Chapter 2072 “Fishing”
“Alright, Mr. Everson and Mr. Gaspar will have a duel. The time limit is one hour. Whoever catches the most fish wins,” said the witness, Antonio.
Meanwhile, the merchants nearby had already started placing their bets. They would bet on anything, but to provide Jayad and Gaspar with a fair environment for their duel, they all reeled in their lines and stopped fishing.
“I’m ready,” said Jayad, holding his fishing rod. It looked like ordinary bait paired with an ordinary explosion hook.
“Me too,” Gaspar also said, holding his fishing rod. His rod was his own, and the rod itself was made of alchemical materials. It was strong enough to be used as a weapon and was also enchanted.
At the end of his fishing line, there was no hook or bait, but his green gemstone. With that, he considered himself ready. I couldn’t figure out how he planned to fish with a green gemstone. Was he going to suck the fish up?
“To avoid interfering with each other, Mr. Everson will fish on the left, and Mr. Gaspar will fish on the right. After one hour, whoever catches the most fish wins. Begin!” Antonio announced.
Simultaneously, a subordinate flipped over an hourglass. The sand inside flowed down rapidly. It would take exactly one hour for all the sand to leak out, marking the end of the competition.
Both of them cast their lines at the same time. Jayad cast his hook far out. Fishing too close to the cruise ship might scare the fish away. Gaspar, on the other hand, casually tossed his green gemstone into the water, as if he were fishing in a riverpond.
To ensure the duel was exciting and fair, two fish-attracting lights were placed on the left and right sides of the fishing platform, about fifty meters away. Since Jayad cast far while Gaspar cast too close, the lights had to be adjusted manually.
However, before the fish-attracting lights could be moved to Jayad’s position, his bell rang. Everyone was surprised. So quickly? He hadn’t even put his line in the water for five seconds, had he?
Jayad directly raised his hand and reeled in the line. This time, the hook was even more exaggerated. Five fish were hooked onto it, arranged in a circle, looking like some sort of cult ritual.
When the five fish flew onto the fishing platform, Jayad caught them. He didn’t bother removing the hooks and directly detached the explosion hook. Sister Nun handed him a new explosion hook, while Younger Sister Nun took the five fish and used a dehooker to remove them one by one, placing them in a water basin.
As it was a fishing competition, no one could assist the two during the fishing process. Replacing hooks, netting fish, and baiting had to be done by themselves. However, handing over hooks and taking the caught fish was permitted.
Jayad quickly re-baited his hook and cast it out again. But his baiting technique already fully revealed that he was indeed a novice. He used too much bait, didn’t knead it firmly enough, and it easily fell apart in the water. His speed was also not fast enough.
But what did that matter? Older Brother was relying almost entirely on luck. I even saw many fish gathering at the spot where Older Brother Jayad’s hook was about to land before it even hit the water, just waiting to bite the bait. This was truly a case of “willing fish taking the bait.”
Unfortunately, Older Brother Jayad couldn’t skip the baiting step, because all this bait was my specially made enchanted bait. Once it hit the water, the surrounding schools of fish would become incredibly hungry and gather to snatch the bait frantically. This was also why he could catch five fish at once.
Besides that, it had another function: to steal fish, attracting schools of fish from the right with this feed, leaving Gaspar with no fish to catch.
At this moment, Older Brother Jayad’s bell rang for the second time. He pulled the rod, and three more fish were hooked simultaneously, flying into his hands. Meanwhile, Gaspar remained calm and unhurried, seemingly not worried at all.
“It’s already eight to zero! Can Gaspar even do it?” “I bet a hundred gold coins on him!” “Even if he starts now, he can’t catch up, right? The gap will only widen.” The merchants nearby continued to chatter.
But I knew that Gaspar had already started his move. The green gemstone submerged underwater emitted waves of magic, which spread far and wide. Fish affected by the fluctuations swam towards the green gemstone.
Just as I thought, it was a fish-attracting artifact, and its effect was quite strong. Even the schools of fish affected by the Gluttony Divine Technique began to be drawn by the fluctuations, becoming hesitant and even showing signs of erratic swimming.
Soon, more and more fish began to gather around the green gemstone, slowly forming a large school. But with just this, how many could he catch? It was unlikely he could catch up to Older Brother Jayad by fishing repeatedly.
Just then, I suddenly had a bad premonition. As Older Brother Jayad reeled in his third line, Gaspar’s green gemstone suddenly emitted a dazzling light, expanding into a green field of light that enveloped a large swathe of the sea.
The gathered schools of fish were all enclosed within this field. Then, the light suddenly tightened, and all the fish were compressed by the field of light, gathering closely together.
WTF, isn’t this just a fishing net? A magical fishing net. This was no longer fishing at all; it was harvesting!
With so many fish struggling together, plus their own weight, Gaspar logically shouldn’t have been able to reel them in, and might even have fallen into the water instantly. However, he calmly pressed the reel. The reel began to turn on its own.
Despite being just a small reel, it turned unstoppable. The fishing line also emitted an electric shock, directly turning the field into an electric field. A large number of high-value sea fish were electrocuted, including many ornamental fish and those more valuable to raise.
This entire fishing rod was a magic apparatus, a set of magic apparatus specifically for fishing. It was inhumane. It attracted fish, formed a net with a field, electrocuted them directly, and then reeled them in. Such a set could easily and efficiently decimate the fish population in a marine area.
“Hey! What is that?” a merchant shouted. They finally noticed the large green light rising from the seabed.
“Hiss! Are those… all fish?” everyone exclaimed in astonishment, watching a large mass of green light rise, filled with fish that were almost flattened, squeezed tightly together.
When Gaspar placed the fish on the fishing platform, we felt the platform sway unsteadily. This single haul weighed twenty to thirty thousand catties, about over a thousand fish of various species.
“You call this fishing? You’re cheating!” Flame Feather shouted angrily. The hope of rescuing her kin, which was almost within reach, was instantly shattered, her voice cracking.
The crowd also began to discuss. Many felt that Gaspar was cheating. This had completely exceeded the scope of fishing. Fishing was supposed to be a leisure activity; this was purely harvesting for profit.
“I used a fishing rod and fishing line, so how is this not fishing? Huh?” Gaspar said, finally laughing arrogantly.
