I Can Fish Up Everything!

Chapter 43: Chapter 43: Consecutively Unlocking Two 4-Stars

"There’s almost no one left. Let’s close up early today!"

’Worries are one thing,’ Gu Nan thought, ’but it’s evening now, so it’s time to go fishing.’

Gu Nan saw that there were only a few customers left in the seafood market, so he brought over his electric scooter and tricycle and told Yi Chen to go home early.

"Huh? We’re getting off now?" Having just finished mopping the floor, her eyes widened in slight surprise.

"There’s nobody here. No point in staying open just for the sake of it. This isn’t some big corporation with strict rules and regulations." The main reason he was letting her leave early, however, was that Gu Nan himself wanted to get to his fishing spot sooner.

"Alrighty, I’m off then!" Any employee would be thrilled to get off work early, and Yi Chen was no exception.

She took off her apron, hung it on the wall, picked up her small purse, and gave him a wave before cheerfully skipping out of the seafood market.

This sudden, childish change in her demeanor made Gu Nan chuckle. ’Now *that’s* more like a twenty-year-old!’

He then drove the electric scooter into the shop. He hadn’t ridden it much today, so it didn’t need charging.

He loaded the ice, foam boxes, live fish container, aerator, and fishing rods onto his tricycle one by one. After a quick check to make sure he hadn’t forgotten anything, Gu Nan turned off the lights, locked the door, and set off.

It was Sunday, so there probably wouldn’t be as many anglers out tonight. He decided to check the seashore first; if he found a suitable spot, he wouldn’t bother going to the bridge pier. It was a bit of a hassle for a short night of fishing.

After leaving, he first stopped by a convenience store to buy two bottles of mineral water, then headed out.

As he drove along the coast, he noticed the heat of the day had barely dissipated. The wind that blew against him was warm.

’It was definitely more comfortable under the bridge pier,’ he thought. ’It’s nice and shady there.’

He passed by his usual fishing spot and saw no one there. ’Perfect,’ he thought. ’I’ll fish here tonight.’

But just as he stopped the tricycle, Gu Nan thought about all the boxes in the back. Not only would it be a pain to move them, but there also didn’t seem to be enough flat ground to put them on.

If he left them on the tricycle, someone might sneak by and steal them when he wasn’t looking.

After a moment of indecision, Gu Nan figured that since there were fewer people fishing tonight, he would go check the breakwater or the pier.

If those spots were also empty, he’d just fish at one of them.

At either of those locations, he wouldn’t need to unload anything from his tricycle.

He went to the fishing harbor pier first, but there were several anglers there, so Gu Nan had no choice but to go check the breakwater.

When he arrived, he found two other people there as well. Thankfully, the breakwater was long enough that they were quite far apart, so far that you couldn’t really see what either of them was catching.

There was plenty of room, so he could also keep his distance.

It’s not like all anglers were social butterflies; strangers generally kept to themselves and didn’t bother each other.

Gu Nan drove over, stopping at a spot in the middle of the breakwater.

The other two anglers were at the far end, probably because it was a bit cooler over there.

Fishing from the breakwater meant he had to use a float rig; otherwise, it would be easy to snag the bottom.

Gu Nan figured there must be a ton of hooks and sinkers at the bottom. If you could somehow pull them all up, you’d probably have a couple of ounces of hooks alone, and it wouldn’t be surprising to find several pounds of sinkers.

People who fished the bottom here used small sinkers, so finding several pounds would already be an exaggeration.

After tying his line and hook, Gu Nan checked his daily quests for the day.

Just as he’d expected, with the green Fengqi Fishing Rod, the experience and Gold Coin rewards had both increased.

Completing the four daily quests today would earn him a total of eighty experience points and 1,300 Gold Coins. The Gold Coins reward was two hundred more than before.

He already had 1,000 Gold Coins, which meant he could buy the green Fengqi fishing reel today.

However, Gu Nan wasn’t sure if he could complete all of today’s daily quests. The first three were fine; they were repeats of previous quests and seemed relatively simple.

But the last one would come down to luck, as it required him to unlock a new four-star fish in his codex.

But whether he could complete it or not, he needed to start fishing right away.

Gu Nan scooped up a few ladles of Antarctic krill and tossed them into the water in front of him. Then, he lightly cast his line and began to fish.

A dozen or so seconds later, right on cue, his rod started to move.

WHOOSH—

Gu Nan promptly lifted his rod to set the hook. The rod bent slightly, and the pull was average. Clearly, the first fish wasn’t very big.

’Bad luck,’ he thought. ’A small one on the first cast.’

So he quickly turned the handle of his reel and yanked the small fish right out of the water.

But when he saw the fish’s huge mouth, Gu Nan was stunned. ’A grouper?’

The features of a grouper were too obvious to miss. He recognized it at a glance.

’Wait, I used the guaranteed catch ability,’ he realized. ’Catching a grouper with it, doesn’t that mean...’

Gu Nan, who had just been lamenting his bad luck on the first cast, was now beaming. How could this be anything but insanely good luck?

He took the small grouper, which didn’t even weigh a pound, and placed it in the water tank on the back of his tricycle, then switched on the aerator.

Then he lightly cast his line to continue fishing while he checked the game’s codex.

It was indeed a Four-star Fish. He first collected the 500 Gold Coins reward, and with the 400 Gold Coins from the fourth quest, he was now only 100 Gold Coins short of buying the green reel!

Shaking his head with a hint of regret, he then read the fish’s description.

Large-spot Grouper. Found in the waters from southern Kenya to the Marquesas Islands.

Its distribution was different; it didn’t come from places like East Africa or South Africa, but it was still native to the Indo-Pacific region.

This type of grouper doesn’t get very large, growing to a maximum of fifty centimeters. The ones typically caught are smaller, around a pound or so.

His was even smaller; the codex also listed it as "Small."

Its flavor rating was very high, at six stars—the highest so far. Grouper is suitable for any cooking method and is considered a high-end seafood product. The suggested selling price was 160 yuan.

’Not bad,’ he thought. ’The shop finally has a high-end grouper that should be easy to sell.’

A grouper with an average weight of around a pound is much more palatable for both individual customers and restaurants.

Of course, groupers are different from other fish; even very large ones are sought after by some gourmands.

Take the African pompano in the shop today, for example. Individual customers would basically just ask about it, with no real intention of buying.

If it still didn’t sell by tomorrow, he’d have to see if any of the anglers in his group chat wanted it.

Just as he finished reading the information on the Large-spot Grouper, the second fish took the bait, right on cue.

This one also felt ordinary, its pull only slightly stronger than the grouper’s.

Gu Nan lifted his rod and reeled in. After a few tugs, the fish was landed with ease.

Its tail, long and elegant like a swallow’s, was quite beautiful—even longer than that of a long-tailed red snapper.

But its body resembled a silver pomfret, with three round black spots on its side.

Now Gu Nan was truly surprised. Another fish he didn’t recognize.

’All the low-star fish in the codex are already unlocked,’ he reasoned, ’so this one must be at least four-star, right?’

’What kind of luck am I having tonight? Is it too late to go buy a lottery ticket?’

The fish wasn’t large, just a little over a pound. But despite its pomfret-like body, the fight it put up was no weaker than the Large-spot Grouper’s—and groupers were famous for their strength.

Holding the rod high, he cranked the handle to continue reeling, lifting the strange fish right out of the water.

Gu Nan unhooked the fish, placed it in the water tank, and then, while dismantling his current reel, collected the 500 Gold Coins from the codex and purchased the green Fengqi fishing reel.

After spending two thousand, the reel was his, and he only had four hundred Gold Coins left.

If he finished all the daily quests today, Gu Nan could afford to buy new bait as well. With any luck, he could have a full set of green gear by tomorrow.