The next two games were just as impactful for Ken who had officially been moved to the DH position. He had also been moved up to the 3rd spot in the batting order, showing how much the team valued his batting.
For these two games, Ken pitched in only 1 more, closing out the final game with ease again. Even without the system, his pitches were sharp, not even allowing a single hit in the final 2 innings.
And so Monday arrived. The single rest day in an otherwise packed schedule. This was also the day where the system would finish its upgrade, and when he could finally get the answers that he was searching for.
#SYSTEM ALERT
SYSTEM HAS SUCCESSFULLY UPGRADED TO LEVEL 6.
MAJOR LEAGUE SYSTEM
SYSTEM LEVEL: 6 (Max)
NAME: Ken Takagi
AGE: 21
TALENT ASSESSMENT: EX
POTENTIAL: L
MAJOR POINTS: 904,880
USER MENU:
-STATS
-MISSIONS
-SYSTEM SHOP
-LOTTERY
-IMAGE TRAINING
-IDENTIFY
-TRAINING PLAN
-MENTOR
-???
USER STATS:
>Physical Fitness: EX
>Pitching: SSS+
>Fielding: A+
>Game Intelligence: SSS
>Mental: EX-
>Skills: 25
>Traits: 4
PHYSICAL FITNESS: (Avg. EX)
Balance and Coordination: EX
Agility: EX-
Strength: EX
Stamina: EX+
In his hotel, Ken waited patiently as the system finally completed its upgrade. Upon opening his status window, he carefully scrutinized it, looking for anything that had changed.
His eyes widened as he saw that his potential had now increased to Legendary and his major points were untouched. It was an unexpected boon, so he wasn't complaining.
However, upon seeing the new menu option, Ken frowned.
"What is this?"
He tapped on the question marks and a new window popped up.
#???
Choose 1:
>Requires 1,000,000 Major points to unlock
>Requires 20,000,000 Major points to unlock
'Huh?' Ken was perplexed. Firstly, he was at the systems max level, so why was the menu not revealed? Secondly and most importantly, why were there two options to unlock?
'Mika, what is this?' Ken asked.
[I cannot go into more detail Ken. You will have to decide for yourself which option you unlock.]
Ken froze. The voice that had spoken to him was not monotonous as he had come to expect from Mika. Instead, it sounded like a young woman.
'M—Mika? What happened to your voice?'
[Is it unpleasant? I can return to my previous voice if that makes you feel more comfortable.]
Ken was silent for a while, but he shook his head. 'Sorry, I was just a little surprised. You sound great.'
[Thank you.]
With no answers for the new system function, Ken decided to move on. One of his strengths was not fixating on things that he could not control, something he had had to learn on his own.
20 million Major points was something that he could not even fathom at this point in time. Throughout the whole time he'd had the system, he had only accumulated just over a million.
Judging by this, he might not even get to unlock the 2nd option by the time his baseball career ended. By then, would he even need the new function?
But there were more important things for now to discuss.
'Mika, what happened with the system the other day? Why did the upgrade initialize without my consent?' Ken asked, getting back on track.
[User met the conditions of the mission, so the reward was expedited. Do not worry, Ken. There is nothing wrong with the system, it will still work as intended.]
Ken was silent for a while as he thought about it. The mission stated that the reward was N/A, but it was in fact a system upgrade? Something didn't really add up.
'Can you tell me about the warning at the end of the mission now that I've completed it?' He asked carefully.
[…]
[I cannot speak about it, Ken. All I can say is that its related to the unknown function.]
'Okay, thank you Mika, that helps.' Ken said finally, laying back onto his bed. He did not have the answers that he was hoping to find after the system came back online, in fact, he had even more questions.
His eyes moved to the unknown function and hovered over the two options. If he could unlock both, Ken might have felt different, but the fact that he could only choose one made him feel a sense of foreboding.
If the warning was related to the unknown function, then things were not as simple as they appeared on the surface. This only gave him a sense of foreboding, like something bad might happen if he were to make the wrong decision.
BUZZ BUZZ
Ken stirred, reaching for his phone. He didn't recognize the number.
"Hello? This is Ken speaking."
"Ken, it's Coach Matthews. I'll keep it short and sweet, you've been called up to the Mud Hens. Your flight to Ohio leaves tomorrow morning."
"Eh!? What?" Ken was so surprised that he couldn't even process what was being said to him.
"I'll send through the details over email. And Ken, I don't want to see you back here okay? Best of luck." Coach Matthews said before promptly hanging up.
Ken turned his phone and looked at it in bewilderment. He had only just joined the team for less than a week and he was already being shipped up to Triple-A? Was this even real?
[Congratulations Ken. You are a step closer to achieving your dream.]
'T—Thanks Mika…'
However, Ken didn't know how to feel. He was expecting to play in the Double-A for at least 6 months. Even though he'd only met his teammates a few times, there were a few that already made an impression on him.
Cain reminded him of Riku and Rick was a good guy, albeit quick to anger. Then there was Rohan, the man who he had finally just started to understand.
Thinking of Rohan, Ken sat up. He was leaving tomorrow, there was no time to waste. If he wanted to give the Recovery Elixir to him, it was now or never.