Ace of Ace

Chapter 18



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 .





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