Reset Life with Infinite Talents - Chapter 266

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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 266

Boeing! Develops natural flame retardant coating made only from natural materials! Announces intention to donate to US Forest Service!

100 percent tree survival rate! Miraculous new substance! Named Wise Sleep!

US Forest Service thanks Boeing and will review positively!

“Lift it up!”

“Careful! Careful!”

Grrrr!

A 5-meter sculpture suspended from a crane is being erected.

“A little more! A little more! That’s it!”

The crane stops as a fist is clenched.

Johann and Professor David Paul, along with the architecture professor holding welding rods, approach the sculpture.

They weld and connect the protruding rebar on the Pozzolan Concrete Ground with the rebar hanging under the sculpture using welding rods.

Sizzle! Sizzle!

The sharp smell of burning welding rods pierces the nostrils and tears through the lungs.

Watching this, the students stomp their feet impatiently.

“Ah! We could do that well too!”

“Johann, can’t we do it too?”

“No.”

Though it may look simple on the surface, durability and load-bearing capacity differ according to welding proficiency.

No matter how much they’ve practiced countless times, they don’t inspire the same confidence as the ‘welder’ who has welded all his life or the two professors.

Since a collapse would cause a major disaster, Johann, who couldn’t entrust it to others, points to one side.

“Instead, you can weld those things. Just match the numbers and sketches properly.”

Rock sculptures that wouldn’t matter if they collapsed or separated.

“…Okay!”

“Let’s go!”

Johann and the two professors chuckle as they watch the students rush over in a crowd. They naturally feel pleased by their passionate appearance.

‘Done.’

As Johann finishes welding and steps back, the two professors soon follow, putting down their welding rods.

“You weld well too.”

“Haha.”

The two professors click their tongues as they look at the smiling Johann.

Johann has reached the level they achieved through decades of practice and real experience.

‘This isn’t a level you can reach just by having good talent.’

But since it’s Johann, they just accept it.

Shaking their heads, they look at the hundreds of sculptures that densely fill the 3,000-pyeong Pozzolan Concrete Ground.

The ground and sculptures dyed ash-gray.

“When we first started, I wondered when we’d ever finish setting up all those things, but we finally completed them all.”

“Is that what surprises you? I’m more amazed by that.”

The method of making the sculptures.

Though it would clearly be easier to make pieces separately and combine them, Johann bent and wove entire rebar pieces, covered them with forms, then poured in pozzolan.

After curing was complete, he scraped the surface with chisels, hammers, and grinders to complete the sculptures.

The architecture professor, who knows how difficult that is since architecture and art differ by a hair’s breadth, gazes at Johann with reverence.

“You said you did it that way to avoid creating gaps, right?”

“That’s right. Even if you apply concrete to the joint parts afterward, the durability is inevitably lower compared to something that was one piece, a solid block from the beginning.”

But it would have been difficult to do the same for the parts connecting the sculptures to the ground like today’s work.

Professor David Paul nods at those words.

“If we had done that, we couldn’t have completed even half of this even using all three months we initially discussed.”

That’s correct.

“So now what remains is…”

Wait for the welded parts to cool, fill them with pozzolan and wait for curing, then finally attach ash and soot obtained from the La Tuna Wildfire Site to those parts and apply flame retardant coating.

“Ah, that flame retardant coating is the one Boeing developed this time, right?”

A natural flame retardant coating made only from natural materials found in nature.

“Yes. Though artificial improvements are needed for various reasons like performance enhancement and cost issues, that alone is a sufficiently good flame retardant material.”

“Further improving a miraculous new substance with 100 percent tree survival rate…”

The phrase “game changer for the wood processing market” comes to mind for both professors.

“At least we’ll be able to breathe a little easier from the threat of wildfires.”

It won’t be possible to coat all forests across America with that substance.

The biggest problem is probably budget. The US Forest Service budget isn’t as large as one might think.

Still, if we could just coat forests in urban areas or adjacent to cities, the threat of wildfires would be significantly reduced.

“That’s right.”

In fact, after the ‘shaman’ Wise Eyes developed this substance, no fires occurred near the tribe until the Western expansion era began.

Even when fires tried to grow, they were quickly extinguished because this substance prevented them from burning trees.

“Hehe… Close your eyes and open them, and the world has changed.”

“Right.”

After going through the industrial age that turned forests into bare, bald mountains, we suddenly entered modern society where we must protect nature, and now a substance has appeared that can protect those forests from the threat of fire.

Humans who developed all kinds of chemicals for convenience and recklessly used them to destroy nature are now trying to protect health and nature using natural materials.

Something unimaginable just 20 years ago.

Nostalgia and wistfulness about how quickly time passes, along with anticipation for a better future, completely fill their entire beings.

But they couldn’t continue that thought for long. All kinds of ideas about natural flame retardant coatings began swirling through their minds.

Professor David Paul thinks about installation art.

The architecture professor thinks about architecture.

Johann waits for them to organize their thoughts, then throws out words he hadn’t said before. To help with their ideas.

“Anyway, since it’s non-toxic, it probably won’t have much effect on the human body either.”

“Oh!”

Several of the ideas that had come to mind change. In a better direction.

Johann chuckled at their fidgeting appearance.

“Ah, but don’t try to eat it. Direct consumption is dangerous.”

Flinch!

“Wh-what… where would you find someone stupid enough to do such a thing. Ahem!”

‘Seems like he did it…’

Typical men who constantly say ‘It’s fine, you won’t die.’ Especially American men with strong such tendencies – it wouldn’t be strange if they swallowed that flame retardant material just to taste it.

Johann shook his head and quietly gazed at this work being completed as even the rocks began connecting to the ground.

‘It smells quite burnt…’

Probably because ash from the fire scene was attached, it smelled quite strong.

Vroom!

Johann turns his head and stands up.

“It’s arrived.”

The final piece of this work.

It was already early November, and the roughly 3-month journey was coming to an end.

* * *

Crunch!

A black sedan enters the wide clearing covered with brown, dry soil.

It’s not just this sedan.

In the clearing that would normally have pickup trucks or cars of hikers, or piles of trash scattered about, luxury vehicles from top brands like Rolls-Royce, Mercedes, and Lamborghini are lined up and continue arriving.

The door of the black sedan, barely parked in a found space, opens and Mr. Kellner wearing sneakers steps out.

“I had a date today…”

“You can go if you’re bringing her tomorrow.”

“…”

Kellner sighs at his son Adam’s tightly shut mouth.

His son who lately keeps repeating casual meetings and breakups, as if adolescence came late.

“If you’ve played around that much, now…”

“Oh, isn’t that Mr. Kellner!”

“…Mayor Garcetti.”

Kellner, who shook hands with the approaching Mayor Eric Garcetti, points to Adam.

“This is my son.”

“I’ve heard a lot about you from your father. I’m Adam Kellner, Mr. Mayor.”

“Oh! You have such a fine son?”

“He still has much to learn, so I ask for your guidance and teaching.”

“Oh! Haha…?!”

At the sight of a middle-aged woman getting out of a car that just arrived and stopped, not only Mayor Eric Garcetti but also Kellner’s eyes hardened.

‘Lisa Jefferson?’

Lisa Jefferson, owner of Larissa Company that has swept the global wine market by restoring 120-year-old grapes, a businesswoman running various other enterprises, and a direct descendant of the Jefferson family.

But she didn’t come alone.

“Get out quickly. There are cars coming behind us.”

“Give me your hand and then say that, you little thing. You’re just like your father, so rotten.”

“What do you mean ‘rotten’ to your daughter? Rotten. Tsk tsk tsk.”

‘Melanie Jefferson!’

Melanie Jefferson, the matriarch of the Jefferson family, who is even harder to meet than the family head Grayson Jefferson.

But someone even harder to meet than her was getting out following the two.

Kellner and Mayor Garcetti’s eyebrows trembled.

* * *

Thud! Thud!

Heavy military boots step on the dry dirt ground.

“Mom, are you okay? Isn’t it hard? Should we go a bit slower?”

The woman in her 50s looks at her soldier son as if incredulous.

Doesn’t this child know that she walks 10 miles (about 16km) every day?

“Yeah. It’s nice. It’s even better walking with a son who won’t even get married because he’s protecting the country.”

“Just don’t say the last part…”

The two people who were having a conversation close their mouths.

A faint smell of burning and a mysterious odor brushing past their noses.

Most of the land in their wide-open view is colored green.

“They must have started forest restoration.”

“F-forest restoration?”

“Seeding spray. Hydroseeding. Don’t you know?”

Hydroseeding, a technology that restores forests by using seeds, water, fertilizer, fiber, and adhesive to spray seeds in large quantities and attach them to the ground.

“I know about seed balls…”

Seed balls, a technology of bundling seeds, clay, compost, soil, etc. into small round shapes and scattering them. During elementary and middle school, he had experienced making seed balls and scattering them on mountains.

No, making and scattering seed balls could be said to be a regular event on Arbor Day.

“Geez. How does a young person like you know less than your mom? This is why you don’t have a girlfriend at that age.”

“Yes, yes. Let’s just do verse one. Your son’s heart hurts too.”

“Tsk tsk tsk.”

She shakes her head and looks around with curiosity.

“By the way, what made the politicians move so quickly this time?”

“Right.”

Usually this kind of forest restoration is supervised by the US Forest Service, but it’s inevitably difficult without approval from city or state government.

“What’s going on?”

“Is it because there were many fires this year?”

Wildfire incidents that occurred here and there in California from April.

This year was particularly severe, making them think there wouldn’t be any forests left in California at this rate, and it seems it’s not just ordinary people like themselves who think this way.

“That must be it… Oh, we’ve arrived.”

“Ah…”

A large cloth screen stretched wide at 30 feet (about 9 meters) high.

The two people who had been having a lively conversation until just now, no, the entire family of five including the surviving family members of the only victim of the La Tuna wildfire who were following behind, close their mouths.

Johann approaches them. He clasps hands with them.

“Thank you for coming.”

“No, thank you for inviting us like this.”

The famous celebrities and politicians and business leaders whose faces they vaguely remember that they passed by on the way up.

If they weren’t the surviving family of the only victim of the La Tuna wildfire, they wouldn’t have been able to come here today.

“Of course we had to invite you.”

It was a work that could be created because they allowed him to honor the old man who was the only victim.

Today’s most important guests were them.

“…Thank you for thinking that way.”

“Please come this way.”

Johann guides them to the front of the gathered crowd. So they can see the work first when that screen is lowered.

“But was it easy to get leave?”

A soldier currently on deployment duty. The funeral for the old man who was the only victim was held late because getting leave is not easy at deployment sites where manpower is always so short that they need to borrow even a cat’s paws.

“No. I just decided to retire.”

He went on a dangerous deployment to protect the country, people, and liberal democracy, but he couldn’t save his own family member, his grandfather.

Because of that sense of doubt and guilt, he could no longer remain in the military.

“I’m currently in America waiting for retirement approval to come through.”

That’s why he could easily get leave.

“Ah…”

“No. You don’t need to feel sorry.”

Johann did nothing wrong. God just needed grandfather and took him.

“…Thank you for your dedication to the country until now.”

“It’s thanks to your support.”

Johann, who was warmly shaking hands again, is surprised to discover people who just arrived.

Professor David Paul approaches him.

“Johann.”

“…Yes. Then.”

It’s already the promised time.

Johann turns around, checks the time, grabs the microphone and speaks.

-Hello. I’m Johann Jefferson.

Wow!

Clap clap clap clap clap!

People applauding and showing their appreciation.

The soldier also applauds while looking at the screen.

‘What could it be.’

What could be beyond that screen?

How, in what way did he honor grandfather?

Johann’s talent for art, famous enough that even he who was deployed far away knew about it.

He’s not talking about Afternoon Chase or the photo exhibition.

The Story of the World Watched by Stars mural that revitalized the Silver Lake dense area or the Victory Goddess Nike were such amazing works that they were essential dating courses with the girlfriends he dated before enlisting.

Johann, who has such outstanding artistic talent that he drew such amazing murals at age 11, making one suspect he might be an avatar sent down by the god of art.

When such a Johann created a work to honor grandfather, he couldn’t help but have expectations.

-Then I’ll open it now.

Snap!

When Johann snapped his fingers, the screen blocking their view fell to the ground.

The eyes following it widened.

“Ah!”

“My God!”

Not only the soldiers and surviving families, but everyone present today is shaken.

Because the blackened, charred trees pierced into their vision.

Because ash seemed to be falling and large and small rocks scorched by fire seemed to emit the smell of burning.

A world of ash and soot.

A 3,000 pyeong landscape they wanted to turn their heads away from and avoid.

‘Why.’

Why on earth did Johann create something like this.

He seems to be saying something, but it doesn’t register well in their ears.

They follow Johann as he moves forward, stepping into the forest that has been completely burned down.

“Gasp! Th-this isn’t a tree!”

“This isn’t a tree either?!”

It’s true.

When they touch a tree that’s more than half burned, they feel not the texture of wood but the rough yet slightly smooth texture of stone.

A realism that makes it seem like soot would rub off on their fingers.

The rocks, the weeds that barely survived with only their roots, and even the soil rolling around between them – everything is made that way.

‘How is this even possible?’

Both those who know art well and those who don’t feel reverence as they look at Johann’s back walking ahead.

The question of why still remains, but admiration surrounds it, filling their bodies and souls completely.

How long had they walked like that.

The steps of the soldiers and surviving families suddenly stop upon discovering something. With trembling eyes, they slowly approach it.

And they stand before it and look.

At the large cross that is the only thing unburned in this 3,000 pyeong space.

At the cross-shaped tombstone.

At the sculpture that adorns the grand finale of this artwork, the world after the fire.

May such a thing never happen again.

“Ah!”

Tears poured from their 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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