I Can Fish Up Everything!

If you hook a big fish and aren’t strong enough, you can brace the rod against the boat, using it as a leverage point.

The biggest issue in fishing was always stamina. The boost to his recovery speed would unquestionably improve his endurance by a huge margin.

Even...

Gu Nan couldn’t help but think of Yi Chen. ’If we really get together in the future, that girl will probably be so happy she’ll pass out every day.’

"What are you spacing out about, smiling like such a perv?" An Jun waved a hand in front of his face.

"Who’s smiling? Stop making stuff up!" Gu Nan quickly fixed his expression. ’Guys always get their minds in the gutter over the weirdest things,’ he thought. He’d gotten a little too carried away.

"So, are we still chasing those dolphins? If not, maybe we should head back?" Ye Jing asked with a yawn.

He was pretty busy during the day, and taking care of pets meant he usually woke up early, so he didn’t stay up too late.

"Let’s head back then!" Gu Nan had already used up his daily guaranteed catches for the day that morning.

According to the game’s tips, the ten daily guaranteed catches from the system bonus could be used on any unlocked map, but the ones provided by a fishing rod could only be used on the map that shared its name.

’No wonder the rod’s attribute description specified "Fengqi."’

Besides, he needed them to leave before he could start fishing.

So, Gu Nan re-enabled cruise control and headed back. With Ye Jing and An Jun chatting with him, he couldn’t focus on checking the new map’s store or the daily tasks.

Back at the dock, after seeing his two friends off, he returned to the cabin, opened the game map, and checked the effective range of the Seven-Star Rock map.

The island they were just at was a full seventeen nautical miles from the dock—a little far.

If the effective range was large enough, he could just go somewhere closer and save on fuel.

However, the Fengqi Coast map’s range was large because the name itself included the word "Coast."

The range for Seven-Star Rock was very small, only a circular area with a three-nautical-mile radius centered on the island.

In fact, you could tell just by looking at the game map.

The in-game map for the Fengqi Coast stretched across an entire shoreline and looked massive, whereas Seven-Star Rock was just a small chain of reefs. There was no comparison.

Then, Gu Nan opened the Seven-Star Rock map store to check out the available equipment.

Seven-Star Fishing Rod (Boat Rod), 2.2 meters long.

Attributes: White-grade Fishing Rod, Reel-specific Attribute: Large Fish Bonus +5%, Rare Fish Bonus +3%, Seven-Star Rock Daily Guaranteed Catches +1.

The attributes were identical to the white-grade Fengqi Fishing Rod, and so was the price. The rod and reel cost 1,000 Gold Coins, while the line and bait cost 600 Gold Coins.

Even though the set bonus wasn’t displayed, Gu Nan could guess what it was.

He originally had a balance of 2,200 Gold Coins. Adding the 2,000 Gold Coins he’d received for completing Task Two that morning, he now had 4,200. That was enough to buy a full white-grade set with 1,000 left over.

’But the green-grade equipment costs 6,400, and I’m only 2,200 short. It feels like a much better value!’

Gu Nan was suddenly conflicted. He decided to just open the daily tasks and have a look.

[Daily Task 1: Catch a Seven-Star Rock fish over thirty centimeters long. Reward: 3 EXP, 200 Gold Coins.]

[Daily Task 2: Catch five of any Seven-Star Rock aquatic life. Reward: 5 EXP, 300 Gold Coins.]

[Daily Task 3: Catch a three-star piece of aquatic life from Seven-Star Rock. Reward: 5 EXP, 300 Gold Coins.]

As usual, the rewards were meager without the area-specific fishing rod.

He still needed thirteen more fish for the second phase of Elite Task 1, which would award 1,500 Gold Coins. If he also caught another Indian Marlin for another 1,000 Gold Coins, he could buy the green-grade equipment outright. At this rate, it seemed he could afford it by tomorrow.

’But if I buy the white-grade rod...’

Gu Nan did the math. The sell-back price for a white-grade set was 1,920 Gold Coins, which meant a loss of 1,280.

But the set bonus would add another daily task, and its reward would definitely be over 300 Gold Coins, so the loss could be offset.

It seemed like buying the white-grade set wouldn’t be a big loss, but in reality, the best plan was to use the starter fishing rod.

Gu Nan checked the diesel in the fuel tank. A third of a tank was still left—more than enough for another trip to Seven-Star Rock.

The thought of having a new map unlocked and not going to fish there was unbearable. In the end, he started up the fishing boat and headed out to sea again.

After nearly an hour, he arrived at Sanlian Reef.

Sanlian Reef was a name he’d given the place to make it easier to tell apart, just like Tail Island.

Pulling out the starter four-piece set for the first time in a while, Gu Nan killed a small blackhead seabream he’d caught earlier that evening. He cut it into small pieces, guts and all, and threw them into the water for chum before casting out his lure and starting to fish.

The starter lure rod was actually pretty good for catching small fish.

It was a shame he’d used up his daily guaranteed catches. Otherwise, he probably could have unlocked a few new fish species tonight.

With an 89% similarity rating, and based on how things were at the Fengqi Coast, the fishing at night should be excellent.

Sure enough, after waiting only about a minute, his rod tip twitched.

Gu Nan lifted the rod to set the hook, but the pull was very light. ’Don’t tell me the first catch is an ornamental fish, is it?’

But as he reeled in the line, an orange, frog-like creature was lifted out of the water, flailing its limbs.

Gu Nan recognized this thing. It was a spanner crab, sometimes called a frog crab because of its appearance.

He’d seen them before at other seafood shops. Good-quality, flash-frozen ones could sell for eighty a jin, while live ones could go for as much as one hundred thirty.

But he had heard the profit margin was only so-so, which was why he’d decided against stocking them.

Spanner crabs could also be found domestically, but the yield was very small. They seemed to be much more plentiful along foreign coasts, however.

After removing the hook, Gu Nan opened the game’s Codex.

’This is actually a three-star piece of aquatic life? Did I just complete Task Three, just like that?’

Unfortunately, the reward for a regular three-star codex entry was only 200 Gold Coins. Adding the reward for Task Three, his balance reached 4,700 after he collected them.

He checked the spanner crab’s entry in the game Codex. The ones from Seven-Star Rock came from Australia, which meant his sourcing channel would also shift there.

’A Flavor Rating as high as six stars! Holy cow, that’s amazing!’

Unfortunately, this type of crab didn’t grow very big. A large one was typically about one and a half jin, and two jin was considered huge.

The one Gu Nan had caught, however, was just over seven liang. No wonder it wasn’t even as big as his palm.

The suggested selling price was one hundred thirty, just as he’d heard.

Since the Aquarium and Chilled Storage had been unlocked, Gu Nan could send the spanner crab there directly.

This saved him the trouble of having to take just one or two catches back to the shop like in the old days.

He cast his line again, slowly retrieving it to give the lure some action. After a short while, the rod tip was pulled down. Gu Nan set the hook, and another spanner crab was reeled in.

Then came the third, the fourth, and the fifth. Gu Nan fell silent. ’Did I just complete Task Two?’

However, the next thing he caught was yet another spanner crab.

’I must be right on top of a crab den,’ he suspected. ’There’s no other way for it to be this ridiculous.’

He’d heard these crabs were quite tasty. Although the ones he was catching with the starter rod weren’t big—mostly between half a jin and seven or eight liang—if he caught enough of them, he could arrange for a shipment tonight and try one for himself tomorrow.

But for now, Gu Nan wanted to catch some other type of aquatic life, so he changed his position, moving from the left side of the boat to the right.

Even though he hadn’t chummed this spot, there was still a chance of getting a bite.

He also changed his fishing method this time. Before, he’d let the lure sink to the bottom, but this time he cast out farther and retrieved it slowly across the surface.

It was definitely harder to hook a fish this way. He cast out his lure and reeled it back in again and again.

After some twenty consecutive casts, Gu Nan began to wonder if there were any fish here at all.

Thankfully, he finally felt a pull much stronger than a spanner crab’s, letting him know his method wasn’t flawed.

The fish wasn’t particularly large. After a brief struggle, Gu Nan easily brought it alongside the boat.

It was a very strange-looking fish. It was quite long and looked a bit like a Golden Needlefish, but it had many dorsal and ventral fins.

But his luck was good—the fish looked to be just over thirty centimeters, which was perfect for completing Task One.

This was a one-star fish, rewarding 50 Gold Coins. After collecting all his rewards, his balance reached 5,250.

’Australian Hake. Judging by the name, it must be a type of cod?’

The fish had a very wide distribution, found in oceans all over the Southern Hemisphere, and was a deep-sea species. But this particular fish was from Australia, and Gu Nan suspected that most catches from Seven-Star Rock would likely originate from there as well.

The fish sometimes came to the surface, though its habitat could reach depths of up to one thousand meters.

It could grow to a maximum length of 1.55 meters. Its Flavor Rating wasn’t high, at just four stars.

Suggested selling price: fifty yuan.

In the Codex, the Australian Hake was listed first, which made Gu Nan think that the prices for fish from Seven-Star Rock might be comparable to those in the Fengqi Coast’s elite codex.