I Can Fish Up Everything!

Chapter 266: Chapter 167: Unfeeling Fishing Machine

”Whoa, with a build like that, this big-bearded guy has to be an expert angler!” Gu Nan exclaimed in surprise. He hadn’t expected to get a foreign opponent in the Trial Tower.

The NPC, however, didn’t seem very intelligent. He remained expressionless and completely ignored him.

Then, an interface popped up, prompting Gu Nan to choose the challenge difficulty.

He glanced at the white fishing rod in his hand. ’Should I play it safe and choose the easy difficulty?’

But a golden key cost 10,000 Gold Coins, and it wasn’t even guaranteed to yield a Trial Card. So, Gu Nan decided to ramp up the difficulty a bit to test the waters.

’A white rod can handle most fish. They wouldn’t throw a five or six-hundred-pound monster at me right from the start, would they?’

He selected medium difficulty. The next moment, a set of blue fishing gear materialized in the hands of the big-bearded foreigner.

[Difficulty selected. Randomly selecting a marine creature from the Bering Sea...]

[DING! Selection successful. A school of wild king salmon from the Bering Sea will soon arrive. Time limit: one hour. Please be prepared, Host.]

[Victory Condition: The one with the higher total weight wins.]

As the system prompts faded, the area around the platform suddenly transformed into a vast ocean, leaving him and the big-bearded foreigner standing upon it.

To their right, a ten-square-meter ice pool appeared on the platform, meant for storing their catch.

The next moment, the sea before Gu Nan began to churn as if schools of fish were breaking the surface and hurtling toward them.

The big-bearded man beside him immediately raised his rod and, with a WHOOSH, cast out his lure.

”Holy shit~”

Seeing this, Gu Nan snapped to attention, grabbing his own rod and casting his line.

Once his lure hit the water, the big-bearded foreigner began jigging his rod up and down while slowly reeling in the line. His practiced movements made it obvious he was a seasoned angler.

The next moment, his line went taut. He had a fish on!

Meanwhile, Gu Nan’s lure had just landed in the water.

He jigged his rod as well, turning to watch how the big-bearded foreigner was handling his catch.

With a one-hour time limit and victory decided by total weight, it was clearly a contest of who could land bigger fish, faster.

’That big-bearded guy isn’t even playing the fish; he’s just hauling it in with brute force.’

Gu Nan frowned. ’Fishing like this comes down almost entirely to the quality of the rod and line. My white boat rod is clearly a lot thinner than his, and the line’s tensile strength is obviously way worse. So this is medium difficulty?’

’Normally, the green, blue, purple, and gold rods correspond to the four difficulties, which would mean using at least four Trial Cards. Looks like trying to save even one of them won’t be so easy.’

”ZIP~”

He had been lost in thought, but only a few seconds had passed in the game. The next moment, his rod trembled—he had a fish on, too!

Gu Nan immediately yanked the rod hard to set the hook and, just like the big-bearded foreigner, began to haul it in with brute force.

King salmon are the largest species of their kind, capable of growing up to 1.5 meters long. Theoretically, his white rod couldn’t handle a fish that big—not unless he slowly played it to tire it out.

His current rod couldn’t handle that kind of fishing. Fortunately, the one he’d hooked wasn’t very large. Even with the powerful fight a king salmon puts up, Gu Nan mustered his strength and managed to quickly haul the fish to the edge of the platform. He gaffed it by the head, lifted it up, and tossed it into the large ice pool beside him.

He looked up and saw that the big-bearded foreigner was tossing a fish into his pool at the exact same time. But since the other guy had hooked his fish first, it meant that, technically, he was a fraction slower than Gu Nan.

Unfortunately, it was hard to tell their sizes from a glance; the two fish looked to be very close.

A glimmer of hope for victory ignited in Gu Nan. Without a moment’s delay, he hurriedly cast his lure out again.

One king salmon after another was reeled in. The fish were fairly uniform in size, mostly weighing between nine and thirteen pounds.

Gu Nan felt their speeds were roughly the same, so it was hard to say who would win in the end.

Both of them had become merciless fishing machines. Every two or three minutes, another king salmon was forcibly hauled onto the platform.

Time ticked by. The countdown showed just over twenty-one minutes remaining. When it hit the twenty-minute mark, the system prompt sounded again.

[DING! A Legendary BOSS is approaching. Please be prepared, Host.]

”Fuck, there’s a BOSS?” Gu Nan’s mind went blank. He was still in the middle of hauling in a fish. Forty minutes of high-intensity fishing had left his arms incredibly sore and swollen.

Thankfully, his current recovery rate was decent, so he could still endure it.

Just then, the big-bearded foreigner beside him tossed a king salmon into his pool and immediately cast his lure out again.

The next moment, his expression changed for the first time.

He remained expressionless, but it was obvious he was struggling.

He struggled to lift his rod, cranking the reel with all his might, but it had little effect. In fact, the massive fish was even pulling out a good deal of line.

Gu Nan knew the man had hooked the BOSS, and his own anxiety surged.

’There are less than twenty minutes left. If I don’t hurry, I’m not confident I can land the BOSS in time.’

’As for the big-bearded foreigner, since he’s a system-generated NPC, I figure he’s guaranteed to land his fish.’

Taking a deep breath, he rallied his strength and quickly wrestled the king salmon he was fighting to the edge of the platform. He hastily gaffed the fish and tossed it into the ice pool.

He shook out his aching arms, and after a few seconds of relief, he raised his rod and cast out the lure.

”ZZZIIIPPP~”

A tremendous pulling force shot through the line. The BOSS was hooked.

Only eighteen and a half minutes remained. Gu Nan already had a minute and a half less time than his opponent to land the BOSS, and his rod was inferior.

But there was nothing he could do about it. He gripped the rod for dear life, not letting the fish get far.

With a Legendary king salmon over 1.5 meters long, he might have a chance with brute force; if he tried to play the fish by letting out the line, he’d have zero chance of landing it before time ran out.

”CREAK... CREAK...”

The rod was bent to a terrifying degree, seemingly on the verge of snapping.

The line was pulled taut, but it seemed to be holding for now.

He and the fish were at a stalemate. Gu Nan had also figured something out by now: his Power was slightly higher than the big-bearded foreigner’s, giving him a greater physical advantage.

At the very least, the big-bearded foreigner was unable to hold his fish back with pure strength; after a short struggle, he would let it run a bit.

Gu Nan glanced over and saw the foreigner occasionally letting his line go slack. The pressure he felt immediately lightened.

’Right now, I’m not afraid of being unable to pull the fish in; I’m afraid my rod and line can’t take the strain. The fish is well over fifty-five pounds, far too heavy for my white rod set to handle with brute force.’

’I might be able to stop the fish from running, but the rod and line could snap at any second.’

So, he also loosened his line slightly, letting the fish run a little.

However, sometimes things happen by pure coincidence.

The king salmon, struggling back and forth, realized it couldn’t get away and began to shake its head violently, trying to spit out the hook.

Suddenly, it felt the line go slack. Thrilled that its tactic had worked, it gave a powerful flick of its tail and launched itself clear out of the water.

Its body thrashed, and it violently shook its head, trying to throw the hook.

Gu Nan’s heart skipped a beat; he hadn’t expected the fish to try throwing the hook right then.

Fearing the hook would come loose, he gave the rod a hard yank. The next instant, the tip snapped back toward him.

[DING! Host’s line has snapped. The BOSS has escaped. Trial Challenge Failed!]

”...”

’Unbelievable. Not only did I fail to save a Trial Card, but now I have to waste an extra one.’

’The challenge creature is random, but who knows if I’ll get stuck with another massive species next time.’

Gu Nan also hadn’t expected that snapping the line would be an instant failure, though he knew that even if he’d been given a chance to hook it again, there wouldn’t have been enough time.

Shaking his head helplessly, he exited the Trial Tower.

Looking at his forty-thousand-plus Gold Coins, he decided to buy a golden key and open a golden chest.

Legendary Seafood Selection Card x1, Trial Card x2, Special Fishing Ground Card x1.

He now had two Legendary Seafood Selection Cards. He just had to find an opportunity to complete the collection quest for Seven-Star Rock, and he could score another five free golden keys.

Adding the 36,000 Gold Coins from the reward, he could buy three more keys. His total Gold Coins might even exceed fifty thousand by then, enough for a ten-pull.

Since he had two Trial Cards, Gu Nan wasn’t ready to rest. He wanted to clear two stages first and win the blue Bering Sea rod set. That would lead to a bigger haul when he went fishing tomorrow.

But then...

[Host’s extreme fatigue detected. Insufficient Spiritual Power to enter the Trial Tower. Please exit the game and rest well.]

”...”

’So entering the Trial Tower also consumes Spiritual Power,’ Gu Nan thought, resigned. He had no choice but to exit the game.

The next moment, a profound exhaustion washed over him. ’Nice. This ”sleeping pill” works like a charm.’ A smile touched his lips, and he quickly drifted into a deep sleep.

Gu Nan woke up groggily the next day, not long after the sun had risen.

He yawned and stretched, then reached for his phone. ’Only six-thirty?’

’So early?’ He was surprised himself.

He had gone to bed very late. He didn’t get home until 3:00 a.m., and after messing around in the Trial Tower, it was past 4:00 by the time he finally fell asleep.

But now, he felt full of energy and had no desire to go back to sleep.

’It seems the boost to my Spiritual Power and recovery rate has significantly reduced the amount of sleep I need. This means I’ll have more time for fishing from now on.’

After washing up and heading out, he picked up his phone and sent a message to Yi Chen.

”Chenchen, have you eaten this morning? I’m heading to the shop now. I can bring you breakfast if you haven’t.”

Yi Chen, who had just arrived at the shop herself, was surprised by his message and immediately started a voice call. ”How are you up so early today?”

Gu Nan put on his Bluetooth headset, started his car, and replied as he headed for the seafood market, ”Went to bed early, so I woke up early! Want me to grab you some breakfast?”

”No, no, I just finished eating. I’m just surprised you’re up so early.”

”I just wanted to see you sooner!”

”Eww~ So cheesy!”

Yi Chen grumbled in mock disgust and hung up, partly to stop the shameless man from spouting more cheesy lines, but mostly because a customer had just entered the shop, and it would be mortifying if they overheard.

Unbothered by the hang-up, Gu Nan hummed a nameless tune and soon arrived at the seafood market.

He parked, bought himself breakfast, and walked into the shop. Seeing that Yi Chen was busy, he simply went over to the counter to eat on his own.

”Ah Nan, how much for this red seabream?”

As he was eating breakfast, Yi Chen suddenly called out, pointing to the red seabream Gu Nan had placed on the display stand the previous night.

A few of the red seabream had died, but most were still alive, swimming around in the fish tank.