I Can Fish Up Everything!

The water here was thirty-four meters deep. Not too deep, just right.

He'd just sold the Indian marlin, so he wasn't in a rush for money. Gu Nan decided to use up his guaranteed catches for the day first.

The fish were usually biting well at night, so the efficiency of normal fishing wouldn't be that much worse than using the guaranteed catches.

Who would have thought the first fish on the line would be so light? He knew right away it was an ornamental fish.

'I hope it's a Queen Angelfish. They're popular and fetch a high price.'

He'd sold the last two to Kang Ye, so he could sell this one to Zhao Jie.

However, as he reeled in the line, a fantastical, purplish-blue fish appeared before his eyes.

The color was gorgeous, but one look at its shape told him it was a type of Stab-tailed Fish.

'A new species?'

Gu Nan's eyes lit up. He lifted the fish aboard, stored it in the aquarium, and then opened the game's collection.

He didn't see it in the middle section, but down in the five-star fish collection, he finally saw a new entry light up.

He collected the Gold Coins, and his savings reached 2,200.

Then, he read the collection's description. It turned out the fish was called a Purple-Blue Tang, a name that suited its colors well.

The rest of the information was similar to the Five-Colored Tang, but its selling price was very high.

It started at 1,000, with a maximum of 1,500, depending on its size.

Thanks to his fishing rod's attribute bonus, Gu Nan's catch was on the larger side, just over ten centimeters long. It could probably sell for 1,200 or 1,300, which was pretty good.

But the most important part was that this collection entry was identical to the one for the Five-Colored Tang: there were two question marks below it.

Apparently, two more types of Stab-tailed Fish were yet to be unlocked. Although there was no Gold Coin reward for them, based on his experience, their prices were definitely higher than the Purple-Blue Tang's.

Gu Nan guessed that one of them might be the Achilles Tang that Kang Ye had asked about before. As for the other one, he had no idea. There were too many species of Stab-tailed Fish, and quite a few of them were priced over a thousand.

Now that he had a Purple-Blue Tang, his fish tank would look even better.

Sometimes, when he was bored, teasing the ornamental fish was actually quite fun.

Closing the collection, Gu Nan resumed fishing. He thought he'd have a chance to unlock another new entry, but unfortunately, after using up all twenty-one of his chances for the day, he came up empty.

A single purple fishing rod was still a bit lacking. He figured that after buying the purple reel as well, or even collecting the entire purple set, the yield of elite fish should increase significantly.

'Purple is already the highest tier of equipment; there's no way it would be the same as before.'

Of the twenty-one fish, besides the first small ornamental one, the rest were all very large. By the time he used up all twenty-one guaranteed catches, more than two hours had passed.

The sun was scorching hot now. The weather lately seemed to be a little too good.

Without the daily guaranteed catches, the fish were barely biting, even with the map open and shrimp cages deployed.

There was nothing Gu Nan could do about it. He had no choice but to put away his rod and return to the cabin for a nap. He might have to pull an all-nighter, so getting some rest was a good idea.

When he woke up again, the sky was already dark. Gu Nan grabbed his phone and saw it was a little after 7:00 PM.

He shot up, rubbing his face to wake himself up, and then started preparing dinner.

'I was going to put in some effort, but I guess I'll just throw everything into a stew now.'

After dinner, he washed the dishes, walked around the deck for a bit to aid his digestion and enjoy the sea breeze, then got back to work.

He cast his line, and after only a short wait, a fish took the hook. Clearly, the conditions at night were much better than in the afternoon.

The fish had quite a bit of strength. Gu Nan forcefully jerked the rod up to set the hook, then gave a few hard pulls, reeling in several meters of line.

Seeing the fish still trying to dive deeper, he braced the rod against his stomach and repeatedly thrust it upward several times, forcibly pulling the sizable fish into the middle of the water column.

As if it knew it couldn't dive deeper, the fish finally chose to flee forward.

Gu Nan saw the angle of the line change and knew the fish had gotten the message. He adjusted the drag, letting it run a bit to wear it out.

Pulling an all-nighter was a battle of endurance, and he wanted to save a little energy with each catch.

The fish tired out after running against the drag for a while. Its stamina didn't seem to be very good. Once Gu Nan noticed this, he easily pulled it to the side of the boat.

Brown with spots all over its body, a fat belly, and a big mouth—it was a Tiger Stripes. It looked a bit bigger than the last one, maybe around eleven pounds. Gu Nan quickly grabbed the landing net and scooped it up.

'I think Guo Xiao said he was coming to my shop to buy a Tiger Stripes. I didn't see him this morning, and I wonder if he came by in the afternoon.'

'If he dares to flake on me, the next big fish is all going to Wang Junhe.'

This time, he didn't leave the Tiger Stripes out but stored it in the aquarium.

A short while later, the line went taut again, but the force felt off. Gu Nan tried to lift his rod but could barely move it.

'But I can feel the thing on the hook moving. Then the creature on the bottom must be...'

Gu Nan didn't dare to use too much force. He alternated between slackening and tightening the line, just hoping the hook would get lodged somewhere, preferably stuck fast.

Then, after a moment, a Sri Lankan mud crab weighing about three pounds surfaced, its two large pincers waving menacingly. The hook really was stuck.

Including this one, he had hooked this type of creature four times in total.

The hook got stuck three of those times. The one time it didn't, the crab naturally got away.

Gu Nan scooped it up with the landing net and stored it in the aquarium, looking thoughtful.

'No wonder the game includes creatures that are normally hard to catch this way. So there's a special mechanic for it!'

Normally, catching mud crabs requires a special kind of hook wrapped in steel wire to entangle the crab.

It's just like fishing for Emperor Crabs in Russia; the crabs aren't hooked, but entangled and pulled up.

This was good news for Gu Nan. At least in the future when he hooked a Sri Lankan mud crab, he could apply force normally without worrying too much about it escaping.

If the hook didn't get stuck, it would escape no matter what; being careful was useless.

Although the single purple fishing rod didn't significantly increase the chance of unlocking new collection entries, the hook rate for elite fish had indeed improved a bit. At the same time, the proportion of four and five-star fish also seemed higher.

These aquatic products gave a lot of experience points, four or five points per catch.

The night flew by in the blink of an eye for Gu Nan, who was completely absorbed in fishing. The local fish weren't biting today, so almost everything he caught was aquatic life from the Fengqi Coast.

He watched the sunrise again. But after a whole night of effort, his experience points were only at 613. He was still nearly 300 short.

He had leveled up so quickly last time because he had completed two quests that rewarded him with 250 points.

This time, Gu Nan checked Elite Quest I: he had only completed 77 out of 100.

But for Elite Quest II, he had already completed 43.

Gu Nan took a deep breath. No matter which quest he finished, with the experience from his upcoming catches, he had a chance to reach Level 10.

'Then I'll just keep going...'

[Ding! Congratulations, Host, for reaching Level 10. The game has unlocked the next map: Seven-Star Rock.]

[Please activate the map as soon as possible to unlock new rewards.]

'Seven-Star Rock? What the hell kind of place is that?'

Remembering that there seemed to be a reef area right under his boat, Gu Nan tried to activate it.

[Detecting that this terrain's similarity to Seven-Star Rock is only 62%. As it exceeds 60%, does the Host wish to activate?]

[Note: The lower the similarity, the worse the fish will bite, and the probability of high-star aquatic life appearing will be greatly reduced. It is recommended that the Host choose a location with a similarity greater than 80%.]

Huh?

'This is different from the first map. If the similarity is low, it lets me choose whether to proceed.'

'And this similarity rating... so it's that important?'

Gu Nan quickly selected "No." If the probability of high-star aquatic life was low, how was he supposed to unlock collection entries and run his high-end seafood business?

'It seems that from now on, when I choose a location to activate, the similarity must be high.'

'Seven-Star Rock... it's a fishing spot where seven small, exposed reefs form a chain. Is there a place like that around here?'

Gu Nan felt a headache coming on. He thought of Tail Island, but he had a feeling the similarity wouldn't be very high there either.

He had been up all night, and it was already ten in the morning. He decided to go home and get some sleep first.

He could ask the other anglers in his group chat if they knew of any similar places and also look around himself the next time he went out to sea.