Ace of Ace

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.