Six hours later, after consuming all his supplies, Han Qiwu lowered his head and began packing up. The tide was rising soon, and he needed to hurry and leave.
Today’s haul of black seabream was decent. Since his storage slots couldn’t hold them all, he’d already made a trip to the trading point to sell so earlier, earning 1,351 gold.
"Swoooosh—"
[You have encountered the Black Seabream King!]
[Black Seabream King Encounter Condition: Catch more than 100 black seabreams within 10 days.]
With the system notification appearing in his field of vision, an enormous black seabream, about 60 centiters long, gradually erged on the water’s surface in front of Han Qiwu.
You should know, a normal black seabream is about 15–30 cm long. This Fish King was almost as big as two large black seabreams combined.
"Catch the small ones, and here cos the big one? What’s this, a Gourd Baby scenario?" Han Qiwu’s spirits lifted as he straightened up and cast his line with a powerful swing.
The enormous black seabream, upon seeing the hook, showed no hesitation and directly bit onto it.
Han Qiwu: "???? What the hell?"
He vaguely sensed sothing was off. He wasn’t Jiang Taigong—why would a fish voluntarily bite the hook?
This felt suspicious.
As the fishing mini-ga was triggered, before Han Qiwu could fully concentrate on playing, a sudden force surged up from the fishing rod. It bent the rod into a crescent shape in an instant.
The power ca fast and strong, dragging Han Qiwu a small step closer to the water.
If not for the arm-strength buff he had received that morning, he might have been yanked straight into the sea with just that one pull.
"Is the Fishing King always this dangerous?" Han Qiwu braced his foot against a rock on the shore, gripping the fishing rod tightly in both hands as he wrestled with the Fish King while simultaneously managing the fishing mini-ga in his view.
Multitasking.
In the mini-ga, the Black Seabream King’s size was also double that of a normal black seabream. Though it wasn’t quite as large as the swordfish icon, Han Qiwu wasn’t exactly equipped with yesterday’s gentle breeze either.
The difficulty of reeling it in was imnse.
And here he was, reminiscing about Qingying.
No.
He ant to say, reminiscing about the gentle breeze of simpler tis.
The Black Seabream King’s movent pattern in the mini-ga was erratic—alternating between sudden bursts and complete stops with unpredictable directions and blazing speed.
"It would’ve been great to encounter this after upgrading to Red Sun," Han Qiwu thought wistfully while grappling with the fish. But he couldn’t afford to let this opportunity slip away—what if it was a once-in-a-lifeti encounter?
Opportunities to level up should never be wasted.
In reality, the Black Seabream King wasn’t limited to vertical bursts like in the ga.
It zigzagged left and right.
It even bolted forward and backward.
Three-dinsional chaos.
Fortunately, Han Qiwu was now relatively fit and could rely on brute strength over finesse.
Locking his legs firmly against the rocks, he strained to pull the Black Seabream King back towards him, draining its stamina bit by bit.
The epic battle between man and fish lasted a full fifteen minutes, leaving Han Qiwu completely drained of energy.
"Woosh, woosh, woosh."
The tide was beginning to rise.
The seawater was already creeping up to the rocks Han Qiwu typically stood on while fishing.
Ti was running out.
Perhaps due to the prolonged standoff, the Black Seabream King’s movents gradually weakened, and the resistance transmitted through the fishing rod’s line lessened as well.
Similarly, its activity frequency in the mini-ga slowed down a notch, slightly reducing the difficulty.
"I can’t drag this out any longer. If this keeps up, I’ll have to cut the line." Han Qiwu’s complexion was a bit pale, as he was nearing his physical limit.
Glancing at the rising water, a spark of inspiration struck him. He began deliberately guiding the Black Seabream King closer to shore.
After five minutes of maneuvering, the water had risen further, almost reaching his ankles.
With the montum of the tide, the Black Seabream King was gradually drawn closer toward Han Qiwu. Each ti it inched closer to shore, Han Qiwu stepped slightly deeper into the cave.
Once the fish realized sothing was wrong and attempted to dart away,
it was already too late. Han Qiwu gripped the fishing rod tightly with both hands and threw himself backward with full force.
A perfect harmony of waist and legs!
Under Han Qiwu’s sudden burst of strength, the Black Seabream King’s body lifted out of the water and slamd heavily against the rock wall.
Seizing this golden opportunity, Han Qiwu focused his energy, wrangling the sluggish Black Seabream King with his float and finishing the job.
Seconds later, Han Qiwu finally heard the system notification.
[Congratulations! You have successfully caught the Black Seabream King.]
[Black Seabream King]
[Stamina 300]
[Health 150]
[Drops: Black Seabream Roe, Black Seabream Fry]
[Note: The Black Seabream King is absolutely not ant to be eaten.]
[Congratulations! You’ve gathered enough marine fish species.]
[Congratulations! You’ve unlocked the fifth achievent.]
[Achievent: First Hunter of the Fish King]
[Click to view detailed attributes.]
[Your fishing rod: Bronze Blade is damaged. Please repair it promptly.]
A flurry of system notifications popped up in Han Qiwu’s field of vision, but he didn’t have the leisure to review them. He grabbed his fishing kit and bucket, wading through the water to leave the area as quickly as possible.
The tide had already risen to his calves.
Any later, and he’d be at risk of being swamped!
Half an hour later, Han Qiwu, refreshed from a hot shower, leaned wearily into his chair.
Exerting such effort ca with aftereffects—his muscles occasionally throbbed with sharp, tearing pain.
Still, the rewards this ti were worth it.
Ti to tally the spoils.
The Black Seabream King in his inventory stood out from the other black seabreams. It occupied a separate slot, radiating an air of prestige.
Its attributes were distinct. In addition to restoring health and stamina, it offered a new drop option.
"Black Seabream Roe? Black Seabream Fry?" Han Qiwu mused aloud, attempting to decipher their uses. "Fish roe could theoretically be used to hatch fry, but since the Black Seabream King can directly produce fry, it’s likely the roe is ant for making caviar."
Caviar!
This delicacy would surely fetch a high price.
After all, the effort required to obtain it was no joke!
After playing for this long, Han Qiwu had discerned the underlying logic of this ga:
The greater the effort, the greater the reward.
And precisely because of this positive reinforcent chanism, the ga only beca more engaging and addictive for him.
For now, he decided to keep the Black Seabream King in his inventory.
Once he built a fishpond, he’d toss it in to breed so offspring.
"Strutting around like a big shot, huh? Just you wait—you’re staying here as breeding stock!"
Beyond the Black Seabream King, this fishing session had brought one additional gain.
[Achievent: First Hunter of the Fish King]
[Achievent Attribute: Increases the selling price of all fish in the sa category as the Fish King by 5%.]
[Achievent Reward: 3 to the capacity of all fishponds on your property.]
[Note: This achievent can only be obtained by catching a Fish King before job advancent. Truthfully, this is not an easy feat.]
The achievent attributes were excellent—now black seabreams would sell for even more money.
He was determined to keep fishing!
As for the achievent reward, it was very practical—it resolved Han Qiwu’s previous concerns about fishpond capacity.
" 3 to all fishpond capacities... The further I progress, the more useful this will be."
Thank you, Black Seabream King.
Reading the achievent note, Han Qiwu finally understood why catching this fish had been so challenging. It turned out to be an encounter with a high-level monster.
From the note, it was clear that Fish Kings were ant to be caught after job advancent when specialized skills would be available.
At a re level 4 in fishing, Han Qiwu had essentially caught the Fish King by overleveling.
Reflecting on the entire process, Han Qiwu concluded that the biggest challenge in catching a Fish King lay in its overwhelming physical strength—this demanded a high level of fitness.
He even considered whether he should build a tal fra after mining so iron ore later on.
Sothing sturdy and weighed down with tal, equipped with anchors for stability, and a fishing rod holder to securely mount the rod.
He could na it the "King Hunter’s Throne"—a place to sit comfortably and outlast any Fish King.
Let’s see if they could outlast him!
It was worth a shot whenever he had ti.
Reaching the final system notification, Han Qiwu quickly retrieved the [Bronze Blade] from his inventory.
Although its exterior seed fine, the system notification suggested internal damage.
[Bronze Blade damaged, currently unusable.]
He’d sacrificed his fishing rod just to catch a Fish King.
Han Qiwu checked the ti and confird it wasn’t class ti before pulling out his phone to call Tang Qingying.
He wanted to get Brother Jing’s number.
It didn’t take long for her to pick up. Han Qiwu cut straight to the chase: "Mr. Tang, do you have Brother Jing’s number? I need to talk to him about sothing."
"I do. I’ll send it to you on WeChat in a bit. What’s going on?" Tang Qingying asked curiously. At the ti, she was in an underground parking lot at the mall, about to head to the supermarket with Jing Yijia.
"Who is that? Your little rich boy boyfriend?" Jing Yijia’s eyes sparkled with excitent, her gossiping spirit burning brightly.
"Shh." Tang Qingying silenced her with a gesture and turned her ear back to the phone.
"Nothing major. I broke my fishing rod catching a fish today and need Brother Jing to fix it. What are you up to?" Han Qiwu casually asked after explaining.
"Nothing much, about to head to the grocery store with a friend. Your fishing rod broke? Then hurry up and call him. I’ll hang up now and send you the number in just a mont," Tang Qingying said quickly, feeling her face heat up slightly.
"Got it," Han Qiwu replied, waiting for the number.
After hanging up, Tang Qingying swiftly sent Tang Jing’s number to Han Qiwu through WeChat. Putting her phone away, she resud walking nonchalantly.
"Hey, you two hardly ever call each other. Couldn’t you chat for a bit longer?" Jing Yijia asked incredulously. "Nothing going on? Hanging up already? How could you even bring yourself to say that?"
Tang Qingying looked puzzled. "What’s wrong with that?"
"What’s wrong? Everything’s wrong! As his teacher, you should be showing more concern! Chat with him for a while! Build rapport! If you think I’m cramping your style, I can wait off to the side while you talk," Jing Yijia declared dramatically, almost wishing she could force Tang Qingying to redial the number and fix her mistake.
"We just saw each other yesterday. What’s there to be concerned about?" Tang Qingying laughed, waving her hand dismissively.
"Wait, wait. You didn’t even deny it when I called him your little boyfriend. Tang Qingying, tell the truth—are you developing a thing for younger guys?" Jing Yijia teased in a singsong voice.
"Watch your mouth! Or else no one will co grocery shopping with you next ti," Tang Qingying pretended to be angry, heading off in another direction with her thoughts all jumbled.
"Don’t be like that! I won’t say another word!" Jing Yijia imdiately surrendered, jogging after her with her hands up.
After a few steps, Jing Yijia couldn’t help her curiosity anymore and asked, "By the way, did he give you sothing yesterday?"
Tang Qingying thought for a mont before gently rolling up her sleeve.
Beneath the fabric lay a simple silver bracelet with a single bead of Red Cat’s Eye Stone, resting quietly against her fair wrist. The side of the bracelet bore an engraving of two characters.
Courage.
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