It was Kenta's turn to bat, and he quickly stepped into the batter's cage. He positioned himself in the left batter's box, and the first pitch came.
WOOSH
DOOONG
"Hmph, what a show-off jerk!" – Ren complained when he saw his friend's monstrous hit. Kenta sent the ball flying toward right field, beyond the fence, if they were in a game, it would be a beautiful home run.
WOOSH
DOONG
WOOSH
DONG
WOOSH
DOOONG
Kenta continued hitting non-stop, clearly having improved a lot in batting. He had no trouble sending most of the pitches deep into right field, even hitting home runs with ease.
Shun calmly watched his friend. He was already used to Kenta's incredible hits. The boy was probably one of the best batters in middle school in all of Japan.
Shun then asked the system to show his friend's stats.
[Kenta Kobayashi
Overall: A
PITCHING: B+
BATTING: A+
FIELDING: A+
RUNNING: A-
GAME IQ: B+
Overall Potential: SSS-]
"The improvement in his scores wasn't as absurd as Jiro's, but the skill progress was just as significant. It seems that the higher the score, the harder it is to improve, but that doesn't mean progress in skills has slowed down, especially considering even his talent has improved." – Shun concluded while thinking to himself.
Kenta exited the batting cage, while the young samurai Ren huffed and took his place.
WOOSH
DONG
He hit it again along the foul line.
WOOSH
DONG
Again.
WOOSH
DONG
And again.
"Does this guy ever miss?" – The first-year, Ryosuke, said in shock as he watched Shun repeatedly hit the ball along the foul line. The hit itself was nothing extraordinary, but the consistency with which Shun managed to hit in that direction was impressive.
Apart from the other first-years, no one on the team seemed impressed with Shun's hits. The reason was simple, they had been amazed before, but now they were used to this ridiculous consistency.
Especially Kenta, Ren, Daigo, Jiro, and Sora, who stayed with Shun every day until late to complete his grueling exercise routine. It was expected that anyone who trained like a demon as Shun did would improve tremendously.
Shun smiled when he finished his batting round. He walked out of the batting cage before continuing to swing at the air. After all, he needed to make 500 swings every day.
"This skill is really amazing. I wonder what kind of skill I'll get when I complete the arena's legendary mission." – Shun thought to himself as he swung.
[Line Drive (A+)
Hit the ball in a straight line with force slightly above the ground.]
Line Drive was a gold batter skill. It was one of the rewards Shun received when he completed the gold arena mission a few weeks ago. So far, it had proven to be very useful.
The players began to leave when Coach Yamada concluded the practice. Only those who stayed for the extra training remained. Well, Daigo was sent home by Shun, it was too dangerous to do his exercise routine while injured, even if it was a minor injury.
Because of that, only Kenta, Ren, Jiro, Sora, and Shun were left on the field. Shun didn't force anyone on the team to participate in the extra training, because if it were mandatory, it wouldn't be extra.
In fact, he even wanted all the players to complete his exercise routine, but he knew that if he did, most would end up quitting the team. After all, those workouts weren't meant for an ordinary human being.
"Haaaaaaah Haaaaah" – Jiro did his best to draw all the air on the planet into his lungs. The boy was exhausted after completing Shun's training.
Sora wasn't in a good state either, the boy lay on the ground motionless. If it weren't for his heavy breathing, Shun would probably have thought he was dead.
Shun, Kenta, and Ren were a bit better, but they were all breathing heavily as they recovered. Although the old man hadn't increased the difficulty of the daily mission again, that didn't mean the training remained the same.
Shun realized that the mission's difficulty was related to his physical conditioning, so every time he improved, the exercises changed, the repetitions increased, or the intensity rose. No matter how it happened, the system always managed to turn this training into hell.