The Genius Hitter Who Conquered America - Chapter 128

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 128
At the Major Agency Off-Season Training Facility, home to countless Major League players.
Casey removed his helmet, breathing heavily after finishing his practice at the Batter’s Box.
Suppressed and wildly unkempt blonde hair tumbled across his forehead.
Thick beads of sweat rolled relentlessly down his prominent nose bridge and sharp jawline from the intensity of his swings.
Phew.
Casey wiped away the sweat covering his face with the back of his hand, utterly unguarded in his movements.
Between his slowly opening eyelids, a strikingly surreal blue gaze flickered with intensity.
Facial features in perfect proportion, as if sculpted by a god with deliberate care.
Yet he himself seemed utterly indifferent to his own striking appearance.
He merely fluttered his sweat-soaked shirt and replayed only the swing balance from his previous at-bat.
Afterward, he surveyed his surroundings.
Current Major League players whose names were recognizable at a glance were absorbed in their individual training.
Of course, those incredible athletes never approached Casey to kindly share their expertise.
Such was the ecosystem of Major League Baseball—thoroughly individualistic.
With the upcoming season looming and astronomical salaries hanging in the balance.
Who had the leisure to teach some stranger’s skills during the off-season?
But what did it matter?
Even without direct instruction, there was far more Casey could gain.
The ruthless mindset top-tier players brought to training.
The perfect routine that controlled every detail before stepping into the Batter’s Box.
Simply by immersing myself in that professional atmosphere and following their movements with my eyes, I was laying the groundwork for growth.
As I accumulated such invaluable experience, a face suddenly flashed through my mind unbidden.
I should have asked him to come with me.
It was Soo-ho.
In this harsh and cold American land.
Worry suddenly washed over me—wondering how Soo-ho, a complete foreigner, was spending this lonely off-season alone.
Truthfully, I myself was thoroughly American, saturated with individualism to my core.
So the moment the season ended, without a moment’s hesitation.
Thinking only of my own advancement and skill improvement, I simply transferred to this Agency Camp.
Back then, I thought it was natural.
Others are others, and I am I.
But from the Low-A days through the Arizona Fall League.
Recalling the tremendous help and sharp advice I’d received from Soo-ho, my chest tightened.
No matter what, I should have at least extended an invitation to join the Agency Training Facility. What kind of idiot was I, Casey, unable to even make such a simple suggestion first?
I bit my lip fiercely, condemning my own selfishness.
Should I call Soo-ho right now on my phone?
But I gripped the bat handle tightly and shook my head.
It was true that I worried about him suffering in this unfamiliar foreign land.
Yet paradoxically, I wasn’t worried at all.
The reason is crystal clear.
The moment Soo-ho crossed the Pacific to the United States, alone and unaccompanied from Korea.
‘Baseball Tryout, Low-A. And he even excelled through the Arizona Fall League.’
Casey, who had observed Soo-ho up close, recognized in him a player whose maturity and meticulous precision were chillingly beyond his years.
Whether or not anyone looked after him, whether or not he was thrown into unfamiliar circumstances.
It was obvious that Soo-ho would instinctively find what he needed and shatter his limits with relentless determination.
‘Right. This isn’t the time for distractions. If I want to surprise that bastard at Spring Training, I need to focus on myself first.’
Casey’s eyes blazed with fierce intensity as he gripped the bat once more.
The approaching February Major League Spring Training.
There, he wanted to demonstrate his dramatically improved skills not only to the Baseball Club staff.
But most of all, to Soo-ho, who had guided him so far.
* * *
Around that same time.
Mark was staying at his Alma Mater High School, one of the most prestigious baseball institutions across the United States.
“Ha! Yah!”
Mark’s heavy, resonant kiai echoed through the empty Indoor Training Facility.
Currently, American High Schools were in the midst of winter break.
Naturally, school facilities should have been firmly locked down.
In principle, even alumni were prohibited from commandeering school facilities for personal training.
But Mark was different.
Before his injury, he had been a legendary ace pitcher—the overwhelming MVP of the National High School Invitational Tournament, where the nation’s most elite high school baseball prospects collided, and he had brought his school the championship trophy.
When the school learned that Mark, the architect of that glorious history, had returned to make his comeback.
They graciously granted him extraordinary privileges, providing him with all the keys to the training facility despite the winter break.
Clang! Clang!
As Mark forcefully pushed the barbell upward, the metallic sound rang out heavily.
Mark’s physique had swollen to massive proportions compared to a month ago during his Low-A days.
Unlike Casey and Soo-ho, who needed to meticulously maintain subtle speed and joint flexibility.
And balance as well.
He was a batter who pursued only one thing to its extreme: overwhelming raw power to mercilessly tear the ball beyond the fence from the Batter’s Box.
With such a simple and singular objective, the speed and results of his bulking regimen were, in a sense, inevitably extraordinary.
Yet the process had been anything but easy.
Guzzling protein shakes like water, lifting iron weights daily until nausea threatened to overtake him.
It was the fruit of enduring excruciating pain, forcibly tearing and reattaching his own bones and muscles, moment after agonizing moment.
“Huff….”
As Mark steadied his ragged breathing and wiped the sweat from his neck with a towel, his gaze drifted upward to the ceiling.
‘Am I doing this right?’
Soo-ho naturally surfaced in his thoughts.
The past five months.
From that first moment he met Soo-ho, who had been dropped into American soil.
‘We spent nearly twenty-four hours a day together, living like brothers bound by blood.’
But being separated for over a month during the off-season was driving him absolutely insane.
They exchanged messages and calls occasionally to confirm each other was alive, but.
Without directly feeling that beast’s characteristic resolute voice and the aura of his insane training volume, something felt hollow.
‘Damn. I should’ve just dragged him here by force and trained together. I’m regretting it now.’
Mark smacked his lips.
Of course, the reason Mark hadn’t persistently urged Soo-ho to spend the off-season together was crystal clear.
It was a choice made entirely out of consideration for Soo-ho.
He had returned to his Alma Mater High School seeking to recapture the sensations of his most brilliant peak before the injury, starting from scratch.
But what could Soo-ho possibly gain by crawling all the way to this High School Training Facility?
No matter how high the infrastructure and level of American High School baseball was, it was ultimately just a cradle for amateurs.
‘It’s far too shallow and narrow a vessel to contain Soo-ho.’
Moreover, Soo-ho had already proudly inscribed his name on the Baseball Club’s 40-Man Roster.
Among countless minor leaguers, wasn’t he the most outstanding top prospect?
He couldn’t steal Soo-ho’s precious off-season time just to satisfy his own sentiments.
‘Ah. But I really do miss Soo-ho.’
When that beast was beside him, his training energy would surge like madness, infected by that stubbornly fierce momentum.
He deeply missed those times when they watched each other’s form and became each other’s catalyst.
“This isn’t the time for that!”
Mark slapped both cheeks with his palms, banishing idle thoughts.
He trusted Soo-ho, his brother-like companion, absolutely more than anyone else.
Given that relentless, perfectionist nature of his.
‘He’s definitely evolving like a mad monster somewhere unseen right now.’
If he indulged in sentiment and neglected his training here?
During the coming Spring Training, he wouldn’t even be able to chase that terrifying beast’s heels.
“One more set!”
Mark’s eyes gleamed as he gripped the heavy barbell once more.
Thus, Soo-ho’s presence, even from an invisible distant place.
Ignited a relentless fire in the hearts of two talented players—Casey and Mark—acting as a powerful catalyst for their growth.
* * *
At that same moment, in an Underground Research Laboratory near LA Dodger Stadium.
Soo-ho stood in the Batter’s Box with equipment attached to all the major joints of his body.
The grip of the bat in both his hands felt unfamiliar yet heavy, different from usual.
It was the first time he was properly swinging after packing 10 kilograms of muscle over the past month through Hank’s relentless diet and training.
‘Mark and Casey must be working hard somewhere too right now.’
Soo-ho smiled faintly and licked his lips.
Even without seeing them, he felt it deep in his bones.
Just as he was struggling and breaking his limits in this harsh foreign land.
‘Those beasts are definitely sweating like madness to surpass their limits too.’
That sticky bond and relentless competitive spirit poured scalding oil into Soo-ho’s heart.
If he faltered or stopped even slightly here.
He would be devoured by those monstrous friends come February.
It was at that very moment.
“First, let’s see how much you’ve changed. But this time, instead of my eyeballing like last time, I’ll judge with precision equipment. In other words, this is truly my stage.”
At those words, Soo-ho’s eyes blazed with fierce intensity as he planted his feet firmly in his lower body.
Alex nodded with satisfaction and issued his instruction.
“Good. Start with a ball on the tee, nice and easy. Full swing at one hundred percent, and drive through with maximum ground reaction force.”
Beside him stood an overwhelmingly gifted physical specimen who had just joined the Major League Roster.
Ethan Cross watched Soo-ho with arms crossed, his interest evident.
Ethan’s gaze brimmed with confidence.
Judging by physique alone, this East Asian batter was nearly ten centimeters shorter and weighed almost twenty kilograms less than himself.
He was certain that the destructive power in the batter’s hit could never surpass his own.
But then.
The moment Soo-ho stepped into the Batter’s Box and drew a long breath, lifting his right leg.
Ethan’s thick brows furrowed sharply.
‘What…?’
With just one leg raised, a bizarre, oppressive aura emanated from around the Batter’s Box, as if the very air had grown heavy and suffocating.
Soo-ho’s firm thighs and core muscles, planted on the ground embedded with ground reaction force sensors, swelled taut and explosive.
And then.
With his breath held, Soo-ho’s waist erupted into a violent rotation.
Crack—!
A tremendous explosive sound that tore through the air of the Underground Research Laboratory.
Impossible to believe this was the sound of striking a gently placed, stationary baseball.
Like a bomb detonating, the insane crack of the bat echoed through the entire Indoor Practice Facility with thunderous booms.
The baseball struck dead center on Soo-ho’s bat shot forward faster than the eye could follow, embedding itself in the net as if to tear it asunder.
“Insane…”
An involuntary curse escaped Ethan’s lips, who had been standing with arms casually crossed.
The arrogance that had filled Ethan’s eyes moments before vanished without a trace.
In its place remained only shock and astonishment.
Because the trajectory and explosive power of the swing Soo-ho had just displayed
was a monstrous level that didn’t pale in the slightest compared to Ethan’s own one-hundred-percent full swing.
“No way. Where on earth did you bring this monster from?”
To Ethan’s curious question,
Alex’s jaw hung slack, trembling slightly.
“Well, I… I’m not sure.”
Honestly, he was questioning whether this was real.
Alex was seeing Soo-ho for the first time in a month.
The last time had been at the AFL Playoff Finals.
‘What has he been doing all this time?’
Even accounting for the muscle he’d gained,
Soo-ho’s physique still fell short compared to Major Leaguers who symbolized raw power.
‘But what on earth is this power?’
What kind of training had he undergone?
Had he perhaps devoured a tiger alive and brought back its strength?
Regardless.
There was one thing he could discern from this.
Soo-ho’s potential was.
so far beyond specification that it shattered even the ultimate blueprint he had dared to envision in his mind.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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