I Can Fish Up Everything!

Chapter 14: Chapter 14: Completing a Set of Equipment and Unlocking the Behemoth Reward

He cast his bait, and a few minutes later, he pulled up a Black-striped Small Stripes Buri weighing just over five and a half pounds.

’This is a good one.’ Gu Nan quickly bled the fish and placed it in the foam box filled with crushed ice that he had left here earlier.

The box wasn’t worth much, so he wouldn’t have been upset if someone had taken it.

But it was better that it was still here, saving him the trouble of running back and forth.

He now had two two-star fish. Three more and he would complete the quest.

However, of the next five fish he caught, four were Star Chicken Fish, and only one was a two-star Ball-nosed Fish.

That meant he was still two two-star fish short of completing his daily quest.

He checked the time. It was already 9:30 PM.

"Phew~" Gu Nan sighed, a bit of a headache setting in.

He had to watch the shop in the morning, so he should be heading back to get some sleep soon.

He could sleep in the afternoon, but the quality of daytime sleep wasn’t great.

The main problem was that fishing took up too much time and was affecting his daily routine.

But it was early summer now, and the sun was already scorching. If he went fishing often in the afternoon, he’d probably be baked to a crisp in no time.

Even with cooling sleeves and a hat, he could still get a sunburn, not to mention suffer from heatstroke.

Nobody enjoys suffering, not even die-hard fishermen.

But there wasn’t enough time to fish at night, and the lack of sleep every day would probably wear his body down before long.

He could manage for now, but as more game maps unlocked, his focus would inevitably shift to fishing, making it difficult to look after the seafood shop.

’Should I ask my parents to come and help?’

Gu Nan immediately shook his head. His dad had his own job, and it wouldn’t be right for his mom to come over since she had to take care of his dad. It looked like he’d have to hire someone to help watch the shop.

The salary for the seafood shop didn’t need to be too high. His shop wasn’t large, so four thousand yuan a month should be enough, normally.

Besides, it was better to do it sooner rather than later. Judging by his income over the past two days, he could definitely afford the salary.

If someone started soon, he’d have to train them on everything in the shop, including how to clean fish.

But a fixed salary could lead to complacency. Perhaps a model with a base salary plus commission would be more beneficial for him and also motivate the employee to sell more fish.

Gu Nan filed that thought away. The spot he had chummed earlier now had fish, and he still needed to keep fishing to complete today’s daily quest.

Without the daily guaranteed catch, the size of the fish was no longer so consistent.

On his first cast, Gu Nan caught a Bushi Golden Needlefish just over a pound. But the second catch made him grin from ear to ear—it was a Five-colored Tang over ten centimeters long, its mouth perfectly hooked by the tip. Another 180 yuan in the bank.

’I’ll take a picture tomorrow and send it to that customer who buys ornamental fish. Maybe he’ll want this one too.’

Soon, he had pulled in a few more fish, including two two-star Ball-nosed Fish, successfully completing the daily quest.

Now, with both Daily Quest 1 and Daily Quest 2 finished, his experience had increased by ten points, bringing his total to twenty.

He gained 350 Gold Coins, and with the 50 he had left, his total was now 400.

’I can buy new equipment.’ Gu Nan thought for a moment and chose the fish bait.

He had assumed it would be a single minnow lure or something similar, like the novice equipment. Instead, a box about the size of a pencil case suddenly appeared in his hand.

Inside was a wide variety of lures—minnows, spoons, soft baits, and more, all sorted by size. It was a fairly complete set of fishing bait.

Gu Nan was overjoyed. ’This set is a great deal! I can’t imagine how much it would cost to buy all this myself!’

If the "ordinary" fish bait turned out to be such a huge surprise, what about the fishing line?

He suddenly felt a flicker of anticipation.

With new bait in hand, Gu Nan was eager to try it out. After some thought, he selected a soft bait lure.

The lure looked like an Antarctic krill. He held it up and sniffed it, discovering that it actually smelled like Antarctic krill, and the scent was strong. ’Now this is interesting.’

After changing the bait, he gave his rod a gentle flick and cast the hook right into the chummed spot.

The baited hook slowly sank into the water, while the A-wave float bobbed on the surface.

A short while later, the line tensed, and the float suddenly dipped about halfway down. At the same time, he felt a tug on the rod.

A bite! The fish didn’t feel very big.

Gu Nan promptly lifted the rod to set the hook. Once he felt it catch, he quickly turned the handle and reeled in the line.

The tip of the rod trembled nonstop, a clear sign the fish was struggling fiercely in the water. But a small fish only has so much strength, and with a bit of brute force from him, it was quickly sent flying out of the water.

A small fish, pink and yellow with blue spots, appeared before his eyes.

Gu Nan was pleasantly surprised. Another new species.

He didn’t recognize this fish, which meant he could basically rule out local coastal species. It must be a newly unlocked fish from the game’s collection.

He unhooked the fish, placed it in his keepnet, and opened the game. Sure enough, a new species had appeared, and Daily Quest 3 was also complete. This was great.

A three-star fish awarded 200 Gold Coins, plus the 100 he had left over. What a coincidence, that was just enough to buy the fishing line.

Without a second thought, Gu Nan bought the fishing line.

[Ding! Congratulations, Host, for collecting a full set of Fengqi equipment. Set bonus activated. Reward: 100 Gold Coins. The giant catch reward function has been unlocked. Please check your Collection for details.]

His Gold Coins, which had just been depleted, were back to 100. And a new function and a set bonus were unlocked?

’There’s a lot to check. I’ll take it one thing at a time.’

Gu Nan looked at the fishing line first. He took it out and found it was a single spool, 120 meters long, and came with instructions.

The line was matched to the rod and could only be used for fish under eleven pounds. There was a risk of the line snapping with fish over five-and-a-half pounds. It looked very thin, about the same thickness as a number 2 carbon line.

One advantage was that once the line was used up, he could spend 50 Gold Coins to buy a new one. Additionally, leaders were free to use.

Carbon, nylon, and steel wire leaders were all provided for free by the game, which was a nice perk.

After checking the fishing line, Gu Nan looked at the set bonus. He saw that his daily guaranteed catch on the Fengqi Coast had increased by one (+1), and the number of daily quests had also increased by one (+1).

’This set bonus is great! Now I can get thirteen guaranteed catches a day, and I have four daily quests.’

’Not bad, not bad.’ Gu Nan then opened the Collection to read the description of the three-star fish he had just caught.

Blue-striped Gidai, also known as Blue-striped Purple Fish and Flower Snapper.

Distribution: Indo-Pacific, including East Africa, etc. ’The fish that have appeared so far are all from these places. It seems the Fengqi Coast represents the coastal regions from Southeast Asia all the way to East Africa.’

The Blue-striped Gidai only grows to a maximum length of forty centimeters. It’s a small species of fish. ’No wonder the one I caught was so small, probably less than a pound.’

Flavor Rating: Five stars. Suitable for all cooking methods. It is an extremely delicious fish. Suggested selling price: 80 yuan.

’This fish looks great, it makes my mouth water just looking at it. To be honest, I kind of want to taste it myself.’

Unfortunately, he hadn’t caught enough of them yet. He’d have to keep working at it.

After learning about the fish, he finally turned his attention to the new function that had appeared on the left side of the Collection.

Three new markers had appeared there: Giant, King, and Legend.

Below these markers was the number "0/16," which immediately reminded Gu Nan of the "Small," "Medium," and "Large" markers in the top-left corner of the fish Collection.

He had a sudden realization. ’Ah, so that’s what it means.’

’If I catch a fish that meets the size requirement, its marker will change to Giant, King, or even Legend. As long as I catch sixteen of them, I can claim the corresponding rewards.’

Below these markers was a green icon to "View Rewards." He clicked on it, and three types of rewards were immediately displayed.

Giant: Reward of 2,000 Gold Coins and five silver keys.

"What’s this?" Gu Nan was confused. "Are these for a new function later on?"

He searched all over the game but couldn’t find a use for the keys. In the end, he went back to looking at the other rewards.

King: Reward of 4,000 Gold Coins and ten silver keys.

Legend: Reward of 8,000 Gold Coins and one golden key.