As a Fisherman, My Fish Can Level Up

Chapter 150: Chapter 141: Making a Specimen

Last time he tried to pull out a catfish with a hand pole, he couldn’t manage it and was forcibly dragged into the water.

This time it was a boat rod, the base of the rod resting against the waist belt, his left hand grasping the rod, his right hand pressing down firmly on the fishing reel, preventing the forty to fifty-pound alligator gar from swimming deeper for the moment.

The tip of the rod bent from time to time, squeaking non-stop as it was pulled, and the fishing line sliced through the water with a whooshing sound.

Meanwhile, the battle raged on in the water, with three fierce alligator gars occasionally biting the body of the one on the hook, causing it great annoyance.

Beforehand, Chu Mingcheng had caught several small ones, and even they looked ferocious enough.

The larger ones were even more unsettling to look at.

The eyes seemed dumb and cute, but the mouth was as big as a crocodile’s, wide open, with sharp teeth like upright iron nails, scaring the nosy children into closing their eyes, not daring to look.

How could anyone want to buy such an ugly creature and keep it?

And what’s with those who release scavengers, is their brain really full of shit?

This alligator gar kept trying to dive underwater, but Chu Mingcheng was full of energy today, having used life conversion twice.

The strength of the fishing line was sufficient; with the alligator gar weighing only about forty to fifty pounds, he had no intention of letting the line play out.

What’s more, with three alligator gars biting randomly nearby, any slack in the line might result in the main line being bitten and broken, which would be troublesome.

However, the alligator gar had considerable strength, and he was standing on a concrete floor with plenty of friction underfoot.

On the grass beside him, he would have definitely skidded out with two furrows behind him.

At this moment, the hooked alligator gar seemed to be bitten painfully again and suddenly shook its head furiously.

After fending off the several alligator gars around it, it immediately exerted itself to dive deeper.

A tremendous pulling force was transmitted to the rod in Chu Mingcheng’s hands; this time he couldn’t lift the rod with one hand anymore and had to grasp the rod tightly with both hands.

He was pulled several steps forward, but he immediately moved side to side, as this pulling motion could cause the alligator gar pain and impede its power.

Afterward, the alligator gar was pulled around without spirit, no matter how much it struggled, despite exerting all its strength. It only managed to draw a semi-circle on the water’s surface, and its distance from Chu Mingcheng barely changed.

Seeing him so engrossed in the fishing, the Fishing Man from before became restless and came over to offer help, suggesting that he could take over for him.

Chu Mingcheng didn’t mind others lending a hand, which would save him some effort.

Regrettably, only if he caught the alligator gar himself could he gain the life conversion ability.

Otherwise, if Zhang Wei borrowed his rod last night to catch pilchards, would the pilchard’s data panel only have a mere level 8?

Therefore, he could only decisively refuse, leaving the Fishing Man both envious and regretful.

Actually, the Fishing Man had already fixed his line and at the side, he also tried to lure the other alligator gars over by chumming the water.

But it was like they’d seen a ghost; those three Alligator Gars must have held a grudge against the one on the hook—maybe they felt betrayed?

They kept biting at it relentlessly, refusing to leave it alone.

It had been a good while since the Alligator Gar had been caught, and the fishing had already drained a lot of its strength.

Now, it was nearly exhausted and its power was gradually weakening.

This was Chu Mingcheng’s time to start exerting effort. He looked behind him and saw a crowd of people, so he said, “Everyone please step back a bit and give me some more space. I’m about to pull this Alligator Gar up.”

The onlookers immediately stepped back, making a large open space. Chu Mingcheng saw this, grabbed the fishing rod with both hands, and began to pull the Alligator Gar towards the shore with all his might.

The Alligator Gar seemed to sense its fate and made one last surge of effort.

But this burst of strength was not as powerful as before. Chu Mingcheng just patiently stood his ground and after a short standstill, he saw it completely run out of energy and lie flat.

He then pulled it a few steps backward and after reaching the edge, he changed location, going onto the grass to haul the fish onto the shore.

Once the mouth of the Alligator Gar appeared above the water and was slightly pulled ashore, the three Gars that had been biting it suddenly calmed down and then, in front of everyone, dove back into the water.

This left the crowd onshore amazed, as they began to point and discuss, but no one suspected it was because of Chu Mingcheng.

What to do with the Alligator Gar he’d caught was a bit of a dilemma for him.

Just as he was thinking of calling the fishery administration to deal with it, a group of young people, both male and female, suddenly approached him.

One of the girls had been watching him since he started fishing here.

Seeing him reel in the Alligator Gar, she took the initiative to come over and ask, “Hi, we are marine biology students from Xiamen University. Could you please give us this Alligator Gar? We want to use it to make a specimen.”

“Of course, you can take this Alligator Gar!” Chu Mingcheng was more than happy to have someone take the problem off his hands, and he immediately agreed.

The female student then took out her phone, “Then let’s exchange contact information. I’ll send you pictures of the specimen once it’s finished.”

Chu Mingcheng fell silent for a moment, feeling like there was a catch, but he had no proof.

But thinking about the specimen, he took out his phone and exchanged contact details, “I’ll be getting the rest of the Alligator Gars out soon. Could you help me make specimens of those as well? We can talk about the price.”

The female student quickly waved her hands, “No need for money, no need for money. We’re already very grateful that you’re giving us the Alligator Gar for free. Making a specimen for you is the least we can do.”

“Alright, then I thank you in advance,” Chu Mingcheng said, and after securing the Alligator Gar’s mouth with a fish controller, he laid it on the grass to the side. He then baited his hook with liver and continued fishing.

The water’s surface was still bustling with activity, which was strange, but most people didn’t think too much of it.

Only the Fishing Man was curiously looking at his liver bait, wondering if it was some kind of secret fish bait that made the Alligator Gar so crazy.

Chu Mingcheng naturally noticed this situation. Considering the hassle it would be if it happened every time, he was thinking of leaving after catching this Alligator Gar when, suddenly, his aquatic guidebook offered an ability to turn off the 100% catch rate feature.

Meaning, whenever he wanted to catch Alligator Gars, he could enable this feature.

When the alligator gar took the bait, he could turn off the feature, which would calm the other alligator gars in the water.

Moreover, if there were any troublesome features in the aquatic creature guide in the future, he could choose to turn them off as well.

In this case, things became much simpler, and by late afternoon, he had caught all the alligator gars in the artificial lake.

The crowd of onlookers had changed several times, as after the initial surprise, there wasn’t much to see.

The only ones who remained motionless were a few students from Xiamen University and some fishing enthusiasts.

After dealing with four alligator gars, the number of life transformations again increased by five.

Chu Mingcheng handed over the four alligator gars to the Xiamen University students and bid them farewell before leaving the place with his fishing rod.

Driving around aimlessly, Jiang Luoluo wouldn’t be back until the day after tomorrow, leaving him somewhat bored and uncertain about what to do!

Originally, Chu Mingcheng had planned to spend a good day with Zhang Wei and Chen Yang, but they had gone back.

“Why not go out to sea again tonight!” With five life transformations as a cushion, Chu Mingcheng didn’t need to worry about becoming overly fatigued for the time being.

He had also asked Ban Qin shrimp lady earlier in the group chat, and there were still forty plastic bottles on the boat, so he might as well catch his fill first.

Thus, Chu Mingcheng turned the car around and headed for the dock, ordering three large Styrofoam boxes on the way. Coupled with the two on the boat, he now had five in total.

He also purchased some crushed ice and stuffed two Styrofoam boxes full.

If it wasn’t for the two spare Styrofoam boxes he had bought yesterday, the pilchards he caught would probably have been left on the deck, making them much more troublesome to clean later, as opposed to just rinsing them off in the morning.

In the end, he called for a fuel truck. When he arrived at the dock, the fuel truck came soon after, costing him nearly four thousand yuan.

He didn’t need to buy bait for the moment, as there were still some Shrimp Brick and squid bait in the refrigerator in the cabin.

Ready to go, he set out on his journey.

This time he sailed south, since Ban Qin shrimps were found in the southern part of the Treasure Island Strait.

After traveling at sea for an hour and a half, he arrived at the third coral reef he had discovered the afternoon before, which was also the largest one he had come across so far.

Because he was focused on finding fish schools with the fish finder, and there were no fish schools lingering here, he had only noted the coordinates previously.

This place was quite far from the coast, and his mobile phone could no longer receive a signal.

However, he had sent messages to his parents and Jiang Luoluo among others before setting out to sea, so they wouldn’t worry about being unable to find him.

He parked the boat and admired the sea surface, which looked magnificent under the setting sun from a distance.

Occasionally, he could even see a flock of seagulls flying over the sea surface. Once far enough from the dock, the scenery of the ocean was indeed beautiful.

If one could wake up to such scenery every day, setting aside whether it might become monotonous, it would at least make a person feel very relaxed.

Chu Mingcheng put on a wetsuit, mounted his camera, took his fish spear, and dived into the water. Without anyone around, he was much less restrained.

The coral area beneath the water was the largest he had encountered so far, with the deepest part reaching over thirty meters and the shallowest less than five meters.

In such a place, one would not expect to lack valuable fish, only if they hid under the corals, which would give very average readings on the fish finder.

Ban Qin shrimps lived in shallow areas, at most ten meters deep.

Chu Mingcheng first dove down to check the terrain and found several small Ban Qin shrimp caves in the shallow area. With that in mind, he knew what to expect.

He returned to the boat, took out all the bottles.

This time, he not only wrapped fish line around each bottle mouth twice but also tied a dead knot at each one to ensure the waves wouldn’t wash the bottles away.

Then fastening a large lead sinker to one end of the fishing line, he dived back into the water with the bottles to the shallow area. He placed the lead sinker on a coral and further secured it with a large rock to ensure the bottles would not be carried away by the current.

He was concerned that if the fishing line were to become entangled with the rock, friction might cause it to break.

Chu Mingcheng swam aside to observe for a while, and upon confirming that the bottles wouldn’t be swept away by the current, he began searching for Ban Qin shrimp caves with his trap skewers.

There were more Ban Qin shrimp caves here than he had imagined, and he used up all his skewer traps in a short while.

Yet the first trap had not been triggered. Seeing this, he decided to look around for something of value in the vicinity.

There were plenty of sea snails and scallops in the shallow area, which explained why there were so many Ban Qin shrimps—they had abundant food.

Chu Mingcheng wasn’t so interested in these; mainly because when he actually started to collect them, he would find that he could only gather a small basin after a long day’s work, and then sell them for no more than 500 yuan.

That amount of time, whether spent finding lobsters or other types of fish, would invariably be much more profitable.

Soon enough, he spotted a very pretty coral fish among the corals.

He swam a little closer and realized that it was a Six-Stripe Angelfish, a high-value ornamental fish.

The fish was also known as a Six-band triggerfish and wasn’t typically eaten, with Sea King being an exception.

Since Chu Mingcheng had no suitable ingredients for the evening, and seeing it resting under a piece of coral without much movement, he took his fish spear and approached.

With a “thud,” the fish spear pierced through the fish and struck the coral; he successfully caught the Six-Stripe Angelfish.

He had found his dinner for the evening, as this fish was quite suitable for eating.

He hooked it on the live fish clasp and continued to search for the next target.

Afterward, he found a Big Green Dragon in a crevice.

To the current Chu Mingcheng, catching these lobsters was really easy, but upon extraction, he was surprised to find that this one wasn’t just any Green Lobster.