The Old Baseball Player System
Chapter 87: Line Drive

It was Kenta's turn to bat, and he quickly stepped into the batter's cage. He positioned himself in the left batter's box, and the first pitch came.

WOOSH

DOOONG

"Hmph, what a show-off jerk!" – Ren complained when he saw his friend's monstrous hit. Kenta sent the ball flying toward right field, beyond the fence, if they were in a game, it would be a beautiful home run.

WOOSH

DOONG

WOOSH

DONG

WOOSH

DOOONG

Kenta continued hitting non-stop, clearly having improved a lot in batting. He had no trouble sending most of the pitches deep into right field, even hitting home runs with ease.

Shun calmly watched his friend. He was already used to Kenta's incredible hits. The boy was probably one of the best batters in middle school in all of Japan.

Shun then asked the system to show his friend's stats.

[Kenta Kobayashi

Overall: A

PITCHING: B+

BATTING: A+

FIELDING: A+

RUNNING: A-

GAME IQ: B+

Overall Potential: SSS-]

"The improvement in his scores wasn't as absurd as Jiro's, but the skill progress was just as significant. It seems that the higher the score, the harder it is to improve, but that doesn't mean progress in skills has slowed down, especially considering even his talent has improved." – Shun concluded while thinking to himself.

Kenta exited the batting cage, while the young samurai Ren huffed and took his place.

"You show-off, don't think you'll get away with it!" – Ren was still mad at Kenta for joking about his trouble getting a girlfriend. The boy stepped into the left batter's box determined to "beat" his friend's performance.

The first pitch came.

WOOSH Stay informed via m-vl-em,pyr

DOOONG

"HAHA!" – Ren laughed victoriously as he saw the ball flying fast out of center field.

"What an idiot..." – Kenta sighed as he watched the young samurai celebrate a home run off a pitching machine during batting practice as if it were a walk-off home run that won the Kanto tournament.

"Pft!" – Shun gave a light laugh at his friend's exaggerated reaction. He then asked the system to show the young samurai's stats.

[Ren Yamashita

Overall: A-

PITCHING: B

BATTING: A-

FIELDING: A-

RUNNING: S

GAME IQ: E+

Overall Potential: SSS-]

Shun smiled as he looked at Ren's stat screen. The young samurai's progress had been truly monstrous. After following Shun's intense training regime and starting to give his best, Ren's talent emerged, making him one of the team's top improvers.

Ren continued to bat a few more times, and although he wasn't as consistent as Kenta, he was great. The boy could hit the ball to any part of the field, and combined with his insane speed on the bases, he was as dangerous a batter as Kenta. Well, at least he liked to think so.

Shun's turn finally came as Ren left the cage. Wasting no time, Shun stepped into the left batter's box. The first pitch came.

WOOSH

DONG

Shun easily hit the ball along the left field foul line. The second pitch came.

WOOSH

DONG

Shun hit the ball along the left field line again. Another pitch came.

WOOSH

DONG

He hit it again along the foul line.

WOOSH

DONG

Again.

WOOSH

DONG

And again.

"Does this guy ever miss?" – The first-year, Ryosuke, said in shock as he watched Shun repeatedly hit the ball along the foul line. The hit itself was nothing extraordinary, but the consistency with which Shun managed to hit in that direction was impressive.

Apart from the other first-years, no one on the team seemed impressed with Shun's hits. The reason was simple, they had been amazed before, but now they were used to this ridiculous consistency.

Especially Kenta, Ren, Daigo, Jiro, and Sora, who stayed with Shun every day until late to complete his grueling exercise routine. It was expected that anyone who trained like a demon as Shun did would improve tremendously.

Shun smiled when he finished his batting round. He walked out of the batting cage before continuing to swing at the air. After all, he needed to make 500 swings every day.

"This skill is really amazing. I wonder what kind of skill I'll get when I complete the arena's legendary mission." – Shun thought to himself as he swung.

[Line Drive (A+)

Hit the ball in a straight line with force slightly above the ground.]

Line Drive was a gold batter skill. It was one of the rewards Shun received when he completed the gold arena mission a few weeks ago. So far, it had proven to be very useful.

The players began to leave when Coach Yamada concluded the practice. Only those who stayed for the extra training remained. Well, Daigo was sent home by Shun, it was too dangerous to do his exercise routine while injured, even if it was a minor injury.

Because of that, only Kenta, Ren, Jiro, Sora, and Shun were left on the field. Shun didn't force anyone on the team to participate in the extra training, because if it were mandatory, it wouldn't be extra.

In fact, he even wanted all the players to complete his exercise routine, but he knew that if he did, most would end up quitting the team. After all, those workouts weren't meant for an ordinary human being.

"Haaaaaaah Haaaaah" – Jiro did his best to draw all the air on the planet into his lungs. The boy was exhausted after completing Shun's training.

Sora wasn't in a good state either, the boy lay on the ground motionless. If it weren't for his heavy breathing, Shun would probably have thought he was dead.

Shun, Kenta, and Ren were a bit better, but they were all breathing heavily as they recovered. Although the old man hadn't increased the difficulty of the daily mission again, that didn't mean the training remained the same.

Shun realized that the mission's difficulty was related to his physical conditioning, so every time he improved, the exercises changed, the repetitions increased, or the intensity rose. No matter how it happened, the system always managed to turn this training into hell.