I Can Fish Up Everything!

A little after nine in the morning, a large delivery of seafood arrived at the shop. Yi Chen was busy selling fish while Gu Nan was busy organizing it.

An Jun stormed into the seafood shop, but before he could even get a word out, his arm was grabbed. With a SWOOSH, he was pulled inside to help.

After helping arrange some of the chilled fish on the display counter, his hands now reeking of fish, he grumbled indignantly, "I came here to give you a hard time, not to be your damn worker."

Gu Nan replied with a straight face, "That's fine. You can give me a hard time after you finish helping me with the work."

"I want to start something now!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, that's too many. Just put out three of the Black-striped Small Stripes Buri. The rest go in the box."

"Oh, okay. What about these other kinds?"

"Display two or three of each. Don't bring out the big ones."

If she hadn't been busy helping customers and selling fish, Yi Chen, watching from the side, would have already doubled over with laughter. The two of them were hilarious, especially An Jun, who was acting like such a total chump.

They were busy all the way until ten o'clock, by which time all the newly arrived seafood had finally been sorted.

Once everything was done, Gu Nan prepared to leave. "Yi Chen, I'm heading out."

"Boss, it's getting late. Why don't you have lunch before you head out to sea?" Yi Chen suggested.

The shop wasn't as busy by then, so she did have time to make lunch.

An Jun, however, saw his chance and shooed Gu Nan away like a fly. "Go on, get out of here! I'm sick of looking at you. I'm the only one who gets to enjoy Yi Chen's cooking for lunch today."

"Hah, now I'm definitely not leaving!" Heading out to sea an hour or two later wouldn't really make a difference anyway, and with An Jun acting like this, Gu Nan decided to stay for lunch out of spite.

He took out his phone and sent a message to Zhao Jie, letting him know the Marlin Fish had arrived. Zhao Jie replied that he would come to pick it up in the afternoon.

"Ah Nan, what's the deal with you now? You've stopped being a seafood shop owner to become a professional fisherman?" An Jun finally got down to business.

Since Yi Chen had started, he'd been going-fishing almost every day. It did look like he was slacking off.

"Well, with Yi Chen watching the store, it doesn't really matter if I'm here or not."

"So I figured I might as well go out and fish myself. The cost is lower for what I catch, the local old-timers prefer locally-caught fish, and I can earn a little extra."

"Besides, I'm only really busy during the monthly spring tide, or when I get a tip about good fishing conditions from other anglers," Gu Nan said, telling a half-truth.

'The real reason I'm fishing this much is because of my cheat. If there was some import channel that was this profitable, why would I be working myself to the bone?'

'Wouldn't I enjoy a massage at a high-end club?'

'And even if I skipped all that, finding a pretty girl to get all lovey-dovey with every day would be nice too!'

"Besides, I still owe you that hundred thousand. I've got to pay you back soon."

"Don't worry about that hundred thousand. It's not too late to pay me back when you have it."

"Oh, really? In that case, I'll wait till you've kicked the bucket and burn it for you as an offering!"

"Fuck, I'll be sure to come back from the dead to thank you personally then!"

After lunch, Gu Nan and An Jun left the seafood shop together.

However, they went their separate ways as soon as they stepped out of the seafood market.

Gu Nan arrived at the docks and loaded everything he needed onto his boat, including half a bucket of fresh water.

He had bottled mineral water for drinking; the bucket was for rinsing off sweat.

He would definitely have to pull an all-nighter to grind his way to Level 10.

If only he had known that the daily quests would be suspended after unlocking the Elite Index, he wouldn't have to work this hard.

But having learned his lesson the hard way, next time Gu Nan would know how to exploit the bug.

All he had to do was cut the line if he hooked a boss. Even though the fishing line costs Gold Coins, a few hundred meters of it wouldn't wear out that fast.

He could cut the line plenty of times, and with the daily quests available, his overall earnings would definitely be higher.

Fish hooks were even less of a concern; he could buy replacements in-game for very few Gold Coins.

After heading out to sea, Gu Nan first made his way toward Big Rock Reef. There were slightly fewer fishing boats there today, and his fish finder wasn't showing the same dense schools of fish as yesterday.

Today was already the eighteenth of the lunar month, the tail end of the spring tide. The fishing conditions were certainly not as good as they had been the last few days.

That being the case, Gu Nan didn't linger. He set off again toward the fishing spot he had found.

When he arrived at the spot, he saw no other fishing boats. In fact, from the night before last through yesterday morning, not a single other boat had passed by while he was fishing.

This made Gu Nan even more certain that very few anglers knew about this place, or they assumed its resources were mediocre and went to places like Big Rock Reef instead.

That was perfect for Gu Nan. He could fish for the species of the Fengqi Coast to his heart's content.

The Large-eye Black Seabream for his second elite quest was the type of fish that liked to hide in reef areas, making it well-suited for bottom fishing techniques.

The other two-star fish species had similar habits. Plus, with four different species counting toward the quest, he would surely complete it much faster than the one-star quest.

He wasn't worried about being seen while bottom fishing, even if boats passed by. So, Gu Nan found what looked like a decent spot, cut the engine, and stopped the boat. Then, he took out the cooling arm sleeves Yi Chen had bought for him.

'This is the first time in over two years I've received a gift from a girl. I should definitely put it to good use.'

'It wasn't that no girls had pursued him before; a colleague at his old job had even given him a small gift, but he had just rejected her.'

He put on the cooling sleeves, filled his sports bottle with water, and carried it out onto the deck.

He took a bait cage out of his tackle box, stuffed it full of Antarctic krill, and tied it to his line.

He chose a soft shrimp lure for bait. 'The bottom-knocking technique is too much of a hassle,' he thought.

After setting up his rig, he cast the baited hook into the water. The heavy lead sinker pulled it down quickly, sending it plunging toward the seabed.