novelraw Chapter 620 473: Can you fish like this? _2
Chapter 620 473: Can you fish like this? _2
Mirel sat down in another direction, watching Li Zheng's actions curiously, pondering the principles of fishing in her mind.
"Here, take this!"
Seeing her curious expression, Li Zheng handed her a set of fishing gear: "Put the bait on the hook and then just throw it out there and wait."
Obeying his instructions, Mirel followed suit, holding the fishing rod and curiously asking, "Just wait like this for a fish to bite? Won't it be boring?"
"Boring?"
Li Zheng tilted his head: "Fishing is inherently a boring process, but what's more important is finding joy in the boredom."
"Joy?"
Mirel propped her chin with one hand, unable to comprehend where the joy was, "In our Fallen Abyss, there are a few famous rivers too, but when demons want to eat fish, they just dive in and grab them directly."
Most demons are impatient; they can't bear the tedium of fishing, so choosing to catch fish by hand aligns more with their nature.
If Mirel mentioned someone in the Demon Race who would willingly sit by a river to fish, Li Zheng would actually find it strange.
"Have you ever caught fish by hand?" Li Zheng glanced at the float and casually asked.
"Yes, I have." Mirel recalled, "Sister Sylvie secretly took me once behind Mother's back, but that was more than sixty years ago. Later, when Mother found out, she scolded Sister Sylvie harshly, and we never went fishing again."
Sixty years ago...
Li Zheng's face twitched, forcing himself to ignore these discordant words, and he asked, "Did you find it fun to catch fish back then?"
"I thought it was quite fun at the time." Mirel thought carefully, then nodded.
"Uh..."
Li Zheng tried a different question: "If you were to catch fish now, would you still find it fun?"
Mirel gave Li Zheng a disdainful look: "I'm not some snot-nosed kid of forty or fifty, why would I go catch fish now?"
"..."
Damn...
Li Zheng realized it was hard to have a conversation with Mirel; their worldviews were too different. He really couldn't understand what those enchanted by enchanting demons were thinking.
Oh.
They only think about shallow plots, never going deep...
Hmm.
Actually, they do think deeply, but not in the depths of the soul, rather in...
Li Zheng's expression shifted as he tightened his grip on the fishing rod: "A bite!"
Turning to look, the float indeed bobbed slightly, giving the impression it was about to submerge.
"Don't panic!"
Zhan Zhouzhou also noticed this and put down his own rod, moving over to give directions: "Wait a bit longer, this reaction is probably just a test."
"I'm not panicking."
Li Zheng clutched the rod tightly. Apart from watching others fish in videos on his phone, this was his first time trying it personally.
His palms were sweaty.
Just then, the float suddenly plunged into the water, and Zhan Zhouzhou immediately shouted, "Lift it!"
Startled by the shout, Li Zheng reflexively jerked the rod upwards. The rod, over three meters long, instantly bent into an exaggerated arc. The fishing line was pulled taut, as if something heavy was struggling in the water, dragging the line back and forth.
"Relax! Relax!"
Zhan Zhouzhou hurriedly shouted upon seeing this: "Like this, the fish will get nervous. Relax, play with it a bit!"
"Play... I know!" With a heart partly excited and mostly nervous, when Zhan Zhouzhou shouted, Li Zheng gripped the rod even tighter.
The taut fishing line cut through the water, making a whooshing sound.
Suddenly, Li Zheng realized, something was off... Why am I even playing with a fish?
Since it bit the bait, why not just freeze it and then pull it up?
His spiritual power was released, spreading along the fishing line, and a completely golden fish appeared in Li Zheng's 'vision.'
"Ice and Fire Attachment - Ice Element!"
He fiercely activated his genetic ability, and a cold chill appeared out of thin air, clinging to the fishing rod, then rushing towards the golden fish at the end of the line.
Crack, crack, crack...
The seawater froze like a popsicle materializing out of thin air, encasing the fishing line and the fish hooked at the end in ice.
"Lift!"
Li Zheng let out a deep breath, shouted, and with both hands, he yanked the fishing rod upwards.
Splash!
The sea parted, and a straight icicle was pulled out of the water, with a fish about a meter long in the center glinting with golden light under the sun.
"Look! The General has a fish on the line over there!"
On the other side, a member of the Starting Point Legion noticed the situation and exclaimed.
"What the heck, what kind of fish is that? It even has an ice shell!"
"Idiot! That's not an ice shell; that's the General's Ice Formation Ability!"
"Awesome! So that's how you can fish too?!"
Thud!
The frozen fish, encased in ice, hit the ice surface, shattering the outer ice shell and revealing the golden scales within.
The Ice Attachment had a temperature low enough to freeze the fish to death upon even brief contact.
If the time had been longer, the fall would have shattered not just the ice shell, but the fish and ice together.
"Yo, lucky, it's a Level 4 fish."
Li Zheng beamed with joy, going over to remove the hook, estimating the weight to be seventy or eighty pounds.
Thankfully, the fishing gear sold by the terminal was sturdy enough, or else with the way he'd just whipped it, either the rod or the line would definitely have snapped.
Since the fish was already frozen to death, there was no need to keep it alive in the fish cage. Li Zheng decided to put it directly in the freezer in his quarters to prevent it from rotting.
After knocking all the ice off the line, Li Zheng shouted to the group watching, "Brothers, keep it up! Let's earn back the points for the fishing gear in half an hour!"
Getting 4 points on the account in under a minute after casting out, Li Zheng was now highly motivated and eagerly went back to reload the bait on the fishing rod.
Turning his head, he saw that Zhan Zhouzhou was still squatting nearby, so he asked, "What are you looking at me for? Where's your rod?"
"No fish came up, so I left it over there... Ah, my fishing rod!"
Zhan Zhouzhou turned around to see that the rod he left by the shore had been dragged into the sea, floating over thirty meters out and continuing further away quickly.
Classic case of turning your back and losing a catch.
Zhan Zhouzhou activated his flying device to follow, retrieved the fishing rod single-handedly from the water, and found that the fish that took the bait was still on the hook. Without hesitation, he wielded the rod like a longsword, flipping his wrist in a skillful motion. The long fishing rod sprang twice before shooting skyward, with the solid fishing line breaking through the water to bring the catch out.
"Whoa! So cool!"
Li Zheng enviously praised.
Compared to his cheating method of fishing, Zhan Zhouzhou's move looked much more dashing.
When Zhan Zhouzhou brought the fish back, Li Zheng glanced at it and couldn't help but burst into laughter.
"A Level 1 carp?"
His laughter stopped as Li Zheng questioned reality: "Dammit, did we just catch a carp from the sea? Did the terminal make a mistake?"
"Eh? Where's my float?"
Mirel's voice sounded, and Li Zheng raised an eyebrow: "Did you have a fish on the line? Quick, pull it up!"
"Ah? Oh~"
Mirel half-understood, and the fishing rod felt very much like a long whip. With a whip technique move, she lashed the rod sharply, transmitting wrist power through to the bottom of the fishing line.
Splash!
A brightly colored fish with several spikes was lifted from the water and landed on the ice surface.
"Wow, is everyone pulling their catch more stylishly than me?"
Li Zheng was speechless.
He went over to put the fish into the fish cage; it was a Level 2 rainbow fish, also without any special traits.
Behind him.
Crash!~
The sound of water breaking followed by the splattering of fish bait jumping and struggling on the shore echoed.
"Poli Poli!~"
Turning his head, Li Zheng saw that at some point, Red Poli had used his own body as bait to draw a fish out of the sea.
Surprisingly, it was a Level 5 fish, the highest valued catch the entire Starting Point Legion had so far achieved.
Before long, frequent splashing sounds were heard from other members of the Starting Point Legion too. Looking down at his own motionless float since the second cast, Li Zheng felt a bit uneased.
So this whole time... was I the brick to attract the jade?
Did I really need to be bullied like this?
Settling himself down to wait slowly, Li Zheng, feeling bored, asked in the legion's chat, "How many points have you guys got over there?"
Phoenix Mountain was the first to reply: "I've already caught over a hundred points!"