This is the story of Natsunosuke Honda, a professional baseball player—a relief pitcher who has spent eight years playing for a team called the Spiders. The team functions as a highly stratified society, where a player's performance dictates his annual salary. Natsunosuke is among the highest-paid players in the game. He gauges a player's quality by their earnings, intends to remain at the top, and consequently constantly seeks out players to challenge, doing everything to ensure he outperforms them.