Yu Zhiye quickly tugged on the rod. The line went taut and the whole rod bend hard. It almost felt like his hook got stuck under a bridge…
But there ain’t no bridge here, so it must be… a big guy!
With his strength, hauling in something this heavy should’ve been a huge struggle, if not impossible, but…
Magically, every tug on his rod, the weight seemed to get lighter and lighter, until—Plop!
Bobber, hook, and all popped out of the quicksand and reeled in towards him with its bounty!
“Really caught something!”
Ding!
A brief refreshing feeling washed over him and at the top-right corner of his vision, a notification pop-up dropped in, showing a pixel art of a weird fish alongside a message…
[Achievement get! Deepsea Catcher]
“What’s up with that name?” Yu Zhiye wasn’t sure what that was all about, but now wasn’t the time to care about that.
Checking achievements can be left till later.
Right now, his attention got attracted to the illusory green orbs that dropped out from seemingly nowhere.
“Xp Orbs?”
His words barely left his lips when those orbs got soaked up by him as if he were a magnet.
Tink. Tink. Tink. Tink!
An XP bar briefly flashed into existence right above his inventory bar.
It showed zero for the level and more than half of the bar got filled up.
“Huh. 4 xp. Pretty good luck, considering that you can only get 1 to 6 xp from fishing.”
The XP bar faded away...
Now that the distractions were gone, Yu Zhiye finally had the time to observe the “fish” dangling on his rod’s hook.
“Um? Looks like some sort of lizard? Is this a sandfish? But… it felt like I was pulling up a big guy. Why did it turn out to be so small?”
He gave the little guy a poke. No reaction.
“Dead? I just pulled it out though…? Well, whatever, a catch is a catch, dead or alive, small or big.”
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Yu Zhiye lost interest in examining it further and simply grabbed the lizard.
A thought later, the hook became empty and a new item appeared in the last slot of his inventory hotbar.
“Sweet! Sustainable food source get! Better yet, it’s stackable!”
But Yu Zhiye wasn’t excited for long. “Ah, but cooking it will be an issue. And taste is another matter entirely...”
“Still, everything should be fine. If the inventory abides by the game logic, I shouldn’t have to worry about the fish rotting. So just keep it in storage till I find a way.”
After stashing away his rod, Yu Zhiye took another sip of water.
“Man, I’m gonna need some sort of desert outfit or staying out here to fish will really be unbearable. Ugh… Guess I’ll head back in to cool off for a bit before trying again?”
Yeah, that sounded like a good idea, especially since he didn’t see anybody else hanging around out here.
Yu Zhiye took another look around to mark down this fishing spot then headed for the store standing alone in the distant.
On the way, he pulled up his system interface...
[Name] Yu Zhiye#6969696969
[Age] 24
[Class] Human
[Affiliation] Outpost #128A7193S
[Stats] STR (5.1), DEX (7.3), INT (7.8), CON (4.1), WIS (8.6), CHA (3.0)
[Gift] %#%@! Fisherman's Hideout (Black)(F-)
[Title] None
At a glance, he immediately noticed that both his strength and constitution stats went up by 1!
“How did that happen?! Could it be...”
He quickly switched to the trophy tab. There was only one entry: his new achievement.
[Deepsea Catcher]
Catch a creature from the deep. (1st) CON+1, STR+1
Yu Zhiye sucked in a breath. “Achievements can actually reward stats?! Damn that’s sweet.”
At least, this was much better than a mere achievement point system that only rewards emotes and cosmetics.
Yes, those were cool, but here? Survival of the fittest was even cooler.
As for the rest? He’ll think about it once his survival was no longer on the line.
Yu Zhiye gave his achievement another glance.
How did his sandfish become a creature from the deep? Who knows. Who cares.
Right now, he only cared about getting back to cool down.
The system interface closed down and Yu Zhiye hurried up to the store’s entrance.
The door opened and the cool air breezed past his face like a wind elf in bikinis.
But he ain’t turning back for nothing! In he goes!
Kachak. The door shut behind and Yu Zhiye sighed in relief.
“Nothing better than air conditioning in the desert…”
After letting his sweaty body relax for a bit, Yu Zhiye took off his sneakers to dump out the sand.
Quite uncomfortable to walk everywhere with that in his shoes.
One shoe done, then switch to the next.
Just when Yu Zhiye finished knocking out the last of the sand bits, he noticed a team of two men coming his way.
Mob Characters B and C.
B was the rugged one who announced his possession of a blue skill earlier.
C was the other vigilant rat that kept quiet in his own corner earlier.
Seems like these two loners got together to stay warm.
Now, it seems their next target was him. Did they come to win him over?
Yu Zhiye slipped on his shoe and calmly watched them block his way.
Both sides observed each other for a few sec before Mob Character B spoke up.
“I heard you got a fishing rod for your starter?”
“Um.” Yu Zhiye folded his arms together. “And?”
“Good. Now, follow us to explore the way.”
Mob Character B dropped that command and walked past him like everybody will just listen to him, but Yu Zhiye stayed rooted there. “No.”
The man paused and shot him a threatening look. “Hur? What did you say?”
Yu Zhiye shot back a look of disdain. “I said no.”
“Hurhur…” The man’s face turned ugly. “Madaraka! I was kind enough to give you the chance to join us, but you actually refused?! Do you want to die?”
His rough hand reached out for a grab, but Yu Zhiye sidestepped away.
Seeing the other man moving behind to corner him, Yu Zhiye sneered and his arms unfolded into a Wing Chun battle stance.
“Looking for a fight? I would think twice if I were you.”