Off-Season (2)
You have selected [Velocity Increase — Hard].
Generating quest……
The message appeared on the window, and then I waited. And waited. Five full minutes must have crawled by, yet nothing changed.
“What the hell? Does it always take this long?”
I jabbed at the screen a few more times, poked around at random, but the only thing that kept popping up was the same “Generating quest……” line.
Just as the blank staring started to get unbearable—
Grrrrk.
“…Ah.”
My stomach sent up a clear, unmistakable signal that it was empty.
“…Food first.”
I finally stood and walked into the kitchen. The moment I opened the fridge, cold air washed over my face. A few side-dish containers, water, milk—and almost nothing but raw ingredients. Nothing that screamed “eat me right now.”
“Hmm…”
Thanks to Diamond Body, I didn’t have a hangover, but after last night’s drinking binge I still wanted something that felt like a hangover cure.
“Maybe I’ll just go get kimchi jjigae.”
The season was over, and it was the perfect food for that post-drinking craving. On days like this, something hot and spicy always hit the spot.
Grrrrk.
“I know, I know. I’m going to eat right now, okay? Geez.”
The Velocity Increase quest was still radio silent, but my stomach kept issuing its own urgent quest: Solve Hunger.
I threw on a padded jacket, dragged my slippers across the floor, and stepped out the front door. Three minutes of walking from the villa brought me to the little home-style restaurant I always frequented. The glass door was lightly fogged, and a few customers were already inside eating.
Ding-a-ling.
The door opened and the rich smell of rolled omelet, the spicy kick of kimchi jjigae, and the warm scent of white rice all hit me at once. My stomach answered by twisting even harder.
“What’ll it be?”
“One kimchi jjigae.”
“Kimchi jjigae for one over here!”
The moment I sat down, the owner started setting out side dishes with practiced speed—bean sprouts, dried seaweed, cubed radish kimchi, and stir-fried fish cake. Standard home-style restaurant basics, but hunger made my mouth water on sight.
“Season’s over for you, Doyoon?”
“Yeah, finished yesterday.”
I’d been coming here since I was a kid, so the owner talked to me like family.
“You worked hard. I don’t know much about baseball, but I heard you did really well?”
“Uh… not really well. Just a little well. A little.”
The owner chuckled and folded his arms.
“You know I don’t usually come out to serve, right? I came out on purpose to get your autograph. Once you get famous the value goes up.”
“Come on, not yet. Even if you hang it up, nobody’ll know who I am.”
“Still better to grab it early. Once you’re famous you won’t even come around here anymore.”
“Nah, if I get famous I’ll run straight over and sign a hundred of them. Promise. Or better yet, how about we just hold a signing event right here?”
The owner finished setting down the last side dish, snorted a laugh, and turned away.
“Forget it. Just an autograph and one photo’ll do.”
A short wait later, a stone pot of kimchi jjigae arrived in front of me, bubbling loudly. Chili oil shimmered on the surface, and big chunks of pork sat proudly in the broth.
“Whoa… that smell is insane.”
I was just about to pick up my spoon when—
Ding-a-ling.
The bell rang again. I looked up without thinking and saw a woman in a yellow hoodie walking into the restaurant.
…Where have I seen that before?
The yellow hoodie and the silhouette felt familiar. I stared a second too long, and our eyes met.
“……!”
It was Park Haeun.
“I’ll treat you. Order whatever you want.”
“Ah, th-thank you. Then… gochujang jjigae, please……””
“Auntie! One more gochujang jjigae over here!”
Park Haeun had frozen the moment our eyes met, so I called her over first and suggested we sit together. After a whole month, she was back to her shy self. Completely different from the person who used to round her eyes and fire rapid-fire counterarguments at me—an actual player—whenever the baseball conversation button got pressed. Right now she looked almost demure.
“Do you come here often?”
She lifted her head, looking a little startled.
“Ah— well, I usually cook at home, but I just ran out of ingredients, haha……””
“Ah, got it.”
I answered without much thought and went back to focusing on my food.
Then, the very next second—
“I-it’s not that I can’t cook so I just order delivery all the time and eat out every day, really! Really, when you live alone everyone does this! If you buy too many ingredients at once and can’t finish them you have to throw them out, so you can’t buy a lot, and then they run out fast… so…! And then sometimes you end up eating outside, that’s all……””
Park Haeun’s words suddenly sped up and she started rambling explanations all by herself. I stopped mid-lift of my spoon and looked at her.
Yeah… she can’t cook.
I’d already had a pretty good idea. The recycling we’d thrown out together that time had been more than enough evidence—dried-out cup-ramen bowls, funky delivery containers, retort pouches. No matter how you looked at it, it was the trash of someone who mostly just scraped by instead of actually cooking at home.
“Oh, is that so?”
“N-no, I mean it for real……!”
When I answered casually again, Park Haeun bristled, trembling slightly.
So this is another berserk button, huh.
It wasn’t the full-on mania she showed when talking baseball, but watching her get flustered and talk herself into a corner over something I hadn’t even accused her of was strangely cute.
Right then—
“Gochujang jjigae!”
The owner brought over a bubbling pot of gochujang jjigae and set it on the table. He looked back and forth between me and Park Haeun, then casually dropped a bomb.
“What, is this Doyoon’s girlfriend?”
“Khh—!”
I nearly sprayed the food in my mouth, barely managing to swallow it instead. Right in front of me I heard a tiny sharp intake of breath.
Through the steam rising from the gochujang jjigae, Park Haeun’s ears and face flushed bright red in an instant.
“N-no! Absolutely not! Absolutely not that!!”
She waved her hands almost reflexively. Her fingertips were trembling so hard her panic was obvious.
Gulp.
I hurriedly swallowed what was left in my mouth and jumped in with an explanation.
“O-Owner. It’s not like that… she’s just the person who lives two floors above me. She said she’s my fan… we just ran into each other by chance today. So I figured I’d treat her to a meal, that’s all.”
The owner eyed the two of us suspiciously.
“…That so?”
“Yes!”
“Y-yes…”
Our answers overlapped awkwardly. Haeun’s voice was barely audible, and I found myself sitting up straighter for no reason.
The owner stroked his chin.
“…Hmm, still suspicious. Anyway, got it.”
Even as he headed back to the kitchen he glanced over his shoulder one more time.
Only then did Park Haeun let out a breath of relief. She clutched her spoon tightly and just stared blankly down at her stone pot. Her cheeks and ears were still bright red.
After the owner’s sudden ambush, the atmosphere between Park Haeun and me turned awkward. We both buried our faces in our pots and inhaled our stews in silence. The only sound filling the space between us was the quiet clink of spoons.
Then—
Ding!
[Velocity Increase — Hard] quest has been generated!
Oh, finally?
The long-awaited quest generation complete notification appeared. My shoulders twitched and a reaction slipped out before I could stop it. I snuck a glance at Haeun to see if she’d noticed, but she was still diligently scooping up gochujang jjigae. Thankfully she didn’t seem to be looking my way at all.
I took a sip of water and quietly opened the quest window.
You who desire a true high-velocity fastball—if you want to throw a real heater, grind your body into dust.
📍 First Task: Complete a 10 km run.
📍 Second Task: Complete 20 long tosses of 90 m or more.
📍 Third Task: Complete a full-body strength routine (100 push-ups, 100 squats, and 100 sit-ups each).
📍 Fourth Task: Record your personal best velocity (157 km/h).
Complete all four tasks every day for 14 days to receive the reward.
※ Skills cannot be used during this quest.
🎁 Reward: [Velocity Increase Reward Box — Hard]
“Pff— pffh!”
I nearly sprayed everything in my mouth like some turtle character from a certain game, barely holding it in.
Is this thing insane?
A 10 km run? Tough, but doable.
Twenty long tosses of 90 m? Is there even a pitcher who can’t throw 90 m?
A hundred push-ups, squats, and sit-ups each? That was the easiest part.
And the final task—recording my top velocity—was something I could knock out with a single click of Full Power Pitching.
Taken one by one, they were hard, sure, but nothing a professional athlete like me couldn’t handle.
……The last line, though. That was the problem.
※ Skills cannot be used during this quest.
Everything I’d just called “easy” assumed I could use my skills. No matter how brutal the previous day’s training, Diamond Body would wipe the slate clean while I slept, and the Full Power Pitching I used to hit top velocity was a skill too.
This quest banned all of it.
If I got dizzy, I stayed dizzy. If a muscle tore, it stayed torn. If I felt like throwing up, I actually threw up—and I had to endure that for fourteen straight days.
And throwing my top velocity. That was the scariest part. It meant maintaining a body capable of 157 km/h in the off-season and truly pushing myself to my absolute limit every single day.
Wow…… so this is how brutal Hard mode is?
I quietly let out a sigh while staring down at the quest window—
“I-is something wrong…?”
Park Haeun carefully lifted her head and looked at me. Apparently the sigh I’d just let out had bothered her.
“No, it’s nothing.”
“But your expression just now……””
I forced the most natural smile I could manage.
“Just…… something pretty rough came up.”
Haeun’s eyes went even rounder.
“How rough?”
I hesitated for a second, then decided to just be honest about how I felt.
“…As long as I don’t die in about two weeks, I’ll be fine.”
“…What?”