Chapter 8 – Live Pitching 02

‘Ok, I’m ready. I’m not such an easy opponent.’

Gun Choi’s made his first sign. A slider to the outside.

Gang-Hang tilted his head.

‘The first pitch at a live pitch, it’s unusual to see a breaking ball. Is he treating this as a real game?’

There was only one reason why he was throwing like a real game.

Because he wanted to acquire the points mentioned by the system by striking out in a row.

‘I don’t have any reason to refuse.’

Gun Choi changed his grip and threw the first ball.

Won-Yong aimed at the first ball, but he panicked as the ball flew outside.

‘s.h.i.+t, he is pitching a breaking ball at the first pitch on live pitching. Is he crazy?’

He swung and missed. He clenched his teeth.

Gil-Sung Lee shook his head.

‘Tut-tut, he’s too excited. He cannot win this game.’

Gun Choi chose a fastball for the next pitch which would fly inside deeply.

Won-Yong tried to hit the ball. The ball flew over the 3rd base foul line.

“Foul!”

Only 2 strikes. It was a favorable count for the pitcher.

Won-Yong managed to do his best because Min-Suk Park had already struck out.

He was strained and talked himself.

“He must regret if he wants a strikeout.”

Gun Choi’s next choice was a change-up. He had made lots of batters in AAA fail to hit using the changeup and slider.

Won-Yong thought Gun Choi’s changeup was a slow fastball.

‘Hmm, I can manage this much…’

He swung his bat and it looked like he almost hit the ball.

But the ball sank down like a submarine before he hit a ball.

‘s.h.i.+t!’

Won-Yong Kim wanted to stop the bat mid-swing, but it had already pa.s.sed the home plate.

“Swing strike! Batter out!”

Won-Yong Kim lost his body balance and knelt down on one knee.

“Sigh…”

Two strikeouts in a row.

The umpire Si-Hyun Gong and other players were all shocked.

“Amazing?”

“Did you see the changeup?”

“I thought it was a poke ball.”

“It dropped sharply.”

“But it was kind of slow, wasn’t it?”

“Hey, if it was fast, it should be a magic ball.”

The last batter, Kil-Sung Lee, felt that his gloves were wet with sweat.

‘Am I strained?’

Kil-Sung Lee had played in both the first and second string. He was a batter for more than 200 games in the first string. Furthermore, he was a left-handed batter.

Kil-Sung Lee tried to stay calm instead of being excited by the situation like the two previous players.

‘I need to control myself. I’m also a cleanup batter of the second string.’

Gun Choi swallowed saliva at the sight of Kil-Sung Lee's calm appearance.

‘He's got a different atmosphere compared to the previous two.’

He exchanged signs and threw the first ball.

The ball flew to the outside.

He had intended to pitch the ball to the edge of the strike zone but it had flown out instead.

‘It’s not easy.’

His ball control was not perfect yet.

Besides that the final batter, Kil-Sung Lee, gave him an unexpected pressure.

He made a good decision on the first ball and stuck to Gun Choi’s last.

Two b.a.l.l.s and two strikes.

Gun Choi wiped sweat out from his forehead.

‘He’s not easy to trick. Do I need a deep inside slider? No. If it causes a full count, then…but the batter also knows that.’

5th pitching.

He chose to throw a changeup which would drop to the outside.

But Kil-Sung didn’t swing at the changeup.

It became a full count.

Gun Choi didn’t desire this situation.

He wiped the sweat off his forehead and focused on the game.

‘Pay attention. If I fail now, it will be hard to enter the Major League.’

He changed his grip and pitched with full power.

‘If unavoidable, I’ll enjoy it.’

The ball flew into the mitt.

Kil-Sung Lee’s concentration was in peak-state.

‘This has to be a strike.’

With an accurate decision, he swung his bat.

The ball was shaken but it flew to the back and into the mitt.

Three strikes out.

“Strike out! Batter out!”

Gun Choi’s ball was faster than Kil-Sung’s swing speed.

“Unbelievable. Consecutive strikeouts.”

“I didn’t expect Kil-Sung to be struck out.”

“Cleanup strike out, we’re not his match.”

Kil-Sung laid down his bat and sighed deeply.

“It seemed to be over 150km…I didn’t expect a ball with 150km would fly into the inside. Even first string batters cannot make it.”

He admitted his defeat.

Gun Choi’s last ball was perfect. He defeated Kil-Sung Lee and sighed a deeply.

“Whew, I did it. I was full of conceit recently. There’s still a long way to go.”

A message showed up after his deep sigh.

- First mission completed. Rewards are given. 5 points.

Gun Choi tilted his head with a message.

‘5 points, how can I use these?’

Next message popped up as the system replied.

- Points can be used for leveling up skills.

- Current skill: Blood of Wild Animal Level 1

- Will you use your points?

Gun Choi’s skill was Level 1, Blood of Wild Animal. So he didn’t have any other options.

‘Ok, let me use this.’

- Investing points into skill.

- Blood of Wild Animal leveled up. 

- Blood of Wild Animal Level 2: 24% increase in body revival ability.

He was happy that he could recover faster.

‘Level up? Is this possible?’

He thought it was as if he had become a psychic.

But there was only a 2% increase in his body revival ability. This could reduce two days out of a hundred days.

It was an insignificant level up.