The Genius Hitter Who Conquered America - Chapter 95

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

Chapter 95
“Game set! The match is over!”
With the Referee’s call, the Scoreboard froze.
12 to 5. A dominant victory for the Western Team.
The Dugout buzzed with activity, yet carried an oddly subdued undertone.
The players gathered their equipment and exchanged light pats on the back.
“Good work out there.”
“You had a decent game today, didn’t you?”
Compliments were exchanged, but they lacked conviction.
Everyone knew the truth.
Today, they had merely played supporting roles.
The spotlight of MVP had already drifted far beyond their reach.
Amid the commotion, three figures sat side by side on the Dugout bench, maintaining a contemplative silence.
Casey, Mark, and Soo-ho.
The protagonists who had dominated the Ground today.
By the statistics alone, any of them would have been a worthy recipient of the award.
It was Mark who broke the silence.
“What a shame.”
Mark removed his helmet and placed it on his lap, the words tumbling out matter-of-factly.
“One thing’s certain—the MVP won’t be me.”
It was a candid acknowledgment.
Today, he had hit two home runs.
In any ordinary game, such a performance would have made him the undisputed star.
But there was no helping it.
The monsters sitting on either side of him had written a far more dramatic narrative than his home runs.
‘Sigh. Absolute monsters.’
Mark clicked his tongue inwardly.
To claim he felt no jealousy would be a lie.
Yet strangely, rather than defeat, his chest burned with something else entirely.
“Still, I won’t lose next time.”
Mark rose from his seat with a decisive shake, as if brushing away doubt.
His eyes gleamed with newfound depth.
There was no need for despair.
Simply running shoulder to shoulder with monsters of this caliber was proof enough that he was on the right path.
‘If I keep chasing them… someday I’ll catch up.’
The dream stage of the Major League appeared increasingly vivid before him.
For now, this was enough.
He made a silent vow to himself.
Next time, he would grow stronger and surpass even these friends without fail.
It was a rivalry born of genuine respect.
At that moment, Casey rose from his seat beside me.
He stepped in front of me and extended his hand.
“You worked hard out there.”
Then he added briefly.
“Thank you.”
He meant it sincerely.
Casey harbored no regrets about today’s game either.
The path hadn’t been smooth.
I’d tasted the suffocating terror of being blocked by the massive wall that was Victor, and I’d confronted my own limitations head-on.
But in the end, I’d overcome it.
That experience of growth alone made today thoroughly satisfying.
More than anything.
‘The MVP… it should go to Soo-ho.’
Casey had already reached that conclusion in his heart.
Of course, if the voting tilted in his favor, he wouldn’t refuse it.
What madman would reject an award being handed to him?
It was an opportunity for advancement.
‘But looking at it objectively, today’s hero is Soo-ho.’
If Soo-ho hadn’t rattled the Pitcher?
I might have struck out at that Batter’s Box.
My home run was nothing more than placing a spoon on the table Soo-ho had set for me.
‘Today, making my name known is enough.’
I’d etched the two syllables of Casey across the entire United States.
That alone had accomplished my purpose.
Even if I couldn’t take home the trophy, it was only natural to express gratitude to the friend who’d given me this exhilarating taste of victory.
I lifted my head and looked at Casey.
And I gripped his hand firmly.
The strength in that grip seemed to convey sincerity.
“Casey. You worked hard too. And.”
I paused for a moment, then glanced at Mark standing beside me before continuing.
“Thank you. Mark, you too.”
It was a brief acknowledgment, but the weight it carried was substantial.
I released the hand I’d been gripping and swallowed deeply.
‘I really… was fortunate.’
Looking back, it had been a succession of miraculous events.
The painful failure of being released by the KBO.
With nothing but the resolve to rise above that pain, or perhaps driven by sheer stubbornness, I’d crossed the Pacific Ocean recklessly.
To be honest, I was afraid at first.
I’d failed and been cast out even on the familiar soil of Korea—could I truly succeed in this foreign land where I didn’t even speak the language?
There were nights when I’d lie staring at the ceiling, trembling with anxiety.
Yet it was here, in this place, that I encountered the greatest fortune of my life.
Casey and Mark.
More than mere colleagues—they were rivals who pushed me to my limits, and friends who believed in me.
‘Without these two, could I have ever reached such heights?’
The answer was an unequivocal no.
Watching them, I sometimes felt the weight of an insurmountable wall, yet I learned by stealing glimpses of their strengths and grew from it.
Alone, I might have burned out long ago, or settled for mediocrity and stopped striving.
The synergy we created by pulling and pushing each other forward.
That was what made me who I am today.
‘Now we’re teammates again.’
Today we were adversaries, but tomorrow we would don the same uniform and take the field together.
I genuinely hoped this relationship—where we each showcased our strengths and filled each other’s gaps—would endure.
But truthfully, it wasn’t as simple as it sounded.
We were still competing for a single crown: the MVP award.
In this cruel world of competition where one must shine while another fades, awkwardness and jealousy inevitably surface once victory and defeat are decided.
We could have grown distant. A gap could have formed between us.
But.
‘They reached out first.’
Something in my chest tightened with emotion.
While I hesitated, Mark offered his congratulations first, and Casey extended his hand before I could.
That gesture weighed far heavier on me than any MVP trophy ever could.
It had to.
I had always been alone.
Growing up as an orphan without parents, the only thing I could rely on in this world was myself.
I closed my heart to avoid pain, never learned to reach out to others, and instead mastered the art of enduring loneliness.
To someone like me, they could never truly fathom how warm and precious these outstretched hands felt.
Just then.
[Now, let me announce the results!]
The stadium announcer’s voice shattered my reverie.
I lifted my head, quietly wiping my reddened eyes.
The outcome didn’t matter anymore.
I had already gained something far greater than baseball.
[The All-Star Game MVP! From the Western Team—Oh Soo-ho!]
The announcer’s cry reverberated through the stadium.
Simultaneously, a roar erupted from the crowd.
The first to react were my teammates right beside me.
“Yaaaaaaay!”
Casey and Mark cheered and applauded as if they’d been waiting for this moment.
Liam and all the other Western Team players rose to their feet, offering their unreserved praise.
Even Victor Moretti, standing far away in front of the Eastern Team Dugout.
Though his expression remained bitter, he nodded in acknowledgment and clapped briefly, as if conceding the point.
Everyone was celebrating the moment.
Yet Soo-ho, the man himself, could only blink in confusion.
“Huh?… Me?”
Soo-ho was genuinely bewildered.
He’d naturally expected Casey or Mark’s name to be called.
Of course, he’d given his all.
He’d shown everything he could as a batter.
But if you looked at it purely by the cold metrics of statistics?
‘The home runs and RBIs are completely different.’
Casey and Mark had both hit multiple home runs.
Casey in particular had been the hero of that dramatic, game-winning comeback hit.
In All-Star Games like this, it was customary for the player with the most eye-catching, flashy stats to take home the MVP.
I had one home run, one run scored, one stolen base—solid contributions, but numerically I fell short.
More than anything.
‘This is… America, after all.’
I had never forgotten for a single moment that I was a foreigner here.
Favors always flow toward one’s own.
Why would they bestow the highest honor on an unknown outsider from the East when they had a homegrown star player with an already devoted fanbase?
Honestly, I hadn’t expected it.
No, I’d thought Casey deserved it.
That was simply how the world worked.
I didn’t even feel wronged by it.
But then….
[And don’t be surprised. It’s unanimous!]
That expectation shattered beautifully.
By an absolutely overwhelming margin.
Soo-ho gazed at the cheering Stands and the Scouts giving him thumbs up, his expression dazed.
Something heavy stirred within my chest.
‘…This is a stage where sincerity reaches people.’
Nationality? Race? Popularity?
None of that mattered.
Only who played baseball better on the Ground.
Who engaged with the sport of baseball with genuine passion.
The people here had cast their votes based solely on skill and that burning passion.
Upon realizing this truth, Soo-ho could no longer wear a bewildered expression.
‘It would be disrespectful to those who acknowledge me.’
Just because I was a foreigner, just because my statistics fell short—there was no reason to shrink back.
I had every right to accept this award with confidence.
‘That’s right.’
I rose slowly from my seat.
My hunched shoulders unfurled wide open.
The spotlight pouring down upon me no longer felt burdensome.
Instead, it felt warm.
With confident strides, I walked toward the podium—my stage, my moment.
As I ascended the platform, the Reporter thrust the microphone toward me, his voice trembling with excitement.
[It was unanimous! Did you anticipate this?]
I shook my head calmly.
“No, I didn’t. Truthfully, I believed there were many other players equally deserving of this award.”
[Ha! Give us your thoughts on receiving the trophy. Millions of baseball fans worldwide are watching.]
I gazed down at the trophy’s smooth surface for a moment.
My chest swelled with emotion, but I fought against letting it intoxicate me.
If I became satisfied and drunk on this moment, I would become nothing more than a player who peaked here.
I adjusted my grip on the microphone and answered in a measured voice.
“I’ll accept this award as encouragement to work even harder going forward.”
My gaze remained steady, fixed unflinchingly on the camera.
“I will prove through further dedication that the performance you witnessed today was no mere accident. Thank you.”
In that instant, the murmur rippling through the Stands oddly subsided.
A strange silence even descended.
This was not the interview American sports fans were accustomed to.
Typically, they expected confident trash talk like “I’m the best!” or “I’ll devour the Major League!”, or dazzling showmanship.
But my response was almost excessively orthodox, stiff and measured.
It felt like listening to the vow of a seeker of truth.
‘What? That was too serious.’
‘Is it boring?’
But that unfamiliar silence lasted only a moment.
While familiar flavors have their appeal, sometimes an entirely new taste leaves a far more indelible mark on the mind.
That understated resolve—to prove oneself through skill alone, without pretense or exaggeration.
It struck the American fans as a refreshing shock.
‘Damn! That’s cool!’
‘He really feels like a master.’
Someone called out my name softly.
It became a spark that spread instantly across the entire Stands.
“Oh Soo-ho! Oh Soo-ho! Oh Soo-ho!”
As the Stadium trembled with the roar of acclamation, a brilliant smile finally bloomed across my face.
The cheers directed at me.
To answer that sound, I hoisted the MVP trophy high with both hands.
Flash! Flash! Flash!
Countless camera flashes erupted.
Beneath Arizona’s night sky, the brightest star was being born.
* * *
The glittering festival had come to an end.
Soo-ho, Mark, and Casey peeled off their uniforms—drenched in sweat and champagne—and changed into clean civilian clothes.
A relentless barrage of interviews and photographs.
Only after breaking through that chaotic media onslaught could the three of them regroup in the Parking Lot outside the Stadium.
“Ugh, I’m exhausted.”
Mark stretched and rubbed his belly.
The moment the tension released, hunger came flooding back.
“Man, I’m starving. On days like this, someone suspicious should treat us to something delicious.”
As Mark glanced sidelong at Soo-ho with shameless audacity, Casey beside him chimed in as if on cue.
“Korean food was delicious.”
He hadn’t forgotten the diverse flavors from the last time Soo-ho had treated them.
Just as Soo-ho was about to let out a laugh at their obvious tag-team effort—
“Can I come along too?”
Liam suddenly popped out from behind.
It was Liam.
“I can’t forget the taste of Korean steak!”
Soo-ho laughed heartily and nodded.
“Of course. Today I’ll treat everyone, so eat until you’re stuffed!”
“Oh yeah! That’s our MVP! You’re generous!”
Just then.
“Wait.”
Someone with a heavy voice blocked their path.
It was Paul, the Dodgers’ Scout.
Paul’s gaze fixed immediately on Soo-ho.
“The game’s over, so you should eat something delicious. Right. Right. Young folks shouldn’t go hungry.”
Paul wore a good-natured smile, but his eyes shone with unmistakable seriousness.
“But before that—Oh Soo-ho, and Mark and Casey too—could we have a word?”
In an instant, the buoyant atmosphere settled into stillness.
Soo-ho’s expression hardened.
A Scout—and Paul, representing the organization itself—calling players aside right after the game?
It could be good news, but it might also be something heavy: a trade or personal matters.
As Soo-ho swallowed dryly, showing signs of tension, Paul waved his hand reassuringly and smiled.
“It’s good news.”

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