I Can Fish Up Everything!

Chapter 70: Chapter 70: Preparations on the Eve of Going to Sea

Gu Nan strained to lift the landing net. He placed the fish on the platform near the stone pier column, preventing it from suddenly flopping back into the water.

After unhooking the Big Fatty, he tried to store the fish in his aquarium, but just as he expected, it wouldn’t go in.

Apparently, this fish, like other croakers, couldn’t survive long out of water. Fortunately, placing it in the refrigerated storage worked just as well.

Catching a fish this size had thoroughly exhausted Gu Nan. He decided to sit down for a rest and check the fish’s entry in his Guidebook.

A croaker this big was definitely from the Guidebook; there was no way a fish like this would appear in local coastal waters.

When he saw the four hundred Gold Coins displayed in the Guidebook, Gu Nan was pleasantly surprised. It was actually a three-star elite fish.

Elite fish were too hard to catch. He had assumed it would be a one or two-star fish, so this was a welcome surprise.

However, the situation with catching elite fish was quite different from ordinary fish. With ordinary fish, he had basically unlocked them step-by-step according to their star rating, but the elite fish in the Guidebook appeared more randomly.

This was probably related to his equipment level as well. After all, he currently had a +18% bonus for rare fish, so catching a high-star elite fish was to be expected.

The only problem was the incredibly low hook rate for elite fish. It was better when free-fishing, but using a guaranteed-catch opportunity depended entirely on the rod’s stats.

Adding these four hundred Gold Coins, his total savings now reached two thousand five hundred. A purple-tier rod alone cost ten thousand Gold Coins, and the entire set was thirty-two thousand.

He had only saved up a fraction of the cost; he was still a long way off.

To put it bluntly, Gu Nan just needed to spend more time fishing. Even if he couldn’t complete the elite mission, he could first raise his level to Level 10. Unlocking a new map would restart the daily quests, which would speed up his acquisition of Gold Coins.

’I shouldn’t have bothered fishing for that boss. I should have just cut the line, exploited a bug, and bought the purple gear first,’ Gu Nan sighed with a hint of regret.

Focusing his attention back on the fish, this silvery-white croaker was called a Japanese White Croaker, also known as a Large White Grouper.

It hailed from places like East Africa, South Africa, and the Arabian Sea; it couldn’t even be found in places like Southeast Asia.

It was a giant that could grow up to 1.8 meters long. No wonder its name started with the word ’Large’.

But despite its size, its flavor was exceptionally delicious, with a flavor rating of five and a half stars.

The fish’s large size didn’t negatively affect the texture of its meat. It was suitable for cooking methods like being Steamed, braised, or deep-fried.

But unlike other groupers, it wasn’t suitable for hot pot or sashimi.

The suggested price surprised Gu Nan—only one hundred per pound.

’The Guidebook entry was right after the big-eye black sea bream. Both fish are priced at one hundred per pound, but one is only two stars while this one is three?’

However, the Large White Grouper could fetch a higher price not only due to its size but also its higher flavor rating, so it was normal for it to have a better overall evaluation.

Gu Nan’s Guidebook showed this one had a length of 1.32 meters, but unfortunately, there was no weight display.

’I’ll weigh it when I get back to the shop tonight and have Yi Chen try selling it tomorrow.’

Having rested enough, Gu Nan stood up again and continued fishing.

He would leave at nine tonight, so he still had two hours left to fish.

While he was fishing, back at the seafood shop, Yi Chen had already finished cleaning up. After making sure everything was done, she went to the counter and shut down the laptop.

This afternoon, she had taken the rare step of not going home to rest, staying at the shop to learn video editing instead.

She knew very well that Gu Nan hadn’t registered an account for her to use under the shop’s name, but had told her to make her own. This meant he wasn’t going to put much effort into it himself.

Plus, he was always off doing who-knows-what and frequently disappeared, so she took the initiative to learn on her own.

’An extra skill means another path in life. If Gu Nan gets a girlfriend or even a wife in the future, the seafood shop will likely become a family business, and I’ll probably be let go.’

’If I can build up the video account, I’ll have another career option for myself.’

So, not only did Yi Chen start teaching herself how to edit, but she also looked into selfie techniques and learned that she needed a gimbal for shooting videos, as a selfie stick wasn’t very effective.

When she bought the gimbal, she also purchased a voice announcer for payments.

It would automatically announce when a customer paid, saving her the trouble of having to check if the transfer went through each time.

Now, looking at the new laptop Gu Nan had bought today, Yi Chen frowned slightly. After some thought, she sent him a message asking what he wanted to do with it.

She felt it wasn’t a good idea to leave the laptop in the shop, worried it might get stolen.

After sending the message and waiting a short while, she saw Gu Nan’s reply telling her to take care of the laptop and to use it to learn editing. Her eyes lit up.

She immediately replied with an ”Okay” and happily placed the laptop into the nearby laptop bag. Now she could not only continue studying at night but also watch TV shows and things.

Gu Nan had entrusted the laptop to Yi Chen mainly because he was so focused on fishing that he’d forgotten all about it.

Secondly, he wouldn’t be in the shop tomorrow, and he’d likely be absent a lot in the future. He probably wouldn’t even be able to squeeze in time for video editing, so he had specifically messaged her to learn it.

He didn’t know, however, that Yi Chen had already started learning on her own initiative.

For the rest of the evening, Gu Nan’s catch rate was much faster than it had been in the afternoon.

Basically, as soon as the bait hit the water, he only had to wait thirty seconds to a minute for a bite. He decided to switch to a soft lure with a float and began float fishing.

The fish he caught with float fishing weren’t very big, but there were a lot of them. Overall, the harvest was quite good.

However, the proportion of local fish was very low. By the time he stopped at 9 PM, he had only caught twenty-three in total, including the ones from the afternoon, and that number included five false scorpionfish.

Fortunately, a green grouper bolstered the value of his local catch and gave Gu Nan a greater sense of accomplishment.

It just went to show that a wild catch is always more rewarding.

The yield from the game map was very stable; no matter how many fish he caught, Gu Nan wouldn’t be too surprised. But catching a local green grouper, on the other hand, filled him with a sense of achievement.

He asked He Qiang if he wanted to head back together, but seeing that He Qiang planned to fish until eleven, Gu Nan left first.

Back at the seafood market, all the shop doors were already closed, though he could occasionally hear the sound of mahjong tiles being shuffled from inside other shops.

’Playing mahjong in a seafood shop, of all places,’ he thought.

Arriving at his shop and closing the door, Gu Nan first put some water into the tanks to let the fish acclimate, then went to the counter to check the day’s revenue.

Not bad. Including the ones delivered to the food stall owner, today’s revenue reached 6,637 yuan.

Such high performance was mainly due to that Red Fork-tailed Sea Bream. That one fish alone sold for two thousand five hundred, which meant Yi Chen had clearly given a small discount.

Afterward, Gu Nan began to restock the various fish in the tanks, replenishing any that were running low.

Once he was done restocking, he went over to the display counter and found that all of today’s Black-striped Small Stripes Buri had been sold.

Thinking the food stall might want this type of fish tomorrow, Gu Nan took out eight of them for the night. Next was the Large White Grouper.

He weighed it first: a little over thirty pounds. Breaking the thirty-pound mark meant it was in a different price bracket.

He lifted the fish onto the display counter and covered it with crushed ice.

Gu Nan washed and dried his hands, then returned to the counter to write down the prices for the Large White Grouper, the green grouper, and the striped beakfish he had caught today.

The green grouper, being wild and still alive, would be priced at eighty per pound. The striped beakfish was a bit small, so he priced it at one hundred fifty.

The suggested price for the Large White Grouper was one hundred yuan per pound, but since this one was over thirty pounds, he set the price at one hundred sixty.

He would let Yi Chen use her discretion when selling it; she could knock off twenty yuan at most.