Ken opened up his mission tab and checked on his progress.
#MISSION: Ascend to the Peak (part 1)
*Task: Throw 150 pitches both physically and in image training per day.
(103/150) Physical
(0/150) Image Training
TIME: 1 day remaining.
REWARDS:
>Gold Lottery Ticket
>Unlock Mission: Ascend to the Peak (part 2)
Just thinking about what he could get with the Gold Lottery ticket gave Ken a huge burst of motivation.
WHOOSH
PAH
Yuta felt his hand beginning to go numb as he caught another one of Ken's pitches. Remembering his comment almost a month ago to the coach where he was worried about Ken's work ethic, he suddenly felt exasperated.
If he had known that he would have to catch 150 pitches from this freak every day, he certainly wouldn't have brought it up.
It was weird, Ken would never stop until he reached the 150 pitch mark, even if it meant he had to change catchers. Yet he would never go above that mark.
'Perhaps he's sticking to the limits of his shoulder.' Yuta thought.
However, the fact that this guy could pitch so consistently even at a high pitch count, made him excited. At first the control was an issue, however it quickly improved, much faster than he anticipated.
"Yuta-Senpai, did you need a rest?" Ken called out, wiping the sweat from his brow.
"All good!" He replied with a stale smile.
'Damn this kid is relentless…'
After another 20 minutes or so, Ken was done with his pitches for today. He headed over to the bench and began looking for something.
A frown formed on his face as he began to sift through the bags.
"K-Ken here you go."
He heard a small voice to his left, breaking his focus.
"Ah, A-Ai…" Ken felt his face heat up out of reflex, seeing the long haired beauty dressed in the managers outfit. He had been so focused on training and the situation with Yusuke that he had barely noticed her since she started at the club.
He looked down to see exactly what he was looking for, the ice compress for his shoulder. Ken could see that it had already been filled with ice, meaning Ai had prepared it for him beforehand.
"Thanks."
A genuine smile formed on his face as he took it from her. However his expression stiffened once his hands brushed against hers, causing his face to redden once more.
"OH MY G—"
A sound came out from behind him, causing him to turn quickly. He caught the tail end of two women falling over behind a tree, creating quite a disturbance.
"Uh, I better go. Thanks again for the compress." Ken said, turning back to Ai.
"N-No problem. Great work out there."
As Ken jogged off, there was currently an argument being had behind the tree where the commotion was earlier.
"What the hell are you doing!? You interrupted Ai's moment!" Yuko was bonking Kaori on the head, chastising her for the outburst.
"I-I'm sowwy" She replied, tears running down her face.
Ai saw all this and couldn't help but laugh. Despite feeling a little awkward, she had finally worked up the courage to speak to Ken, even though she was being spied on by the other managers.
This was just the first step. She would continue to support him, until he finally noticed her as a woman.
***
"I'm home" Ken called out, taking his shoes off after heading through the door.
"Welcome home Kenny." Yuki called out from the kitchen.
Ken raised his nose in the air and took in the smell of his favorite meal. He walked into the kitchen and asked.
"Mmm is that curry?" He asked, feeling his stomach growl in anticipation.
"Sure is." She responded, turning to smile at her son. However in the next moment her face scrunched up.
"Go bath, you're ruining the delicious smell of the curry."
Yuki made a shooing motion as if he was a pest.
Ken could only laugh in response. He lifted up his shirt and gave it a smell, only to recoil right away.
'Damn, why is it that teenagers body odor smells so bad?' He commented inwardly. He could have sworn that he never used to smell this bad in the past.
"Okay okay, I'll go bath then."
Some time later, Ken relaxed on his bed, his stomach full of curry and rice. He was staring at the system window in front of him, just waiting for 9pm so he could enter the image training and finish his mission.
He always made sure to enter after 9pm, in case his mother walked in on his catatonic state. Ken did not know if he could be woken up during image training, or what the consequences would be if he was.
Therefore he strictly adhered to this rule.
The moment the clock struck 9, he pressed the button and found himself standing in Koshien stadium once again.
#PITCHING MISSIONS:
> Pitch 500 strikes - 100 Major points [Complete]
> Pitch 500 breaking balls - 100 Major points [Complete]
> Pitch 125km/h 500 times - 100 Major points [Complete]
> Pitch 130km/h 500 times - 100 Major points + Silver Lottery ticket [Complete]
> Throw pick-offs 100 times - 100 Major points [Complete]
> Strike-out AI Middle school (upgradeable) - 500 Major points + Silver Lottery ticket
He ran his eyes over the missions and smiled. Since he had been pitching at least 150 balls every night for the past 29 days, the only thing left was to strike out the AI.
Ken gathered himself, taking a few deep breaths. Today would be the day he would complete both the AI mission and the first Ascend to the Peak mission.
Having pitched almost 5000 pitches in 4 weeks, Ken was confident that he had made significant headway in this regard. The system too believed such, considering his pitching grade had skyrocketed to the A- grade in this time.
He had to thank the Disciplinarian skill, as well as his Doryoku skill for allowing him to progress so fast in such a little amount of time. Ken could already tell that the increase in grade allowed him to control where his pitches went far easier than before.
"Let's do this… Daichi!"
At his words, a plain-faced Daichi appeared in the batters box with his ugly batting form.
"Hehe."