Ken hopped into bed, nursing his bulging stomach after a hearty meal. His mother's cooking always filled him up after his ridiculous work outs. Ever since he asked her to increase his portions, she had not disappointed.
"Hahhh, I'm so full." He muttered, letting out a contented sigh.
Out of habit, he opened up his status window. None of his stats had changed yet, which wasn't too surprising. However, upon going to the starting window, his eyes happened across a notification.
USER MENU:
-STATS
-MISSIONS
-SYSTEM SHOP
-LOTTERY (Locked)
-IMAGE TRAINING
-IDENTIFY
-TRAINING PLAN
-MENTOR (1)
"What?"
Intrigued, Ken clicked on the icon.
USER HAS MET THE CONDITIONS TO TAKE TEAMMATE STEPHEN ADAMS AS A MENTEE
ACCEPT?
[Y/N]
Ken's eyes widened in surprise. He had not seen this prompt since he made Shiro his mentee way back then. In actuality, Ken had almost completely forgotten about it.
From what he remembered, making someone a mentee would mean he'd be able to give him one of his skills. Thinking like this, Ken didn't see a reason to reject.
'Accept'
*DING*
USER HAS TAKEN TEAMMATE STEPHEN ADAMS AS HIS MENTEE
[Please select a skill to impart]
Fine Motor Control: Grants the ability to intricately and effortlessly control one's body, improving all aspects of their game.
Bunt: Ability to bunt even the fastest of balls with optimal precision and strength.
Charismatic Air: People are drawn to you and are more likely to listen to your suggestions.
Fatigue Management: Reduces fatigue and boosts recovery for extremities
Poker Face: Allows user to maintain a neutral expression, even when emotions are unstable.
'Whoa! Talk about the mother lode…' Ken exclaimed inwardly, letting out a small whistle of surprise.
To see so many good abilities at once, it was rather unexpected. When he accepted Shiro as a mentee, there was no Fine Motor Control, nor Poker Face, not that he would have selected either at the time.
The fact was, while these were good auxiliary abilities to him who had access to many skills, they would be almost useless to Steve. Just imagining the expressive Steve walking around with a poker face brought a smile to Ken's lips.
'I don't think there's any other choice but Fatigue Management…' Ken thought, hovering over the skill.
It was perfect timing since they had just begun Mika's grueling 3 month training plan and he wasn't sure how he the guy would cope.
Without any fanfare, Ken selected the Fatigue Management skill.
[User has selected Fatigue Management Skill]
[Imparting…]
[Success.]
As Ken watched the words appear in front of him, he suddenly realized something.
'Oh crap! Didn't Shiro fall unconscious after I imparted a skill to him?' How could he forget? They happened to be in the showers at the time and he was forced to wake the guy while stark naked.
'I hope the guy is okay…' Ken thought.
He worried for a few moments before turning his attention to the Image Training. It had been a while since he'd visited, so he had some high hopes.
With a thought, Ken's vision darkened for a moment before appearing in a familiar stadium.
"Ah I miss Koshien…" Ken muttered, taking in the sight with a sense of nostalgia. Since he was so far away from home, seeing this place had brought back some memories.
Ken shook his head, removing any useless thoughts. It was time to focus. As he willed it, a menu appeared in front of him.
#IMAGE TRAINING MENU:
>PITCHING
>BATTING
>FIELDING
Without hesitation he selected pitching.
[Please choose difficulty]
>MAJOR LEAGUE
>PROFESSIONAL [Recommended]
>AMATEUR [Current] (Stats will not be recorded towards missions in this difficulty)
>HIGH SCHOOL (Stats will not be recorded towards missions in this difficulty)
>MIDDLE SCHOOL (Locked)
>ELEMENTARY SCHOOL (Locked)
"Hm? It looks like the system views my pitching at the professional level." Ken stated, feeling rather proud inwardly.
The fact that he couldn't cheese the missions by pitching on a lower difficulty didn't bother him. In fact, he had been complaining about the lack of competition in the PG tournament just a couple of days ago.
'Maybe this will give me enough stimulation to survive another year playing against scrubs.' He thought.
Although it might be a harsh statement, he felt that the baseball he'd played in America so far had been below his expectations. He had pitched in 5 games over the weekend and only given up a single hit.
If that wasn't garbage competition, he didn't know what was.
However, to the others, Ken was just a freak of nature. For a Junior in High School to pitch over 100mph consistently was just unheard of. They could not be blamed for failing to hit such pitches.
As he selected the difficulty, he was suddenly teleported to the mound with a ball in his hand already. With practiced ease, he brought up the missions menu and took a look.
'What rewards have we got lined up this time?'
#PITCHING MISSIONS:
> Pitch 10,000 strikes - 50,000 Major points
> Pitch 10,000 breaking balls - 50,000 Major points
> Throw pick-offs 10,000 times - 50,000 Major points + Platinum Lottery ticket
> Pitch 100mph 10,000 times - 75,000 Major points + Skill
> Strike-out AI (upgradeable) - 100,000 Major points + Diamond Lottery ticket
"Holy crap!" Ken exclaimed with wide eyes, staring at the window in front of him. Not only were the number of pitches insane, but the rewards were much higher than he last remembered.
He had seen the Platinum Lottery ticket before which allowed him to select from a pool of skills, but he'd never heard of the Diamond version. However, from what he gathered, the Diamond ticket should be better than the former.
Unknowingly, Ken began to drool.
But when he thought about it for a bit longer, he shuddered. If the maximum time he could spend in the Image training was only a few hours a night, he might only get to throw 250 pitches.
After a few moments he gawked. "That's like 5 months of pitching…" he uttered half in despair.
"I guess this should be enough to keep me busy."