As a Fisherman, My Fish Can Level Up

Chapter 57: Chapter 57: The Stricken Chu Mingcheng

Chu Mingcheng had no idea about Jiang Luoluo’s emotional fluctuations, for he was quite uncomfortable himself.

Not just because he was soaked through and felt a bit cold with the wind blowing.

But because the temporary ability of the aquatic illustrated handbook—Swimming Freely—had been taken back.

Returning to his original physical condition made him feel a sense of emptiness throughout his body, giving him a particular longing to regain that power.

As for the exhilarating feeling he had in the water, he didn’t feel much of it now that he was back on shore.

He checked the aquatic illustrated handbook and saw that he now had 27 experience points.

[Aquatic Illustrated Handbook (Level 0)]

[Current Experience: (27/50)]

[Unlocked Capture Tools: Hands, Fishing Gear]

[Highest Level of Aquatic Creatures: 50]

[Unlocked Aquatic Creatures: 1 Mud shrimp, 2 Crucian Carp, 3 Whitebait, 4 Carp, 5 Ground Tiger, 6 Spicy Snail, 7 Bian fish, 8 Sea Earthworm, 9 Sandworm, 10 Sea Eel, 11 Pseudo Cave Green Crab, 12 Sea Bass, 13 Crab Tiger Fish, 14 Qiao Zui, 15 Green Fish, 16 Lianyong, 17 Chinese Turtle, 18 Black Carp, 19 Catfish, 20 Wen City Light-lipped Fish, 21 Australian Mackerel, 22 Spotted Grouper, 23 Black Sea Bream, 24 Mullets, 25 Mussel, 26 Song Diao, 27 Striped Stone Bream]

[Special Abilities: None] @@novelbin@@

Chu Mingcheng has never been enthusiastic about collecting species; one could even say he was rather laid-back about it.

Being able to earn over one thousand a day, and having achieved the feat of earning ten thousand in a day, he was quite content with his current life, hence lacking some motivation to upgrade his Golden Finger.

But after experiencing the wonderful feeling of swimming freely in the water and enhanced physical abilities, he was finding it hard to hold himself back.

All he needed to do was catch twenty-three more types of aquatic creatures to level up, which wasn’t difficult at all.

At least, with the ability “Swimming Freely,” if he ever encountered a disaster at sea, he could rely on this ability to survive in the ocean, greatly increasing his chances of survival.

He was about to buy a boat. Getting a boat license was much faster than a car license; in at most a month, he could set out to sea.

Therefore, he had to at least unlock this ability before heading out to sea.

Apart from the special circumstance of rescuing someone, Chu Mingcheng didn’t head towards Huang Town but went home to change clothes first.

As soon as she got to the back door of the house, Jiang Luoluo couldn’t wait to get out of the car.

“Quick, open the door, I want to see Xiao Mi.”

“Be careful, Xiao Mi’s temper has improved a lot recently, but it’s pregnant now, so it might still be very wary of strangers,” Chu Mingcheng cautioned as he opened the door and went to the fridge to get a mackerel stick for her. “Here, try approaching it with this fish stick, and if it doesn’t work, don’t touch it for now.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah!” Jiang Luoluo had already spotted Xiao Mi lying flat in its nest, and after taking the mackerel stick, she immediately approached and teased it with the fish stick, “Xiao Mi, eat the fish stick!”

When Chu Mingcheng came down after showering, he found Xiao Mi gnawing on the fish stick, and Jiang Luoluo had successfully petted it.

Since they were going camping in the afternoon, he took a pot with him, and the charcoal grill he had previously bought finally came in handy.

After loading everything into the car, the two set off again.

Chu Mingcheng stopped by Zhao Jun’s house to pick up an abandoned fine-meshed net, which he cut into a square with scissors to take with him; he was going to make a trap to catch some river shrimp.

Indeed, the place he was camping was the same mountain where Yao Xin had taken him fishing for stream rockfish last time.

He just needed to set up a trap at a narrow section of the stream below the water pool, so that as the fish and shrimp flowed downstream, they would all fall into his trap.

After buying the barbecue seasonings, lamb, and some vegetables, he headed straight for Huang Town.

He had to check out a boat today; after going home last night, he contacted a shipyard online, and had made an appointment for today.

They arrived at the boatyard almost at eleven o’clock, and along the way Chu Mingcheng had taken the initiative to call and explain the reason.

After all, they had agreed to arrive before ten o’clock, but they ended up being almost an hour late, so they had to give an explanation.

They first visited the nearest boatyard, which didn’t seem very large, and they were received by the owner.

This boatyard mainly focused on small and medium-sized fishing boats, and their work was so-so.

There weren’t many styles of fishing yachts, only three. Their lengths were just six meters eighty, eight meters eighty, and ten meters eight.

Boats of these lengths belonged to class three and four, where class three could only operate within twenty nautical miles from the shore and couldn’t travel to particularly distant areas.

Class four was even more limited, only being able to move around near the island without exceeding ten nautical miles from the shore.

The vast majority of sea fishing enthusiasts or professional anglers typically bought class three fishing yachts, venturing out to sea for day trips and at most spending one night before returning.

For more distant locations, they usually chose to rent fishing spots.

Fishing yachts over sixteen meters necessitated “custom orders” at this boatyard.

Those in the know could easily realize that this small boatyard definitely didn’t produce them; “custom orders” actually meant getting them from someone else, acting as middlemen to resell at a higher price.

Chu Mingcheng checked out the eight-meter-eighty and ten-meter-eight models, noticing that the exterior appearances were basically the same, with only differences in size.

The lowest price on the water for these was one hundred twenty-five thousand and one hundred fifty-eight thousand respectively. Of course, the prices could be further negotiated, and the owner was even keen on recommending purchasing with a loan.

The boatyard would handle all the paperwork and documentation, so he didn’t need to worry about that.

After getting a detailed understanding of the propulsion systems and other configurations, Chu Mingcheng discovered a problem.

The choice of boat configurations led to huge price differences.

If he wanted to buy a ten-meter-eight fishing yacht priced at one hundred fifty-eight thousand, the configured outboard propeller he got was only one hundred fifty horsepower, single-engine.

The speed, the owner claimed, could reach a maximum of twenty-five knots, but Chu Mingcheng estimated that would be difficult to achieve, plus it had high fuel consumption and a range of just eighty nautical miles.

Equipping a good boat would inflate the price to several hundred thousand, which made him somewhat hesitant to buy.

However, since he had made appointments with three companies the night before, he still needed to check them all out.

Upon visiting the second one, a large boatyard that built merchant ships, they were shown around by a salesperson from the factory.

Upon hearing Chu Mingcheng’s requirements, the salesperson particularly introduced their ten-meter fishing yachts.

Despite the yard’s focus on large vessels, they only had two models of small fishing yachts.

Nevertheless, they looked more exquisite. After inquiring about the configurations, Chu Mingcheng found that the overall prices were a bit lower than the small boatyard they had visited earlier.

But slightly better-configured boats with a cockpit and all sorts of equipment, with 150 horsepower dual engines, would cost around five to six hundred thousand.

The upper limit could even reach over one million, and this was for domestically produced fishing yachts.

Jiang Luoluo was left clicking her tongue in amazement, no wonder people say that it isn’t much to have a luxury car, but those with a luxury yacht are the real tycoons.

Being too expensive for new boats, Chu Mingcheng also inquired about the prices of second-hand fishing yachts.

However, there were absolutely no third-class fishing yachts in the tens of thousands, there were only fourth-class ones available, but he didn’t need those at all!

Buying a fourth-class area boat wasn’t any better than getting a twenty-thousand-dollar small boat, both of which could only make rounds near the island.

A dejected Chu Mingcheng aimlessly walked through the third boatyard and then left Huang Town in low spirits.

Jiang Luoluo sat in the passenger seat and didn’t know how to start comforting him, as she had learned about Chu Mingcheng’s budget that morning.

If the difference was just a few tens of thousands, she would have been willing to lend it, but with a difference of several hundred thousand, there was no way she could lend that much!