Ace of Ace

Chapter 11





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 . ”





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