The Cursed Ship

Chapter 24: Line Fishing

“So, you all heard the buzzing of a mosquito, and then none of you remembered what happened afterward?” Rovni asked the guards, his expression glum. Hearing what they said had put her in a terrible mood.

There was no doubt about it. Someone from the paranormal side of things was apparently responsible for this.

“That d*mned hellhound is still nowhere to be found, and now someone has taken Desmond away. What are those people up to?” Rovni thought.

“We’re not adequately equipped to handle this. I suggest we ask for backup from headquarters,” Venar murmured.

Rovni paced back and forth in frustration. “Unless we find enough evidence to confirm that the threat is indeed imminent, headquarters isn’t gonna bother But still, we’re gonna give as detailed a report as possible all the same. Hopefully someone up there will take this seriously.”

“Venar, get in touch with the Arcane Coven and trade info with them. I need to know the identity of that mosquito. How is Moxley doing?”

“His genes are stable,” Ricky answered right away. “No signs of mutations.”

“What about Syalari? Tell her that her vacation is over and to get back here at once. And Salevar…”

…

Zheng Yang left port with his sailboat before dawn and headed toward a renowned fishing spot 20 nautical miles away.

Some people in the forums claimed that giant bluefin tunas had been caught there before, so Zheng Yang thought he’d try his luck over there.

Southeast wind at Beaufort number three, and his boat was heading southwest. His course was steady. By the time the sun rose, he was nearly halfway to the fishing spot.

Zheng Yang was still checking out the videos and technical explanations about how to fish tuna. He had no underwater surveillance equipment or haulage equipment. He also didn’t have fish holds or cold storage facilities capable of holding big fish. He didn’t even have a huge amount of bait with him. All he had was a simple second-hand fishing rod and a net spanning over a dozen meters.

If he did catch some big fish, he would only have his own strength and skill to haul the fish back to the boat.

It had been raining for two days straight several days ago. The last two days saw fine, sunny weather, and quite a lot of people had shown up in the region for fishing like Zheng Yang.

It was a renowned fishing spot after all.

However, even with all those people spread out over such a vast region of the ocean, it wasn’t actually an easy feat to run into each other.

When he was about to reach the fishing spot, Zheng Yang saw a mid-sized fishing boat looking for schools of fish. However, there were only six fishers on the boat. They waved and greeted him from afar. Despite their astonishment at his unbelievably awesome feat of coming to fish out in the open sea on a sailboat like that, they nonetheless left soon afterward to chase after the schools of fish.

Zheng Yang stopped sailing any further out. He put the sails down and started casting his line.

He took out a herring about 30 centimeters long from the hold to use as bait, thinking that only a big fish would take such a large bait.

He stood at the bow for about an hour, but nothing tugged at his line. His patience was running out. He wanted very badly to pull his line back and see if the bait was still on the hook.

“You call this a renowned fishing spot?” he thought. “I’d call this a scam instead.”

He waited for another half an hour before taking out another fish that he didn’t know the name of from the hold. The four fingers on his right hand transformed into sickle-shaped bone claws. He took several simple swipes at the fish and easily cut it into chunks, which he then threw into the sea.

“I sure hope this won’t draw any sharks here,” Zheng Yang thought as he took out another fish, cut it up the same as he did the last one, and dumped the pieces into the sea.

After all, with the boat’s perception at his disposal, it was easy to catch fish of this size. He even planned on snaring more with his net on his way home, thinking that the catch would at least fetch several hundred pounds.

He didn’t have to worry about buying fuel, after all, and even if he was only able to earn two to three hundred pounds a day, that would come to a few thousand a month.

He figured that he could still earn money even if he wasn’t able to catch something big.

“That Entes brat really knows his stuff after all,” he thought. “He couldn’t have been more right about this.”

It seemed that the fish chunks worked. Minutes later, his rod was bending, and the line began to spin furiously, extending at a frightening rate.

Gotcha!

He was elated, and judging from the force of the pull on his line, the fish on the other end definitely weighed over 50 kilograms.

Even though he had played out the process of reeling in fish many times over in his mind, he nonetheless fumbled now that he’d actually hooked something. If it weren’t for the fact that the line was incredibly thick, it would have probably snapped, and the fish would have probably fled. After wrestling with the fish for a bit, putting what he’d learned online to work, he gradually got the hang of it, knowing when to pull and when to release.

Even though he was now twice as strong as a normal person, he nonetheless struggled for nearly an hour, causing even his sailboat to be dragged far away, before he managed to hoist the exhausted big fish out of the water.

Due to the boat’s perception, he was able to tell at a glance that he’d caught a tuna. However, it was a yellowfin tuna instead of the expensive bluefin.

Judging by the size of the fish, it probably weighed around 80 kilograms.

Yellowfin tunas didn’t cost nearly as much as they had in his past life. He speculated that he would be able to sell the yellowfin tuna for less than 20000 pounds.

Naturally, he wouldn’t drag the fish onto his boat. Instead, he cast his net and ensnared the tuna, tightening the rope and turning the fishing net into a cargo net. Then, he tied the rope at one of the anchors at the bow and just dragged the fish along.

It’s said that if there’s one tuna, chances are high that there are others around. Seeing that it was still rather early, Zheng Yang decided to put his rod to work again.

At that moment, a commotion happening at sea just tens of meters away caught his attention. He took a closer look and was excited to see a large number of fish leaping out of the water in a panic.

This phenomenon meant that there might be a school of tuna hunting beneath the surface of the water.

Three line fishing boats were chasing after the schools, and the rumble of motors and engines could be heard from afar.

He then willed, and as the spirit power dwindled, the capstan by his side hurriedly spun, hoisting the triangular sail. The wheel spun several times right away, setting the boat at a course to intercept the schools of fish.

After moving just over a dozen meters, he’d already sensed a tightly-packed school of fish gushing about like a torrent, zipping underneath his boat at high speeds. The school then dispersed before quickly regrouping.

The yellowfin tuna in the cargo net at the side of the boat’s bow saw the lofty meal zipping past and mustered some of its strength to struggle to break free.

Zheng Yang’s line was still in the water. Moving a dozen meters out hadn’t affected anything. His rod bent abruptly, the line speeding away from the reel.

“The tug on the line isn’t as strong as the last time. The fish should be around 65 kilograms,” Zheng Yang speculated joyfully as he wrestled with the big fish while giving the order to lower the sail.

He had an easier time due to what he’d learned with the last one. It took less than an hour to thoroughly exhaust the big fish and gradually reel it in.

At that moment, the school of fish was nowhere to be found. He wondered if those three other vessels had caught anything, as they were now nowhere to be seen.

He speculated that they hadn’t made their move yet, as the three boats obviously needed to take a detour and get in front of the schools before they could cast their lines.

As the big fish got within range of his boat’s perception, he felt somewhat disappointed: it was yet another yellowfin tuna.

But then again, he figured that he should feel satisfied since he’d managed to catch two huge yellowfin tunas weighing over 100 kilograms in total in just a single session. Besides, he’d been lucky to catch anything at all. Not just anyone could run into a school of fish like that just by sitting around. It was quite common for people looking to catch some big fish to spend days out here without catching anything.

As such, with the rod still in his hand and the other tuna still dangling off the line, he controlled his boat remotely while he sat at the deck at the bow and headed home.

“I need to get more spare nets when I get home,” he thought to himself while taking pictures of his catch and uploading them to his social media account. Then, he called Entes’ satellite phone.