novelraw Chapter 238: Codex Upgrade
Chapter 238: Codex Upgrade
Chapter 238: Codex UpgradeAfter Jiang Luoluo's ciguatera poisoning incident, Chu Mingcheng stayed by her side to take care of her and didn't venture out to sea again.
The five restaurant owners wanted to continue placing orders with him, but he flatly refused.
He had no way to test reef fish for ciguatera toxin, and he hadn't found a suitable testing facility yet. For the time being, he didn't dare catch reef fish anymore.
Chu Mingcheng also considered finding a long-term partner for monitoring ciguatera toxin in reef fish.
Xiamen University had a marine science program—he wondered if they offered courses on ciguatera toxin monitoring.
He could ask Bai Yueke about it. She was the Xiamen University student who'd made the alligator gar specimen for him.
However, the dates for this year's fishing ban had already been set: from April 15th to the end of August.
There was only a month left before the ban kicked in. After Jiang Luoluo recovered, she decided to get her driver's license first and, at the same time, apply for a visa to Australia.
Chu Mingcheng felt that with so little time remaining, there was no point in pursuing a testing partnership. After the fishing ban ended, he'd be focusing on hunting tuna anyway, and he probably wouldn't have much time for reef fish then.
So the matter of inquiring about ciguatera testing got pushed to the back burner for now.While Jiang Luoluo was recovering, Chu Mingcheng didn't forget to improve his physical fitness by catching plecos, golden apple snails, and other invasive species.
Once Jiang Luoluo had fully recovered, he resumed going out to sea. This time, however, he mostly roamed the waters using the fish finder to locate schools of fish.
He still visited Crescent Moon Island on every trip to bond with the three sea lions and to catch ridgeback shrimp and mantis shrimp.
The quantity of these two species was beyond his expectations. He set the shrimp pots for half a month straight, and the number he caught each time barely decreased.
This made Chu Mingcheng realize it was completely impossible for him to wipe out an entire population on his own.
Besides, he was careful about it—releasing all the small shrimp and never taking berried females.
More importantly, although he wasn't catching reef fish to sell anymore, he discovered many aquatic creatures here that he'd never caught before.
The Aquatic Codex was about to level up. Chu Mingcheng felt it was necessary to raise the codex to Level 3 before going to Australia. So every time he came to Crescent Moon Island, his main focus was hunting aquatic species he hadn't caught before.
With ten days remaining before the fishing ban, under Little Black's guidance, he encountered a school of red drum, and the Aquatic Codex successfully leveled up.
Looking at the enormous school before him—the biggest fish exceeding a meter in length—Chu Mingcheng held a meter-long specimen and couldn't help but grin.
How long had it been since he'd encountered such a massive school of fish, with such big ones at that?
Red drum were originally from the U.S. but had been bred extensively in China starting in 1995. As a result, this fish could now be found all along the domestic coast, making it an introduced aquatic species.
The fish wasn't expensive—market price hovered around thirty yuan per jin, and fishmongers would pay about eighteen yuan.
The low price didn't matter. The fish were big. As long as he hunted enough of them, the earnings wouldn't be small.
Upon seeing the school, the three sea lions immediately rushed forward to try and catch them.
However, red drum weren't slow swimmers, and they weren't easy prey.
That wasn't the real issue, though. The issue was that the school didn't seem inclined to stay. Even after being attacked, they would regroup in the next moment and continue swimming eastward, their destination apparently the open sea.
Red drum gather in large numbers in early autumn to travel to coastal estuaries for spawning. This clearly wasn't their breeding season.
But they were migratory fish, so encountering a school heading for the open sea wasn't strange. Running into them today was purely luck.
Chu Mingcheng felt a twinge of frustration. If they didn't linger here, he could only get a few at most.
He couldn't stray too far from the boat, and the boat couldn't follow—mainly due to its limited range. If only the three sea lions could somehow stop them.
The moment that thought crossed his mind, the three sea lions, still in pursuit, suddenly stopped in unison.
Then, with a powerful burst of speed, they shot forward and, to Chu Mingcheng's astonishment, began trying to intercept the school.
Could it be...
Chu Mingcheng quickly glanced at the Aquatic Codex, and a look of pleasant surprise spread across his face.
The codex had leveled up, and the new function that appeared seemed to solve his two biggest problems.
But there was no time to examine it closely. He wasn't sure if three sea lions could actually stop such a huge school.
They could at least slow the school's departure, though they definitely couldn't surround them within a certain area the way orcas could—mainly due to their small numbers.
Chu Mingcheng quickly reloaded his speargun and took aim at a stray red drum.
He pulled the trigger. The spear shaft shot forward with a sharp whoosh, piercing the fish's abdomen.
A strong pulling force was transmitted through the line, but Chu Mingcheng held it firmly, his body not moving in the slightest.
Twenty-six days had passed since Jiang Luoluo recovered from ciguatera poisoning.
During those twenty-six days, although he didn't catch plecos every single day, and sometimes didn't even use the full four hours, he'd still used Life Conversion over 130 times.
His current physical fitness was definitely no worse than LeBron James at his peak—perhaps even stronger.
It was just that Chu Mingcheng's basketball skills were mediocre. Otherwise, he could definitely secure a spot in the NBA.
As for soccer—well, he was a fisherman. No need to go fighting with others over sea cucumbers.
He stood vertically in the water, his hands steadily pulling the fish back bit by bit.
At this moment, he didn't resemble Captain America so much as Aquaman.
Soon, the fish was pulled close. Chu Mingcheng grabbed its head with one hand, though the forceful thrashing of its tail caused his arm to sway.
His strength was immense now, but he could still be affected by these meter-long fish.
If he could grab a meter-long fish with one hand and keep his arm perfectly still, he'd probably be the real-life Aquaman by then.
A weakened version, of course.
After all, Aquaman had many special abilities that couldn't be obtained simply by improving physical fitness.
He pulled out his diving knife and easily severed the spinal nerve inside the gills.
Then, without waiting for the fish to bleed out completely, he hung this red drum on the fish stringer.
He retrieved the spear shaft and reloaded.
With several powerful kicks, he shot forward like an arrow, quickly closing in on the school that had turned back around.
Thanks to his enhanced physique, his swimming speed in the water was now about twice as fast as when he'd first acquired the Effortless Swim ability.
Before, it had been difficult for him to catch up to fish. Now, apart from some of the famous speedsters of the sea, he could bully most fish with his swimming speed alone.
Smaller fish were more agile, though, which he couldn't match. Trying to catch them by hand was still quite difficult.
Chu Mingcheng approached the school and searched for his next prey. The teeming mass of fish swam past his eyes in a dizzying display.
Startled by the three sea lions, the school had sped up, making it hard for him to choose a target.
Chu Mingcheng decided to just wing it. He raised his speargun without overthinking.
Whichever fish appeared directly in front of him, he'd shoot. It was all up to their own luck.
The next moment, a seventy- or eighty-centimeter red drum appeared in his locked position.
Bang! The school at that spot scattered, leaving only this unlucky fish struggling frantically.
A meter-long red drum had no power to resist in his hands, let alone this much smaller one.
Chu Mingcheng retrieved it at top speed, bled it, hung it on the fish stringer, and continued.
He didn't know how long the sea lions could hold the school back, so he had to move faster.
For a full hour, Chu Mingcheng didn't surface once. But now he had to swim up to catch his breath and bring his harvest back to the boat.
The two fish stringers were completely full of red drum. The largest was nearly 1.3 meters, and the smallest was sixty or seventy centimeters—not one was smaller than fifty centimeters.
Twenty-four fish, weighing an estimated 350 jin in total.
Yet Chu Mingcheng, dragging 300 jin behind him, returned to the side of the fishing boat at a relatively fast pace. He unhooked one of the fish stringers and hung it on the boat first.
Then he boarded and pulled the other fish stringer directly up.
Hauling up a 300-jin catch all at once would be very strenuous, but splitting it into two parts made it easy.
He tossed the fish onto the deck first, then pulled up the other fish stringer hanging on the boat.
He brought out two foam boxes, laid down crushed ice, and placed all the fish over seventy centimeters from the stringers inside.
But the fish were too big, and the two foam boxes couldn't hold them all, so he had to grab two more.
Those smaller than seventy centimeters were thrown directly onto one side of the deck. These would be the reward for the three sea lions later.
He owed it to them for keeping the school here today, so it was only right to feed them well.
After getting everything sorted, Chu Mingcheng didn't waste a second. He immediately grabbed his speargun, jumped back into the water, and continued hunting the school of red drum.
The performance of the three sea lions was somewhat beyond his expectations. They managed to block the school's movements every single time.
In addition, for some unknown reason, the school didn't choose to scatter and flee. Every time their formation was disrupted, they would regroup.
So Chu Mingcheng stayed busy for another three hours. His spearfishing activities for the day only came to an end when the three sea lions' stamina severely declined and they could no longer keep pace with the school.
In total, he returned to the boat four times, each time with twenty-four fish averaging over three hundred jin. All told, today's harvest was around 1,400 jin.
But the three sea lions had huge appetites. The pile of fish on Chu Mingcheng's deck was a good seventy or eighty jin.
All of this was food for the sea lions, which should be enough to fill them up.
With so much fish to eat, the three sea lions seemed ecstatic.
Chu Mingcheng was a bit puzzled, though. He'd thought he could understand what the sea lions were trying to convey, but it turned out he couldn't.
Watching Little Black happily munching on a fish, he tried issuing a command in his mind: "Stop eating!"
Little Black immediately stopped and looked at him in confusion.
"Eat!"
This time, he said it out loud. Upon getting permission, Little Black continued chewing on the fish.
Chu Mingcheng had a sudden realization. He'd originally thought it was an ability to communicate with aquatic creatures, but it turned out to be just one-way commands.
While the sea lions were eating, he went back to take a shower, then sat on the sofa to study the new ability of the Aquatic Codex.