Chapter 273: Setting a Small Goal (Patreon)

By ten o'clock, Chu Mingcheng had pulled the second Yellowfin Tuna onto the boat.

This one was slightly smaller—after bleeding and gutting, it weighed only 173 jin, about twenty jin lighter than the last one.

Meanwhile, Jiang Luoluo finally managed to reel her fish to the stern.

It looked about the same size as Chu Mingcheng's first catch. Since he was free, he helped her bring it aboard.

Based on how things were going, he could haul fish onto the boat by himself easily now, without needing assistance.

This was definitely good news for future solo trips. After all, hooking the fish was one thing—getting it onto the boat was another entirely.

"Phew! Finally got it." Jiang Luoluo looked at the Yellowfin Tuna on the deck and let out a soft sigh of relief.

With the help of the high-powered electric reel, landing this fish hadn't been too strenuous for her, but she was sweaty all over, feeling sticky and uncomfortable.

"Tired? Take a shower. It's past ten—let's get lunch ready," Chu Mingcheng said, gently tidying her wind-blown hair.

Jiang Luoluo glanced at the still-flapping Yellowfin Tuna. It had been hooked in the back, so it was still alive.

"You've got a lot to do. I'll make lunch. After eating, I need to practice dancing this afternoon, so I won't join you for fishing."

"Alright…" Encountering large Yellowfin Tuna was a rare opportunity. Chu Mingcheng thought for a moment and agreed.

Jiang Luoluo headed to the kitchen while he put away the electric rod and moved his own boat rod back to the stern.

Sitting down to fish was definitely more comfortable than standing.

There was still about half a bucket of fish chunks left. He tossed the baited hook into the water first, then slowly threw in two or three chunks at a time.

After tossing all the chum, he didn't bother with the rod for now. He grabbed a long spike and a hammer, then straddled the still-living Yellowfin Tuna.

He positioned the spike against the tuna's head and struck it repeatedly with the hammer until the spike penetrated.

The scene was brutal, but hunting itself was inherently so.

If he didn't kill the tuna first, bleeding and gutting it would be difficult. If it struggled, its sharp fins could injure someone—and it would suffer more.

This way, Chu Mingcheng was giving it a quick end. The tuna only thrashed a couple of times before going still.

He pulled the spike out, then began to bleed the fish and remove its internal organs.

Once finished, he used the crane to lift it and checked the weight—189 jin. Not bad.

He placed the fish in the refrigerated hold. Just as he closed the door, Chu Mingcheng noticed Mimi and her kittens licking up the blood.

One of the kittens—the little white one with heterochromia—was just like its mother, trying to steal the fish liver from the ice.

"Shoo, shoo, shoo." Chu Mingcheng immediately shooed them away and rinsed the bloodstains clean with the hose.

His rod hadn't moved yet, so he picked up his filleting knife, cut the fish maw into small pieces, and took them into the kitchen, asking Jiang Luoluo to cook them to feed the kittens.

Cats could eat a small amount of cooked organs, but not too much.

The rest was reserved for the sea lions. They lived in the wild and swallowed fish whole.

Bacteria and such in fish organs weren't a major issue for them—they weren't as delicate as cats.

After dealing with the cats, Chu Mingcheng sat in his chair, waiting for a bite. Unfortunately, by the time Jiang Luoluo had lunch ready, his rod still hadn't moved.

He knew the tuna underwater had swum far away, so he reeled in his line and moved the remaining mackerel bait back into the refrigerated hold.

This morning, he'd caught three Yellowfin Tuna using about fifty-something jin of bait—much less than he'd expected.

He'd bought a thousand jin of mackerel, originally planning on using fifty jin per large fish. Catching three was indeed beyond his expectations.

On his way to the kitchen, he checked the Tuna panel.

[Tuna (Level 2)]
[Current Experience: (6/20)]
[Experience Acquisition Condition: Killing a tuna over 50 jin grants one experience point; killing a tuna under 50 jin deducts one experience point.]
[Scan: Can view the weight of a tuna.]
[Usable Tools: Fishing Gear (Handline compatible), Speargun]

[Breeding and Growth (Level 2): Increases the reproduction rate, growth rate, and survival rate of all slow-growing giant fish species within the host's bound area by 20%. Additionally, 2% of migratory fish species will remain in the bound sea area and will no longer travel to other waters.]
[Bound Range: Chinese Waters (The waters of the host's country will automatically change based on the host's nationality)]
[Affected Fish: Fish with economic value that can grow to over 200 jin]
[Fish Gathering (Level 2): 2% chance of attracting nearby tuna to actively gather in the host's waters.]
[Deliciousness: +2% (Fish with higher fat content and better meat quality will be preferentially attracted)]
[Size: +2% (Larger fish of the same species will be preferentially attracted)]

It was still level two. He needed to catch fourteen more tuna over fifty jin to level up.

Chu Mingcheng set himself a small goal: no matter how long he stayed at sea this time, he had to level up at the very least.

Every level increase significantly boosted the tuna's reproduction rate and other stats.

For the sake of sustainability, Chu Mingcheng had to raise this attribute panel to a high level.

After lunch, since they'd both been sweating from fishing that morning, they took a quick shower.

Jiang Luoluo had originally planned to dance in the afternoon, but because Chu Mingcheng couldn't resist, she ended up more exhausted than if she'd caught a tuna herself. She could only recover her strength through sleep.

As for Chu Mingcheng, he walked out of the bedroom feeling refreshed. When he reached the deck, he found the sea lions had already returned.

He took out the needlefish chunks he'd cut up at noon to feed them. This fish tasted mediocre—Jiang Luoluo had specifically pan-fried a piece at noon, and neither of them liked it much.

However, the three sea lions seemed to have had poor luck hunting and hadn't eaten their fill.

Faced with food delivered right to them, they naturally wouldn't refuse. The needlefish disappeared in just a short while.

Seeing that they still wanted more, Chu Mingcheng offered them the tuna organs he had specially saved. Who knew they'd just sniff at them, uninterested.

He hadn't expected that. It seemed these organs could only be used as crab cage bait to attract some scavenger crabs.

In the afternoon, Chu Mingcheng didn't ask the sea lions to find fish schools again. He let them rest on the deck to conserve energy while he steered the boat, watching the fish finder and searching for schools himself.

He hadn't fed the sea lions their fill today—he couldn't very well keep exploiting them.

Otherwise, wouldn't he become a vile capitalist, turning into the very thing he despised most?

Compared to domestic capitalists, Chu Mingcheng actually envied the lives of the chaebols on the Korean Peninsula—that was truly living the good life.

The Poseidon cruised slowly across the sea at ten knots per hour. He occasionally glanced at the fish finder. Finding nothing, he'd pick up his binoculars and scan the surroundings.

If he could spot seabirds, he wouldn't have to worry about finding fish schools.

"Huh, did I actually find something?" After using the binoculars for who knows how many times, Chu Mingcheng genuinely spotted something.

It wasn't a large gathering of seabirds, but rather a pod of dolphins far off on the sea surface.

He caught sight of one dolphin leaping out of the water, a small fish clamped in its mouth.

He hadn't sailed for an hour in vain—he'd finally made a discovery.

He immediately steered the boat in that direction, wanting to check out the situation.

After a short while, when the boat reached the waters where the dolphins were foraging, Chu Mingcheng found there didn't seem to be any large fish around. The dolphins appeared to be hunting a type of pomfret.

The fish finder only showed a large number of red lines clustered together in the surface layer. Based on his observations, it seemed there were only dolphins and an unknown school of pomfret here.

Chu Mingcheng was a bit disappointed. Sometimes large tuna follow dolphins, but the fish finder couldn't observe the specifics, and there were no tuna breaching the surface. Clearly, there wasn't much of a harvest this time.

But since he was here, leaving empty-handed wasn't his style.

So many fish—it was only natural for him to take a share!

Especially since live bait had a greater attraction for tuna. If he encountered some, preparing in advance was best.

Chu Mingcheng stopped the boat and dropped anchor, then went onto the deck.

Just as he was about to tell the lounging sea lions to go fill their bellies, Chu Mingcheng suddenly experienced the life of a vile capitalist.

So he commanded, "There's a school of fish here. Go eat your fill, then help me catch some back. Don't kill them."

Hearing there was food, the sea lions immediately perked up. Little Black let out a bark, seeming to understand, then led the two female sea lions through the small gate Chu Mingcheng opened and jumped into the water.

With the sea lions gone, he didn't stay idle either.

He took out the squid, thawed it in water, and then selected an iron plate rod.

After a short while, the squid softened. He cut it into small pieces with a knife, scattered some into the water as chum, then baited his hook with squid meat and started fishing.

He'd been wrestling with big fish for this period—Chu Mingcheng hadn't fished for small ones in a long time and felt a bit unaccustomed.

The rod hooked a fish. He didn't pay attention, and the light feeling when he lifted the rod almost made him think the hook had slipped. Fortunately, the slight vibration at the rod tip told him the fish was still there.

Lifting the rod and reeling in the line, he easily brought a fish up.

It was about the size of a typical Silver Pomfret, probably weighing around eight liang to one jin.

Chu Mingcheng immediately recognized this fish—it was a pomfret. He hadn't caught one before, adding a bit of experience to his Aquatic Species Codex.

He unhooked the fish and tossed it into an empty live well.

One large live well had four compartments. Currently, only the outermost one was occupied by Giant Tiger Prawns and Spiny Pandalid Shrimp, each in its own section. The needlefish from this morning had already been fed to the sea lions.

He hadn't eaten many of the Giant Tiger Prawns—there were quite a few left, probably over ten jin.

He hadn't eaten many of the Regal Mantis Shrimp either. Jiang Luoluo had taken most of them to raw-marinate for the evening.

Chu Mingcheng didn't put this pomfret in the outermost live well. Instead, he placed it in the middle one, turning on the oxygen pump, and didn't install the dividers.

Fish of similar sizes and temperaments generally wouldn't attack each other.

He planned to put fish around the size of this pomfret in the middle live well.

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