After dinner, everyone went their separate ways with Ken retreating to his room early like he had for the past couple of months. Thankfully his parents shrugged off this weird behavior as typical teenage actions so he didn't need to come up with an excuse.
Of course he was not doing anything suspicious, he was in fact honing his skills within the image training realm. Ever since getting the Power Hitter skill and increasing his Balance and Coordination stat, he had a much easier time hitting home runs during training.
In the two months prior, he had only managed to hit 192 home runs despite being thrown thousands upon thousands of pitches. Yet he had almost hit the remaining 308 in just these two weeks.
This gave a good indication of the impact of skills and his attributes on his ability to play baseball. While he couldn't currently measure up to the freak genius of Daichi, given enough time and patience, he felt that the system would allow him to surpass him.
This begged the question though, what was Daichi's overall stats right now according to the system? His potential would have to be at least an S+ if he had made it to the NPB with only 2 years of high school baseball under his belt.
Ken shook his head and focused. Now was the time to finish up the last of the batting missions and retrieve the juicy rewards.
DOES THE USER WISH TO ENTER IMAGE TRAINING?
[YES/NO]
"Yes."
Ken quickly picked up the bat and headed to the batters box wearing a cocky smile.
> Hit 500 Home Runs - 1000 Major points + B-grade Strength Elixir + Gold Lottery ticket (482/500)
"I'm coming for you Gold Lottery Ticket… Hehe"
DONG
DONG
"Strike"
DING
DONG
…
> Hit 500 Home Runs - 1000 Major points + B-grade Strength Elixir + Gold Lottery ticket (500/500) [Claim rewards]
After about 45 minutes of non-stop batting, Ken finally heard the sweet sound of a notification, indicating he had cleared the mission. He dropped to the ground and panted heavily.
For some reason, he still experienced fatigue in this realm. Perhaps it was to emulate the state of his consciousness, or for another reason entirely. Either way, such a thing prevented him from spending too much time inside which was a good thing.
[Congratulations, you have been awarded 1000 Major points 1x B-grade Strength Elixir and Gold Lottery ticket]
A smile blossomed on Ken's face as these words appeared in front of him. Yet they were followed by another line of text.
USER HAS COMPLETED ALL TASKS FOR THE HIGH SCHOOL DIFFICULTY. TO RECEIVE NEW MISSIONS, PLEASE INCREASE THE DIFFICULTY.
>MAJOR LEAGUE
>PROFESSIONAL
>AMATEUR (Recommended)
>HIGH SCHOOL (Current)(Stats will not be recorded towards missions in this difficulty)
>MIDDLE SCHOOL (Stats will not be recorded towards missions in this difficulty)
>ELEMENTARY SCHOOL (Stats will not be recorded towards missions in this difficulty)
Ken raised his eyebrow in surprise. He had originally thought that he would no longer receive missions for the batting training once completing these, however he was pleasantly surprised.
He decided to change the difficulty and check out the new missions.
USER HAS SELECTED AMATEUR DIFFICULTY.
Suddenly, his high school self disappeared and was replaced with someone else. Well, that was only partially correct as the figure once again looked like himself yet even older. If he had to guess the figure should be around 20 years of age.
"That's weird… My last time pitching was in the summer of my 2nd year in high school." He muttered, feeling mystified.
Before he could pondering the situation, another window popped up in front of him, detailing the new missions.
> Hit 1000 bunts successfully - 250 Major points + Silver Lottery ticket
> Hit 1000 balls into outfield - 250 Major points + B-grade Stamina Elixir
> Hit 3000 foul balls - 250 Major points + Silver Lottery ticket
> Hit 1000 sliders - 250 Major points
> Hit 1000 curve balls - 250 Major points
> Hit 1000 fastballs - 250 Major points
> Hit 1000 home runs - 2000 Major points + A-grade Strength Elixir + Gold Lottery ticket
Ken couldn't help but let out a whistle of appreciation, seeing the generous mission rewards laid out in front of him. However, he didn't get ahead of himself as he had yet to see a pitch from the foreign version of himself on the mound.
"Alright, let's see what you got." He said, lifting his bat and squaring up against the pitcher.
WHOOSH
The ball flew towards the strike zone with some heat behind it, yet the course seemed predictable. Ken swung with the intention of making contact rather than sending the ball flying. However, the familiar feeling of hitting the ball did not reach his hands.
PAH
"Strike"
"Holy crap! What a curve ball…" Ken could only exclaim in appreciation. Suddenly the missions seemed a lot more difficult after seeing the first pitch.
He had never learned to throw the curve ball in his previous life, yet apparently this version of him had. The ball seemed as if it was on an easy course, yet the top spin caused it to drop just before hitting the plate.
While it wasn't as difficult to predict the course as some other breaking balls, it was tough to pick. Good pitchers were able to keep their throwing actions for fastballs and curve balls similar enough that batters would struggle to identify the type of pitch until it was too late.
Ken shook his head, now was not the time to continue his batting practice. It was time to gamble…
He quickly left the Image training realm and his consciousness reappeared back in his room. He could feel the Golden Lottery ticket burning in his pocket, even though it was not a physical object.
Without hesitating, he opened up the lottery function and spun the golden wheel.
"Here goes nothing…"
After what seemed like an age, the small wheel finally stopped and a new window popped up.
[Congratulations, you have learned the "Identify" function.]
[Identify: Allows the user to look at the stats of other baseball players, provided they are close in skill level.]
'WHAT!?'