Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

In actual fact, the Fishing Festival was not organized by Poseidon, but his daughter, the Mermaid Princess Herya. The young mermaid liked to play, but—just take a look, the figures who lived at the Poseidon Shrine, were they the kind to play around? They were either Sea Gods or relatives of Sea Gods. Even the guards, who worked at the Shrine, would be at least Bosses of Level 100 or above.

When NPCs reached levels of a certain height, the passing of time for them would be somewhat negligible. While the older generation stood firm by the notion ‘the passing time is naught compared to that single moment of achieving great wisdom,’ the energetic young Mermaid Princess was, of course, bored to death. She craved for companion, and thus secretly made use of her father’s name to organize the Fishing Festival, so as to invite more players to play with her.

In the final round, the most important thing was not to fish, but to find the things which the Mermaid Princess was fond of, and please her with them! As long as one found items that the Mermaid Princess liked and kept them in their backpack, it would mean that they were trying to please her. The Mermaid Princess would then award them with a lot of points.

Wasn’t this a way better shortcut method than fishing diligently?

However, this girl’s likings varied a lot, and it would often change suddenly. In Lin Jie’s previous life, there had been an unlucky player who had miraculously gotten an almost Level 100 Superb Pearl when he had just entered the final round! Yet, the reason why was considered unlucky was that he had been rewarded with only 100 points for it. Yet someone else, who had managed to catch a useless, only-for-viewing “Luminous Crab”, had been awarded thousands of points!

Lin Jie vaguely remembered that some players had posted a popular post in the forum to diss the Mermaid Princess for her disgusting habits. The post had been returned with loads of “Haha -.-” replies. Lin Jie had contributed to it too.

‘For the first 10 minutes, she liked green corals. That player who got the Superb Pearl was really unlucky, if only he had gotten it a few minutes later, I guess his points would have reached thousands in no time…’ mused Lin Jie as he recalled what had happened.

“Bu Yi, you take this.” Lin Jie took out a few Air Pouches and passed them to Bu Yi. Meanwhile, he instructed her, “These will allow you to breathe underwater, but just for 15 minutes. Now we need to go underwater and look around for green corals.”

“Alright!” Bu Yi did not question Lin Jie’s words at all. She turned and dived into the sea, swimming towards the seabed. Her absolute trust in him made Lin Jie feel snug.

“Oh yeah, no matter what we find later, you just take it as your own,” said Lin Jie after much pondering. “This time, it’s better for you to be the champion.”

Bu Yi said in a hesitant manner, “Aye, but the final reward is an Epic Gift Bag…”

“No worries about that, I have my own considerations. In any case, I don’t really care for that gift bag.” Lin Jie shrugged, and both of them dived deeper towards the seabed.

The underwater world of The New Age was very scenic, and even more spectacular than that of the real world! After all, one could never swim as freely as one did in the game. The colorful fish, swaying algae, and beautiful corals were all that contributed to the sea’s attractiveness.

However, there were very little green corals around. Both of them had dived down for a full 10 minutes and still found nothing.

During this time, Great Precision and Baili Mei Niang were at battle with each other. Both of them were like crickets at war, refusing to lose to the other party. The speeds at which they accumulate their points were amazing, even as observed by an expert like Lin Jie.

Meanwhile, both Lin Jie’s and Bu Yi’s points were still big fat ‘0’s.

While diving, Lin Jie opened the other nine gift bags, which he had gathered previously.

—’You received 20,000 EXP.’

—’You received 30 silver coins.’

—’You received two bottles of Slow Restoring Potion.’

…

—’You received one bottle of Ocean Essence Oil.’

‘Hmm?’ Lin Jie brightened up at this. Those gift bags would give ordinary items, but there was a small chance of getting those ‘Greatest Fishing Tools’…

Of course, the term ‘Greatest Fishing Tool’ was not a real item, but a term coined jokingly by players of The New Age for any tools which could increase one’s fishing efficiency.

Ocean Essence Oil: Effects will continue for three minutes. During the fishing process, there is a 5% chance of you fishing an additional three to five fish of the same species.

“Bu Yi, take this.” Lin Jie passed this ‘Greatest Fishing Tool’ to Bu Yi. It was not that he favored Bu Yi more than his other teammates, but he needed to let Bu Yi become the champion of this final round!

To be honest, it wasn’t difficult if Lin Jie wanted to win this round himself, using his privileges as a reborn person. Yet that would defeat his whole purpose of participating in the event.

In the ocean, other than all sorts of Rare fish, there were also numerous treasures like treasure chests, pearls, marine products, and even undersea coal mines… Almost all who came here would harbor the thoughts of keeping this whole stretch of sea to themselves, so as to get hold of all the treasures within it.

“Found it!”

Within a large group of luminous corals, Lin Jie finally found one jade-like, shiny green coral. He beckoned Bu Yi to take it quickly.

Now nine minutes and forty seconds had passed. If they dawdled any longer, the Mermaid Princess’ likings would change to another item.

Bu Yi hurriedly plucked the coral and kept it in her backpack.

Ding~

—’System notification: You found a Luminous Jade Coral, you gained 1,000 points.’

“Omg, 1,000 points!” Bu Yi gasped in amazement. She was obviously shocked by this huge amount of points rewarded. The normal Rare fish would just reward players with 20 or at most 30 points. Unless one could keep on fishing up fish the likes of Red Phosphorus Yellow Croakers, it would take players a great amount of time to accumulate 1,000 points.

In any case, Bu Yi’s points shot up, and she became the fifth highest-ranking player!

In Aquatic World.

Great Precision was riding on a dark purplish seahorse and fishing around.

Gulf Seahorse: It can only be summoned in the seas. Its underwater speed is 140%, and your breathing time is extended by five minutes after entering underwater.

The Gulf Seahorse was a rare mount, and almost on par to Tiger King Bangalash! It could allow a player to mount it and move at high speeds within the sea. This mount would only be spawned at the Level 60 map ‘Seahorse Galaxy’, and its drop-rate was less than 1

/10,000. The one that Great Precision was riding on now was a young seahorse, which he had gotten from an unexpected encounter. He managed to tame it successfully, and it became his mount, which was a great help for him in the Aquatic World map.

His points were now 1,205, and he was first among all of the players!

‘Darn it, what did this Bu Yi fish out? She actually got 1,000 points straightaway? If this situation continues, how can I win?’ Great Precision took a gulp of saliva and tried to contain his shock. He calmed down and thought, ‘But just look—her points only grew to 1,000 points after 10 minutes. Even if she had fished out a super exotic Rare fish by luck, it means that her fishing abilities must be inferior to mine! I still have a higher chance to become the champion! After all, my Hunter’s Fishing Skill is an advanced skill which is comparable to the Perfect Potion Mastery skill!’

Great Precision had learned the Hunter’s Fishing Skill. From its name, one could clearly see that this was a skill that only Hunters could learn. This skill was essentially throwing the fishing rod into the sea with brute force to pierce the fish with the fishhooks. With such a forceful fishing method, Great Precision did not require any baits at all.

“Alright, you are now the fifth ranking player! It’s a pity the foundation points of the Luminous Jade Coral are only 150 points, and the points awarded this time round was just multiplied by six times. If not, you would have surpassed all of them.” With a wave of his hands, Lin Jie added, “Bu Yi, you should go above the water now and use a fresh Air Pouch. I will go on ahead and find the next item for you.”

Bu Yi nodded obediently and swam upwards.

Lin Jie had the Naga’s Trident and did not have any trouble with breathing underwater.

‘The next item will be the pearls!’

Pearls were some of the lesser-seen items in The New Age, which could recover and increase an equipment’s Durability upper limit! For example, if a piece of equipment had 100 Durability points, then after using it for 100 hours (or shorter when it was constantly used in high-damage fights or battles), it would be spoiled. One would then need to look for an NPC in the city areas to help repair it before it could be used again. However, the more frequent an item was being repaired, the lower its Durability level got. If one insisted on using this piece of equipment still, there would come a point in time when its Durability level dropped to zero. That item would then turn into a piece of wasted metal.

At this stage of the game, players changed their weapons and equipment frequently. Hence, the value of pearls was not appreciated. Yet when the players’ increase in levels became more stable, and the rate of them changing equipment slowed down, the advantages of owning pearls would be more prominent! In essence, just like the gems, pearls were items that had great appreciating potential!

‘The Mermaid Princess is a typical silver-spoon kid, and she will not like any normal pearls. The pearls she likes must be at least of Grade 90 or above…’

While looking for the correct pearls, Lin Jie also busied himself with catching fish. After all, these were Rare ones, and each could grant him lots of Stat points when he ate them!

Tinkle… tinkle…

Lin Jie heard alluring music nearby. These were the sounds produced by the Musical Sakura Jellyfishes. The Musical Sakura Jellyfishes were also exotic marine products, but they didn’t have any special effects, Their only value lied in the fact that they had a pretty sakura flower-like body, and could make faint musical sounds.

The best pearls would be located near the Musical Sakura Jellyfishes!

Lin Jie perked up and swam towards the sounds, and a one-meter large shell came into his vision! He was absolutely delighted. Using Broken Blade to break apart the shell, Lin Jie saw a pearl around the size of a grown man’s head lying within.

Pearl: Grade 100. It can recover the Durability of any equipment. The higher the grade of the Pearl, the higher the chances of recovering the equipment to its original state.

At this moment, Bu Yi changed to a fresh Air Pouch and dived down to meet Lin Jie.

“Here.” Lin Jie pressed the pearl into Bu Yi’s palms and joked in a good-natured manner. “Our token of love.”

“Ah…” Bu Yi blushed, but when she saw Lin Jie’s joking face, she replied sourly, “Well, you look quite at ease with saying such words. It seems like you have quite some experience with chasing girls at your university?”

Lin Jie grinned widely. “Oh, I also think that I ought to have better chances at dating with my eloquence in words. Yet sadly speaking, as a guy who likes to eat fermented bean curd, no girls favor me. After all, this habit of mine will be a great atmosphere dampener when we try to… get more intimate.”

Lin Jie’s reference to eating fermented bean curd seemed to hint at some distant memory, and it made Bu Yi blush even more. She dissed him shyly, “Pui, why do your words sound so insincere?”

Meanwhile, she kept the Pearl into her backpack satisfactorily.

—’You collected the Pearl, which the Mermaid Princess likes. You gain 800 points.’

Bu Yi looked up and changed topics. “Aye, so what’s next?”

Lin Jie looked at the time that had passed and said, “These Musical Sakura Jellyfishes, but we need to wait for 2 more minutes and 20 seconds before we catch them. How many points have you accumulated till now?”

“With the 800 points awarded for the Pearl, I now have 1,800 points.”

“Great, we should aim to get 10,000 points asap,” Lin Jie smiled and said. He looked at the time again. Half an hour later, Aquatic World’s territory would start to get smaller. At that time, the spawned speeds of the most exotic Rare fish would increase. That would be the most crucial time for this entire competition.

Before that happened, the only thing he needed to do was to put as much of a space between Bu YI’s points and the rest of the players!

At this moment, there was a system notification.

—”System announcement: With a dip of his fishing rod, the player ‘Brad’ fishes up a beautiful Mermaid Princess! The Mermaid Princess thanked ‘Brad’ for releasing her and rewarded him with 800,000 EXP!

—”System Announcement: With a dip of his fishing rod, the player ‘Garlic’ fishes up a beautiful Mermaid Princess! The Mermaid Princess thanked ‘Garlic’ for releasing her and rewarded him with the equipment fragment Ocean Pendant (Gold)!”

“Have the clones of the Mermaid Princess appeared?” commented Lin Jie as his pupils constricted.

“Hehe, but no matter how hard you guys try, your efforts will go down the drain. Ultimately, you need to know the correct skills to win a girl’s liking!”