I Can Fish Up Everything!

A bighead carp floated to the surface on its side, and Gu Nan quickly pulled it ashore.

The fish still had some fight left in it, occasionally slapping the water with its tail.

"Whoa, a bighead carp! You’ve got some good luck, kid." Lin Zhijian’s aim was true. He expertly scooped up the fish’s head, getting it into the landing net, but he lacked a bit of strength.

Gu Nan, already picturing a meal of steamed fish head with diced hot peppers, hurried over to help. It was his fish, after all.

A twenty-pound fish was no small thing; it would be a handful to hold if it struggled. Thankfully, the old man’s landing net was high quality and didn’t break.

"Looks like we’re in for a treat tomorrow. Sir, my luck was pretty good today—I caught three. You should pick one to take home, too!" Gu Nan said generously.

’It was only right to give him a fish. After all, the old man’s words were practically blessed!’

’This pretty much confirmed it for him. As long as the old man wasn’t complaining on purpose, he was guaranteed to trigger the "someone gets a bite before he’s done talking" effect.’

’This old man was a real treasure. I have to stay on his good side.’

’Even if he had asked for this bighead carp, Gu Nan would have given it to him.’

’A twenty-pound bighead carp wasn’t worth much anyway, maybe ten-some yuan per jin at most.’

’But if he could coax the old man into going sea fishing, a twenty-pound catch would most likely be far more valuable than a bighead carp. If they landed a grouper, he’d make an absolute killing.’

"So generous?" Lin Zhijian hadn’t expected Gu Nan to be so magnanimous. ’Then again,’ he thought, ’I deserve at least a third of the credit for these three fish, if not half!’

So he pointed at the bighead carp and joked, "I just love fish heads, the meat is so tender. How about you give this one to me?"

"Sure, it’s all yours!" Gu Nan agreed without a moment’s hesitation.

Gu Nan’s decisiveness finally lifted Lin Zhijian’s slightly peeved mood. He smiled and pulled up his fish basket. "Alright, I was just kidding. This bighead carp must be worth two hundred, easy. I’ll just take this grass carp and make some grilled fish for my granddaughter."

Gu Nan held up the bighead carp and tried to persuade him a few more times, but since the old man was insistent, he didn’t press the issue. ’There will be other opportunities,’ he thought.

It was getting late, so he drove the old man home and they exchanged WeChat contacts.

"Sir, we should go sea fishing when you have time. You can just stand next to me and mutter a few complaints. I bet I’ll come back with a full haul!"

"Are you treating me like a fish-spawning machine?" Lin Zhijian grumbled. "You’re exploiting a bug!"

"Hehe, you can have your pick of whatever we catch. If we land some grouper, wouldn’t you get to taste how delicious they are?"

It wasn’t that Gu Nan was dead set on coaxing Lin Zhijian out to sea. The main reason was that spending long hours alone on the ocean got lonely. He wanted to meet more fishing buddies he could occasionally take out for fun.

"Grouper..." Lin Zhijian was genuinely tempted. As someone who lived by the coast, he naturally preferred seafood.

Most of the fish he caught at the river he either released or "lost on the way home" by giving them to others. But seafood was different. He could satisfy his fishing addiction and take his catch home for a proper feast.

The only reason he hadn’t considered it before was that he didn’t have a boat, and you couldn’t catch anything worthwhile just fishing from the shore.

Now, hearing Gu Nan’s offer, he was suddenly eager. "How about we go now?"

"Let’s skip for now, Sir. I’ll contact you tomorrow afternoon."

Gu Nan glanced at the time. He felt it wasn’t right to take an old man out so late at night, lest his family worry, so he declined.

Lin Zhijian had clearly thought of this as well and had regretted his suggestion the moment he’d made it. Hearing Gu Nan’s response, he breathed a sigh of relief.

After they agreed on a time for their next trip, Gu Nan dropped the old man off, returned to the pier to put away his fishing rod, and then went home to rest.

There hadn’t been any news of fish runs lately, and the group chat was just as quiet. Since it was getting late, he showered, lay down in bed, and decided to use a trial card. He lowered the difficulty by one level this time, to avoid wasting another one.

He reappeared on the familiar platform. His opponent was still the bearded foreigner, but the man’s fishing rod had changed to a lightweight green model. It still looked better than his own.

This time, the target fish was surprisingly the Pacific Herring, a type of sardine.

The infamous canned herring, on the other hand, was made with Atlantic Herring.

The population of Atlantic Herring far exceeds that of Pacific Herring; it’s one of the most numerous fish species in the world.

Today, the competition wasn’t about weight, but quantity!

The time limit was still one hour. Gu Nan didn’t get distracted this time, casting his baited hook the moment the competition began.

Of course, he still glanced over at the bearded foreigner as he fished. After observing for a moment, he raised an eyebrow.

The bearded foreigner’s casting speed was clearly a beat slower than his own, and his technique didn’t seem as fluid as before.

As a result, after an hour, Gu Nan easily defeated his opponent with a huge lead of ninety-three to sixty-one.

[Ding! Congratulations, Host, on a successful challenge. You have received the Green Bering Sea Fishing Rod Set. Green-quality fishing line, bait, and hooks are now available in the store.]

[Host has won the competition. The Pacific Herring you caught, as well as those you won, have been sent to the Aquarium.]

"Huh?"

’Getting the fishing rod was expected, but I didn’t think I’d get to keep the fish from the competition too. After all, when you win, you also get whatever your opponent caught.’

’What a huge loss! If I had won last time, I would’ve gotten dozens of King Salmon for free. A real shame.’

But since there was this extra reward, Gu Nan didn’t hesitate and immediately used another trial card.

WHOOSH—

Familiar opponent, familiar platform. The opponent’s fishing rod was now blue.

As the game’s notification sounded, a look of disappointment crossed Gu Nan’s face.

This time, the competition was about weight again, but the target wasn’t King Salmon. It was another, slightly lower-grade type of salmon.

It was called hooked kiss salmon, which is a type of Chinook Salmon. It’s a salmon commonly used in Japanese sashimi restaurants, with much better meat quality than rainbow trout.

’I don’t know the price,’ Gu Nan thought, ’but I can just appraise it after I win.’

With the green fishing rod, he could now afford to pull and tug forcefully. His fishing speed was even faster than before, and he still outpaced the bearded foreigner.

When the final BOSS fish appeared, Gu Nan easily succeeded in the challenge. If it hadn’t been for his rod holding him back last time, he wouldn’t have lost.

After winning, he had obtained a total of forty-seven salmon, including two 1.2-meter-long BOSS fish.

He used the appraisal function to check the price. It was pretty good: eighty yuan per jin.

A Blue Bering Sea Fishing Rod, with a sync rate of 80%. Gu Nan was very satisfied.

Now when he fished for seafood from the Bering Sea, he wouldn’t be stuck for half a day without so much as a nibble.

He glanced at the time. Two hours had passed since he lay down. It was only midnight.

He felt a wave of drowsiness upon returning to reality. Clearly, he had consumed a lot of Spiritual Power, but he could still press on.

He hadn’t used his beachcombing attempts for the week yet. Gu Nan decided to use one tonight while it was still early, since he wouldn’t have time later.

Nowadays, when he went beachcombing, he could appear not only at locations along the Fengqi coast but also within the Seven-Star Rock map, which greatly enriched his available resources.

With a thought, Gu Nan appeared on a beach.

He looked down at himself. ’Good, I’m wearing casual clothes, not a wetsuit,’ he thought. ’Looks like today’s beachcombing will be from the shore.’

Gu Nan turned his head and saw that the crevices and holes in a nearby reef were densely packed with tentacle-like things. Weren’t those gooseneck barnacles, the so-called "delicacy from hell"?

’They have them in the waters near Yangjiang Port too, where the locals call them ’dog claw snails,’ but these ones from the map must be true gooseneck barnacles.’

This delicacy typically grew on reef islands in the intertidal zone, making them extremely difficult to harvest, which was why they were so expensive.

He hadn’t expected to find so many right on the shore. Gu Nan quickly grabbed the small bucket and shovel provided by the game and went over.

But as he got closer, he found another surprise. Hidden inside one of the holes were two enormous abalones, each one bigger than his palm.

Forgetting the gooseneck barnacles for a moment, Gu Nan used his small shovel to pry the abalones loose.

The edge of the abalone’s lip was black, but its center was flesh-colored. ’This isn’t a Black Gold Abalone,’ he realized, ’it’s a Blacklip Abalone, also known as an Australian Abalone.’

’Not bad at all,’ he thought. ’Each of these abalones weighs two or three jin. They’re huge.’

He collected the two abalones he’d found, then picked up his shovel and went back to harvesting the gooseneck barnacles.

’This stuff is known for one thing: being expensive. The taste is just okay, so the value for money is extremely low.’

But Gu Nan didn’t mind one bit. He wasn’t the sucker who’d be paying for it, after all.

After clearing just a small patch, his little bucket was already full. He sent two bucketfuls directly to his Aquarium, and by the time he had filled a third bucket more than halfway, he had stripped the area clean of barnacles. All told, it was just over twenty jin.

The barnacles weren’t particularly heavy, just bulky, and what he scraped off was mostly mud and seaweed. After cleaning them in the Aquarium, their total weight was cut in half.

Gu Nan continued his search elsewhere. The entire shoreline seemed to be covered in gooseneck barnacles and a good number of Australian Abalone, allowing him to gather to his heart’s content.

’Now *these* are what you call resources,’ he thought. The entire path was paved with ’money.’

’If only every beachcombing trip on the map were this good. Unfortunately, it was too random, and the harvests weren’t always so reliable.’

...

While Gu Nan was happily scooping up money and Yi Chen was sleeping soundly in her bed, two other people couldn’t sleep a wink.

Shen Suping sat limply on the sofa, her expression one of utter exhaustion.

She didn’t know what was happening. For the past two days, groups of long-time, loyal customers had been canceling their memberships, leaving her completely overwhelmed.

If it were ordinary members, she wouldn’t have given them the time of day. Unfortunately, she couldn’t afford to offend this group of wealthy socialites. Not only did she have to obediently refund their money, but she also had to discreetly find out why they were leaving.

But before she could even begin to investigate, her husband’s glass factory ran into trouble. Several large orders that were on the verge of being signed suddenly fell through, causing a significant loss.

When they asked around, they learned they had unintentionally offended someone.

But they hadn’t yet found out the specific reason, or even who it was they had offended. All they could do was slowly ask around through their connections.

For the past two days, their lives had been a constant cycle of taking people out for dinners and drinks, or being on their way to do so.

They had already spent over two hundred thousand yuan, but still had to wait.

The waiting was the hardest part. No wonder she had insomnia.

Fortunately, whoever was behind it hadn’t made any further moves, which gave them a small measure of peace.