Chapter 52, No-Hitter
One inning.
Then another.
The more pitches I threw, the more my injury risk increased.
Using a wider variety of pitches seemed to increase it even more.
But I did not care from the beginning.
I simply wanted to crush this team for recklessly putting their own bodies in front of my pitches.
Top of the eighth.
No outs.
My pitch count was close to one hundred.
But I could still handle this much easily.
Choi Seong
Pitcher Status, Super Rookie +10%
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Stamina: 118/200
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Fastball: 90+9/100
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Slider: 64+6/100
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Circle Changeup: 39+3/100
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Power Curve: 28+2/100
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Curve: 14+1/100
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Screwball: 4/100, Championship Mercenary
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Injury Risk: 20.7%, injury risk increases when more slots are added
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Batter Status
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Power: 76+8/100, Limit Break available after exceeding 100
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Contact: 66+7/100, Limit Break available after exceeding 100
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Speed: 34+3/100, Limit Break available after exceeding 100
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Injury Risk: 0.0%, injury risk rises with increased pitching and plate appearances
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Potential
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Indomitable Will: Choi Seong from his previous life created miracles in any situation. Emotional disturbance decreases.
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Sweet Revenge: Activates when hit by a pitch or intentionally walked during a game. It also activates when Choi Seong experiences strong emotional disturbance. All stats temporarily increase by 20%.
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Championship Mercenary: Activates when the team finished near the bottom during the previous season. One chosen breaking ball may be used during the season without increasing injury risk. Selected pitch: Screwball.
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Super Rookie: All stats increase by 10% during the first professional season. Additional stats are awarded and the potential evolves if he wins awards such as MVP or Rookie of the Year.
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Spoiler Squad: When facing a higher-ranked team or a team on a winning streak, all pitching and batting stats increase by 1.
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One Who Leads to Glory: All stats increase by 1.
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Record Breaker: Whenever a new personal record is set, all stats increase by 10% in the next game.
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Beyond the simple increase in my basic stats, strength surged through my entire body.
Potential abilities such as [Sweet Revenge] and [Record Breaker] were pumping power into me.
How many more proper pitches could I throw?
About eighteen.
I needed to finish everything here.
The score was 3-0.
But more than the score, I wanted my first professional no-hitter in this life.
Once a record came within reach, anyone would start craving it.
Especially records like a no-hitter or perfect game, proof that one pitcher had completely dominated an entire game.
160 km/h.
Another four-seam rushed toward the opposing batter.
He sighed.
Starting around the seventh inning, after the batting order had turned over twice, something strange appeared in the hitters’ eyes.
It was a look I knew well.
A look I had shown countless times in my previous life while struggling through injuries.
Despair.
The look people showed when they believed they could do nothing against something as unavoidable as a natural disaster.
162 km/h.
Another fast pitch.
I smiled calmly.
They were still pushing their bodies over the strike zone, hoping to get hit if an inside pitch ever came.
Their manager had probably ordered it.
That made me dislike it even more.
If they wanted to reach base, they should improve their ability first.
“Time!”
After I reached two strikes and smiled, the batter seemed irritated and called time.
Then he said something to Yoon Jae-jun.
Yoon Jae-jun simply shrugged and ignored him.
The irritated hitter actually began walking toward the mound while staring at me.
A second bench-clearing confrontation.
Had smiling at him really been that serious?
He would have been better off using that energy to take one more batting practice swing.
“You fucking brat! I don’t care how good you are, you can’t disrespect your seniors like this!”
He shouted loudly.
Yoon Jae-jun had already placed himself firmly between the batter and me.
Players from both benches rushed onto the field.
I simply shouted back.
“Then get better.”
Maybe that had been too informal.
His face turned red.
“Please?”
That final polite ending somehow made everything even worse.
Every Suwon Rangers player rushed toward me.
I calmly watched my teammates physically block them.
“You little bastard! You think being good means you’re somebody special now?”
“Are you really the ones to say that after charging at me because I smiled?”
I answered calmly.
This was not even about baseball’s unwritten rules.
They were trying to shake me and use another confrontation to change the game’s momentum.
Some pitchers smiling after a strike might be annoying, but even American baseball did not treat that as some major violation.
Smiling after hitting someone would cause a real fight.
Complaining because I smiled after throwing a strike was ridiculous.
“You need to learn some humility. Be careful. Plenty of players are targeting you.”
The opposing captain spat out the warning.
Kim Hak-seong immediately smacked him hard on the head.
“Ow!”
“Hey, asshole. Worry about your own skills first. Who gave you permission to mess with our kid?”
“What the hell, senior! Even so, this is out of line!”
The opposing captain complained indignantly after being hit.
“Bullshit. If you don’t have skills, at least have manners. What exactly did our rookie do wrong by smiling after throwing a strike?”
“Nothing exactly...”
“Then play the damn game. Why create another bench clearing for no reason? Are you that scared of becoming a victim of a historic record?”
He could not answer.
Kim Hak-seong and the others stood silently like a barricade.
The confrontation quickly died down.
Kim Hak-seong, however, was ejected.
There was no helping it.
He had hit the other guy pretty hard.
“I’m leaving this to you. Make sure you get that record today.”
He tapped my shoulder while leaving.
I could not have felt more reassured.
“Thank you, senior.”
“Don’t mention it. With the way I’ve been playing lately, I’m the one who deserves to get hit by your bat.”
Even like this, he was showing me what a senior teammate should be.
We have to win.
That thought suddenly became even stronger.
Not only win.
I wanted to crush them completely.
140 km/h.
The high-speed slider came in.
The batter hit it.
The result was an outfield fly.
That ended the eighth inning.
The ninth.
I had thrown around 115 pitches.
After another three or four pitches, my stuff would start deteriorating.
“Do well in the final inning. Understood?”
Manager Rodriguez personally approached me.
I silently nodded.
A historic record...
How long had it been since I felt this kind of thrill?
Still, I tried my best not to show it.
“Let’s change things for the last inning.”
I spoke when Yoon Jae-jun sat beside me.
The lineup would begin with the second hitter.
Because the first hitter had reached on a hit-by-pitch, a perfect game had been impossible from the first inning.
But no one had reached base after that.
“How?”
I answered simply.
“Mix inside and outside pitches. Go back to normal.”
Yoon Jae-jun’s face brightened.
“Good. Now I don’t have to give myself a headache thinking about every next pitch. You’re reaching your pitch limit anyway.”
I turned toward him in surprise.
How does he know?
I had never told anyone about my actual pitch limit.
“Of course I know. I’ve watched you for long enough. Even during practice pitching, I noticed you start controlling yourself around this point.”
I calmly nodded.
The bottom of the eighth ended without the Busan Oceans scoring.
Top of the ninth.
When I walked onto the mound, I heard applause instead of shouting.
I looked around the stadium.
Fans of both teams were applauding the moment.
Three batters.
I only needed three outs.
155 km/h.
The opposing second hitter stubbornly fouled away pitches.
After throwing my fourth pitch, I felt strength slowly leaving my body.
Two strikes, one ball.
Yoon Jae-jun called for a power curve touching the inside part of the strike zone.
Why would he choose that now?
Usually, a pitch with a large drop would be aimed lower.
It was strange.
Still, I nodded.
110 km/h.
The slower pitch came inside.
The second hitter closed his eyes.
He was probably expecting to be hit.
But the ball barely passed near his head, then dropped sharply downward.
“Strikeout!”
The umpire made the call.
The second hitter stood there in despair.
“Two more.”
I raised two fingers toward Yoon Jae-jun.
He answered loudly.
150 km/h.
My four-seam had now lost a lot of velocity.
It entered just above the strike zone.
Yoon Jae-jun had wanted a chase pitch.
The third hitter swung.
“Strike!”
Even with reduced velocity, my four-seam had a rising characteristic, so the hitter could not touch it.
The next pitch was an inside slider.
125 km/h.
The control was there, but the velocity had fallen significantly.
Yet the third hitter actually moved into it, thinking it was a brushback pitch.
Yoon Jae-jun had expected exactly that.
Their bench had probably told them to reach base even if they had to get hit.
Their manager was likely furious by now.
Four-seam, inside at knee height.
I nodded again to Yoon Jae-jun’s sign.
Then threw.
“Strike two!”
The hitter again tried to put his knee into the pitch.
Impossible.
The ball crossed almost directly through the middle of the inside zone.
Low outside curve.
Now we would finish him with a breaking ball.
“Strikeout!”
The curve traveled in the 110 km/h range.
The batter swung through it.
One out remained until the end of the game.
The cleanup hitter stepped into the batter’s box.
The same player who had been smacked on the head by our captain earlier.
His nostrils flared.
He looked furious.
Four-seam straight down the middle?
For the first time, I was surprised by Yoon Jae-jun’s sign.
He wanted a direct challenge now?
Against their cleanup hitter?
At the final moment?
Still, I calmly nodded.
Today, I had decided to follow Yoon Jae-jun’s pitch calling.
If I took some strength off, the pitch would probably reach around 146 km/h.
146 km/h.
The cleanup hitter did not miss it.
A four-seam right down the middle.
He swung with all his strength.
Crack!
The ball flew extremely high.
But it only traveled as far as center field.
Kwon Geon-woo called for it from center.
Then caught the ball.
I watched it disappear into his glove and clenched both fists.
Every player on our team began running toward me.
It was my first no-hitter.
