well?”
Johann pats and strokes the scruff of the black panther that has grown much over more than a year.
“Grung! Grrrung!”
“Yes. Now it’s time to go home.”
The hotel renovation is finally complete.
Johann smiled.
* * *
“Ada! Pull yourself together, Ada!”
The mansion is bustling from early morning for some reason.
Eventually Larry carries the half-asleep Ada out of the mansion, with Johann following behind, shaking his head.
The place they headed to was the hair salon, the same hair salon Johann had gone to when he first came down from the mountain.
“Johann!”
As they enter the hair salon, Emily sitting in a chair waves her hand.
Edward and Sandra are sitting next to her.
“It’s been a while, Mr. Edward.”
“Ahem! Ugh!”
He gets his ribs pinched again today.
Johann suppresses his laughter at his appearance, which has become mysteriously less snippy since the Grammy Awards, and sits next to Emily.
“Where’s Billy? Didn’t he come?”
Billy, Emily’s older brother by one year.
“I don’t know. That idiot.”
He suddenly got a girlfriend this year and left early in the morning saying he was going on a date.
“Billy has a girlfriend?”
“A student from another school. They met during a club exchange.”
“Ah.”
‘There really is someone who can put up with that personality.’
Billy, who has been going through adolescence for six years since he arrived. They say he’s gotten better now, but he’s still snippy.
It’s amazing he doesn’t get scolded by Edward and Sandra.
“Is she Mother Teresa?”
“Pfft!”
“But does he have time to date?”
It’s already March 2015.
Johann and Emily have already turned 17, and for 18-year-old Billy, this semester is his last as a high school student. In other words, it’s a time when he should be focused entirely on college admission.
“I don’t know. He’ll figure it out himself.”
“Hmm. Ah, today please just tie it back neatly and secure it.”
“You must have something special today.”
Not only the Jefferson family but the Sherman family had all come out. It was an uncommon occurrence.
“The Malibu hotel we invested in is opening today.”
“Ah! Are you attending the opening ceremony?”
“No. My girlfriend and I are going to work.”
“…What?”
The job experience program that runs twice a year, one month per semester. The job chosen this time was hotel merchandise management assistant.
An experience that might not come again. That’s why he requested Fairmont School to add it to the job experience list.
“Oh? Mr. Kellner!”
Mr. Kellner, his wife Cindy Boeing Kellner, and their son Adam Kellner are entering the hair salon.
This time Johann waved at them.
* * *
Vrooom!
Inside a car driving along Malibu Beach Road.
Johann, who had left the hair salon early for work, looks at Emily.
“…Phew.”
“Don’t worry.”
“I can’t help but worry.”
It’s a hotel that Father Edward invested a huge amount in.
And on top of that, today is the opening day.
In the business world, first impressions determine a lot. If they make a mistake today and ruin the first impression, she wouldn’t be able to bear the guilt.
“I told you it’s fine. You and I are just hotel merchandise management assistants.”
Concierges who help manage paid amenities and guide related tourism products, and only assistants at that.
“They’ve placed carefully selected experts, so there probably won’t be much for us to do.”
There’s a high probability they won’t directly handle customer service either.
“That may be true, but…”
In the hotel business, small mistakes directly translate to sales. No fool would assign important tasks to high school students here for job experience, but she can’t help feeling worried.
“Surely we won’t be doing exhibition hall tours, right?”
Exhibition hall tours, one of the hotel’s related tourism products.
As if planned, it’s an exhibition hall opening today, and its name is ENU Museum.
It’s a place where thousands of treasures from East and West are displayed, and they said it’s a unique concept exhibition hall that displays new treasures every season.
“They must have curators there too, so why do we need to provide guidance.”
They’re specialists in treasure management who were carefully selected by the CIA and have completed basic studies in ancient art.
“That’s right? Ha, haah.”
“Pull yourself together. We’re almost there.”
A corner of the external parking lot surrounded by tall palm trees like a wall.
Johann and Emily, who parked in the staff-only parking lot, stop as they head toward the hotel.
Behind a fountain surrounded by palm trees and flowers, shooting blue water high into the air, a 30-story tall glass spectacle.
“This is… that hotel from back then?”
The hotel they visited on the day Johann and she became lovers.
The hotel, which only had a framework back then, has changed beyond recognition.
Johann and Emily took a moment to admire the hotel’s exterior.
* * *
“Check everything one more time!”
“Where’s the list of precautions for the guests!”
“Check the room conditions again!”
The high and wide lobby where people are frantically moving about, perhaps because the opening is just around the corner.
The General Manager and Concierge Manager, who handles the hotel’s comprehensive services, stand in the lobby bathed in soothing lighting between white and orange, looking up at the ceiling.
Above the long rectangular lights on the ceiling, Hypnos, the god of sleep, peacefully slumbering, and Hermes, the god of travel, mischievously smiling as he crosses through windows.
While being overwhelmed by the grand and magnificent ceiling mural, two thoughts invade their minds.
The desire to rest soon and the desire to look around.
“The person who painted that is Jamie Valin?”
After participating in the creation of murals like “The World Watched by Stars” that turned Hispanic neighborhoods into landmarks and “Fire is Always Targeting Us” that increased LA’s fire department budget, she awakened and produced numerous masterpieces over the past six years – the young genius Jamie Valin born in LA.
“I heard she’s working with the California state government these days…”
Having worked as a hotelier for 20 years, working at and visiting various hotels, he had never seen such artwork at any hotel.
But this hotel had even more works that would captivate guests’ attention besides that ceiling mural.
The Concierge Manager looks at a painting hanging on a pillar next to the lobby sofa.
A painting depicting a family and a Savannah cat walking through a lush forest with a cool breeze blowing, drawn so realistically that it makes you stare in fascination once you look at it.
The forest that serves as the background would become the symbol of this hotel and a walking trail operated only by reservation.
Hotel lobbies usually serve as waiting areas until check-in time or for waiting for companions, and are places where people unconsciously contemplate what to do next in their schedule.
That’s why most hotels place pamphlets introducing tourist attractions or restaurants affiliated with the hotel around the sofas, but this hotel added paintings to multiply the promotional effect.
“The artist of those paintings is…”
“One of the major shareholders of this hotel.”
A high school student who will come for job experience every Saturday for the next month. By the way, the other student is also a major shareholder’s child.
“They’ll be working in your department.”
“…Damn it.”
“Here they come.”
They looked at Johann and Emily who were just entering the lobby.
The two who rushed over urgently as soon as they spotted them.
* * *
Clap clap clap!
Excellent.
A hotel that shows no shortcomings in all aspects including room conditions and interior, despite not having enough time from acquisition to opening.
“It looks like LA will have another hotel receiving Diamond Five.”
The representative evaluation standards for American hotels are the Forbes Travel Guide’s star rating system and the AAA (American Automobile Association)’s diamond rating system.
And this hotel has already received a Three Diamond rating in AAA’s preliminary evaluation.
AAA evaluates facilities and services separately, and while the facility section alone meets Diamond 5 standards, the service section couldn’t be evaluated since the hotel hasn’t opened yet, resulting in Diamond 3.
Now AAA’s professional evaluation team will stay at the hotel and experience the hotel services firsthand, then decide whether to upgrade to Diamond 4 or Diamond 5.
“Thank you for your kind words.”
Edward Sherman smiles faintly at the praise from former LA mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, then spots Emily among the staff gathered in front of the lobby’s main entrance and winks.
As the VIPs who attended the hotel opening ceremony leave to tour the hotel’s external facilities, the staff let out long sighs.
Clap clap!
The General Manager claps to gather attention.
“Current time is 10 o’clock.”
Full-scale business operations will begin in 4 hours.
“Everyone check your assigned areas one more time so there are no mistakes whatsoever. Understood?”
“Yes!”
As the staff quickly scatter with hurried steps, the Concierge Manager gestures toward Johann and Emily.
“As I explained earlier, our position is here.”
Next to the front desk staff.
“Remember this. We don’t have the word ‘no’ in our vocabulary.”
Always yes.
Always yes to any unreasonable request, except for matters that would be legally or morally problematic.
“If the lobby is the face of the hotel, we concierges are the hands and feet of the customers.”
The concierge department provides all the services customers need, not only handling basic reservations for tourist attractions, restaurants, airline tickets, and rental cars, but even purchasing items on their behalf.
The expensive accommodation fees of the hotel include the cost of such services.
But what would happen if those services were inadequate?
Customers would inevitably think they didn’t receive services worth what they paid.
Then the hotel’s rating would hit rock bottom, and naturally sales would plummet.
Moreover, this hotel was built from the beginning aiming for Diamond 5 rating.
A hotel with the unique concept of allowing pets including wild animals. Given the expected status of customers who will visit, such incidents must never happen.
“Understood?”
“Yes!”
“Always maintain proper posture. Never sit or bend your back, and if you want to rest, switch with another concierge…”
Johann and Emily listened carefully and absorbed the explanation from the veteran concierge wearing the golden cross-shaped key Clef d’Or badge on his chest lapel, which only about 4,000 people worldwide are allowed to wear.
* * *
“See you later.”
After the explanation ends, Emily heads to the concierge department.
The Concierge Manager looks at the nervous Johann.
‘His appearance is… definitely a pass.’
They said he’s a billboard star and actor, and despite being of mixed Asian heritage, his appearance is exceptional.
‘Tying his hair back and securing it… barely passes too.’
It would be better to cut it neatly, but since his appearance is excellent, this looks good too. Not wearing earrings and such is also good.
“Johann.”
“Yes, Manager.”
“How do the staff from the neighboring department look?”
The front desk, which is a different department from concierge.
“Excuse me?”
Johann makes an uncomfortable expression at the front desk staff who look this way and smile playfully at those words. In America, evaluating appearance is considered rude.
But that’s only momentary.
“They’re handsome.”
More precisely, they look neat and tidy.
“That’s right. They’re neatly handsome. All the hotels you’ve been to would have been like that.”
“…Now that I think about it, they were.”
Even if not at an outstanding level, everyone was at least at a decent standard.
“Do you know why that is?”
“Because it’s better to be greeted by good-looking people rather than ugly ones?”
“That’s about half correct. To be precise, it’s because everything in the lobby is the hotel’s face and first impression.”
From the interior design to the cleanliness, the bellboys, and even the appearance of the front desk staff – all of it is the hotel’s face and first impression.
“That’s why we have no choice but to hire people with decent looks for the lobby.”
“Oh…”
“For that reason, the number of staff at the front desk cannot exceed three people.”
Because it could create a sense of chaos or pressure.
This also varies depending on the hotel’s scale, with Diamond 3-star and below usually having at most two people.
“The same goes for places like our hotel that don’t directly operate concierge services.”
It’s not about labor costs. It’s because this is the optimal approach.
The optimal solution reached through countless trials and errors over thousands of years.
“It’s somehow… complex yet profound.”
I had no idea such rules were hidden in the front desk operations.
“Hotels are also a business, after all.”
“I knew that, but…”
It feels like I’ve gained some new insight.
‘The hotel business is definitely not something to take lightly.’
A hotel created to raise a black panther cub.
I suddenly find myself reflecting.
“Remember this. The concierge is the most important department that determines the hotel’s evaluation and revenue.”
Of course, guest rooms and auxiliary facilities are also very important, but to be evaluated as a Diamond 5-star luxury hotel, you must provide the best customer service, making it one of the most crucial departments.
“…Yes. I understand what you mean.”
‘This…’
My mind becomes crystal clear.
‘Even the hired staff thinks and works this hard…’
Haven’t I been thinking too complacently as a major shareholder?
‘I can’t become a burden.’
Johann closes his eyes and enters the library.
“Search. Veteran concierge who received the Clefs d’Or badge.”
Whooom!
Johann reaches toward one of the orbs flying from various parts of the galaxy.
‘His personality… passes too.’
After just a few words about the importance of the lobby, he immediately closes his eyes and tries to straighten out his mindset.
‘It’s hard for people who succeeded early to do this…’
Johann, who became a genuine star and celebrity at just 17 years old by winning three awards at the Grammy Awards.
As a veteran concierge authorized to wear the Clefs d’Or badge, having worked at America’s finest luxury hotels and met all kinds of successful people, he couldn’t help but be amazed.
‘Then there’s no need to worry… hm?’
The Concierge Manager furrows his brow. Johann’s posture was suddenly changing.
His beautifully straight spine and the weightiness enveloping his shoulders.
His pelvis and knees that firmly support that spine while being half-relaxed with strength.
His closed eyes are now armed with comfort and reliability. As if he would fulfill any request made.
‘This is…’
Why is it?
Johann suddenly exudes the aura of a veteran concierge like himself.
That’s when it happens.
Click.
-Guest arrival at the parking lot.
Startled!
At the parking attendant’s radio message, all manager-level staff in the lobby momentarily stop their actions.
The first day of the hotel’s opening, the first guest’s appearance.
Although there are still over two hours until the 2 PM opening time, even staff from various department offices all come rushing down and walk briskly toward the main entrance.
Running is absolutely prohibited in the lobby.
“Front desk and lobby concierge maintain current positions. Maintain posture and smiles.”
At the Front Office Manager’s words, Johann and the staff who were heading toward the main entrance stop their steps and lift the corners of their mouths.
“Tomorrow is…”
The Concierge Manager, who was trying to break the ice to ease Johann’s tension, chuckles softly seeing Johann’s face full of composure.
‘It was an unnecessary worry.’
As expected of someone beloved by the public.
That’s when it happens.
Whirrrr!
As the door opens, all the staff lined up at the main entrance silently bow their waists, and a family of five crosses through their center.
Click-clack!
Among them, one woman stands out.
A woman whose upright posture doesn’t falter even while holding a child, who despite having given birth to two children is still considered to have the most perfect figure in the world.
The hotel’s glorious first guest was Giselle Buncheon, the guide and mentor who led Johann into the world of modeling.
“The person who made the reservation… you look like that actor who didn’t win an Oscar?”
Thump!
Ignoring his churning heart, Johann responds with a relaxed smile.
“Yes, guest.”
“Have my luggage carried. Not by the bellboy, but by you personally.”
At Giselle Buncheon’s mischievous smile, Johann’s smile wavered slightly.
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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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