To Live Again, For the First Time!

While Theodore was cursing the people who made him look bad in front of one of the only people in the world he'd really rather not look bad in front of, the person on the other side, the one currently attacking Theodore, rubbed his goatee, not knowing about the fire that he had lit in this young man.

"Ah just as I needed a good stretch someone comes knocking on my door, the kids these days are all so nice."

A man with a lazy voice seemed to be on the verge of yawning at every second, but he held himself back so that he wouldn't have to deal with the troublesome yawn tears.

With his left hand covering his mouth, he used his right hand to maneuver on the keyboard and move the mouse every once in a while.

Though his left hand was dominant, as a hacker, he was still rather skilled with both.

That being said, he was ambidextrous and required his students to be the same.

Yes, this lazy-looking uncle was the man hacking Theodore at this very moment.

"This kid is some nice warm-up," he was actually rather surprised.

He didn't think there were many people who could go up against him anymore, and those who could, wouldn't be bored enough to hack him.

At least they wouldn't be caught doing so.

This one up against him was weaker than all of those old monsters, in fact, it would be offensive to even compare them, but this hacker wasn't too bad.

But this wasn't what really interested this expert.

What was interesting to him was that his opponent was rather inexperienced, at least inexperienced dealing with people of his level or higher. 

At most having some experience hacking some small fries. 

He could tell.

[At this time, this man didn't know that he had already deemed all of his own disciples, small fries.]

[These disciples weep. ಠ_ಥ]

The opponent's (Theo's) fighting power came more from instinct.

The kid was facing things as they came, and against someone like him, who had decades of experience, this was nothing, or at least it was nothing effective.

But people like him, those with more instinct than experience could be nurtured, unlike those with no instinct and lots of experience.

Of course, it wasn't to say that those who weren't born with the talent would go nowhere, it was just that they would often face bottlenecks.

The saying that geniuses are 1% talent, and 99% hard work (Einstein) isn't wrong, after all, if the talent is never nurtured with hard work, that talent would never be able to bloom, but that very same saying was also oftentimes misleading.

If talent is a seed and the hard work is the water, sunlight, and soil that nurtures it, it's misleading to say that you can make 99% of a computer genius with hard work alone…

At least not at the standard that Giovanni was working with.

Of course, someone who doesn't water their plants will have their seed die, while those who water their plant with have their seed blossom, but that isn't the main point.

If you have an apple seed, no matter how much you water it, you'll never get oranges.

People are talented at different things.

In the same way that if you have a defective apple seed, you will never be able to reach the quality of the apples produced by that perfect apple seed if it is watered as much as your own.

That doesn't disprove that geniuses are 1% talent, and 99% hard work, but it misleads people into thinking that if you put in the 99% hard work with no talent, you can reach the same level as someone with that '1%' talent and 98% hard work.

That's not true.

There is no harm with no comparison, but sadly, our whole competitive world is about who is better than the other. You simply can't rank without comparing.

Of course, some people have bigger apple seeds while others have bigger orange seeds. There are so many different things people can be talented at, but just because someone is talented at one thing, it doesn't mean that they are talented at everything.

If you have no apple seed, how are you going to grow that apple tree?

Geniuses are 1% talent and 99% hard work, but if you are going to compare between two people, you simply can't compare proportionally to their hard work if they have varying talent levels…

The value of that 1% talent is simply not proportional to the 99% hard work when comparing people.

That's why this expert is always seeking the talented. Hard work can be influenced by incentives and various other methods, but talent cannot.

At least not unless you get hit by a lucky lightning bolt, or worse.

The man with a goatee leaned back on his chair, one hand still on the keyboard.

"Well he certainly can't compare with me, but this might be good training for those kids, I wonder if they can beat this inexperienced child," he spoke to himself knowing full well that 'those kids' he spoke of were all in the same room to hear him.

Of course, he didn't really know who was on the other side of the screen acting as his warm-up, but he could infer a lot according to the opponent's playstyle.

As for the term child, anyone weaker than him would be labeled as such.

"Sloth, come over here," the man waved his free hand.

A soft grunt of frustration could be heard from behind.

It seemed like this person was almost too lethargic to express his annoyance any louder.

"Oh, Great Master Giovanni, why don't you just let me off today," a raspy voice sounded, muffled by a fluffy pillow.

Sloth's arm dangling from the side of the couch he was laying on, was lifted so painfully slowly that it looked like some slow-motion clip, just to rub the man's droopy eyes.

It was a wonder how such a person could be anything but a couch potato, the unpeeled and unwashed kind.

Well, probably because of Master Giovanni and his... kind nudges here and there.

"Don't think that I don't know how you've been slacking off while I was in seclusion..."

Sensing a tirade... no, rant, coming, Sloth quickly interrupted. [Perhaps the only time you'll see the adverb quickly next to Sloth's name to describe any of his actions. (^｡__｡^)]

"Dear Uncle, it's in the name, being lazy is like my trademark, if you take away my trademark, there'll be nothing left!" Sloth argued righteously.

Master Giovanni's smile grew when he heard himself being called uncle, but he still didn't let his nephew off the hook.

Sloth knew clearly that his argument would work better if his uncle were in a good mood, and Master Giovanni would always be in a better mood when called uncle by his nephews and niece. Mostly since he didn't have children of his own, he was rather fond of the second generation.

But what Sloth didn't know was that better mood simply wouldn't cut it anymore.

Especially after the amount of face he had lost in front of that kid, Elijah, due to his disciple's incompetence.

That was one frustrating talk, and right after he came out of seclusion too.

Master Giovanni felt incredibly indignant.

His disciples all had to be taught a lesson, but Sloth and the others still didn't know what was coming at them.

Master Giovanni had gotten a call right after reconnecting with the main base, but Sloth, who had thought that he would be informed first hand didn't know that his uncle had already made contact with their boss.

Now Master Giovanni was angry and out for discipline and the others still didn't know it.

Like a smiling next-door neighbor who just so happened to be plotting your demise, not the death kind of demise, but the kind that involved a demonic level intensive training.

Worse than death for someone like Sloth.

"You know, just because everyone calls you sloth, it doesn't mean that it's something you should be proud of. You don't always have to act like one all the time," Giovanni spoke rather amicably, yes, this is indeed still considered speaking peacefully.

"Why don't you ask Falcon to do it. He would be perfect for this job," Sloth spoke out of his ass, not even knowing what the 'job' was.

All he knew was that he was tired.

He wanted to sleep.

Conserve energy.

Nothing could stop him.

Falcon, who sat in one corner, did his best to minimize his presence. The same man who would normally speak the most, retort the fastest, as well as the one most eager to perform, was as meek as a mouse.

He already had an inkling that they were caught red-handed after failing their job. In fact, even if they had yet to be caught, it was only a matter of time, and Falcon was dreading the times to come.

Falcon had been this way since his teacher came out of seclusion.

He was one of the first to be picked up by Master Giovanni as a student, and trauma had already been implanted in his mind, especially after noticing some of his teacher's microexpressions that screamed 'you guys are in for a world of pain'.

"I-I'm good," Falcon stuttered.

'Crap, why did I have to instinctively refute!? Now I can't play dead!'

A single tear was shed, and a sea of incense sticks lit. ಠ_ಥ

In for a world of pain indeed, quite the good insight on his part.