National Team Call-Up [2]

The cityscape blurred past the car window, and suddenly I found myself wondering how Yang Uijin and the rest of the Blue Dragon team were doing. Uijin hyung and the others are probably all at Gocheok right now, right?

Seoul has three dome stadiums. Jamsil Dome in Jamsil, one in Incheon, and Gocheok Sky Dome. From what I know, the WBC main roster is training at Jamsil, the U-18 and U-20 teams at Gocheok, and the U-23 squad in Incheon…

It was probably Lee Taehyun. Maybe because he’d completely dominated the semifinals, the player who was originally supposed to lose the starting spot had been pushed to the bench. Instead, Taehyun had taken the starting position for himself.

‘Has Lee Taehyun improved a little?’

With Yang Uijin behind the plate now, he should finally be able to show his full strength. Come to think of it, in the original story, wasn’t the first time Uijin hyung took an interest in Taehyun during the national team call-up episode?

Back in his Daeji High days, Taehyun had been deliberately hiding his power because of his catcher problem. Even after losing to Cheonji High, Uijin hadn’t recognized Taehyun’s true ability. But I remembered that after seeing Taehyun pitch at full strength during the national team camp, Uijin changed his mind.

Screeeech—!

“We’re here, son.”

While I was happily texting with Uijin, the car had already reached its destination. The area was packed with fans wearing national team jerseys, all gathered to watch the players’ training and practice games. There were also large broadcast buses and trucks bristling with equipment, along with cameramen filming Jamsil Dome from every angle.

“Thank you for driving me, and for even taking time off work.”

“Come on, our son is a huge star now. Taking public transport would’ve been exhausting. Not all of them, but quite a few of those people are probably here to see you.”

‘Is it really that many?’

So far, the number of people who recognized my face and asked for autographs or photos was still in the single digits. Though there had been that one person who stood out.

Her voice had sounded a little like Ain’s. She didn’t have the white hair and purple eyes of Ain’s virtual avatar, but if Ain ever walked around as a normal person, she probably would’ve looked exactly like that. Short black bob cut, a well-maintained figure—not quite Epinel level, but still impressive. The only thing that stuck in my memory was the way she’d given Epinel a slightly wary look…

‘Nah, it’s probably just someone with a similar voice.’

To be honest, it couldn’t have been Ain. Her bag had been covered in Isegye Idol merch. Unless she was openly advertising that she was Ain, there was no way she’d walk around like that. And if it really had been her, she probably would’ve turned our photo together into stream content that same day. Since no clips had popped up on NewTube, it seemed like she hadn’t.

Click.

“Then I’ll be going.”

“Alright. Have a good time. I’m sorry I can’t make it to your first practice game—work piled up at the company.”

“It’s fine. You can just watch on your phone anyway.”

After wrapping up that conversation, I grabbed my suitcase and the bag full of baseball gear from the trunk and headed into Jamsil Dome. The reporters who had been waiting at the entrance spotted me immediately and swarmed over.

“Lee Seojun! Just a quick interview—!”

“Please, just one comment…!!”

‘No MBBC or OPSN?’

“Sorry, I need to get to training.”

Even though the broadcast reporters were desperate for interviews, I figured it would be a pain and simply ignored them, walking briskly inside.

‘I arrived pretty early, so once the rest of the national team players show up, they’ll have better material for articles anyway.’ Kind of like bait, I guess.

“Oh, you’re a bit early.”

“Ah, it’s the reporter I saw last time.”

I ran into the MBBC reporter on the way in, gave a short interview saying I was looking forward to training and would work hard to earn a starting spot, then finally stepped into the dome.

...

...

...

“Oh, it’s that kid who threw the ceremonial first pitch!”

“Is this the guy with the 160 on the scoreboard?”

“Whoa, I’m a fan.”

The moment I walked in, I was greeted by Heroes players Kang Jung-ho and Lee Jung-hoo. It looked like they’d heard a lot about me from the Heroes’ starting catcher, Park Sung-bin.

‘Kang Jung-ho hasn’t had his DUI incident yet, and both Lee Jung-hoo and Kim Ha-sung are still with the Heroes since their posting is next year.’

Looking at the roster, it wasn’t the 2023 WBC roster from my original world. This was a truly legendary, all-time great batting lineup. Just in the outfield alone, there were power hitters like Lee Jung-hoo, Na Sung-bum, and Kim Hyun-soo. In the infield, we had Major Leaguer Tommy Hyun-soo Adman (2B) who held Korean citizenship, Kang Jung-ho at shortstop, and Kim Ha-sung at third. It was an absolutely luxurious lineup.

‘Maybe we can actually aim for a top-three finish.’

In the original history, Korea had been the butt of every joke, suffering humiliating results in the group stage. But with these insane players on the team, the story would be completely different. We had Kang Jung-ho anchoring the lineup and Kim Ha-sung, who had even won a Gold Glove in the majors as a utility player in the original timeline. And most importantly…

“Ryu Hyun-jin! Can I get your autograph?!”

“Thank you for coming all the way here! I’ll do my best!”

The starting pitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays, Ryu Hyun-jin—who in the original history had been unable to join due to injury—had made it onto the roster.

‘Even with the same Captain (H) skill, the detailed effects are different?’

Just by being on the roster, he boosted the entire pitching staff’s stats. It was undeniably an insane skill.

‘As expected of the player considered Korea’s greatest pitcher of all time.’

Of course, if you looked at peak performance and team achievements, Kim Byung-hyun might come out on top… but if people were asked to name Korea’s best pitcher after Park Chan-ho, most would probably pick Ryu Hyun-jin.

After that came Tigers pitchers Yang Hyeon-jong and Lee Eui-ri, Aliens’ Kim Kwang-hyun, Dragons’ Koo Chang-mo, Wiz’s Ko Young-pyo, and many more. Obviously I didn’t have any personal connection with these players, so thanks to the brief link from throwing the ceremonial first pitch, I ended up forced into a get-to-know-you session with the Heroes players.

“Hmm… I’m pretty nervous.”

“Really? Well, when I was your age I was still riding the bench in high school.”

“Come on, you still won a Gold Glove, Ha-sung hyung.”

“That’s true.”

We chatted for a while until the man carrying the weight of the entire Korean national team, Manager Kim Kyung-moon, slowly walked in. The atmosphere among the players instantly fell silent.

“It’s been a while, everyone. Let’s start by loosening up. And Seojun, come see me for a moment.”

‘……?’

He’d given me a thumbs-up ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠during the Blue Dragon Flag final. But the vibe right now felt like ‘you’re not a starter, hehe’…!

Fortunately, that wasn’t the case.

“Throw a pitch right here.”

The place I was directed to was the pitcher’s mound at Jamsil Dome. Most of the other players should have been heading off to their own training, but for some reason nearly the entire pitching staff had gathered along the first-base line to watch me.

‘Oh my god, why am I suddenly being put through this trial?’

The catcher was national team backstop Kim Tae-goon. Originally Yang Uijin should have been the national ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠team’s starting catcher, but… unfortunately, in this world, there were no records of a player named Yang Uijin. Probably because this wasn’t reality, but the world of 3X3.

“Alright, let’s see that rumored 158 km/h.”

Kim Tae-goon called out confidently, telling me to throw. He even said he’d been practicing by catching 160 km/h fastballs from a pitching machine just so he could receive my pitches.

‘……That’s actually really touching.’

For a first-year high schooler like me to make him practice that hard—I had no choice but to live up to the expectation.

Thud.

I didn’t use a wind-up. No leg kick to completely destroy the batter’s timing. I was far too used to it now. I gripped the seams hard.

‘Feels good.’

The moment the ball left my hand, the sensation was extraordinary.

‘Ah, I must be receiving the effect of Ryu Hyun-jin’s skill. No wonder the ball felt so good in my hand.’

My already inflated stats received another boost.

BOOOOM—!

“……?”

“……Didn’t you say his max velocity was 159 km/h, Coach?”

“Hmm… that’s what I was told.”

“Wait, what did the speed gun say?”

Kim Tae-goon couldn’t catch the ball.

[162 km/h]

“It says 162?”

The speed gun displayed a record that surpassed the highest velocity ever recorded in the KBL.