The Secret Recruitment
The ripple effect of the real-time rising video was immense.
The baseball community across the nation lit up instantly with “Who is Pi Anta?”
The user who was only Iron tier—how had he beaten the second pitcher of a pro team, Eokpal? Video analyses and ball-count strategies poured in from countless users, counterarguments followed, and the community descended into utter chaos.
Eventually, viewers who could no longer stand the mess lamented the situation and dropped a line.
After another round of arguments, after countless twists and turns, when writing about this match they decided to put “Pi Anta” or “P Y A” in front of the title so people who didn’t want to see it could block the keyword. But that didn’t solve the problem either.
The stone carelessly thrown hit an innocent frog outside the screen.
“I don’t know what my crime is.”
Eokpal, who monitored Pen’s posts, was on a losing streak because of users who did fact-checking to avoid being called “Eokpal.”
But Eokpal had a decent fan base in the Seoul Hustlers because the term “Eokpal” existed. With decent looks, in his early to mid-twenties, and carefully managing fans on SNS.
If a domestic second pitcher had such attractive points, it would be strange if he had no fans.
Eokpal liked the fans who liked him, and he liked his own team.
So he couldn’t stay quiet about Pi Anta.
Depending on the pitcher there might be some matchup, but from direct experience there was almost no rival pitcher in the domestic league.
It would have to be a foreign pitcher, and at least a top player expected to have fifteen wins or more to face Pi Anta.
In addition, his baserunning ability was excellent. Of course, recent baseball trends had a large risk when stealing failed, so they tended not to steal much.
But the difference between throwing without any interference from first base and throwing while being persistently harassed from first base was enormous.
The psychological pressure that couldn’t be quantified in data, Eokpal as a pitcher knew better than anyone.
By harassing the pitcher and when there was an opening, a play to advance to another base to add vitality to the team.
With a 144-game schedule, sixty steals in a season was possible.
Must.
Must catch him.
The appearance of Pi Anta’s video in the real-time rising rank of OneTube was nothing but good news. No special explanation was needed; her introduction, history, and miraculous batting sense could all be explained in one go.
“Good.”
She sent a message to a friendly scout-team staff member, smiled with satisfaction, and returned to the community.
The atmosphere in Pen’s bulletin board was not normal.
She was still talking about Pi Anta, but the tone was slightly different. So far there had been many stories about her batting skills, last season’s tier, and so on.
Of course, in the midst of that there were some nonsense posts like “Pi Anta should narrow the side-kick angle.”
But the current atmosphere was:
For some reason the bait for Pi Anta’s professional entry was burning hot.
The source was none other than a single concept post.
How much interest people had, even a post that simply copied an article reached real-time best.
Eokpal exploded.
*
Pi Anta’s parents were happy with their daughter’s changed appearance but very perplexed.
“Father, Mother. I have done morning exercise.”
Very polite. Diligently and regularly daily routine. And:
“I am going to run today, but my knee and ankle are a bit burdened because my stamina is not enough yet. I will put more effort into thorough stretching and developing basic muscles. Stretching is excellent for improving exercise ability as well as preventing injury. Especially for aerobic exercises like long-distance running, needless to say. Let me tell you about my experience when I was a man and suffered because of stretching….”
The words became incredibly many.
“Anta. First, eat your meal.”
“Oh, yes yes. …Oh! Perfect nutrition today! I will eat with gratitude and eat more if lacking.”
The daughter who had been stuck in the corner playing games suddenly became someone else in a day, so it was good to see.
But Pi Anta’s father had something to say today.
“Anta.”
Clink clink.
Anta, who had been diligently eating, looked up at her father.
Her father had a rather complicated expression.
“Recently your name has been coming up a lot in sports articles. Did you set your nickname as your name?”
“A.”
Anta showed a moment of confusion.
What to say, but since no matter what she said it would look weird, she decided to tell the honest feeling at the time.
“Uh, just because setting ID was troublesome….”
More than that, that strange name often appeared in sports articles. The person involved didn’t know about it at all.
“By the way, why am I in sports articles….”
“Didn’t you look it up?”
“Yes.”
Normally one didn’t search their own name on portal sites. But the reason Pi Anta hadn’t searched her name was simply one.
She hadn’t thought she was famous enough yet.
Honestly, when he was a man he searched about himself more than ten times a day. The habit probably carried over, and whenever there was a chance he would be searching for “Pi Anta.”
But what her father was worried about wasn’t that.
“Is baseball fun?”
“Ah, um….”
“You said you had enough, right? You wanted to quit.”
Pi Anta had some idea about this point.
The crumpled glove and baseball uniform in the drawer.
The girl had been quite seriously playing baseball.
The name was given by her father, but the dream for baseball was entirely her own.
But last season, the season before, her tier was Iron all the way.
Unfortunately, the type with grand dreams but dirty skills.
It’s too hard to do well at what you like. And accepting the harsh reality that you have no competitiveness in the field you like is even harder.
However, the girl had to accept it.
She had to quietly bury her dream under the drawer.
The girl was in the situation of losing her dream, locked in the room, wandering where to go.
Even then she couldn’t forget baseball, and in the mid-life where she continued baseball as a hobby even after giving up her dream.
“Have you become willing to challenge again?”
A pure question.
Pi Anta, or Jeong Taesik, vaguely thought that maybe it wasn’t a coincidence that she entered this girl’s body.
She didn’t believe in gods, and teammates who said they won prizes because they did well and dedicated the glory to God and Buddha didn’t understand at all, but at this moment she was sure there was a connection between her and this girl.
Common point: love for baseball.
And the desperation to be loved by baseball.
She had achieved some, and the girl had not achieved the dream.
In this way it was achieved.
So she decided.
“Yes. I want to challenge again.”
I will succeed in baseball for sure.
Because I love baseball.
Because I want to be loved by baseball.
With that resolute appearance, Anta’s father nodded his head.
And then put down the spoon and said with a solemn expression.
“Then go to Goraniz for sure.”
“Go, where?”
“Goraniz. A prestigious team with history and tradition, whose fans’ loyalty can’t be compared to any other team! Father has wanted you to be a player of Goraniz for a long time…!”
The mother slapped the father’s back who couldn’t continue talking in excitement.
“This is real! You still can’t get rid of that stubbornness, why Goraniz! Is Anta connected to Eokpal player a coincidence? This is clearly the beginning of a big picture that will go to Hustlers!”
“How can you say that! What kind of team is Goraniz to us. How can you say that about Daejeon Goraniz!”
The sudden fight at the dinner table made Pi Anta quite bewildered.
But Daejeon Goraniz?
Daejeon? Daejeon…?
Suddenly an eagle flew in Pi Anta’s mind.