History's Strongest Lady of the House — Episode 5
5. Spider Hand
1.
"Genie, show me my current status and apply Spider Hand since I'm going to use it now."
[Understood. Checking current status before the start of the game.]
[Kim Jihun, 28 years old, 187 cm, 85 kg, R/R, Catcher]
[Defense]
[Blocking: D] [Framing: B] [Caught Stealing: D]
[Offense]
[Contact: D] [Power: C] [Eye: C]
[Baserunning]
[Speed: E] [Stealing: D] [Baserunning: D]
[Strategy]
[Bunting: B]
[Equipped Item: Spider Hand (Remaining uses: 2 games)]
He calmly checks his current status before entering the game. His stats are still nothing special, but Framing has risen by one stage, presumably because Spider Hand has been applied.
'So this is it.'
An unfamiliar yet weighty sensation rising from his fingertips.
A peculiar feeling of the mitt sticking firmly to his hand.
Though it's his first time using it, he can tell what kind of item it is through feeling and experience. He's a backup even in the tryout, and the score is currently 7-0. Anyone can see it's the worst possible situation, yet Kim Jihun, who stares blankly at his right hand, has an expression gradually filling with confidence.
"Switching sides!"
The attack led by the tryout team's lower batting order finished without any particular upsets, ending in a three-up, three-down inning, and the umpire's call rings out. As Kim Jihun puts on the mask he was holding in one hand and runs out onto the field, a new message window floats up before him.
[Game Quest]
[Moment of Crisis: The current score is 7-0, a desperate crisis situation. The more it is like this, the more important it is to break the opponent's momentum. Hold them scoreless for 3 innings and seize the flow of the game.]
[Condition: 3 scoreless innings]
[Reward: 300 Gold]
Three scoreless innings. With players who gave up 7 runs in 2 innings, it's certainly a difficult quest to achieve. Defense isn't a one-man sport—it's played by nine, making it all the more so. But no matter how difficult, he can't give up on the sweet reward of 300 gold. Carrying the baseless confidence blooming in a corner of his heart on his back, Kim Jihun steps out onto the field.
"Let's get started."
…
"Senior Bae, long time no see."
"Huh? Uh... long time no see..."
Having needed to check the pitcher's condition first, Kim Jihun heads toward the mound and greets Bae Seongung. Whether looking at his eyes or his tone, Bae Seongung's mentality seems shattered into pieces like a broken glass cup, just as expected.
Well, it would be stranger if a pitcher's mentality were normal after giving up 7 runs in 2 innings in such an important game. For now, he needs to soothe this guy first.
"Senior, your stuff is good today, so don't worry and just throw."
"What?"
Getting beaten like a dog on a summer day, and yet his stuff is good? For a moment thinking he's being made fun of, Bae Seongung's voice rises in anger.
"Calm down. I'm not just saying this—your stuff is really good today. The scoreboard was flashing 150 km... that's why they haven't replaced you even in this situation."
Usually, when getting hit hard during a game, the pitcher is the first to be replaced. Well, in the current situation, it seems like the tryout team is short on pitchers so they're just leaving him in... but there's no need to say that.
Having heard this, Bae Seongung seems slightly swayed; the anger disappears from his face and a questioning mark of uncertainty rises.
"I heard what the manager was saying in the dugout. He said the catcher couldn't handle your stuff. In the end, seeing that the catcher was replaced instead of you, he thinks the runs are the catcher's responsibility. If you hold them here, you'll definitely get another chance."
Manager Lee Jeonghwan never said such a thing, and whether Bae Seongung would get another chance or not—Kim Jihun didn't care about that.
What's important right now is throwing the right bait to Bae Seongung and getting his mentality under control.
"Just trust me and throw. Senior, you have to show everything you've prepared before you go."
Bae Seongung, too, is one of the veterans who has rolled around the baseball world for 13 years and tasted the sweet, the bitter, and even the shitty.
He can't not know that what Kim Jihun is saying right now is just sweet talk.
But in this situation where he's getting pounded, the very thing Bae Seongung wanted to hear most was that sweet talk.
'You have to show everything you've prepared before you go.' It's the right words. Bae Seongung slaps his glove with a loud thwack, takes one big deep breath as if pumping himself up, and opens his mouth.
"Got it. Let's give it a shot."
Kim Jihun responds with an appropriate smile and runs back to home plate, and the game resumes with the umpire's call.
The Hawks' batting order is the lower order, continuing from 7 to 9. The Hawks' number 7 batter, Gang Yongcheol, prepares to bat standing close to the plate.
'Let's take it easy here.'
They are batters hitting in the minors, and even among those, the lower batting order of the Hawks, who are considered the weakest in the country. There's no need to make it difficult.
Checking Gang Yongcheol's appearance stuck right near the batter's box, almost touching the strike zone, Kim Jihun moves his mitt and exchanges signs with Bae Seongung.
'Inside, fastball.'
'Will that work? If I miss, it'll be a hit-by-pitch.'
'It's fine. If he's crowding the plate this much, he's prepared to have his ribs broken.'
Bae Seongung, lacking confidence in his own control, shakes his head, but Kim Jihun's mitt still points inside.
They need to break the momentum here. It looks like Gang Yongcheol is sticking close to the box to shrink the zone as much as possible against the shaky Bae Seongung, but if they get dragged along like this, it'll be trouble.
Everyone here knows Bae Seongung's control isn't good. It's time to warn him: if he isn't prepared to get hit by a 150 km ball, don't crowd the plate.
In the end, Bae Seongung nods at Kim Jihun's sign and throws a fastball whose velocity is still alive.
A ruthless ball that digs into the upper inside part of the plate with terrifying force, as if trying to break Gang Yongcheol's ribs. Gang Yongcheol, who was stuck to the box, lets out a scream-like groan and falls hard onto his rear.
"Ugh!"
—Pow!
It seemed to stray slightly from the zone, but whether it was because it grazed properly for the first time in a while, it was caught cleanly in the mitt.
"Strike!"
Gang Yongcheol, sitting in the batter's box soothing his startled chest with a blank expression, stands up immediately upon hearing the umpire's call.
"Coach, did this come in?"
"Yeah, it definitely came in."
Seeing the umpire solemnly putting his foot down as if to say, "Dare you question the umpire's authority?!" Gang Yongcheol shakes his head and this time alternates his gaze between Kim Jihun and Bae Seongung.
'What the hell, punk.'
To help educate this insolent junior who dares glare at his senior, Kim Jihun once again brings his mitt deep inside.
Having checked that appearance, Gang Yongcheol sighs small and steps back a good two to three paces from before, then takes his batting stance.
Bae Seongung also seems to feel something after seeing that strike just now, and the hesitation in his throws disappears.
It's still the typical "try and hit it if you can" gutsy pitching, but power can be felt in the ball itself.
If they've come this far, it's easy. Compared to just before, the strike zone is as wide as the Pacific Ocean, and the target standing behind the plate is much more solid than before. Bae Seongung's fastball spits fire.
"Out!!"
"Raaaah!!"
2.
The momentum that had yielded 7 runs in 2 innings disappeared without a trace, and the 3rd and 4th innings ended in consecutive three-up, three-down innings; even in the currently ongoing fifth inning, there's a runner on first with 2 outs, and the count is pushed to 2-1.
"Doesn't the zone seem wider?"
"He's not giving us the calls, but for the tryout team the zone is the Pacific Ocean. Coach Park, why is he doing that?"
The Hawks batters seated in the first-base dugout pour out their complaints to Coach Park, who is looking at the umpire with a heavily scrunched face, seemingly dissatisfied with the calls. Strangely, since after the 3rd inning, the zone has felt as wide as the Pacific Ocean.
It was definitely a pitch he hadn't been getting before, so if they stopped their bats, the strikeout call came without fail. One could say they were overwhelmed by Bae Seongung's stuff, but with the pitcher having changed to Seo Jaeryong from the 4th inning onward, the Hawks batters were feeling the widened zone even more.
He is a typical aging finesse pitcher who throws a fastball in the low 130s km/h, a slider in the mid-110s km/h, and a curveball in the 100s km/h.
His control was ordinary as well, so if it came into the zone, they could have hit it well enough.
But the ball slithered out of the zone like a loach, yet a strike was called; from the batters' perspective, it was a maddening, infuriating situation.
As if not caring about the Hawks batters' complaints like these, Kim Jihun, sitting behind the plate, exchanges signs with Seo Jaeryong to finish the fifth inning.
'Outside slider, make it fall out of the zone.'
Having already confirmed Kim Jihun's ability in the previous inning, Seo Jaeryong nods and throws toward Kim Jihun's mitt, which is precariously straddling the strike zone.
It's a course that looks quite far from a right-handed batter's perspective. From the front, it's a position where anyone would say it should be a ball.
But from behind, the situation is completely different.
"Strike! Three strikes!"
"No, how do you hit this? Coach!"
The number 6 batter, Seo Taeyong, flares up and argues with Coach Park, but Coach Park's call doesn't change.
"It definitely came in. It caught the edge of the zone."
"Ha..."
Kim Jihun, who had been watching the argument between the umpire and batter, suddenly stares at his own mitt for a moment.
The heavy sensation rising from his fingertips. A peculiar sensation as if the mitt and his hand have become one.
Under normal circumstances, it was a slider for which he would have had to adjust the mitt's position to catch, but this must be what one-stage-higher Framing is—fixing the mitt in place, using his fingers to withstand the ball caught on the edge of the mitt's webbing, and successfully performing the trick of pulling it into the mitt.
A skill that the battery coach from his Grizzlies days had taught him so diligently yet he could never master—he had obtained it.
'So this is what Spider Hand meant.'
Of course, the technique doesn't seem perfect yet; his movements are slightly awkward, so it's questionable whether it would work like this in the first team, but it's more than enough to deceive the eyes of Coach Park, whose umpiring experience is lacking.
"Nice pitching!"
Avoiding the umpire and batter who are still bickering back and forth about the zone, Kim Jihun quickly moves his position to the dugout.
It's because if he hovers around the plate for no reason and an accident occurs where the call is overturned, it would be troublesome; his steps toward the dugout are nothing if not nimble.
While giving Seo Jaeryong a high-five and heading toward the dugout, a new quest window rises above his forehead.
[Game Quest Complete]
[You have completed the Moment of Crisis with 3 scoreless innings. 300 Gold is given as a reward.]
[Reward: 300 Gold Paid]
Another piece of welcome news arrives.