After Sorriso finished his omelet, he decided to lie down, and Lowo N'air didn't bother him, allowing him to sleep until he woke up on his own, which took about an hour.
"I need to tell you something, Lowo N'air, those eggs must be magical. I feel incredibly energized; let me test my strength."
Sorriso had woken up so abruptly that Lowo N'air was startled by his loud awakening.
Looking at his newly awakened friend, he saw that suddenly, Sorriso was lifting both of their homemade dumbbells with just one hand as if they weighed nothing at all.
"Wow! Look at this, man! How strong I am!" Sorriso said, his eyes wide, surprised by his feat.
Lowo N'air confirmed that Sorriso was indeed stronger, and they barely had time to enjoy the moment when suddenly someone pounded on the door with such force that it nearly broke down.
It was that gang of boys, now in double the number, who wanted payback for the beating some of them had received from Sorriso.
"So, you two cowards, are you going to open the door and come out so we can settle this, or should we break down the door and drag you out?" one of them shouted.
Immediately, Sorriso replied:
"Give us a moment, we just woke up. Let us get dressed. We need twenty minutes to get ready, and we'll settle this."
Lowo N'air was the first to find this behavior strange since Sorriso was a very calm and peaceful young man, rarely provoked to anger. However, upon hearing that threat, Lowo N'air had a feeling that the situation could be handled between him and those boys who wanted to fight.
"Do you think we two can handle this fight?" Sorriso asked enthusiastically, trying to predict Lowo N'air's response, who was also very excited.
"I'm in, Sorriso. Especially now that I feel invincible. Let's go teach them a lesson."
"Hold on, Lowo. I'm feeling great too, but first, let me teach you some boxing moves and dodges."
Quickly, Sorriso demonstrated some basic moves like jabs, hooks, and dodges—sidestepping, pulling the head back to avoid a punch, ducking, and so on.
Lowo N'air absorbed all of this and even performed better than Sorriso, who was teaching him.
"Let's go show those kids a lesson," Sorriso urged, already ready for the fight.
But as soon as they opened the door and barely stepped outside, the ten boys surrounded them, ready to dish out a beating.
However, Sorriso was quicker and immediately identified who seemed to be the leader among them.
"I want to talk to your leader and propose a deal."
"And what kind of deal do you want to propose?"
Eagerly, Sorriso replied:
"That you come at us two at a time. One against me and one against my friend, and as we beat you, you continue coming two by two."
Even though he found the proposal ridiculous, the scrawny boy, apparently the leader, accepted. After all, there were ten of them, and they were going up against just two people. It would be impossible for them to lose that fight.
"Alright, come at us when you're ready."
The scrawny boy started giving orders, organizing the pairs who would fight:
"You, you, and you!"
The fight began with Sorriso and Lowo N'air on one side and the rough neighborhood boys on the other.
Anyone passing by and seeing the pairs formed would have believed that it would be an easy fight for the neighborhood toughs, and perhaps even thought that an ambulance might need to be called.
The fight barely started, and Sorriso, experienced as he was, knocked his opponent down with just one punch, while Lowo N'air, being less experienced, needed two punches, but the result was always the same: two punches and a fall. And so it went, one by one, until only the last pair, the two strongest, remained.
Lowo and Sorriso took a bit of a beating due to the size and strength difference of their final opponents, but their advantage was that neither Sorriso nor Lowo N'air ever got tired, even after taking a series of blows used in the boxing world.
And even when they took a sequence of hits, Lowo and Sorriso would take a brief pause, catch their breath, and then charge at their opponents again with full force.
In the end, in less than ten minutes, ten boys were on the ground, begging for mercy, as none of them had the strength or stamina to face the pair that seemed invincible.
"I think now we're even. Aren't we?" Sorriso asked, glaring at the entire group of boys who quickly nodded in agreement, indicating that they wouldn't mess with Sorriso or Lowo N'air... ever again.
Back inside the house, Lowo N'air and Sorriso couldn't stop talking about the incredible feat of the two of them defeating the ten toughest kids in the neighborhood.
"Do you have any idea what just happened here? I can hardly believe it, my friend Lowo N'air, but this has something to do with that omelet you made for me. Please, tell me, what's the secret or special ingredient in that omelet?"
Lowo N'air paused for a moment in his excitement and thought if it was time to share the secret with his friend Sorriso. Not the whole secret, just part of it.
"Sorriso, I'm going to tell you something, but you have to promise me you won't tell anyone else. It's a secret between us. Do you promise not to tell anyone? Ever?"
"Of course I promise, Lowo," Sorriso replied promptly.
And wanting to make sure even more, Lowo asked:
"Sorriso, do you swear you won't tell anyone?"
Feeling that a terrible secret was about to be revealed to him, Sorriso became serious and in a somber tone replied:
"I swear on my life that I won't tell anyone what you're about to say."
"Okay. Remember when I said I had some work to do at the lab and that I was chosen to be the first among many?"
"Yes, what about it?" Sorriso asked.
"I received a special gift from someone on the team for my distinguished collaboration. But just as I'm not sure who gave me the gift, I'm also not sure of its full potential. But you've seen what this gift is capable of."
Sorriso looked at his friend Lowo, skeptical, and added:
"Do you really expect me to believe this nonsense, Lowo N'air?"
"Alright, Sorriso, I'll tell you the whole truth: I laid a magic egg. Satisfied now?"
"Stop being silly, Lowo. If you don't want to share your secret, don't, but you don't need to make up absurd stories. I'll only ask you one thing, and in this one thing, I need you to answer me with complete sincerity. Look me in the eyes."
Lowo N'air knew what that meant. When Sorriso asked to look into his eyes for an answer, it was because he wanted to be sure he wouldn't hear a lie from his friend.
"Do you swear to me that whatever is responsible for this magic is the result of your own work, and in no way did you take 'this' from someone else, without asking?"
Looking seriously into Sorriso's eyes, Lowo N'air spoke without hesitation:
"I swear on my mother that I didn't steal anything. As I told you, it's a gift I received."