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 .