The Old Baseball Player System

Shun quickly took his Basic Recovery Potion to start the day and immediately felt refreshed.

"Wait, am I becoming some kind of drug addict or something?" - Shun stopped to think for a moment, a bit concerned, as he realized he had come to rely on these potions to survive his routine.

"Nah, there\'s no way I could handle all these system missions without the potion. Besides, the system wouldn\'t give me something harmful... right?" - Shun concluded, still feeling a little suspicious.

It had been a year since he received the system, but he still had no idea about its origin, its true purpose, or even if all this was real or if he had just gone crazy.

Shun shook his head and pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind. After all, there was no way to find the answers he sought, and he\'d probably go mad for real if he thought about it every day. The boy quickly got dressed and left home for his long morning run.

* Two hours later *

Shun returned home after finishing his run. As usual, he went upstairs to shower and then came down dressed in his school uniform, ready for class.

"Good morning, son!" - Aiko greeted him with a smile.

"Good morning, Bro!" - Little Yumi also greeted him excitedly as she saw her older brother walk into the kitchen.

"Good morning! Where\'s Mika?" - Shun greeted both with a smile, but when he noticed his twin sister\'s absence, he asked in confusion, since he was usually the last one to show up for breakfast.

"Oh, your sister left early, she was excited about today\'s party." - Aiko explained with a smile as she sat at the table.

"Huh? What party?" - Shun asked, confused, but the moment he asked, he felt his mother\'s irritated stare.

"I told you on Monday that we were going to the Hoshinos\' party today." - Aiko said, slightly irritated. It wasn\'t the first time she had told her son something only for him to forget, in fact, it had been happening a lot lately.

\'Monday? How was I supposed to remember that until today?\' - Shun complained in his mind. He had been so focused on the system\'s missions and improving his pitching that he ended up not paying much attention to anything else. He even thought it was his mother\'s fault for only telling him on Monday and expecting him to remember by Friday.

However, even if the system gave him a new pair of balls, he wouldn\'t dare say that out loud.

"Huh? Wait, Hoshinos? You mean..." - Shun realized something after complaining in his mind for a while and spoke nervously.

"Hm, Hana will be there." - Aiko said, trying not to smile. She was still irritated, but it was hard not to smile seeing her son act all nervous about meeting his crush.

"Hehe, Bro has a girlfriend!" - Little Yumi said with a playful smile, watching her older brother turn as red as a tomato.

"Pft! Yumi, sweetie, Hana isn\'t your brother\'s girlfriend. Well, maybe in his dreams..." - Aiko couldn\'t resist teasing Shun a bit, after all, he deserved it for always forgetting things.

\'Bullying! This is bullying! I\'m getting bullied by my own mom!\' - Shun complained in his mind, feeling like he was facing the world\'s greatest injustice. But on the outside, all he did was sit down, embarrassed, and quickly eat his breakfast to get to school as soon as possible.

----------------

DONG

DONG

DONG

Shun was watching the first-year Ryosuke hit ball after ball to the outfield in the batting cage while waiting for his turn.

"You were right, Shun." - Kenta, standing beside Shun, said as he also watched Ryosuke.

"I just hope his attitude doesn\'t hurt us in the tournament." - Shun said, concerned. In the last few friendly matches, Ryosuke had been making more and more reckless plays. But because of the team\'s overall good results, and Ryosuke\'s own good plays, these mistakes often went unnoticed.

However, the good results didn\'t make Shun or Kenta feel any better. They knew that in tournaments like the Tokyo tournament, where one loss meant elimination, a single mistake could end their entire summer.

In a normal team, Ryosuke would probably be benched, but the current Shoto Junior High didn\'t have that luxury. They needed Ryosuke, both in the batting lineup and in the outfield defense. After all, they simply didn\'t have any players who could replace Ryosuke, at least none that were anywhere near his skill level.

After a while, Shun entered the batting cage, and as usual, he showed incredible consistency. His batting training was paying off, and little by little, Shun was becoming an extremely dangerous contact hitter.

After that, Shun and his friends completed their grueling workout list. As they approached the Tokyo tournament, each day their training seemed more intense. After finishing, Shun quickly headed home.

He went straight to the shower, making extra effort to clean up today since he was going to the house of a beautiful blonde girl with green eyes. Shun got out of the shower and put on the black pants and light blue shirt his mom had picked out for him.

He then spent some time fixing his hair, trying his best to look like one of those soap opera heartthrobs the girls loved. But all that effort was wasted when his mom came into the bathroom and combed his hair herself.

Even though Shun didn\'t like the cow-lick style his mom gave him, the poor boy didn\'t have the courage to say anything. After all, she might tease him about his love life again.