[DING]
[Congratulations, you have completed a hidden mission in the Star Store! The mission 'First Exchange' has been completed! As a reward, the user will receive one of the best rewards available at the exchange level they performed (Bronze)!]
[The user received a body transformation (new fingers)]
"Huh? Special mission? First Exchange? Don't tell me... if I had waited and exchanged for a legendary reward first, I would have received one of the best rewards possible! Damn!
I could have at least waited for one more game and exchanged for a silver reward!" - Shun almost started to cry after hearing the system notification, the boy had wasted a great opportunity in the worst way possible.
Of course, there was no way he could have known this beforehand since it was a hidden mission, but Shun didn't seem to care about that. The boy felt like hitting himself, and only after some time berating himself did he realize what he had received.
"New fingers... this seems just like the new shoulders I received before... huh? Don't tell me it's going to be the same thing." - Shun felt a bad feeling when he looked at the name of his reward, he remembered the pain he had felt and the impossible mission he still had to complete thanks to his new shoulder.
The boy opened his inventory, even though he had a bad feeling about it, there was no way he could not use his reward just out of fear.
[Inventory:
- 1 legendary pitch (learn)
- New fingers (equip)]
"New fingers." - Shun said hesitantly.
[Do you want to equip the new fingers?
Yes/No]
"Yes." - Shun gathered his courage before responding, bracing himself for unbearable pain and closing his eyes.
"Ahhhhh!!" - Shun almost screamed out loud but did his best to close his mouth and endure the pain silently, the boy didn't want to scare his family. Shun gritted his teeth as he felt excruciating pain in his fingers, even though the area was small, it was a horrible sensation, and all the boy could do was wait while groaning in pain.
After a few minutes, the pain stopped, and Shun felt a warm, comforting sensation in his fingers. The boy then heard the system notifications and felt a chill in his soul.
[New fingers equipped.]
[Integration percentage of the new fingers (1%)]
[A new mission has been given to the user by the system.]
10% - 1,000 finger push-ups
25% - 2,500 finger push-ups
50% - 5,000 finger push-ups
75% - 7,500 finger push-ups
100% - 10,000 finger push-ups
Finger push-up count: 0
Rewards: quirk Learning Master.]
* Gulp * - Shun swallowed hard as he looked at the special missions tab. It seemed he would have to add finger push-ups to his daily routine now. The boy then noticed the integration of his shoulder, after 2 months of training, the pitch count was already at 6,300 pitches, and he was close to reaching the first 10% integration mark, though it would still take almost 40 days for that to happen.
Shun then got out of the bath, dressed, and headed downstairs to the kitchen. He had spent more time than usual in the bath because of his new fingers, so he was late. His mother and sisters were already sitting at the table eating.
"Bro!" - Little Yumi smiled when she saw her brother.
Shun gently patted the little girl's head before sitting down. The boy was starving and quickly started serving himself and eating.
"Hey Shun, how was the game?" - His twin sister Mika asked.
"We won." - Shun said while eating without even looking away from his food, the young boy was even hungrier than usual after enduring so much pain earlier.
"Hmm, I saw on the tournament schedule that Seishin is in your bracket, they're next, right? It's going to be tough, Shohei Kaneda is one of the best U-15 pitchers in Japan." - Mika said worriedly. The girl knew the Seishin pitcher well since some members of Tokyo Nakano Senior were also on the U-15 national team.
"Huh? Seishin? Didn't you hear?" - Shun was a little surprised, he thought his sister would have already heard the news.
"Hear what?" - Mika looked at her brother, confused.
"Seishin lost, our next opponent is Hokuto Junior High." - Shun said nonchalantly as he went back to eating.
"What??!! Seishin lost? Did something happen to Shohei? He didn't pitch? No, no, even if he didn't pitch, Seishin has other good pitchers there's no way an unknown team could have beaten them!" - The girl couldn't believe her brother's words, it simply didn't make sense for an elite school to lose in the second round of the Tokyo tournament.
"I didn't watch the game, but from what I heard, Shohei pitched the whole game. The game was called in the fifth inning, and Hokuto won 12 X 0." - Shun really didn't care about the results of other matches; he believed he could beat both teams anyway.
"12 X 0? How is that possible? I need to tell the girls, they won't believe this!" - Mika was still in shock, but being a good teenage girl who loved gossip, she grabbed her phone and started typing to her friends.