Chapter 216 - 141: Skillfully Fishing the Seven-Star Rock Normal BOSS (Part 2)

Chapter 216: Chapter 141: Skillfully Fishing the Seven-Star Rock Normal BOSS (Part 2)

This deep-sea fishing seemed a bit tiring, but he couldn’t be bothered to pull up the anchor and leave.

The four- and five-star fish at Seven-Star Rock were all small, so even from the depths, they didn’t take much effort to reel in.

He took out the Seven-Star Rod, which had a ten-centimeter jig attached. Gu Nan couldn’t be bothered to change the lure, so he just tossed it into the water.

The jig sank quickly, but at a depth of a hundred meters, it still took a moment to hit bottom.

Gu Nan flipped the bail arm shut, locked the drag, and then used his daily guaranteed-hit ability.

A dozen or so seconds later, the rod suddenly bent in a massive arc.

At the same time, a BOSS icon appeared over the water’s surface.

Gu Nan was stunned. He’d been fishing for two or three days straight without seeing a BOSS, and now one had suddenly appeared.

He instinctively raised the rod to set the hook, and the two opposing forces immediately bent it into a deep arch.

This was no small fish. Its pull was immense, comparable to a two-hundred-pound Indian marlin.

Gu Nan wasn’t surprised. A BOSS fish might not have the highest price, but it was always the biggest in its respective collection—a lesson he’d learned back on the Fengqi Coast.

’Should I reel this fish in?’

Gu Nan hesitated. If he didn’t land this fish, he could keep grinding his daily quests.

After a moment of thought, he braced his leg against the gunwale for leverage, gripped the rod tightly with both hands, and hauled upward.

He felt the line spooling out and breathed a small sigh of relief. ’Good, it’s running away from the boat, not diving for the bottom.’

He would let the fish run for a bit; that would give him time to decide.

He opened the game interface to check his stats. He was level sixteen, with his experience bar just over halfway full. That meant he was only three and a half levels away from unlocking the next map.

He had a total of 37,200 Gold Coins. From a week’s worth of daily quests—though he hadn’t completed them all—he’d basically averaged over two thousand per day.

Adding that to his savings, seven thousand from two elite quests, eight thousand from the king-level collection quest on the elite map, and two Gold Coin bonus cards, his total had finally reached thirty-seven thousand.

If he completed the Legendary collection quest, his Gold Coin total would definitely surpass fifty thousand, which was enough for the rod fusion.

’I’m going for it!’

Gu Nan made his decision instantly. Since he had enough Gold Coins, he would go ahead and unlock the elite collection and fuse the golden rod.

A lot of people fished at Sanlian Reef. Right now was the off-season, and there would be even more people once the fishing season opened.

The season here opened on September 1st, only a month away.

With that, Gu Nan yanked hard on the rod, hoping to quickly drain the fish’s stamina, but he found he could barely move it.

He might have caught his fair share of big fish, but he was still no match for the explosive bursts of strength from these behemoths.

So, he had no choice but to hug the rod and let the fish run until it was exhausted.

CREAK... CREAK... CREAK...

The purple Seven-Star Rod was emitting a faint groaning sound. The fish wasn’t big enough to max out the rod’s capacity, but its raw power was truly fierce.

Fortunately, judging by its speed, it probably wasn’t a tuna or billfish. Its pace was average at best.

Time trickled by, and Gu Nan’s breathing grew labored. In the heat, sweat poured off him as if it were free, quickly soaking his T-shirt.

Clearly, just letting the fish run was draining a lot of his energy. With the drag locked, he was constantly withstanding a pull of over a hundred pounds, which was no easy feat.

He lost track of time, but he could feel the fish starting to run slower. It seemed to be tiring out.

Gu Nan let out a breath. ’Now it’s my turn.’

He braced the butt of the rod against his stomach and, using his core strength, thrust it upward. The motion immediately stopped the great fish’s momentum.

At the same time, he cranked the handle rapidly. The line pulled taut, and he managed to reel in a bit of it.

But this only served to catch the fish off guard. After just two rotations, the handle seized up again.

What followed was a tug-of-war. Gu Nan tried to reel in, the fish tried to run. They fought back and forth for a good dozen minutes before he finally wore the fish out completely.

Seizing the opportunity, he frantically cranked the handle, reeling in more than fifty meters of line.

Unfortunately, the fish was in deep water, which gave it an inherent hundred-meter advantage. Even though it wasn’t a fast swimmer, there were still over two hundred meters of line out.

On top of that, the fish had now recovered some of its strength and began to struggle again.

Every time he managed to retrieve some line, the big fish would recover a bit of strength and take off again.

Fortunately, the fish’s struggles grew weaker, and its periods of rest grew longer.

Another half an hour went by before Gu Nan finally hauled the great fish up from the depths.

When he saw its size, he froze. The fish wasn’t as big as he’d imagined—only about 1.3 meters long. To someone used to the sight of Indian marlins, it actually looked a bit small.

And there was no way it weighed more than two hundred pounds. ’So why was its pull so strong, almost matching that of a two-hundred-pound Indian marlin?!’

The fish was brown overall and looked like some kind of bass. Gu Nan thought it resembled an East Ocean Perch, but figured it probably wasn’t one.

Its body was plump and round, looking exceptionally fat.

But whatever it was, he had to get it on board first.

The fish’s stomach was bulging out of its mouth—a clear sign that it was a deep-sea species.

Seven-Star Rock was home to many deep-sea fish. Even when he fished at depths of only thirty-odd meters, many fish still suffered from barotrauma, their stomachs bulging from their mouths by the time they surfaced.

The only exception was when he was surface casting; he might catch a deep-sea fish that had ventured to the surface, and it wouldn’t have the same issue.

He grabbed the speargun and dispatched it, then used the crane to hoist the fish aboard.