The Genius Hitter Who Conquered America - Chapter 45

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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 45
A week had slipped away before I realized it.
One week remained before my departure to Arizona.
In that time, I had adapted perfectly to Mark’s house.
No—I had gone beyond adaptation and transformed the household’s entire system.
8:00 AM.
Just a week ago, this hour had been a battlefield of shouting and thundering footsteps, but now it was impossibly serene.
“Jenny, you done with the bathroom? Tommy, your turn.”
“Got it, hyung.”
At my direction, Tommy obediently grabbed his towel and headed into the bathroom.
“Lily, your socks?”
“Here! I got ready last night like you said!”
“That’s right. Well done. Want me to tie your hair?”
With practiced hands, I brushed Lily’s hair and tied it back into a neat ponytail.
It was a skill ingrained in me from my years at the Orphanage, caring for dozens of younger siblings.
What I had introduced was nothing grandiose.
I gave Jenny, sensitive from adolescence, priority access to the bathroom.
I taught Tommy, rough-edged by nature, the value of order.
And I gave Lily, the youngest, small missions to accomplish on her own, then praised her for it.
As these simple rules interlocked and began to function, the chaotic mornings transformed into peaceful routine.
Mark, spinning a pan in the kitchen, watched the scene unfold with a wry chuckle.
‘…Wow. A real magician, I’m telling you.’
What Mark hadn’t managed to accomplish in over a decade, I had gently taken control of in mere days.
As a result, Mark no longer needed to wield a pan and bellow at the top of his lungs.
“I’m heading to school!”
“Off to kindergarten!”
After the children left, the front door closed.
Suddenly, only peaceful silence remained in the house.
Mark sat at the Dining Table, bit into a freshly toasted piece of toast, and sighed with satisfaction.
“Soo-ho. I really can’t thank you enough.”
“For what?”
“Because of you, things are genuinely easier. I can’t even remember the last time I ate breakfast without breaking into a cold sweat. I think this might be the first time ever.”
There was no trace of exhaustion on Mark’s face.
If anything, he was brimming with vitality.
The small stresses he’d carried as a father had dissolved thanks to me, leaving both body and spirit lighter.
I took a sip of juice and smiled softly.
“Come on. I haven’t done anything special. The kids are just following along well.”
It wasn’t false modesty, really.
Mark’s family genuinely respected and cared for me.
The reason was simple.
I didn’t treat them like strangers.
More like true family.
Sometimes stern, sometimes tender.
I carried myself like a son of this household.
Because Mark had opened his heart to me as family.
I simply did my best in return.
So before that genuine warmth and sincerity,
even the children, who were naturally guarded around strangers, couldn’t help but open their hearts completely.
“Still, that’s impressive. I thought you only excelled at baseball, but you’re quite skilled at childcare too.”
The two of us continued breakfast in comfortable silence.
Then Soo-ho scrolled through his phone with one hand and suddenly stopped.
His eyes gleamed.
“Mark.”
“Huh? What is it? More baseball stuff? I told you I’m not interested right now. Let’s rest during rest time.”
Ever since declaring he’d become a Major League player,
Soo-ho had been searching for baseball-related content all week long.
“This one, you’ll definitely be interested in.”
Soo-ho showed Mark the phone screen.
On the display was a recruitment notice for motion capture actors for a famous new baseball game.
Mark skimmed the content and furrowed his brow.
“Motion capture? That… the thing where you wear those skin-tight suits and move around? Why would you do something so embarrassing? The pay’s probably terrible anyway.”
Mark tried to brush it off casually.
But Soo-ho shook his head and tapped his finger on the text at the bottom of the screen.
“One thousand dollars per day. Cash payment.”
“!”
Mark nearly dropped the bread he was eating.
One thousand dollars.
That was nearly a third of a Low-A player’s monthly salary—a substantial sum.
And it was listed as payment for just a single day’s work.
Moreover, the season had ended, so he was no longer receiving payments from the Baseball Club.
Mark couldn’t help but nod.
Since money was tight right now, he absolutely had to take this job.
“Well, what’s a little embarrassment?”
His only thought was to add this money to the family’s living expenses.
But Mark soon furrowed his brow again.
“But while I need the money, you’re not pushing yourself for my sake, are you?”
Given Soo-ho’s character,
Mark thought he might deliberately take unnecessary work just to help him.
Because Soo-ho wasn’t in as tight a financial situation as he was.
“It’s a film set too, so it’ll be incredibly exhausting either way. Just rest at home—I’ll go alone.”
I shook my head.
“No. I want to go too.”
“But why….”
“Well… I think there’s something I can gain from it.”
“Gain? What… Wait, let’s apply right now. The shoot starts in four hours, so spots might fill up fast!”
Mark immediately pulled out his phone and dialed the contact number listed in the job posting.
“Hello? I’d like to apply as an actor! Yes. Yes. I’m a Minor League player. Currently with the Dodgers. There are two of us. Yes. Yes. You want us to come right now? It’s in four hours… Ah. I understand.”
Mark hung up and spoke.
“They said we need to come right away and go over the script first? Let’s get ready fast!… Oh.”
Mark trailed off mid-sentence.
Looking me over, I was already perfectly prepared to head out.
That made sense—I’d woken up at dawn as usual, worked up a sweat, and already showered and cleaned up.
“You’re all set? You’re seriously something else. Anyway, I’ll shower and be right out!”
Mark grabbed a towel and rushed into the bathroom in a flurry.
With a bang of the door closing, I was left alone in the living room.
I sat on the sofa and gazed at the words “motion capture” on my phone screen, lost in thought.
“Hmm. I couldn’t tell him after all.”
What I’d said to Mark about having something to gain.
It wasn’t mere flattery.
‘Motion capture.’
I’d heard about this technology before.
It wasn’t simply a technique of capturing human movement and applying it to a character.
Dozens of sensors are attached across the body.
Dozens of infrared cameras track joint movement, rotation radius, and velocity changes with precision down to 0.01-second intervals—cutting-edge technology.
‘They called it Biomechanics.’
It was the very technology Major League teams used to correct players’ pitching form and batting stance.
It reveals in raw data the microscopic balance collapses and power leakage zones that the eye cannot see.
But this equipment costs hundreds of millions of won per unit.
Poor Low-A Minor League clubs naturally don’t have it, nor do High-A or Double-A teams.
Only the Major League, or the top-tier Triple-A Minor League, had access to such equipment.
‘But I can use that equipment while getting paid instead of paying for it?’
It was like getting paid to undergo a precision examination that normally costs money.
My body might be a bit fatigued, but no matter how I thought about it, the gains far outweighed any drawbacks.
‘I want to check before heading to Arizona.’
How scientifically efficient my current state truly is.
Whether there might be any bad habits I need to correct—the technology could reveal all of that.
Truth be told, I’d never been one to blindly trust science.
But after learning mechanics from Alex, my perspective changed.
‘Arizona is crawling with monsters.’
Surviving on instinct and experience alone, like in Low-A, might not be enough.
So if I could analyze my body through objective data with this opportunity?
My eyes gleamed with sharp intensity.
‘Perhaps I could obtain data that would elevate my baseball to the next level.’
And the money was merely a bonus.
As a Minor League player myself, earning even a single extra dollar couldn’t hurt.
* * *
The two of us arrived at a massive studio facility near Hollywood.
Upon stepping through the warehouse-like building’s entrance, an entirely different world unfolded before us.
Dozens of infrared cameras densely packed the ceiling and walls.
At the center stood an enormous green screen, while one wall was lined with monitors displaying complex graphs and 3D models in real-time.
“Wow… Soo-ho. I’ve never seen anything like this before.”
Mark gazed around, his mouth hanging open in astonishment.
“I heard American schools sometimes have cutting-edge technology like this?”
“That’s only at the good, expensive schools. The school I attended didn’t even have properly functioning computers.”
“Ah….”
I sighed softly. Now that he mentioned it, I recalled the landscape of Mark’s neighborhood.
Just then, a Staff Member holding a clipboard approached us.
“You’re the applicants, correct? First, you’ll need to prove you’re professional players.”
The Staff Member’s tone was businesslike.
I silently pulled out my phone and opened the photo gallery.
It was a championship commemorative photo taken at San Jose Stadium days earlier.
In the front row, I was holding the trophy, with Mark beside me with his arm around my shoulder.
“That’s me. That’s him.”
The Staff Member alternated his gaze between the phone and our faces, his eyes widening.
“Oh. Yes, definitely matches. Quakes uniform and… good.”
The Staff Member exhaled in relief and continued.
“Actually, many people apply who aren’t baseball players at all. Most are amateurs just mimicking the form. Of course, many Minor League players have also applied.”
This meant there were numerous other applicants besides Mark and me.
It was inevitable.
The reality of Minor League Baseball, particularly at the Low-A Level, is harsh.
During the season, players earn wages equivalent to hourly minimum wage work.
During the off-season, even that stops, and many receive no salary whatsoever.
Though conditions have improved recently, they remain impoverished.
Thus, off-season side work is not optional—it’s essential.
Uber drivers, baseball lesson coaches, valet parking, manual labor.
To sustain themselves and earn training expenses, players stripped of their uniforms must labor and sweat.
So it was natural that applicants flooded in for a thousand-dollar-a-day cushy job.
The Staff Member glanced at the other applicants gathered in the waiting area, then spoke decisively.
“But I’ll have to send the rest away.”
“Uh… all of them?”
“Yes, the two of you are more than sufficient. Why, you ask? Because you’re champions.”
The Staff Member added with a knowing smile.
“Looking at the photos, the championship team’s starters are here. Why would we need anyone else? Quality is already guaranteed.”
The Staff Member was diplomatically saying that no other candidates could match Soo-ho and Mark’s professional caliber.
Soo-ho couldn’t help but laugh.
The players themselves had never cared much about the Minor League championship trophy.
They only dreamed of promotion.
But the outside world saw things so differently.
‘Right. The general public couldn’t possibly understand the Minor League ecosystem in detail.’
What mattered to them was the credibility that came with the title of championship team player.
Soo-ho gazed at the gleaming state-of-the-art equipment.
‘So this is how the reward for winning comes back to me?’
What if we hadn’t won?
What if that photo holding the trophy didn’t exist?
Perhaps I would have been lost among countless other candidates, taking tests or sent away.
Therefore, this opportunity was not mere unexpected fortune.
It was rightful compensation for the sweat I had shed, and I could only be grateful.
“Well, time is short, so let’s get started right away. Here’s today’s shot list.”
The Staff Member showed the two of them a tablet PC and explained.
Batting stance, defensive movements, sliding, and several special scenario sequences.
I listened carefully to the rehearsal method and precautions about sensor malfunctions.
“Now just go change into your clothes and come back out.”
The two of them headed to the Changing Room.
Moments later, both men stood in the center of the Motion Capture Studio, dressed in black motion-capture suits covered entirely with sensors.
Mark fidgeted awkwardly, busy covering his sensitive areas, but Soo-ho was different.
‘This is it.’
Though the sight might have been somewhat ridiculous, my heart was pounding with anticipation.
All those cameras would dissect my movements down to 0.01-second intervals and analyze them.
Data that could only be seen in the Major League would unfold before my eyes.
Soo-ho warmed up with light jumping jacks.
I wanted to start immediately.
How my baseball had changed since coming to the United States would be proven in data.
Had the staff finished their preparations?
The lights came on, and the red beams of the infrared cameras turned toward the two of them in unison.
“Alright then, let’s begin filming!”

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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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