Some time later, Ken left PNC park and made his way back to the hotel across the road. He had only been able to pitch a few times before losing all of his strength. The coach promptly dismissed him and said that they would be in touch.
Ken managed to make it into his hotel room and shrug off his clothes before collapsing onto the bed. He began to shiver and got under the covers, feeling fatigue.
'Damn it…'
He felt as weak as a newborn baby right now, and there was nothing that he could do about it. His stomach growled and his throat was dry. Worst yet, the feeling of the sheets on his skin was grating.
[Mika recommends user drink some water.]
Ken groaned. No part of him wanted to get out of bed, but she was right. He needed to get some fluids into him, otherwise he might be in danger.
He staggered out of bed and grabbed two of the bottled waters on the bench before jumping back in bed. He downed one before turning over and curling up into a ball.
Ever since getting the system, he had never been this sick before.
'Mika… please use sleep protocol. I want to sleep off this fever.'
[Are you sure?]
Ken's mind was too fuzzy to understand her meaning, so he just grunted in response.
[Please drink another bottle of water first.]
With great difficulty, Ken rolled over and grabbed his water, drinking all of its contents. "Happy now?" he said with some sass.
[Activating sleep protocol]
Like that, Ken drifted off to sleep. Thankfully he did not experience any dreams like before.
After an unknown amount of time, Ken woke up groggily. He felt uncomfortable and his stomach grumbled loudly in protest. The bed was wet with his sweat, causing the sheets to stick to his back.
"Urgh…" Ken sat up and tried to clear his head.
Apart from having a bit of a headache and being starving, he felt decent.
"Am I better now?" He mumbled.
He got up and walked over to the window, pulling back the blinds slightly. The night sky greeted him, along with the lights of the streets below. Ken had gone back to bed around 10am, so he had slept for majority of the day.
Letting out a stretch, he decided to go have a shower. He would need his sheets changed, otherwise there was no chance of getting any additional sleep tonight.
He moved over to his phone and checked it, only to see lots of missed calls and messages.
"Huh? What's this?"
As he scrolled through them, he realized that many were from his agent, Barry Hart. This was the guy who both his Grandfather and the chairman of the WWBA, Rob Fisher had recommended.
While he had yet to meet the man in person yet, from their correspondence he was quite capable.
He was going to call back but he saw a message.
"The Raiders have said not to worry coming to the next workout, they have all the information they need."
Ken's heart sank. Did that mean he bombed the workout?
"I don't understand… Couldn't they have waited at least a day?" Ken mumbled, still in disbelief.
He then moved to the messages from Ai. His eyes widened as he saw there were over 10.
"How did the workout go?"
"Are you okay?"
"Why aren't you answering?"
"Ken I'm worried…"
This went on and on until there was a long message that basically grilled him for being so inattentive. He blinked a few times in disbelief.
"What is happening?" he mumbled.
It had only been a few hours, did he miss something?
Yet upon looking at the date on his phone, Ken paled.
"Saturday? That can't be right…"
[User has slept for 30 hours to recover from the fever.]
Mika's monotonous voice entered his mind, causing him to freeze on the spot. 30 hours? Was such a thing possible?
"You made me sleep 30 hours!? What the hell!?" Ken was suddenly assaulted by a stomach cramp and it growled loudly in protest.
[User wanted to sleep the fever off. Mika only did as she was asked.]
"…"
There was no use in complaining so he quickly did some mental calculations before calling Ai. It should be 9am on Sunday in Japan, so hopefully she would pick up.
"H—Hey, sorry I missed your messages."
"Are you actually sorry?" Ai replied, her tone sharp.
He quickly explained that he'd had a fever and had been in and out of sleep for the past day or so. Ken couldn't come out and say that he had slept for the past 30 hours, since no one would believe him. Hell, even he didn't believe it.
Her tone quickly turned softer and she seemed to believe him. They chatted for a while before Ken's stomach felt like it was about to eat itself.
"I'm pretty weak and haven't eaten in over a day. I'll talk to you a bit later. Love you."
She reciprocated the words and he hung up the phone, finally breathing a sigh of relief. With one fire put out, Ken decided it was time to leave the room and finally get some food, hopefully then he would be able to think.
He quickly called the front desk and asked if they could change his bedding before leaving his room and heading down to the restaurant on the 2nd floor. He ordered a few things and helped himself to the free water.
He was due to check out tomorrow but had planned to extend his stay if needed. But it seemed that the Raiders did not require him to come back for another workout.
This could mean one of two things. Either they were not happy with the one he did, or they were satisfied enough with the info they had from his college days.
Either way, this just moved up his plans to meet his agent and Grandfather in North Carolina.