I Can Fish Up Everything!

Now, the problem for Gu Nan was how to land the fish. The landing net seemed a little too small and not very sturdy.

The fish gripper was out of the question. At about one and a half meters long, the fish was definitely over fifty pounds—far too heavy for the gripper to handle.

’Looks like I’ll have to use my hands.’ Gu Nan glanced down at his own. ’The gloves should be fine, right?’

The tide had been low at noon, but it had since risen, so the water level was high enough.

The fish was lying on its side, looking exhausted. Gu Nan crouched down while reeling in, keeping the line taut.

He locked the drag and heaved up with his left arm, causing the fish’s head to lift slightly as well.

Seizing the opportunity, he grabbed the fish’s long bill and hauled it out of the water.

The fish was heavy, but for a fit young man like Gu Nan, lifting it was no problem.

But being pulled from the water sent the fish into a panic. It thrashed its body, struggling so violently he almost lost his grip.

Gu Nan reacted in a flash, tossing the fish onto the platform. He couldn’t worry about bruising the meat now.

The next moment, he threw himself on top of it, once again grabbing its long bill to keep from getting hurt.

The marlin struggled for a while, its skin getting badly scraped up on the concrete platform.

When it quieted down again, Gu Nan quickly grabbed his scissors and plunged them into the fish’s brain to kill it.

Once the fish was completely dead, he relaxed and began to bleed it, taking the opportunity to check the Boss Index.

The Map Boss was very generous. The Index awarded two thousand Gold Coins, with an additional bonus of one thousand. Adding the Gold Coins from selling the green set, his total came to seven thousand three hundred.

Gu Nan quickly bought more fishing line and bait, leaving him with one thousand three hundred Gold Coins.

He then began reading the Index entry. It was an Indian marlin from the Indian Ocean.

His catch was 1.53 meters long, which was considered medium-sized.

It was a good thing it was only medium-sized. If he’d hooked a large one, he would have been dragged into the water.

The species could grow up to 4.65 meters, with an estimated maximum weight of over eight hundred pounds—no smaller than an Atlantic Blue Marlin.

However, the meat quality of the Indian marlin was excellent, with a high fat content. Because its flesh is white, it’s known as "white-meat marlin" and is perfect for sashimi.

The flavor rating was a little lower than he expected, only five and a half stars, but that was still decent for this type of fish.

The suggested sale price was related to the freshness of the meat. If it was sashimi-grade, it could sell for over one hundred per pound. The higher the fat content and the larger the fish, the more valuable it was, fetching up to one hundred fifty per pound.

If it was frozen or not fresh enough, the price dropped to just fifty per pound.

The price was still pretty good. Because the fish was so large, even with a lower price per pound, the total value would far exceed that of a leopard coral grouper. ’No wonder it was a Boss.’

Gu Nan could set the specific price himself based on what customers were willing to pay, the fish’s size, its appearance, and so on. This was different from the fixed prices of his previous catches.

Now that the Elite Map was unlocked, Gu Nan was actually looking forward to seeing what the Elite Boss would be.

But next time, he would be prepared. He wouldn’t be as reckless as he was today.

Done with the fish, Gu Nan moved on to the newly unlocked features and saw a system announcement.

[Congratulations, Host, you have completed the normal Index for the Fengqi Coast. You can now toggle this map on or off at any time. If the map is toggled off, you will no longer catch fish from the Fengqi Coast.]

Gu Nan’s eyes lit up when he saw this.

Because of the map, he’d always had to find excuses to turn down invitations from his regular fishing buddies to go fishing on the coast.

Now that he had control, he could finally go fishing with other people.

Maintaining customer relationships was part of running a business. After all, he’d refused a couple of times, and one of his more familiar fishing buddies had stopped coming to his shop to buy fish.

Then came the second announcement.

[Congratulations, Host, you have unlocked the Elite Map. Daily Missions are temporarily suspended and will resume when you activate the next map.]

[Elite Map Loop Quest Issued]

[Elite Mission 1: Catch one hundred 1-star fish (1/5). Reward: 100 EXP, 1000 Gold Coins. Note: You must complete the current mission to unlock the next.]

[Elite Mission 2: Catch fifty Red Fork-tailed Sea Bream longer than 50cm (1/5). Reward: 150 EXP, 1500 Gold Coins. Note: You must complete the current mission to unlock the next.]

[Elite Mission 3: Challenge a small Elite Boss (1/6). Success Reward: 200 EXP, 2000 Gold Coins. Note: You must complete the current mission to unlock the next.]

’Three Elite Missions in total,’ he thought. ’It looks like each one has follow-up stages of increasing difficulty. This isn’t going to be easy!’

’Especially that last Elite Boss mission. By the sixth loop, it’ll probably be a Legendary Level Super Boss.’

’Putting aside whether I could even land it by myself, just encountering it would be a problem. How big of a big-fish bonus would I need? Would the rod’s stats even be enough?’

After processing the second announcement, he saw there was a third.

[Congratulations, Host, you have unlocked the Fengqi Aquarium and the Fengqi Ice Fresh Hall. All fish caught from the Fengqi Coast can now be stored in the Aquarium and Ice Fresh Hall.]

[Fengqi Aquarium: Live fish from the Fengqi Coast can be kept here. The Host may pay a shipping fee to have selected fish transported from the Aquarium to your personal seafood shop via a third-party service. (Fish removed cannot be returned.)]

[Fengqi Ice Fresh Hall: Freshly processed fish can be stored here. The Ice Fresh Hall will perfectly preserve fish in the state they were in at the moment of death. The fish’s condition will only begin to degrade over time once the Host chooses to retrieve it to reality or pay a fee for delivery. (Fish removed cannot be returned.)]

"Perfect!" He hadn’t expected completing the Index would unlock two such important features. The first would keep his secret safe while fishing.

The other was even better. Even if he caught a fish from the Fengqi Coast, he could store it directly in this space, and it even offered delivery.

Now he wouldn’t have to deliver the fish himself every day. Plus, he could save up smaller catches and take them out all at once when he had enough.

This way, Yi Chen wouldn’t get suspicious about him getting new "stock" every day, especially when it was just one or two fish at a time, which looked like a joke.

Most importantly, he finally had a place to put the Indian marlin. All the fish from the Fengqi Coast in his tanks and foam boxes could be moved into the Fengqi Aquarium and Fengqi Ice Fresh Hall.

That would leave only a few local fish. When the bald guy saw he’d only caught a small amount, he wouldn’t think anything of it.

Gu Nan began to move the fish one by one. His once-full containers of fish were quickly reduced to next to nothing.

His local catch for the day wasn’t much: seven black porgy, a dozen or so scorpionfish, and two Sea Bass. He’d thrown back the miscellaneous small fry. That was it.

He drained one of the water tanks halfway, used a net to transfer the fish from the other tank into it, then drained the second tank completely.

He didn’t need to worry about the foam boxes; they were already empty.

Now that he had the complete blue Fengqi set, he had one more guaranteed catch per day.

Gu Nan wasn’t in a rush, so he decided to take out his line and bait, rig his rod, and go for his last fish of the evening.

There were no surprises. A few minutes later, he landed a nearly four-pound Large-spot Grouper. It was classified as "Giant."

’Wow,’ he thought. ’Anything over three and a half pounds is considered giant?’

After storing the fish in the Fengqi Aquarium, Gu Nan sent a message to the bald guy, packed up his things, and left.