I Can Fish Up Everything!

Chapter 129: Chapter 113: Yi Chen is Poor, So She’s All About Her Career (Part 2)

He wanted to try catching seafood like crabs or lobsters. Quest Four required him to catch ten types of non-fish sea creatures, and he figured this would be the most difficult quest to complete.

Afterward... one hake... two... three... In between, he’d occasionally snag a cloudy-patterned bream, along with local black porgies and scorpionfish.

Gu Nan was at his wit’s end. ’Can I please catch something that isn’t a fish?’

Before long, he had completed the first three daily quests, earning 110 experience points and 1,100 Gold Coins.

However, he had made no progress on the fourth and fifth quests.

He checked the time. It was already midnight.

Gu Nan thought for a moment and decided to cast ten more times. If he couldn’t complete the quest, then so be it.

He had already tried bottom fishing and used his guaranteed-hit chance. Now, he switched techniques again, tying on a Big Fatty lure. With a WHOOSH, he cast it far out, then slowly cranked the handle to retrieve the line.

’Quest Four is probably a lost cause,’ he thought. ’Hopefully, I can at least finish Quest Five.’

Over the next three casts, besides a hake, he also caught two Sea Wolves.

He was quite happy at first, seeing a new species of fish. But when he opened the game to check, it turned out he’d gotten excited for nothing.

He cast out his line again, then slowly began to retrieve it.

SWOOSH! The Big Fatty lure, thrashing on the surface, was suddenly swallowed whole.

Gu Nan could faintly make out the fish’s shape in the light. A flicker of excitement went through him. Its profile was different from the Sea Wolf, sea bass, and the other two species the game map had produced earlier. ’This could be my chance to unlock a new species.’

This was the strongest pull he’d felt since arriving at Sanlian Reef. His boat rod, which was already quite stiff, was bent into a deep arc.

Gu Nan yanked the rod up hard to set the hook. For the first time, his green Seven-Star boat rod let out a faint CREAK.

The reel’s drag alarm began to scream intermittently, DINGING without pause.

The feel of the fight sent a jolt of excitement through him. ’Forget whether it’s a new species or not, this much power is the real deal!’ It was the kind of struggle that made an angler’s heart pound.

Gu Nan heaved the rod upward, using the moment to crank the reel twice with his right hand. On the third turn, the handle jammed as the fish unleashed a powerful burst of energy, trying to swim away.

This fish probably wasn’t exceptionally large. The fight felt similar to the twenty-something-pound Red Fork-tailed Sea Bream he had caught before; he guessed it was in the same weight class.

Previously, Gu Nan wouldn’t have been able to haul in a fish this size in one go. He would have had to play it out and let it tire.

But with his recently improved physical attributes, he decided to challenge himself. He took a deep breath, engaged his core, and forced the rod up again while reeling in the line.

A 10% bonus might not seem like much, but it made him noticeably stronger than a twenty-something-pound fish. It was still a struggle, but he was in a much better position than before.

After brute-forcing the fish for three minutes, and with the added stamina drain from his Seven-Star gear set, the suspected twenty-pounder didn’t even last five minutes before being dragged alongside the boat.

It still had some fight left in it. Once alongside the boat, it grew restless, its tail thrashing wildly in the water.

Gu Nan glanced at the fish, identifying it as some kind of amberjack or trevally.

It was about seventy-something centimeters long, but it definitely didn’t look like it weighed twenty pounds. It was probably around twelve or thirteen pounds.

Apparently, the fish was just incredibly feisty, which made for a great fight.

This type of fish usually needs to be bled and put on ice immediately, so he used a gaff to bring it aboard.

He didn’t even need to check his encyclopedia or put the fish in his refrigerated hold; a notification for the successful completion of Quest Five told him exactly where this fish originated from.

’Since it completed the quest, it must be a three-star fish.’

He opened the game’s encyclopedia, collected the Gold Coins, and began reading the description.

Pool Fish King... ’Damn, what an imposing name,’ he thought. ’Not just any fish would dare to have ”King” in its name.’

Gu Nan had never eaten at a high-end Japanese restaurant, and even after opening his own seafood shop, he’d never handled such a premium product, so he didn’t recognize it.

The Pool Fish King’s scientific name was *Pseudocaranx dentex*, characterized by a yellow stripe running down its body.

The stripe on his catch wasn’t very obvious, possibly due to the lighting.

As Gu Nan had guessed, it was indeed a type of jack. In the world of Japanese cuisine, it’s considered a premium ingredient, and many large hotels procure it in bulk.

Reading this, his thoughts immediately turned to Zhao Jie. ’Maybe he supplies this fish, too. Once I buy the blue-tier rod and can mass-produce these, I could take that business from him.’

Although the Pool Fish King was only a three-star fish, its flavor rating was as high as six stars.

It can grow up to a meter long, though the average catch is only about thirty centimeters.

The fish is found in the warm waters of major oceans worldwide. In the game, it originates from Australia, with a recommended selling price of one hundred fifty yuan.

However, there were also farmed varieties from Japan, and their taste was said to be almost identical to the wild ones.

Wild Pool Fish Kings, however, had longer bodies and a lighter coloration.

He just didn’t know if Zhao Jie was sourcing wild or farmed ones. Farmed fish would certainly be much cheaper, so he wasn’t sure if there would even be a market for the wild version.

Gu Nan reeled in his line for the last time, started up the fishing boat, and began the journey home.

He was giving up on Quest Four. His luck was terrible tonight; he hadn’t caught a single non-fish creature. Under these circumstances, fishing all night probably wouldn’t make a difference. It was better to head back and get some rest.

The five quests offered a total of two thousand four hundred Gold Coins in rewards. Even missing one, he’d still walk away with nineteen hundred. That was good enough.

He originally had one thousand five hundred fifty Gold Coins. Adding the rewards for unlocking two encyclopedia entries, his total now stood at three thousand seven hundred fifty.

With daily quests available now, it wouldn’t take more than a few days to collect the full purple Fengqi set.

On the way back, a light rain finally began to fall. Gu Nan felt quite fortunate. His luck was pretty good, after all.