I Can Fish Up Everything!

In the Standard Collection, aside from the BOSS, every species had now reached King-tier size. One of the Tai Star Garoupa was nearly a meter long and weighed over thirty-three pounds.

The rose-colored groupers were a bit smaller, but they were still the type you could hold on your lap for a picture. Gu Nan had a blast catching them.

[Congratulations, Host, on unlocking fifteen species in the Elite Collection. You will now have a chance to hook the map’s Elite BOSS. Each successful Elite BOSS challenge will grant an additional two thousand Gold Coins.]

This notification clearly meant that the final two entries in the Elite Collection had been unlocked. Both were fish: one was the Malabar Grouper, and the other was the Black-backed Pinstripe Snapper.

The Malabar Grouper is a type of deep-sea red fish and a premium species for eating. It can grow up to a meter in length.

A Four-star Fish with a six-and-a-half-star flavor rating. The suggested selling price is 180, and it’s delicious no matter how you cook it.

The Black-backed Pinstripe Snapper, however, was an even more exceptional species.

It’s also found off the coasts of Xisha and Nansha and is a highly valuable commercial fish suitable for any cooking method.

It was a five-star fish with a seven-star flavor rating, and its price reached as high as 260.

This fish was rather interesting. When first caught, it was black and white, but it turned pitch-black some time after death. It ended up looking a lot like a blackfish, so some places even called it that.

Now that he’d unlocked these two species, Gu Nan had no interest in catching an Indian Marlin tonight.

He wanted to catch the Elite BOSS. Only then would all the features of the Fengqi Coast map be unlocked, allowing its daily attempts to accumulate.

’But what would the Elite BOSS be?’

’What fish from Southeast Asia or the Indian Ocean could possibly be an Elite BOSS?’

Gu Nan first ruled out other types of marlin. ’The Elite BOSS has to be more valuable than a regular one.’ Remembering that large numbers of bluefin tuna populated the area, his eyes lit up. ’Could it be that prized catch?’

If it was, he figured he could afford a luxury Class II fishing boat in less than a month.

Gu Nan switched to a Big Fatty lure and started casting.

Tuna had similar habits to Indian Marlin, so maybe this technique would increase his chances of getting a bite.

After about twenty casts and catching a few red-tailed fish, his rod suddenly bent down hard as a massive force pulled on the line.

A BOSS icon appeared on the water’s surface. Gu Nan hugged the rod tightly, bracing himself against the gunwale to let the BOSS make its run.

He wondered, ’Is this BOSS an Indian Marlin or the Elite BOSS?’

He didn’t know if the icon that appeared would be different for an Elite BOSS, but he hoped it was the same. At least that would mean this fish had a fifty-fifty chance of unlocking the final collection entry.

The fish’s pull was immense, and it sped away into the distance. Even with the drag completely locked, the fish didn’t seem to feel it.

The purple reel had a higher drag setting, reaching up to 110 pounds.

This meant that as the fish swam, it was pulling on Gu Nan with 110 pounds of force.

The way the fish moved felt very familiar to Gu Nan; it felt just like an Indian Marlin.

However, he figured a tuna would probably feel similar, so he held on to a sliver of hope. After all, the yellowtail amberjack he’d caught yesterday had felt the same way.

The thousand meters of line allowed the fish to run freely. In just a few minutes, even with Gu Nan holding the rod up with all his might, the fish had already pulled out four hundred meters of line, and its first burst of speed wasn’t even over.

Aided by the bonus from his purple gear set, this was clearly the biggest fish he had ever hooked.

Gu Nan tried to reel it in a bit, but he couldn’t budge it. He had no choice but to let the fish continue its run.

After another few minutes, the fish had run more than six hundred meters out and finally seemed to be tiring. The pulling force decreased noticeably, and the bent tip of the rod straightened up slightly.

Gu Nan knew the fish’s first burst of energy was over, so he quickly began to reel in the line.

He sighed to himself. ’Even with the game buffing my physical attributes, it’s a shame I still can’t match a huge fish like this in a direct struggle.’

If Gu Nan actually trained his body and improved his base physical condition, the system’s buffs would probably be even more effective.

But that would take a significant amount of time and a professional trainer. Besides not having the time, he was also rather lazy and had no plans to do so.

What followed was a slow battle of attrition. The stamina-draining effect of his purple gear set was quite pronounced, and Gu Nan managed to haul the huge fish in after just an hour and a half.

The sharp, long bill was a disappointment. It was an Indian Marlin, about four meters in length.

Gu Nan did as he always did: he killed it first, and once it was cold, he dragged it to the stern by its bill, removed the hook, and stored it in the Iced Fish Gallery.

He opened the game’s Collection, originally intending to check the fish’s length, but he was surprised to find he could claim a reward.

Clicking on it, Gu Nan instantly remembered.

There was a reward for every Collection entry that reached the Giant, King, and Legendary tiers.

Giant: A reward of two thousand Gold Coins and five Silver Keys.

King: A reward of four thousand Gold Coins and ten Silver Keys.

Legendary: A reward of eight thousand Gold Coins and one Golden Key.

Those were the rewards for the Standard Collection. For the Elite Collection, the Gold Coins were doubled, the ten Silver Keys for the King tier were replaced by one Golden Key, and the Legendary reward’s single Golden Key was increased to three.

Coincidentally, the Indian Marlin Gu Nan had just caught was exactly 4.1 meters long, which the game classified as Giant-tier.

Thus, he was rewarded with two thousand Gold Coins and five Silver Keys.

His Gold Coin earnings for the day were quite substantial. He had received 2,150 from the daily quest at Seven-Star Rock and its associated collection reward. Unlocking the two new entries for the Fengqi Coast added another 3,000. Combined with the reward for catching the BOSS and this new Giant-tier reward, his total came to 8,150.