Chapter 2 – Never Say Never 02

He had lost consciousness twice in a day.

Angels showed up in his nightmare.

Gun Choi bent his brow.

‘I came back from Heaven, what happened?’

He recovered consciousness and wanted to get up but couldn’t.

‘Am I being troubled by a nightmare?’

Gun Choi moved his neck with full power.

And after little a while, many things caught his sight.

A pole, bandage, IV drip, and oxygen mask.

It was a major injury.

Gun Choi closed his eyes after he realized the situation.

‘Is this the compensation for my good deed? I can’t play baseball anymore with this injury. s.h.i.+t..’

He thought the two ladies were devils and not angels.

Beep.

Along with a short beep sound, he could start to see something.

- Mission program transplanted.

- Scanning body and mind.

- Injury detected and booting body revival program.

Even though he had closed his eyes, he could see the messages.

Did somebody insert smart lenses into my eyes while I was unconscious?

He was feeling doubtful for a moment, when a number of data showed up in his eyes.

-Changing display setting according to user.

User: Gun Choi / human being

Age: 25 years old

Gender: Male

Occupation: Unemployed

Gun Choi had an objection to this data.

‘Hmm, I’m not unemployed, I’m a professional baseball player and want to go into the Major League. Of course, I got injured…’

The messages reacted rapidly as if it had listened to my grumbling.

- Occupation: Restarting program according to new occupation.

User: Gun Choi

Occupation: Professional Baseball Player

Position: Pitcher

Throwing / Batting: Right hand / Right hand

Team: Una.s.signed

Condition: Pretty bad

- Displaying basic abilities of user.

Physical strength: F

Muscular strength: F

Agility: F

Reaction: F

Reliability: C

Fortune: B

Mental strength: A

- Displaying work abilities.

Ball Speed: F

Movement velocity: F

Control of ball: F

Movement: F 

1st Grip: Four-seam fastball F

2nd Grip: Slider F

3rd Grip: Changeup F

4th Grip: Knuckleball F

Skill: None

Gun Choi felt relieved to see the knuckleball grip which he had secretly trained during public service displayed.

‘Surely I acquired the skill for the knuckleball even though I got F grade. I need to improve on the curve. It’s not displaying.’

Curve was one of the basic skill for pitchers.

But Gun Choi was not good at curveb.a.l.l.s.

When he used less power, the ball wouldn’t reach the home plate. But with more power, he couldn’t control the ball.

A coach had mentioned that this was a kind of trauma for Gun Choi because he had a hard time practicing the curveball.

Whatever the reason, he was one of the pitchers who were not good at curveb.a.l.l.s.

- Calculating time for body revival.

- Time for revival: 5,311 hours

5,311 hours equal to 221 days. It would take over 7 months.

Gun Choi thought rapidly.

’7 months….d.a.m.n it, it falls to the beginning of next year. I can’t do anything if revival can’t be completed within this year.’

Next year, he will turn 26 years old.

With time for revival time, he just can finish revival at the age of 27.

‘Is there any way I can get revived earlier?’

As he finished his question by himself, a message showed up.

- Revival time with accelerated mental power: 1,244 hours

- SCan we start accelerated mental power?

1,244 hours equal to 2 months.

‘If I can recover within 2 months, then it will be beginning of next year.’ 

It was the last chance for him.

Gun Choi replied by himself without hesitation.

‘I don’t know what accelerated mental power is, but I need that program right now.’

- Starting accelerated mental power.

And Gun Choi felt his body grow hot.

‘Ugh….’

He screamed by himself, but no sound pa.s.sed his lips.

12 days had elapsed after the accident.

Gun Choi had recovered from his injury rapidly and this made the doctors surprised. 

“I’ve never seen anything like this. It is so fast.”

“Did he recover fast because he is an athlete?”

“I would say that this is due to the effect of his genetics. His muscular and nerve recovery is really fast.”

“Do you mean the special gene?”

“I think so.”

Gun Choi was watching messages popping up in his eyes.

- Displaying the basic abilities of user. 

Physical strength: D

Muscular strength: E

Agility: E

Reaction: D

Reliability: C

Fortune: B

Mental strength: A

As he recovered, his abilities went up gradually.

‘Can’t I say that I can see these messages?’

Needless to say these words, they would treat me like a lunatic.

Even if my special ability was acknowledged, I’ll be sent to a secret facility like an animal to be experimented on.

 I need to catch up a meaning of angel. Because they didn’t say anything to me.

According to the messages, his body would be recovered after around 40 days.

‘How long will it take for revival. I might have to start in the Minor League?’

He sighed because he knew what life was like at the Minor League.

‘Only given a slice of bread with strawberry jam.’

4th, Jan, 2020. (2 years and 6 months ago)

Gun Choi felt relieved after a doctor commented on his successful surgical operation.

“Only thing you need to is to recover.”

Gun Choi expressed thanks to the doctor.

“Thank you.”

2 months ago, he had entered the 40 rosters in the Major League.

He had reached almost there. But Gun Choi needed operation due to a critical injury on his elbow.

A doctor pointed out two possible causes of injury.

First, his pitching form was not good.

Gun Choi used to have an inverted W form.

Lots of pitchers got injured with this type of pitching form. 

Gun Choi was also aware of this.

He couldn’t overcome the temptation of using the inverted W form which allowed fast pitches.

The second reason for injury was excessive practice. Actually, he was recognized as a hard worker.

He never ceased practice after games. And he focused on practicing the breaking ball.

A doctor said that it was natural he got injured because of his bad pitching form and too much practice.

“It is a miracle that he endured 4 years.”

A person from his team visited him after his release from the hospital.

Gun Choi had just thought that it was for visiting the sick and checking his condition.

But the reason for his visit was far from Gun Choi’s expectation.

“Mr. Choi, now you can be a freelancer which means you can contract whichever team you want to.”

It took exactly 6 seconds for Gun Choi to understand this.

And after 6 secs, Gun Choi responded to his words.

“Do you mean I’m released from the team?”

He replied with a shrug.

“Mr. Choi, we can’t wait for you anymore.”

Gun Choi also recognized that his age was at the edge of the limit. That’s why he had practiced to overcome this situation.

“How can my team throw away me like this? I got injured…”

Gun Choi’s tone was angry.

The team member didn’t show surprise because he had experienced much.

“Mr. Choi, your ability is wonderful. But you are in a slightly different situation compared to the others. You have an Achilles’ heel.”

“Am I different from the others? Because of an injury?”

The team member denied and replied.

“Not because of an injury. What is your plan for deferring military service?”

That was right. Gun Choi hadn’t finished his mandatory military service yet.

‘How come…..’

If he didn’t get injured and entered the Major league, there would no need to worry for Gun Choi. If it had happened, he could have gotten a waiver for military service. But everything came to nothing.

“Mr. Choi, please understand this decision.”

This decision was because of his poor skill not because of military service.

If the team a.s.sessed his ability was enough, they could wait 2 years for a comeback. 

But the decision of the team was like this. 

Gun Choi asked.

“Is there any way?”

He shook his head.

“Mr. Tomson made this decision. I can’t do anything about his decision. Please understand this.”

Tomson was a new General manager at Boston Red Sox.

He had started to evaluate all players and Gun Choi was the worst-rated player in his team.

“I need to go. I have lots of things to do.”

“…..”

Bang.

The door shut as he left.

Gun Choi clenched his fist as he watched the shut door.

‘d.a.m.n it..I’m abandoned like this, I will be another Bambino*.’

Bambino: Nickname of the legendary home-run king, Babe Ruth.

   Boston traded him with low price and they hadn’t won for 86 years.