We're Drawing a Goddamn Big Picture Here, Jack.
159. Let's Paint One Hell of a Big Picture, Jack.
At the café where Noh In-seong was talking with Reporter Jung, he finally lost his temper.
It was true that he'd been growing increasingly displeased with the reporter for quite some time.
But he'd never really intended to put the man in his place quite this directly.
Why the hell was the guy who had messed with his family still running himself ragged in the High Court?
“Fuck, if you mess with my family, isn't that what you get?”
“...No. Most normal people would want a correction or for the article to be taken down. They wouldn't go that far.”
Unless you were a lunatic who didn't give a damn about public opinion, beating up a reporter wasn't exactly something people did in Korea.
It was the kind of insane behavior that could make even Reporter Jung, a man who had been through every kind of hardship imaginable, break out in a cold sweat.
It wasn't something anyone would even attempt unless they genuinely believed, I don't want to share the same sky as you.
Enemies who can never coexist. The conflict with the reporters had already reached its absolute limit.
Having already beaten up reporters three times, Noh In-seong had let his guard down, thinking they'd finally given up.
Being painted as the cause of everything pissed him off,
and the fact that they were desperately trying to belittle his abilities made him want to kill them.
But he'd never imagined they'd go after the people around him instead of him.
“But at this point, they've decided to go all the way.”
The moment someone invaded my territory, they were effectively saying, ‘Let's go to war.’
Having Song Jin-wook steal the Monthly MVP from him? That was fine.
“If Song Jin-wook goes on a hot streak during a month when I'm busy throwing punches, I could lose it.”
“Oh, you're okay with that?”
“Well, without me around, Song Jin-wook has enough talent to win it almost every month, doesn't he?”
If Noh In-seong had an off month, or simply wasn't performing as well as usual, it was entirely possible for someone to take it from him.
Besides, he already knew Jung Soo-jung, so he could just show up at their house, eat something tasty, and call it a day.
“If Song Jin-wook's WAR is even slightly higher after a fair competition, or if he sets a record, then sure.”
He could accept the result without making a fuss. In baseball, the winner decided everything.
But if that wasn't what happened, there was no way in hell he'd accept it.
“I've lived my entire life by that principle, and you think you can just overturn it right in front of me?”
He was a man who had survived through sheer ability—and even after dying and being reborn, continued to reign through sheer ability.
He didn't care what other people did. But if they ignored that principle and started scheming against him, then there was nothing he could do about it.
“This time, I'll just have to put some real time and effort into crushing them properly.”
He was going overseas to play baseball anyway, so he needed to crush the domestic opposition ahead of time. That way, they wouldn't be able to come crawling back halfway through.
Noh In-seong began several different kinds of “games.”
The third game in Daejeon was a miserable affair, with both the batting lineup and the pitching falling apart unlike the day before.
Both the Doubles and Daejeon were putting on their own versions of a legendary disaster.
To put it bluntly:
“It's the Olympics of stupidity. Two moronic teams screwing around until whichever idiot screws up less wins.”
“...Sounds about right.”
Whenever Noh In-seong got a hit, Song Jin-wook would fall apart.
Whenever Song Jin-wook got a hit, Sung Hyun-tak would fall apart.
“You idiots! Did you lose the concept of teamwork?!”
It was a hellish festival of runners left stranded, with Jeong Im-taek pounding his chest in frustration.
And while the manager was tearing his hair out, there was no reason to expect the pitchers to be any better.
[Kim Jung-mook's first pitch... Ah! The breaking ball got away from him—!! Jo Gyu-cheol, who was on first, is heading for second!]
[This time, Lim Jae-min was properly set, but it took an irregular bounce right in front of him!]
All you had to do was wait for the rattled pitcher to lose his command after one defensive mistake, and the runners would start reaching base.
And if a bat happened to catch one of those pitches with all those runners piled up?
CRACK—!!
[All the runners are going! A base hit between the left and center fielders! The ball gets through and rolls all the way to the fence!]
[The batter is already rounding first—!! It's a bang-bang play at second. Out! Yes, Jeong In-woong is out!]
“...Did you donate one of your legs to the next generation as emergency rations or something?”
Noh In-seong's sarcastic remark came as the man who had sprinted at full speed could barely even muster a response after getting thrown out.
“Hoo... Shut up, asshole... Hah...!! I can't breathe... Hah... hah...!!”
Jeong In-woong caught his breath at second base.
For him, 27.44 meters was an unimaginably long distance.
By the time Jeong In-woong was thrown out at second, all the runners had already scored.
That three-run gap ultimately remained unchanged until the end, and the Doubles, who had turned themselves into the losing idiots, went down to defeat.
It was just like the online verdict: “From the moment it became 3–0, before you knew it, we'd already lost.”
“You know what's funny? Yesterday, I remember exactly what I did, pitch by pitch. Today, I barely remember what we even did.”
“That's because you and I both got one hit today, and that was it.”
After winning the Great Battle of Idiocy but losing the Idiot Olympics, the players boarded the bus with bitter tastes in their mouths.
The Doubles left Daejeon and headed back to their home.
They say the one who wins at the end is the one who really won.
Whatever the actual standings said, it certainly felt true from a purely emotional standpoint.
They had won two games and lost only one, yet the reporters' attacks were becoming increasingly vicious.
As if he didn't have time to deal with this nonsense, Noh In-seong pressed the bottom of the holographic newspaper by himself.
He had far too much to do to waste time staring at glowing blocks of text masquerading as articles.
“Why the hell do these bastards keep coming at me?”
Every time, they wrote their articles with such confidence, only for their mentions of him to mysteriously disappear whenever he hit a home run.
At this point, wasn't pathetic the perfect word for them?
“Now that things have come this far, I should probably show them something next game and make them shut up for a while.”
If he wanted to do what he wanted, it would be much easier if his name stayed out of the articles for a while.
The next game was bound to be noisy anyway, considering what a big match it was against their opponent.
The main event of May was already set, just like last year.
The Grizzlies were waiting for the Doubles.
The only thing that had changed this time was that the Doubles were the home team.
The Children's Day Derby. Last year, the bears had gotten beaten up so badly that they ended up receiving a wave of sympathy.
“By now, even the kids' club members should have learned that winning tastes sweet.”
If they'd become fans out of pity back then, then this time they ought to see the beating and come over to this side.
“You're watching baseball, aren't you, young fans? But you're not baseball fans yet.”
Before they became too attached, it was the duty of the ruler of the era to move them over to a team that actually won a lot.
Baseball had always been a sport that revolved around winning.
When you lost, it wore down your mind, made life miserable, and gave you nothing but stress.
“There's a reason people who want to live a long life are supposed to avoid alcohol, cigarettes, and baseball.”
Arrhythmia, high blood pressure, cardiovascular problems, depression, mania.
He was a man who didn't want children to experience the agony of sobbing and shedding tears from such a young age.
Health-conscious Noh In-seong once again began preparing to hunt the bears.
The three-game Children's Day series between the Doubles and the Grizzlies.
In the first game, Andy successfully took down the bears without much trouble.
[Ah, the machine's response says he gave up on that pitch far too easily! Strike three!]
[I think he was unsure about it! After all, it just barely caught the edge of the zone! But he should have swung!]
On his best days, Andy's command was good enough to attempt pitches that barely clipped the edge of the zone.
Of course, he didn't nail them all. Some would sail farther outside, while others would come in too far. There were countless such cases.
“Wow, this is driving me insane. This bastard is just playing with people.”
“He's playing around? If you'd completed that swing-and-miss too, then stop talking bullshit and get out of the batter's box already.”
Lim Jae-min's particular talent—getting inside an opponent's head and then staring at them like, ‘So what are you gonna do about it?’—was working beautifully.
“...Ah, look at this bastard running his mouth just because he has that thug behind him...!!”
The little devil crouched down, completely getting under Sung Ji-chang's skin as the latter pounded his chest in frustration.
It was almost as if they were deliberately trying to prove what a dysfunctional team they were, throwing their opponents completely off balance.
CRACK—!
[A well-hit ball between the third baseman and shortstop! The shortstop makes the grab! A diving catch by Noh In-seong!]
[He normally never throws his body around like that, but he talked quite a lot today! That interview was pretty aggressive!]
“Today, I'll show you exactly how to butcher a bear.”
Once he'd said something like that, Noh In-seong knew perfectly well that he had to deliver, or he'd only end up becoming a laughingstock.
So he kept putting on a defensive clinic.
With defense this solid, there was no need for a huge lead.
CRACK—!
Noh In-seong led off with a hit on the first pitch, and all the other batters had to do was keep bringing him home.
Today, that job fell to Sung Hyun-tak.
[Sung Hyun-tak hits it... Yes, the right fielder has been pushed almost all the way back to the fence. Out. He can't make the throw.]
[To be fair, the right fielder has quite a strong arm, but that would've been a tough race either way.]
When Noh In-seong reached base on a double, Song Jin-wook and Sung Hyun-tak could bring him home with a fly ball.
Or, in a situation with runners on first and third and one out, with Noh In-seong having just singled and another runner reaching base alongside him—
[...What's this?! A bunt! Sung Hyun-tak lays down a bunt!! Toward first! Both runners are already on the move!]
[The thing is, they had to keep the runner on third in check, so the third baseman was playing normal defense!]
Even if Noh In-seong, the runner on third, was an excellent runner, there was always a chance something could go wrong.
So they had been keeping an eye on the relatively slower runner, which left the first-base side unguarded enough for the bunt.
In the end, even though Song Jin-wook looked painfully slow, he moved quickly enough to be safe.
Sung Hyun-tak, who got himself out while making it look like a safety bunt, picked up two RBIs on the day.
For a pitcher who had thrown eight scoreless innings, two runs were more than enough.
Closer Kim Jin-hong comfortably picked up the save, securing the opening victory.
The problem came the next day.
The second game.
Jackson's third start of the season: six innings, six earned runs, and the loss.
“SHIT, I don't know why I gave up so many hits today.”
Jackson, who always wore a smile, climbed into an ice bath with a gloomy expression for the first time in a while.
To be fair, he'd given up plenty of runs, but six innings was still a respectable workload. It wasn't exactly a terrible pitching performance.
The Doubles had lost 7–9, meaning the bullpen was responsible for three of those runs.
It was a team game, so singling out one player for abuse wasn't exactly fair.
The reporters latched onto Jackson like a pack of rabid dogs.
The reason was simple.
They couldn't attack a certain shameless shortstop who had gone 4-for-4 with two home runs and five RBIs!
Even reporters had basic survival instincts. If they kicked an already-angry baseball fanbase while it was down, they might wake up to find their company's entire website hacked, complete with detailed instructions on what to do and how to die.
So they attacked Jackson, the player who had looked the worst that day, hoping Noh In-seong would have a bad game the following day.
They were both starting pitchers, and if Noh In-seong struggled the next day, the headline could simply become “Noh In-seong Is Worse Than Jackson.”
If he did well, then Jackson had been a pitcher who simply wasn't expected to perform anyway, so their articles would still technically have been right.
“I absolutely hate this kind of free lunch.”
Jackson was feeling down, so it was time to teach him about a beloved Korean traditional pastime.
“Hey, Jackson! Come here!”
“WHAT? Ah, ‘Come over here’? Come here, is that what you mean?”
“This is a traditional Korean game. It's called Jwibulnori...”
Jackson had been bitten by the reporters. Now Noh In-seong would teach him how to bite back.
A rabid Noh In-seong had inoculated an innocent young man with a severe case of hydrophobia.
“The reporters here are all trash, and you can tell by the Monthly MVP voting.”
Having received Noh In-seong's intensive indoctrination, Jackson immediately put it into practice.
“There are too few nominees, and reporters don't have much credibility. The fan vote could easily be raised to fifty percent.”
It looked as though he was about to pick a fight with the reporters head-on.
But then—
“Especially last year. I have no idea what the hell happened. Noh kept getting the nod all year long.”
By bringing up Noh In-seong, he'd managed to put himself in an ambiguous position.
Whether the enemy of his enemy was his friend or this was the beginning of a three-way war, Jackson deliberately left the question unresolved.
Instead, he successfully planted the suggestion that there was some kind of bad blood between himself and Noh In-seong.
Next came vague pieces of fragmented information.
Someone had apparently said there'd been a fight in the Doubles' locker room.
Who fought whom? Nobody knew. Someone had apparently been shouting. That sort of rumor.
It was Reporter Jung who planted this particular rumor.
Don't even start with, “Are reporters allowed to team-kill each other?”
“If I stick close to Noh In-seong, leech off him until after he retires, and coast all the way to retirement myself, my kid will be all grown up by then.”
Wasn't this the perfect opportunity to eliminate every potential competitor, both for his child's future and for his own personal advancement?
“He's going to the Major Leagues anyway. I'd be better off going as his accompanying reporter... It's practically a study-abroad opportunity, too.”
It was the perfect two-for-one opportunity: kill a pelican with one stone and eat the fish inside it, too.
The final highlight was, of course, video footage.
CCTV existed everywhere, regardless of the era.
These days, the cameras had gotten smaller and their performance had improved dramatically.
But there were plenty of cases where the audio was missing even though the image quality had improved.
There were people who made money analyzing nothing but lip movements and figuring out, “What are they saying?”
“Beep beep, human. Please surrender your job immediately and collect your unemployment benefits.”
AI had already taken those jobs away, but there was still demand for that sort of service.
The reporters who had received the fragmented information that two Doubles players had apparently gotten into a fight worked tirelessly to find out where it had happened.
“There was CCTV footage in the parking lot that looks like Jackson and Noh In-seong were fighting!”
“Whoa, did you check their lip movements?”
“Yeah! It had everything, from cursing each other's mothers to ‘Who the hell do you think you are?’! The AI confirmed it! Jackpot!”
On the eve of the Children's Day Derby, Noh In-seong's entire little scam was ready.
There were two people doing the deceiving, both of whom had a grudge against the reporters, and only the poor idiots being deceived.
“Ready, Jack?”
“Ah, of course, Noh.”
“...No, fuck. I told you the translator's performance was weird!”
The two men put their plan into action.
On Children's Day, the only ones deserving pity were the bears, who were about to get dragged into the schemes of these two lunatics.