Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

Bu Yi’s pretty face darkened at this comment. “Oh yeah, so you do have much experience with dating girls.”

Lin Jie let out an embarrassed laugh and changed topics hurriedly. “Oh no, I am referring to the Mermaid Princess. A few days ago, I managed to see an attack strategy for the fishing festival. I don’t know if that is true or not, so I am just testing my luck here.

“That’s another playing strategy for Aquatic World. Other than getting Rare fish, you may have a 5% chance of fishing up the clones of the Mermaid Princess when you throw in your fishing rods. If you release her, you will get rewards, out of which the worst will be Gold equipment… Oh, no, the worst should be EXP. The fellow named Brad must be so unlucky today.”

“Haha… Wait a sec, clones? You mean, no one can fish up the real Mermaid Princess?”

“As for this…” Lin Jie put on a mysterious smile. “You will get to know in due time.”

“You’re keeping me guessing again!” Bu Yi chided.

“Haha! Anyway, let’s get down to serious business now,” said Lin Jie, his tone turning stern.

“After half an hour later, Aquatic World will become a pond-sized underwater territory. During that time, the Rare fish in this region will accumulate to a shockingly high level, and our opponents’ points will definitely peak. We need to work in cooperation then—while you continue fishing above the sea, listen to my instructions, and move accordingly. As long as I find the required items, you dive down and keep them in your bag. No matter what, we must clinch the winner this time!”

Seeing his earnest expression, Bu Yi turned serious and nodded.

With the Ocean Essence Oil, which Lin Jie gave her, Bu Yi’s fishing efficiency increased by loads. In fact, there was one time when she fished up four Eagle Fish! Eagle Fish were exotic Rare fish. If one managed to fish them out with just one try and processed them with Master Level Culinary Skills, they could be made into Eagle Fish Broth, which could help increase one’s eyesight. As such, Bu Yi’s points increased by 800 points at once, and she became the first in rankings!

However, the other players were also skilled fishing experts and not to be trifled with. One should not forget that Baili Mei Niang, Great Precision and Inksnow had also deliberately lowered the points threshold before, so as to allow their teammates to enter this final round. This strategy had worked out well—Lin Jie realized that Ghost Eyes, Dumb Fox, and Baizhan Yusheng were all fully focused on helping their teammates to become the champion. As such, their points did not increase at all!

After all, an Epic Gift Bag would not come by every day, and everyone here was determined to get this reward. They could only depend on their skills and luck now!

With the passing of time, Lin Jie also managed to fill up his backpack with all sorts of Rare fish and pearls, even though he had focused mainly on helping Bu Yi get the necessary items. In fact, he managed to open a treasure chest and got a Gold Bow! That was a pleasant surprise.

After 55 minutes of fishing in Aquatic World, everyone had accumulated quite some riches! Even if they did not count the rewards for releasing the Mermaid Princess’s clones, all of them had struck it rich just by fishing out all sorts of Rare fish.

The quality of the rewards given turned better and better! Numerous players who did not get into the final round sighed when they saw it. Many of them regretted that they had not tried harder to enter this final round. They had initially thought that the items they had gotten from the Eye of the Vortex were some of the top-notch items to be found in the game, but comparing their gains to the items found in the Aquatic World, their items were like sh*t! This was definitely the perfect exemplification of the adage ‘all comparisons are odious’!

Aquatic World was the source where all the water in the gaming world came from.

Out of the Three Legendary Secret Regions, only the Eye of the Vortex was always kept closed. Aquatic World was the center of this closed region.

In The New Age, there were millions of seas. The Eye of the Vortex was made up by a scoop of water from each of the seas, and after millions of years of evolution, Aquatic World had been formed. Other than the annual Fishing Festival, there were no other ways for players to enter this place. Naturally, all of the items found in this place were of the best quality. Just consider the mouthful of water which Lin Jie had gulped down when he had first entered this space—if he managed to bring that water back and put it up for sale, he could sell it for hundreds of gold coins! Items like these, which could increase one’s Stats permanently, were much more superior than items like Equipment Enchantment Scrolls. Once anyone used it, the resulting effects would be theirs to claim forever.

Meanwhile, Lin Jie and Bu Yi were getting better at gathering the required items in underwater. Together, they managed to get the Rainbow Reef, Red Pear Seaweed, and even knocked out a Giant Whale then released it again. Bu Yi’s accumulated points grew quickly.

Right now, the rankings of the players were as such:

First Place: Great Precision, 41,928 points!

Second Place: Baili Mei Niang, 40,847 points!

Third Place: Bu Yi, 36,475 points!

Fourth Place: Destiny Laugh, 33,847 points!

…

Great Precision and Baili Mei Niang had indeed lived up to their names of being the best fishing experts within their guilds. Both of them had special techniques in fishing, and it was fully exhibited now! There was no further need to introduce the prowess of Great Precision’s Hunter’s Fishing Skill. Meanwhile, the fishing rods which Baili Mei Niang held in her hands were decked in various colors. They looked like venomous snakes, ready to pounce out at their prey—most probably, she had applied some mysterious potions on them again.

On the other hand, Bu Yi’s fishing ability did not seem very fantastic. After all, she had picked up fishing merely as an interest. Even with Lin Jie helping her to find the items the Mermaid Princess liked, she still trailed behind the duo by quite some points.

Ding~

—”System announcement: With a dip of his fishing rod, the player ‘I lived at the Sichuan Basin’ fishes up a beautiful Mermaid Princess! The Mermaid Princess thanked the human being for releasing her and rewarded him with a rare Skill Book!’

—”System Announcement: With a dip of his fishing rod, the player ‘1, 2, 3, 4 Stomachache!’ fishes up a beautiful Mermaid Princess! The Mermaid Princess thanked the human being for releasing her and rewarded him with a Gold item Slient Lark!”

‘What, the quality of the rewards has risen that much already? Then it means the real Mermaid Princess will be appearing soon! Oh… Hah, my chest…’ Just when Lin Jie was thinking of this, he felt excruciating pain at his chest, as if someone had struck him with a huge hammer. Even with the Naga’s Trident, he felt that he couldn’t bear staying underwater anymore.

This was due to the shrinking of the Aquatic World—the pressure underwater had increased!

Holy Light Winged Armor!

Lin Jie activated the Holy Light Winged Armor and rushed up to the sea’s surface. If he continued staying underwater, he might be crushed to death!

Woah—

When Lin Jie rose up to the sea’s surface, he realized that several familiar figures were all gathered around the same region! Inksnow, Dumb Fox, Baizhan Yusheng… All the 20 plus of them stared dumbfounded at one another and appeared to be at a loss of what had happened.

“Oh gosh, the Super-Rare fish Silver Beard Fish, and the Fiery Wind-Feathered Fish!”

“Wow, what’s with the appearance of so many Super-Rare fish? Aye, forget it, let’s just fish them all out first!”

All of them did not bother to care about others eyeing their catch and started fishing immediately. After all, the accumulation of points was the most important thing now!

“Bu Yi, you start to fish immediately too. However, keep your fish hook—just tie the bait to your rod with its fishing string,” instructed Lin Jie hurriedly.

Bu Yi was shocked—how could one get any fish without fish hooks? However, she trusted Lin Jie’s words, and she followed suit quizzically. Using her fishing line to tie a bait, she threw her rod into the sea.

Lin Jie held his breath and braced himself.

His aim now was to find the Mermaid Princess!

During the last five minutes of the final round, the real Mermaid Princess would appear! She would be frolicking about in the sea, looking for the items she liked and giving out handsome rewards to all the players she met… However, the Mermaid Princess would only bite the baits of female players!

That’s right, this was just outright sexual discrimination against the male players!

Yet, why wouldn’t she be attracted to the male players’ baits? That was an unsolved mystery till now.

Anyone who used fish hooks would hurt the Mermaid Princess, and scare her away. As such, Lin Jie told Bu Yi to keep her fish hooks.

The Mermaid Princess was, after all, the precious daughter of Poseidon. She was pretty, delicate, gentle and soft… cough, cough. The most important thing was, as long as the Mermaid Princess appeared, it meant the time to get rich had come!

In Lin Jie’s previous life, there had been some players who nicknamed the Mermaid Princess as the “Princess of Wealth” jokingly. This was because the Mermaid Princess looked forward to becoming a human being so much that she would gladly reward any human beings with handsome rewards if they met her in the sea.

In his previous life, Lin Jie had met the Mermaid Princess once. She had immediately given him a pearl from the pearl necklace, which she had been wearing. Subsequently, that pearl had helped to break the seal on Broken Blade during its third stage, and allowed it to reach about 30% progression!

As such, Lin Jie had shrewdly decided that he ought to get some ‘help’ from the Mermaid Princess again this time round.

Lap-lap-lap…

Lap-lap-lap…

A ripple spread about under the sea. It was as if a pleasant, gentle breeze brushed past one’s face.

A shimmering golden shadow swam near elegantly.

‘The Mermaid!’ Lin Jie took a deep breath but did not dare to make any big moves for fear of alerting the Mermaid Princess.

There were two conditions to catch the Mermaid Princess:

1. Have more than 10,000 points.

2. Get the items that the Mermaid Princess liked consecutively for five times or more.

‘Hehe, this human being knows me so well, all the things she found are what I like… Eh? How come there are no fish hooks?’ The Mermaid Princess had blond hair and green eyes. Swishing her golden tail gently about in the sea, Lin Jie saw that her white breasts were covered by two beautiful seashells, and she looked very lovely.

The Mermaid Princess was full of curiosity for Bu Yi. In a moment of mischief, she transformed into a small goldfish and neared Bu Yi’s bait. After which, she bit down on the bait—

“Oh, I got a fish!” exclaimed Bu Yi in surprise. A small goldfish flipped up into her hands, blinking its eyes at her. It looked extremely adorable.

Peculiar Fish: Rare fish.

Ding~

—’Congratulations on catching the Peculiar Fish, you earned 20,000 points!’

Bu Yi let out a surprised gasp. ‘Oh my, what’s this small fish exactly?’

At this moment, Lin Jie swam up to the sea’s surface. He saw that Bu Yi had caught the small goldfish and was elated. “Great, great! Bu Yi, you are really awesome—this is the Mermaid Princess! With her, we can go to the Poseidon Shrine, which holds great treasures!”

Bu Yi patted the fish and put it into the shallow waters, for fear that the Mermaid Princess might become dehydrated. She then asked, “Then… what should we do now?”

“We should release her, of course. But now’s not the best timing to do so,” Lin Jie motioned to Bu Yi to keep the goldfish away quietly. Bu Yi then continued to fish for other fish immediately, as if nothing had happened!

Although catching the Mermaid Princess had rewarded Bu Yi with 20,000 points, it did not help her surpass the next player in rank by much.

During the last few minutes of the competition, the exotic Rare fish were all gathered together! The players’ points increased by thousands and hundreds. Everyone focused and did their best, striving to get the highest possible rankings!

As the saying went, “He, who does not advance, loses out.” It was particularly during these last few minutes of the competition that one should do his best, or else they would be surpassed by others!

This was the cruel reality of all competitions!

“That Bu Yi seems quite strong,” Great Precision exchanged looks with Ghost Eyes and threw out his fishing rod with even more might. He beckoned to Ghost Eyes. “Chairman, you are an Assassin Hunter and have more damage output techniques. It’s already at the most crucial point of the competition, just heck care and give your all! Use your best skill and attack where they are positioned. Even if you are being penalized and thrown out of the map, I still can win the competition and bag the Epic Gift Bag home.”

Ghost Eyes did not hesitate and whipped out a Phoenix Longbow. This was Epic Equipment, which Ghost Eyes had gotten when he had previously explored the Phoenix’s Lair alone. Its attributes would not be any lousier than a Dark Gold fragment!

Arching the bow at the sky, one could actually hear the sound of clanging metals from the bowstrings. Tiny strands of flame condensed into an illusionary Phoenix in the air. From this, one could definitely sense the prowess of this weapon!

“Darn it, Ghost Eyes’s resorting to underhand tricks now!” Dumb Fox gritted his teeth. However, he was not too worried—because he could see that Ghost Eyes’ tricks were not aimed at him. While Inksnow’s rankings were considered pretty good at this moment. She was just trailing at the end of the list of the top ten highest-scoring players. At most, she could just win some rewards and other gift bags for their guild.

“This is the Phoenix’s Dance skill, and it has a long cooldown period of three days! With Ghost Eyes’ Penetration talent as an Assassin Hunter, his damage output will be shockingly high, and it will definitely mess up the current rankings situation, hehehe…” commented Dumb Fox in a gleeful manner.

Inksnow blinked, and an idea came up to her. She put on a pretty smile and commented, “Chairman, you can also make use of the opportunity to make things even messier. Meanwhile, I will concentrate on fishing. Although I am now just the 10th ranking player, the distance between the players’ points are just around a couple thousands of points. If we disrupt the other players’ fishing paces, I may have some chance to catch up.”

Dumb Fox waved his hands, and a rainbow-colored light gathered in his hands. He replied secretly, “No worries about that, I am already prepared. Just wait and see.”

“Phoenix’s Dance!”

At this moment, Ghost Eyes finally made a move! Using his right hand, he released an arrow. The Phoenix in the air sang a high, crisp note, and charged towards Baili Mei Niang without any disguise!

The most exasperating part about Ghost Eyes was that he would never go back on his words, and if he wanted to attack somebody, he would do it right in front of that person. Hardly any of his opponents could find fault with that—no matter what, this was definitely better than suffering a stab from the back!

Once the Phoenix’s Dance skill was activated, bubbles started rising up from the sea. The whole small stretch of the sea was almost boiled, and the result was that many fish were burnt to death. Their bodies floated on the sea’s surface, turning upside down and revealing their bellies.

“Mei Niang, you continue to fish, I will block it!” Taking full advantage of his two-meter tall stature, Baizhan Yusheng placed his heavy shield in front of both of them. He looked like a sturdy wall, and was all ready to crash into the terrific phoenix coming at them!

However. a light shield descended around the both of them at this time.

Like a bowl being overturned, the light from Dumb Fox’s hands condensed into a light shield and blocked off the Phoenix’s Dance attacks.

“Brother Baizhan, you know I have always born a grudge against that icky Ghost Eyes. Let me help you out now!”

This light shield was not Dumb Fox’s skill, but Inksnow’s skill! However, Inksnow had previously given Dumb Fox her Fiery Dragon Set, coupled with her Fiery Lizard Sword. The latter had given the Fiery Dragon Set an additional skill: Absolute Territory! This could create a fire-resistant region, and at most could take up 30,000 damage points!

When the Absolute Territory crashed into the Phoenix’s Dance, it would, of course… be broken apart! However, during the effective period of this skill, the flames which hit the Absolute Territory’s walls bounced off the shield and shot about everywhere!

During this time, Lin Jie was standing guard beside Bu Yi, awaiting the finale of the Fishing Festival. Yet he did not expect that all these experts would start resorting to such underhanded methods now!

Out of which, Dumb Fox was definitely the most scheming of them—on the surface, his Absolute Territory seemed like he was really trying to protect Baizhan Yusheng. Yet in reality, it had helped to spread out the flames from the Phoenix’s Dance attacks. His techniques were also considered superb among the players present. Under his manipulation, most of the Phoenix’s Dance attacks were aimed straight at Bu Yi’s direction!

Furthermore, the Absolute Territory was crushed beyond repair by the Phoenix’s Dance. Baizhan Yusheng and Baili Mei Niang were by no means protected at all!

Ghost Eyes also understood Dumb Fox’s intents, and he gulped down a Mana Explosion Potion. The prowess of his Phoenix’s Dance skill increased, but all of them were now aimed at one direction—the spot where Lin Jie and Bu Yi were stationed at now!

A dark look flashed past Lin Jie’s eyes. ‘It doesn’t matter if you want to attack one another now, but the audacity of you to mess with me? That’s courting death!’

He shouted angrily, “My friends, the Nagas who reside underwater, come out now!”