Ace of Ace

Chapter 11

Chapter 11 – Live Pitching 05

The players of the secondary string changed their opinions of Gun Choi .

“Could we ask him to teach us the changeup?

“No way, he’s a cold-hearted person . ”

“But Sung-Guk talked with him . ”

“He is different with us . He’s went back and forth the first string . ”

“Has he?”

“Yes . ”

Gun Choi tsk-tsked as he heard this conversation from far away .

‘Sung-Guk Jung isn’t any different . ’

Gun Choi only faced Sung-Guk Jung because he constantly talked to him, not because of his position in the team .

Gun Choi thought that his persistence was the reason why Sung-Guk Jung could enter the first string .

‘Persistence is the cornerstone of success . He might become a regular in the first string faster than expected . ’

The morning training started at the order of the batting coach .

“Ok, let’s get started!”

Gun Choi warmed up his body by running and stretching with the second string players .

‘If I can’t focus on winter training, I’ll  have a hard time in the next season . ’

Gun Choi and the second string players spent a bit more time due to the cold weather .

“One! Two! One! Two!”

Players practiced at the word of command .

Gun Choi thought that AT Communication’s degree of training intensity was normal . It wasn’t harder or easier compared to the other teams .

After warming up, the players grouped in threes and started intensive training .

“I’m bored of repeating . ”

“We need this . We can’t go abroad training in November . ”

The players ran 60m at full sprint before warning track at the command of a coach .

It was Gun Choi’s turn .

Every player of the second string watched him .

“How fast is he?”

“He’s not going to run at full power, this is winter . ”

“I think he will run normally . ”

“Right . . . If he gets injured, that would be a big loss . ”

The coach made a signal while the players were noisy .

“Go!”

Gun Choi started to run forward rapidly .

He was very fast .

The players couldn’t believe his running speed .

“He doesn’t need to run so fast . ”

“Right, it’s easy to get injured during winter . ”

“Real training starts from spring camp . We just need to stretch our muscles . ”

If Gun Choi had heard the second string players’ conversation, he would have said: .

‘Keep practicing until you vomit . Otherwise, you can’t go to the first string . ’

Gun Choi had practiced a lot when he was in the Minor League .

Every one of his colleagues acknowledged that .

A genius of practicing, that is who Gun Choi was .

After training, he went home .

The players of the second string complained that he never mingled with others . But Gun Choi thought it was natural not to join them in drinking a beer or coffee .

The most important things for players were practice and relaxation .

“Brother!”

Gun Choi looked at him with his bag on shoulder . It was Sung-Kuk Jung .

“What happened?”

“I’ have one thing to ask you . ”

“To me?”

“Yes . ”

Gun Choi looked annoyed but didn’t turn his head to him which meant he would answer him .

“Brother, you’re  right-handed but how you are good at changeup?”

In the baseball world, many left-handed pitchers were good at the changeup .

So Sung-Kuk Jung thought the changeup was the main weapon for those left-handed .

Gun Choi hesitated a moment .

‘If I don’t explain well, he will keep asking me . No way . I’ll answer correctly . ”

He sighed and talked to Sung-Kuk Jung .

“If you want to be good at using the changeup against those right-handed, you’d better change your stance . ”

Right .

The reason why Gun Choi’s changeup had threatened the right-handed batter was because he stepped on the left of the mound .

To cover this weakness, Gun Choi sometimes stepped to the right of the mound and pitched .

Sung-Kuk looked as if he had learnt a big lesson .

“Oh! Position of feet…Ok, I see . ”

After his teaching, Sung-Kuk Jung bowed ninety-degrees .

“Are you done?”

Gun Choi carelessly responded and turned away .

And a message showed up .

- Credibility rank increased .

Credibility: C- → C

Credibility rose to C from C- .

Gun Choi was little astonished that the system could also check the relationship among people .

“Someday this system is going to check my personal love life . ”

- Your love rank is F .

Gun Choi bent his brow at the unexpected message .

“Hey, that’s too bad, F? My character is not bad . ”

But the system didn’t change the rank .

Gun Choi tutted as he walked .

“AI playing with a human . ”

Gun Choi continued his practice even after getting back home .

In the virtual ground by using the ring .

Here he trained in the knuckleball .

The ball rode the winds and passed by the mitt .

“I considered too much wind . Let me try again . ”

He pitched exactly where he wanted . And then he loudly shouted .

“Strike!”

One of the problems of the ring was that people in the ring never spoke out .

So he often spoke loudly when he was in the ring .

Once he got the knack, his knuckleball improved a lot .

He trained in the knuckleball and his skill reached the peak .

His rank developed to D+ in a few days and to C by the end of November .

And after 3 days, his rank increased again .

- Knuckleball rank increased . C- → C

Gun Choi jumped up suddenly when his rank reached C .

“Ok, I’m ready for the showcase!”

Rank C meant that there wouldn’t be any problem in a real game .

Gun Choi thought that he could show something to Tomson who abandoned him from Boston because of his confident 150km fastball and knuckleball .

“Wait for me, Tomson . I’m going to the Major League . ”