Chapter 18
Chapter 18 – Lonely Christmas 03
Reeku Town came into view after 15 minutes of running .
“It's over there?”
There were a few three or four story buildings . It wasn’t a big town .
“It’s not a big town, but there are fast food restaurants . Not bad . ”
Gun Choi went into In&Out and ordered from the menu .
In&Out was a restaurant famous for its low prices and high quality food . They used to only have branches in California, but they expanded their locations to Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and other states . Now they had more than 300 branches .
Gun Choi smiled at the two patties in his burger .
‘I like the burgers in America . ’
He usually never drank Coke but he did make an exception to to his rule when eating at In&Out .
‘I'll only get Coke today . ’
Gun Choi finished his meal, and returned to the field .
He was excited to get points, and hummed as he walked .
Gun Choi couldn’t believe that he could get points so easily .
“A refreshing breeze, I'm in a good condition, everything is good . ”
30 minutes later .
Gun Choi arrived at the field, and fell down with a thud when he read the new message .
-Mission completed . Reward point 0 . 1 .
“Oh my God . ”
He hadn’t expected the reward would be a decimal number .
Gun Choi sighed at the system’s sudden attack .
“Hey, that's not fair . Not a decimal . A whole number .
But the system was silent .
The system only spoke when it had something to say .
Gun Choi would get only 3 points with a whole month of walking .
He didn’t know how many points were needed to rank up, but at least 2 months were required to rank up once .
Gordon, the manager of strategy analysis at the Chicago Cubs, passed a paper to a wide-shouldered, middle-aged man .
“I want you to go to Arizona . ”
The middle-aged man looked displeased . He received the paper, and arched his brows .
“Who’s gonna work in December?”
He asked a question in return .
“Didn’t not have any plans?”
The middle-aged man’s face became dark .
“We have a pretty close relationship, but you’re crossing a line . ”
Gordon didn’t care about his protests .
“You're single and your family is far away . What are you gonna do here alone? You'll get drunk and have an accident . Go to Arizona and sunbathe . Think about your age . ”
Gordon’s word made the man hesitate .
He must have done something problematic while drunk last year .
“But not in December . ”
The middle-aged man turned his head impudently .
“January?”
“Not until the third of January . ”
Gordon spoke to him while spinning a pencil .
“Ok . What about the fifth? I want you to take care of him until spring camp . ”
The middle-aged man shrugged as he reviewed the paper .
“Ok, that’s good . Anyway, does he have potential? He didn’t even get a sign-up bonus . Do you still want me to go?”
Gordon dropped the pencil and replied, “He gave up the sign-up bonus . ”
The middle-aged man was surprised at his answer .
“What? Did he give it up?”
“He asked for a bonus by score . ”
“That’s a shortcut to a high salary . ”
“There was no other way . We don’t lose anything . If he gets a high salary, it will also benefit our team . ”
The middle-aged man turned and raised his right hand .
“You're still a devil . ”
Gordon raised his lips and disputed .
“Am I a devil? The real devil is Beuland at Zero Corp . ”
“Beuland is an angel to players . ”
The meaning of a devil was being a devil to players .
Gordon looked at the map on the wall after he left the room .
“Hmm, a confident new player versus a pitcher with two hundred saves . I don’t know what the result will be in Arizona . ”
Gun Choi was alone for Christmas in Arizona .
He didn’t have a girlfriend, or even a fellow player .
The field custodian had gone on vacation with his family, and even Hardy left to go to the East .
“Do I need to call friends in the Minor Leagues?” Gun Choi muttered, but it didn’t help .
Even if he could contact somebody, he didn’t have the money to fly there .
'I regret not asking for a sign-up bonus, even for $100,000 . '
He didn’t have $10,000, not even $1,000 in his account .
He shook his head strongly and braced himself .
'Hey Gun Choi, this is the best time to catch up with the others . '
He ordered the system for the ring and gripped a ball .
“Change the ring to KC town . ”
KC town was the official name for this place .
-Setting up to KC town .
Even it was empty at KC town, he called the ring to test his pitches with Kil-Sung Lee in KC town .
‘I need to check my knuckleball here in Arizona . Lots of updraft . ’
He threw a knuckleball at Kil-Sung Lee .
He pitched a little lower but the ball lifted up, curving to the right, due to the updraft changing towards the northwest .
Kil-Sung Lee didn’t swing at the knuckleball .
1 ball, no strike .
Gun Choi nodded as if he understood the movement of the current, and then pitched a second ball .
The knuckleball flew from the inside towards center .
Kil-Sung Lee swung, but failed, and Gun Choi smiled .
“Look . ”
He kept throwing knuckleballs and caused Kil-Sung Lee to strikeout .
Kil-Sung Lee sometimes hit the ball, but it didn’t fly well .
Gun Choi thought his knuckleball had improved a lot in Arizona, but the rank didn’t change .
He didn’t think that the system was wrong, because from his past experiences he knew that the system was accurate .
‘If the system says yes, it means yes . It's not good to judge by feeling . ’
Gun Choi used to measure his improvement through feeling . But the results weren't that good .
The reasons were obvious .
He hadn’t improved like he thought .
It was due to misunderstanding, and self-conceit .
Gun Choi thought he could exclude these through the system .