I Can Fish Up Everything!

Chapter 106: Chapter 99: This Game Understands How the World Works

The Fengqi Coast extended as far as ten nautical miles offshore. Theoretically, with such a large area, it should have been easy to find a good fishing spot.

Unfortunately, Gu Nan had just gotten his license. It was also his first official day out at sea, so he wasn’t familiar enough with the area and had to find a spot on his own.

He had secretly noted down a few offshore fishing spots from the group chat, but they were all outside his map’s range.

People weren’t likely to share the really good spots. Gu Nan would have to build his own connections to trade for spot locations or find them himself out at sea.

But fuel was expensive. Half an hour passed, and he had already burned through several hundred yuan in fuel. Forget finding a fishing spot; his fish finder was completely empty. Not even a single decent school of small fish had appeared.

Gu Nan slowed the boat. ’This isn’t going to work!’

’The big bridge?’

’That spot is good, but it’s always full of other anglers. I’d rather find a place with no one around.’

’So the small reef island where I stayed up all night is out...’

’What about the sea gate over there?’

’That might be worth a look. The fishing resources are usually good where freshwater meets saltwater. A little farther from the shore, I should be able to find a decent spot with schools of fish.’

The better the resources at the spot he found, the better his rewards from map-based fishing would be.

Gu Nan had already tested this theory. The Fengqi Fish he caught, at least near the bridge piers and the reef island, were much better than at the rocky shore he used to frequent.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t need to go through all this trouble. Couldn’t he just find any empty spot with no other boats?

Although the game was like a cheat system, it still followed a certain logic at times.

Of course, the daily guaranteed catches were an exception. That was an active skill, and a pretty overpowered one, which was why it had a usage limit.

The boat soon arrived at the sea gate. The fishing was good during high tide, and there were many anglers here today. Almost every good spot was taken.

Even Wang Junhe’s secret spot had been claimed, perfectly illustrating the ”more people than fish” situation.

Gu Nan glanced at his fish finder and saw that, thanks to the generous chumming by the other anglers, plenty of fish were swimming toward the shore. Schools of fish were now gathered there.

He then turned the boat around and headed to the opposite side of the sea gate.

At a distance of about six or seven hundred meters, he actually found a pretty decent spot.

It was almost 8:30, the best time for fishing today. Gu Nan quickly took out the mostly thawed Antarctic krill to chum the water, then got out his rod and started fishing.

The water here was shallow, only twenty-three meters deep. The fish were mostly concentrated at the bottom, with a few small ones occasionally passing through the upper layers.

He didn’t need to change his rig, but considering the fish here were likely on the smaller side, he took out his tackle box, opened it, and selected a small, delicate, fish-shaped lure.

After tying on the lure, Gu Nan went to the side of the boat and cast it into the water.

Weighed down by the sinker, the lure quickly sank to the bottom.

Gu Nan didn’t use one of his daily guaranteed catches. The bite was sure to be good right now, so using a guaranteed catch would be a waste.

As expected, even though he had just started chumming, the fish were already out and actively feeding. The Antarctic krill he tossed in immediately attracted some of the nearby fish.

Just then, after his lure had settled on the bottom, he only had to wait for about thirty seconds before he felt the telltale tug of a fish on his line.

The struggle wasn’t strong, just as he’d thought. The fish wasn’t very big.

Gu Nan raised his rod, rapidly cranked the reel handle, and swung the fish straight out of the water.

A small fish broke the surface, was forced into the air as the line was reeled in, and was then brought aboard as he grabbed the line.

The fish was about the size of his palm, probably weighing only 150 to 200 grams. It was indeed very small.

Gu Nan recognized this fish. He’d occasionally caught them back when he used to do rock fishing. It was a Javelin grunter.

But the local anglers here had their own nickname for it, and he seemed to recall that in Taiwan, it was called something else entirely.

It was a species that liked to live in the brackish water where saltwater and freshwater mixed. They usually preferred river mouths and would sometimes even swim into the rivers themselves.

They were most numerous in summer and autumn. A live one would sell for about forty yuan per half-kilo in the market. If one exceeded a half-kilo, the price would be even higher.

He unhooked the fish, tossed it into the livewell, and cast his lure back into the water.

Perhaps because the fish were schooling up today, he caught seven Javelin grunters in a row before finally landing a fish from the Fengqi Coast.

What’s more, it was a new species for his Elite Index. It was called a Slender Grouper, a very distinctive fish.

The fish wasn’t huge, only about thirty centimeters long, but it was quite plump. It weighed at least two jin, maybe even three, and was classified as a two-star fish in the Index.

This fish had a very high flavor rating: five and a half stars.

That made sense, though. This fish was in the same family as groupers; in fact, it basically was a type of grouper.

It was suitable for preparations like Steamed, sashimi, and grilling.

Its main distribution was the Indo-Pacific region. The game listed its origin as East Africa with a suggested price of one hundred yuan.

One hundred yuan per jin. The same price as a Big-eye Black Sea Bream. As expected of a fish from the Elite Index.

If this were in the regular Index, it would be at least three stars.

With the appearance of this fish, his catch rate of Fengqi Fish increased significantly.

Because he’d been focused on his license exam the past few days and hadn’t been fishing seriously, the fish he’d stockpiled in his Aquarium and Refrigerated Stock were almost gone. Tonight was a good chance to replenish them.

A short while later, another unfamiliar fish was reeled in.

Gu Nan opened the Index. ’Excellent. The first seven fish in the Elite Index have all been unlocked.’

This was clearly another two-star fish, a Twospot Hogfish.

It had a very unique appearance. Its pink body was beautiful, but a glaring black spot suddenly appeared just above its tail, making anyone with a touch of OCD want to gouge it out.

Flavor rating: five stars. Suitable for methods like braising and steaming. The rest of the description was identical to the Slender Grouper’s, right down to the price.

Currently, all two-star fish in the Index were priced at one hundred yuan. It seemed to be a dividing line.

In terms of Gold Coins, his savings had reached 6,800 after catching the Sri Lankan giant crab.

But then he caught an Indian Marlin, plus that 300-jin one from the bridge pier, so his savings grew to 8,800.

Adding the four hundred he earned today, the total came to 9,200.

’If I can land another Indian Marlin tonight, I’ll be able to buy the purple fishing rod. It hasn’t been easy!’

Gu Nan sighed inwardly, but his hands didn’t stop moving.

Just then, his rod twitched. Another fish was on.

He lifted the rod to set the hook, then expertly began to reel in the line.

But the response from the rod this time felt strange. ’Why is it pulsing like that?’

’This feeling... it’s a bit like a squid or cuttlefish.’

But he’d know for sure once he brought it up. He continued reeling in quickly, and in just a moment, a lobster was pulled from the water.

Gu Nan looked surprised. ’I actually caught a lobster?’

’Wait, this lobster looks a little different.’

The lobsters you could typically catch in the country were spiny lobsters, and occasionally you might find a Flower Dragon.

But wild Flower Dragons had to be released. Getting caught with one was no joke.

It would fetch a few hundred, maybe a thousand yuan at most. It wasn’t worth the risk for that little money when you could get locked up for at least a few years.

’End up doing hard time making license plates?’

However, the lobster Gu Nan had just caught was a bright brownish-red.

If he wasn’t mistaken, this lobster should be from the Mozambique Channel, which was why it was called a Mozambique Lobster.

Of course, it also had a more familiar name: Rose Dragon.

Its flavor rating was a full seven stars, the highest possible. However, the suggested price was given in four tiers.

Most Rose Dragons weren’t large, typically weighing between half a jin and one jin. The suggested price for this weight was 220 yuan.

For one to two jin, it was 260 yuan.

For three to four jin, it was 300 yuan.

And those over five jin were extremely rare. A Mozambique Lobster that large might even be older than Gu Nan himself.

They were exceptionally rare on the market and went for 380 yuan.

The game’s suggested price was for live lobsters. In reality, Mozambique was far away, so most Rose Dragons caught there were flash-frozen while still alive before being shipped to the country, which cut the price in half.

’Unlocking three new species in the Elite Index in one day... The game really knows how to treat a guy right. Is this a little reward for my first official day out at sea?’

Regardless, Gu Nan immediately collected the 2,000 Gold Coins reward from the Index and bought the purple Fengqi Fishing Rod.

Ten thousand Gold Coins vanished in the blink of an eye, leaving him with only 1,200.

Gu Nan went back to the cabin. With a thought, an exquisite purple fishing rod, about the same size as the blue Fengqi Fishing Rod, appeared in his hand.

The material of this rod felt different from the blue one. Its surface shone under the light as if it were made of glass. Needless to say, the feel was definitely better than the blue rod’s.

In the game, the purple Fengqi Fishing Rod was a #5 rock fishing rod, capable of handling fish up to 500 jin.

If he collected the full set of equipment, the limit could be pushed to a 600-jin monster.

The blue rod had a +15% bonus for large fish and a +9% bonus for rare fish.

The purple rod, however, had a +20% bonus for large fish, a +12% bonus for rare fish, and +5 to the number of daily guaranteed catches along the Fengqi Coast.

So, after swapping the blue rod for the purple one, his overall large fish bonus reached 35%, his rare fish bonus reached 21%, and his number of daily guaranteed catches increased by two, for a new total of 21.

Catching that 300-jin Indian Marlin with the blue rod had made him realize he still needed to be careful.

He might not run into a 600-jin fish, but something over 300 jin was a real possibility.

His next step had to be buying a new fishing line. He’d been lucky with the 300-jin fish last time; neither the line nor the rod had broken, but he might not be so fortunate next time.

Last time, he had prioritized buying the blue reel because he wanted to unlock the Index faster.

But this time, he wasn’t in a hurry. It would take a while to save up more Gold Coins, and with his weekly quest to catch 200 jin of Indian Marlin, a sturdy fishing line was essential.

After transferring the reel and line to the new rod, Gu Nan returned to the side of the boat and began another round of fishing.

He continued to fish the bottom. It was only 9:30, not yet time to challenge the big ones.

Instead, he was curious to see if the new rod would increase the hook-up rate for elite fish, allowing him to complete the elite quests sooner.

’The real Gold Coin rewards and upgrades all come from the quests, after all!’

The next moment, a distinct force pulled on his line. It felt like a fish of four or five jin.

Gu Nan yanked his rod upwards, setting the hook. He kept the pressure on and reeled in a few turns of line to pull the fish slightly up from the bottom, preventing it from digging into the mud.

After pulling it up about three or four meters, he eased up on the pressure and began to play the fish.

A four or five-jin fish, with the extra stamina drain from both the line and the lure, quickly lost control and was lying on its side in the water after just a short while.

When Gu Nan felt the pulling force mostly disappear, he lifted his rod, saw the fish wasn’t moving much, and calmly reeled it in, hoisting it out of the water.

It was a four or five-jin Naked-head sea bream. Not bad.

Gu Nan checked his elite quests. For the ”100 one-star elite fish” quest, he had only caught twenty-three so far.

As for the ”50 Red Fork-tailed Sea Bream” quest, he had only caught eight. ’A long road ahead!’