Chapter 44

Chapter 44. Another New Record

Why had the Seoul Magicians become the weakest team in the league?

They had Korea’s first domed stadium, and once even had a hitter who recorded 40 home runs and 20 stolen bases in a single season.

They had continuously produced some of the best hitters in Korea and sent them to the Major Leagues through free agency.

And yet, their team results had gone in the exact opposite direction.

The reason was simple.

Whenever they were close to building a dream team, they traded players away.

Whenever they were close to putting something together, their stars left through free agency.

The Magicians had no parent company.

They were an independently operated club that survived through dozens of corporate sponsors, so there wasn’t much they could do about it.

Eventually, the team began to collapse.

After finishing last every season, they became a team no one paid attention to anymore.

Well, there were still fans.

People who remembered their glory days in the early 2010s.

And people who missed the even older days before that.

“How the hell did they put together a winning streak?”

Every season, they sank to the bottom of the standings.

Then they sold their next season’s draft picks to richer teams.

They always declared that they would challenge for the championship the following year, but in reality, they were basically the small business of Korean baseball.

Every season was tanking.

That was the current state of the team.

I couldn’t help being surprised.

This was a team that had suffered either a losing series or a sweep almost every single time.

And yet, they had suddenly bitten into the neck of the Gwangju Jaguars, a team fighting near the top of the standings.

I think I had seen an article saying that their three straight wins against the Gwangju Jaguars were their first in two years.

“Yeah. Their momentum might carry all the way over here.”

Meanwhile, the Busan Oceans had climbed all the way into first place.

Fans were now paying attention to which streak would end first.

Our winning streak.

Or theirs.

The Seoul Magicians had jumped from tenth place to eighth with three straight wins.

Would they truly show the qualities of a spoiler team?

[Sub Mission: Reach Base in Every Plate Appearance!]

• Description: Choi Seong has now broken the record for most consecutive scoreless innings! Now the fans want to see his genius as a hitter! Reach base in every plate appearance and earn a perfect-attendance record! It is time to show even greater presence against a lower-ranked team.

• Reward: Batter Power +1 / Failure means death!

Reach base in every plate appearance...

I could already hear the ticking of a clock inside my heart, as if I were being chased by time.

Their fourth starter against our fourth starter.

Like I had mentioned before, whichever pitcher happened to be having a good day would probably win.

“All right. We can win again today, right?”

At Manager Rodriguez’s question, everyone nodded.

The manager didn’t add much else.

This was a team considered one of the weakest in the league.

They had pulled off a surprising sweep, sure, but overall, their player depth was extremely poor.

Most of their starting-level players only had between one and three years of experience.

That alone said everything.

“Yes!”

Starting Lineup

• Starting Pitcher: Yang Giwon

• 1st Batter: Kwon Geonwoo (Center Fielder)

• 2nd Batter: Go Gyeongtae (Second Baseman)

• 3rd Batter: Daniel Sanchez (Third Baseman)

• 4th Batter: Yoon Jaejun (Catcher)

• 5th Batter: Yoo Gam (Right Fielder)

• 6th Batter: Gu Jiwon (First Baseman)

• 7th Batter: Kwon Seonho (Shortstop)

• 8th Batter: Park Hyeonghwan (Left Fielder)

• 9th Batter: Choi Seong (Designated Hitter)

Today, I had been placed at the bottom of the batting order.

During a long pennant race, you needed days like this where you could take it a little easier.

That was why Manager Rodriguez had placed me in the lower part of the lineup.

I still wasn’t removed from the starting lineup, though.

I had made it clear that unless there was a special reason, I wouldn’t sit out games.

If anything, the coaching staff had been surprised by how firm I was about it.

They kept asking me questions.

“Choi Seong. Does anything hurt?”

“If anything feels wrong, tell us immediately. You’re a national-treasure-level pitcher.”

“I heard Busan fans are pretty intense. If you get injured, our season ends and they’ll shoot us—bang...”

I simply nodded.

There still wasn’t anything particularly wrong with my body.

If anything, it just felt like my body was gradually heating up.

And unlike other players, I could directly check my injury risk.

• Injury Risk: 6.4%
  (Includes minor injuries such as sprains.)

Before the season, it had been exactly 0%.

But now, the number would rise and fall little by little.

In particular, the more pitches I threw, the more the injury risk increased.

After batting, the injury risk usually rose by around 0.5%.

But after pitching, the increase was much more noticeable.

Still, as long as I managed the risk properly, it didn’t matter.

There were times when the percentage dropped simply after getting a good night’s sleep.

“Play ball!”

Keeping that in mind, the game began.

I had never planned on appearing in every single game anyway.

If the injury risk ever rose above 20%, I intended to immediately take time off.

Top of the first inning.

The Busan Oceans were batting first against the Seoul Magicians.

Unfortunately for them, their starting pitcher wasn’t having a good day.

He was a twenty-year-old young gun who had been selected tenth overall in the previous draft.

Why only tenth?

Because the Seoul Magicians had sold off some of their draft picks.

—CRAAACK!

Our hitters immediately began bombarding him.

The opposing pitcher’s face had already gone dark.

By the time he finally recorded three outs, he had given up four runs.

“Pretty easy.”

Yoon Jaejun said that when he returned to the bench between innings.

In the previous three-game series, the three Seoul Magicians starters must have all been having great days, because they had allowed only 2.5 runs per game on average.

This rookie had completely destroyed that record.

“Now Yang Giwon just needs to do well!”

Yoo Gam shouted excitedly.

Thanks to occasionally hitting unexpected home runs lately, he had moved higher in the batting order.

Yang Giwon grinned and ran out to the mound.

After his previous start, I hadn’t given him any special advice.

And then...

—Crack!

...our Yang Giwon wasn’t having a good day either.

He immediately started getting hit like crazy.

And then his command began to fall apart.

“He’s scared...”

The backup players on the bench whispered quietly.

Recently, Yang Giwon had been confidently throwing pitches into the strike zone.

But the moment he gave up three straight hits and five runs, he started shaking.

—5–4.

They had taken the lead in an instant.

Naturally, the fans at Guro Dome Stadium erupted in cheers.

An incredible slugfest had begun from the very first inning.

The biggest problem was...

The inning still wasn’t over.

—6–4.

—7–4.

—8–4.

By the time the first inning finally ended, Yang Giwon’s face had gone completely dark.

He grabbed onto my pant leg and asked desperately,

“Seong, what the hell am I supposed to do in a situation like this?”

“Sometimes things go well, and sometimes they don’t. Just think about somehow dragging yourself through the innings.”

At my answer, Yang Giwon looked like he was about to cry.

Maybe he had been hoping I would comfort him.

Wasn’t that already pretty gentle by my standards?

“R-Right...”

What exactly was a senior player expecting from me?

I was the leadoff hitter for the next inning.

I calmly gripped my bat and stepped into the batter’s box.

The ticking sound inside my heart became loud.

“Ball!”

The first pitch was outside.

The ticking grew slightly weaker.

I still didn’t know exactly how this thing worked, but the higher my chances of completing the mission became, the quieter the ticking seemed to get.

Even now, since we had already taken first place in the standings, the usual ticking sound had completely disappeared outside of missions.

“Ball!”

When the count became 2–0, the sound became even fainter.

It was strange.

Maybe I had gotten used to death.

Because this fear didn’t bother me at all anymore.

Instead, I found it interesting how the ticking would appear and disappear.

“Strike!”

The third pitch entered the zone for a strike.

The ticking instantly became louder than before.

So that was how it worked.

I roughly understood now.

If I failed to reach base even once in any plate appearance where I had the opportunity, I would die.

I had no choice but to keep the game going somehow.

“Ball!”

Three and one.

The opposing pitcher continued showing signs that he didn’t want to challenge me.

The previous two pitches had been balls because of poor command.

But this one had clearly been intended to tempt me into swinging.

“Ball four!”

The umpire called it.

The next pitch missed by a huge margin.

It almost looked like he had completely given up on facing me.

Still, a walk counted as reaching base.

So I calmly walked to first.

Wasn’t he worried about the middle of our lineup coming up next?

And that concern immediately became reality.

—CRAAACK!

Our offense began attacking again.

The score quickly went from 8–4 to 8–6.

We had scored two runs in the second inning.

And from there, the game turned into an exchange of blows.

Yang Giwon gave up another two runs in the bottom of the second.

The moment he reached ten runs allowed, he was taken off the mound.

This wasn’t just a bad day.

It was a complete disaster.

“I’ve never given up runs like this before...”

Even in this life, it was the first time I had seen our team get beaten this badly.

“Me too, Choi Seong Sch—”

“No. I need time to train too. Talk to the coaching staff.”

Yang Giwon’s face immediately turned bitter.

From what I could see, he had focused too much on command and weakened his pitch quality.

Because his pitches had lost their power, whenever they entered the strike zone, they got hammered and sent flying.

Then his mentality collapsed.

And once his mentality collapsed, his command disappeared.

It was a vicious cycle.

He needed to realize that himself and find the proper balance...

Seriously.

He was an extremely all-or-nothing kind of guy.

We continued chasing the opposing team.

We were losing 10–6, then closed the gap to 10–7.

My next chance came in the third inning.

Once again, I was the leadoff hitter.

And once again, I had no choice but to walk.

Then Kwon Geonwoo and Go Gyeongtae came up and scored runs.

That pattern continued again and again.

Eventually, the score became 15–15.

And somehow...

It was only the sixth inning.

“Change pitchers.”

By the seventh inning, we were already putting in our fourth pitcher.

The other team had gone through four pitchers too.

The slugfest continued endlessly.

I could feel it.

Just like people were saying that this year’s Busan Oceans were different, the Seoul Magicians were also very different.

Normally, in a game where so many runs were being scored, players would start getting anxious.

But these guys kept swinging with confidence.

Maybe it was because they had so many energetic young players.

Beside me, Yang Giwon was muttering some ridiculous chant.

“I joined the Choi Seong School and my successful life began. I joined the Choi Seong School and...”

Not happening.

Meanwhile, I had drawn walks in all three of my plate appearances.

The pitchers were obviously avoiding me on purpose.

Manager Rodriguez unusually came over to me.

“Well? Now that you’ve tried it, batting in the middle of the order is better, isn’t it?”

“...Seems that way.”

Apparently, they preferred facing Kwon Geonwoo, who had good contact but little power, rather than facing me.

Thanks to that, today’s sub mission looked ridiculously easy to clear.

I glanced to the side.

Kwon Geonwoo was biting his lip hard.

He already had multiple hits today, so there was no need to get that worked up.

If anything, he should’ve been taking it easy.

But just like the stubborn fighting spirit he had shown in my previous life, his pride seemed to have been hurt somehow.

Not bad.

If anything, it made him more aggressive on the bases, which put even more pressure on the opposing pitchers.

Eventually, the score became 18–18.

By my seventh plate appearance...

I had drawn seven walks.

A 100% on-base rate.

“T-This... I think you just broke another record.”

“That record hasn’t been broken since 2012, has it?”

“Congratulations, you little bastard.”

The senior players praised me.

Could something like this really count as a record?

The previous record for most walks by a single player in one game was six.

I had just broken it.

Meanwhile, the score had reached 20–20.

And once again, the status window appeared before my eyes.