To Live Again, For the First Time!

After Serpent, Bear, Falcon, Sloth, and the Captain all started working together once more to fight against the common enemy, the fight became much more intense.

Without the help of his companions, Serpent had been suffering somewhat of a one-sided beating, losing the very ground beneath his feet rapidly.

Of course, just like Emilin, Master Giovanni was also watching the situation attentively so that it would never get out of hand.

No matter how much he trusted his disciples, he wouldn't put his own family's safety solely on their hands when the enemy was someone whose power was rather unknown.

The more they fought, the more they realized just how much TWO had grown.

A few months back, they had still suspected TWO to be a group of people working together, but after weeks of analysis, done mainly by Bear, they had narrowed that number down to two people.

They had even wondered whether that was the reason for such a code name (it's not).

There was always the first person who held the front line, and the second who would infiltrate and attack.

After making that realization, these people were also able to note what moves were done by which person.

Each one of them was incredibly on guard seeing as the second member, the most troublesome one, had yet to make his or her appearance.

The animals of the zoo didn't have enough lives to let their guard down.

But even so, the group didn't look down on this first member either.

After deep analysis over a long period of time, the data collected from before their big fight, the data collected during that attack, as well as their first-hand experience and gut feelings told them all that they couldn't afford to look down upon the person who's skill level often improved as if they rode on a rocket while everyone else was crawling on the floor.

They could worry about that second member when they came.

They also had their teacher, Master Giovanni, so their worries decreased substantially compared to when their mentor was still in seclusion.

Of course, they also considered the possibility that the other side may overpower their teacher... but they didn't want to consider that option, so they stopped worrying.

If it came to that, even if they wanted to stop the opponent, there would really be nothing left for them to do.

Even if they worried their hearts out.

After nearly an hour, the two sides reached a stalemate.

Previously, Theodore had needed Emilin's help just to fight Master Giovanni's disciples, yet now he could fight on equal grounds against all of them.

That just went to show his improvements.

But he still wasn't strong enough to win.

There was a huge chasm between a tie and a win and no matter how much longer this dragged on, the outcome wouldn't change by much.

Of course, if it was as simple as a battle between the two groups, in the long run, Theodore may not have the upper hand anymore since he is a single person who was bound to get tired faster when fighting against attacks coming from all sides.

But for Master Giovanni's purposes, there was no point in doing such a thing.

The kid on the other side had already proved his worth.

He was stronger than anyone of his disciples separately, and could even defend against them when they were attacking together.

At this point, even if his disciples won, they wouldn't really make a point.

It would be completely different if his disciple could win in a one-on-one, but that was not the case here.

It would only be a waste of time from here on out.

And the observers from each side also realized this point.

'Let's stop this whole farce,' Master Giovanni's eyes had a cold glint in them as they narrowed and he stretched out his arms to crack his fingers.

The first order of business, figuring out why the other side was looking for his niece's information.

If it was for a job, then things could still be forgiven. That was only if it had nothing to do with them personally.

Giovanni was really planning to take TWO in as his disciple, and not just a nominal one.

He wanted to see how this talent would grow, he was especially interested when he saw the kid's skills against his own disciples as well as his disciples' great anger on the matter.

But if the kid was snooping around his family's information for other reasons, ones with ill intent, then he could forget about coming out of this exchange unscathed.

Forget about accepting him as a disciple, Master Giovanni would make sure to destroy the kid, no matter how much of a talent he was.

In fact, since he was a talent, Master Giovanni would have to pluck this seed before it grew to a point where it would harm himself, a point where he wouldn't be able to do anything against this sapling.

'Well, there's no need to keep stalling or waste any more time.

Thinking to this point Master Giovanni got started to set his own plans into motion.

This was going to be the turning point of this fight.

When everyone else heard the new, gentle tapping sounds of a keyboard not unfamiliar to each one of them, they all stopped what they were doing.

All their struggles, the veins that poped when they were concocting plans to get even the slightest upper hand, all of those disappeared.

The whole zoo was unprecedentedly relaxed and quiet as they perked their ears to listen to the soft and unrushed typing sounds, sounding like a trickling stream.

It sounded gentle, yet unstoppable. Weak, yet penetrating.

If TWO had even the smallest hole in his codes, this stream would infiltrate.

Before the opponent even knew what was happening, the water would have already gushed in and broken down all defenses.

'How scary,' they all thought.

Their teacher had become even scarier during his seclusion, which also meant that his skills had become more refined during that time.

As for Theodore, he was the first to notice this change.

***

Unlike the first time he confronted the expert with the fluid-like style, this time, it wasn't nearly as pleasant.

When the expert had been lowering his skill level to one that was only slightly above his own, he could see how beneficial it was to his growth, but now, things were different.

The expert wasn't holding back nearly as much.

When the water started gushing in, Theodore had no chance to counterattack and thus all he felt was an overwhelmingly overbearing feeling of being suppressed.

Such a scenario would never help improve his skill level. 

It was akin to how a kindergartener would learn nothing from looking at a professional thesis written by a Ph. D student.

No matter how much of a genius they are, there are simply too many holes in between to make any sense of the information provided.

Theodore is the kindergartener in the current situation.

This is the same reason why Emilin is unable to teach Theodore anything other than the basics.

Though the InfoBase in her mind was expanse, there were also many things that jumped around from one point to another.

Emilin's hacking skills went straight for the kill without any in-between.

Though Emilin could teach Theodore what she would do in certain situations, it was impossible to go through all possible scenarios.

It would be neither time-efficient nor enjoyable, and it was only barely plausible.

It was also very hard for Theodore to copy Emilin's style, which was also very much intuitional at times.

People can't simply cultivate identical intuitions; the same way people are born with differing talents at varying levels.

The results would be at most, very subpar.

In the end, Theodore was the first to propose that he try by himself. He wanted to pioneer and look for his own style and path independently. 

Emilin agreed to his proposal at the time, but she felt somewhat bad since there hadn't been many opportunities so far.

Until now, what had supported him had always been his strong foundations, skills that he picked up on the way, and his strong, almost animal-like instinct, which was very much different from Emilin's foreboding intuition.

It was unknown if that intuition and instinct ran in the family, or if it was nurtured over time from a young age after spending prolonged periods of time with Emilin, who more often than not, spoke her mind, but that doesn't matter right now.

When Theodore realized that he could do nothing against this expert, he wasted no time calling for his backup.

The least he could do for his little sister Emilin was not waste her preparational time, he was no pig teammate.

Theo's faith in his sister's sill never wavered, but that didn't mean that she was omnipotent. If he left her with one firewall left, he didn't expect her to clean up his mess.

That would also be a very inconsiderate ass move.

Just like it was both Emilin and Giovanni, he also but his family's safety as the number one priority.

***

Emilin had long prepared for this moment and so she jumped right in without hesitation.

Another room was filled with resounding typing sounds.

Emilin's face, which had been somewhat tense as she waited in the beginning, increasingly relaxed as she typed rapidly.

Her speed picked up with every second, but the outputted sound did not increase, in fact, they only became softer the more relaxed she became.

The same could not be said for the man on the other side.