Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

Splash… Splash…

Under the sea, currents started swirling around after Lin Jie spoke.

At this moment, the combined strike from Ghost Eyes and Dumb Fox finally descended! Numerous players were affected—all of the fish along the path were scorched to death. This meant that even if they managed to get the fish, they also would not be awarded any points. They would have no chances of winning.

The most powerful attack was aimed at Lin Jie and Bu Yi!

Bu Yi’s points now placed her at the first place. If her fishing pace were disrupted by this mess, the others would have chances of surpassing her!

During all this while, Great Precision, Baili Mei Niang, Inksnow and the rest had been doing their best to fish out all sorts of Rare fish, and thus their points had increased by leaps and bounds. Especially Inksnow—she had been lying low all this while, and now with the distraction of the Phoenix’s Dance attack, her points had caught up to the rest of them and was chasing closely behind.

Kaboom—

The fiery flames crashed into the sea and seemed to clear off an entire layer of the sea. Thick water vapor rose up, and everyone’s visions were obstructed. All of a sudden, people were groping around in the mist, trying to make sense of their surroundings.

The cooldown period of the Phoenix’s Dance skill was as long as three natural days. That was almost on par with a Restricted Curse! In terms of prowess, it was even more powerful than the Thunderstorm skill. However, Thunderstorm only had a cooldown period of half an hour. That was something, not even the Phoenix’s Dance could compare to!

When the flames were about to touch Lin Jie and Bu Yi, the sea parted abruptly!

A four-armed figure clad in scales stood among the mist, and the moment its sea-rinsed scales got into contact with the Phoenix’s Dance flames, a loud sizzling sound was heard. Seawater splashed around and engulfed the flames, putting out the phoenix’s fire. Soon, all the flames were cleared off, and the only mist was left around.

The Naga turned its head, and said obediently, “Naga’s friend on land, a good day to you. We have come.”

The relationship Lin Jie had with the Nagas was beneficial for both sides. In fact, one could say that Lin Jie was the whole Nagas species’ benefactor. Ever since he had saved the tragic Nagas trapped on Crying Bay, and gallantly provided them with health potions at no cost, his reputation within the Nagas had been widespread. Especially after Lin Jie had saved the Naga guard at the City’s Moat, his Reputation points within the Naga Shrine had increased all the more.

If not for the fact that his current level was too low, Lin Jie would have gone ahead to the Naga Shrine to cozy up to the Nagas there already. If only he could get the Naga Prophet to be his teacher, that would be…

Lin Jie shook his head and dismissed himself from his fantasies. When rescuing the Naga guard, Lin Jie had gotten aware of a fact: powerful monsters, such as the Level 100 Gold Naga Boss, would be thrown out of Aquatic World. Meanwhile, the other more ordinary creatures, which were being implicated due to the Fishing Festival, could stay inside Aquatic World. As such, Lin Jie had made a special request with the ordinary Nagas, which remained inside Aquatic World beforehand—using his Reputation with the Nagas, he had requested for them to come to his aid should he require it.

These Nagas were, after all, around Level 45 on the average. Helping out Lin Jie was just like a piece of cake to them.

“Drag all of those human beings into the sea. Don’t let them drown to death,” said Lin Jie.

The Nagas agreed and disappeared in his vision with their snake-like torsos.

“What’s this strange technique of Lone Wolf? By right, the fighting capabilities of Warriors should tremendously decrease when they are in the water! How did he manage to hold off this attack? After all, the Phoenix’s Dance that Ghost Eyes released upon them is known for its high damage, which is comparable to Restricted Curses! Surely… could it be that Lone Wolf already had skills on par with the Restricted Curses? Oh… AH!” Bewilderment flashed past Dumb Fox’s eyes when he saw that the attack did not seem to have any impact on Lin Jie, and he started discussing with Inksnow about all sorts of possibilities. Yet at this moment, two arms grabbed hold of him from beneath the water and dragged him down!

“AH!”

“Oh, what the f*ck…”

Ghost Eyes, Baizhan Yusheng, and the rest of the other players were all dragged into the sea!

Just when the Nagas were about to attack Inksnow, Lin Jie waved his hands and said, “Don’t need to attack those who are focused on fishing. We will have a fair competition.”

Inksnow looked at the Naga in front of her. It had four strong arms, a nimble python-like torso, and powerful underwater attack capabilities. If she were dragged down, she wouldn’t be able to free herself any time soon.

Inksnow had not expected that Lone Wolf would be such a gentleman. She looked at him from afar and suddenly had an epiphany. Pulling up her Friends Column, Inksnow clicked on Fu Sheng’s conversation icon. “Fu Sheng, did you participate in the Fishing Festival?”

Her voice message did not get any replies.

Inksnow pondered for a while and decided to tuck all irrelevant thoughts away. She focused all her energy on fishing.

After all the rascals, who had tried to disrupt the competition, were removed from the scene, the competition finally returned to normal. All the players began to compete for the champion with their own skills and luck.

Lin Jie folded his arms across his chest, looking expressionless. After this, Bu Yi should finally be able to be the winner.

Initially, he did not want to reveal his ability to command Nagas. After all, this was an almost impossible skill to own as a player. However, Ghost Eyes and Dumb Fox’s actions had forced him to use it. Thus, when summoning the Nagas to help him, Lin Jie had some reservations. Considering how this method was almost like a glitch within the game, he did not let the Nagas drag everyone down so that Bu Yi would straightaway win the competition. This was to prevent the system’s masterminds from penalizing him for violating the rules and kick his team out of the space. That would be like shooting oneself in the foot!

However, what Lin Jie did not expect was that Inksnow had secretly labeled him as a ‘gentleman’, upon seeing his actions.

“Golden Crucian Carp!”

Baili Mei Niang let out a shocked gasp—she had fished out a Golden Crucian Carp! The Golden Crucian Carp could not be eaten, used in potions, nor did it have any culinary value. However, it was ranked within the top ten most precious Rare fish The New Age had ever seen!

In Lin Jie’s previous life, the first-ever Golden Crucian Carp found had been priced at merely 30 silver coins, because no one had known what it could be used for. This Golden Crucian Carp had been bought over by a player who liked to smith things using various innovative methods. During one of his attempts, he had used the Golden Crucian Carp as a raw Smithing material…

As a result, the first complete Dark Gold equipment forged by a player, ever since the start of The New Age, had been born! Moreover, the processed fish bones, which he had left behind, had the amazing effects of ‘Increased 10% Chance of Successful Enhancement for the subsequent Enhancement try’.

This showed that the Golden Crucian Carp was one of the best materials to be used when smithing equipment. Its value was on par with rare ores!

Subsequently, the second Golden Crucian Carp had been sold for 50,000 gold coins!

Lin Jie’s pupils constricted. Bu Yi’s points were now 39,283, while Baili Mei Niang’s points were 39,011 points. If she really fished out that Golden Crucian Carp, the winner would become her!

“No, this cannot happen! Naga, break her fish hook!” With a command from Lin Jie, the Naga shot out a gust of water at Baili Mei Niang’s fish hook. The Golden Crucian Carp’s body was hit by the gust of water, and it escaped from the hook!

Should this scene be seen by Inksnow, most probably, she would take back her words about Lin Jie being a ‘gentleman’. Not that it mattered much to Lin Jie anyway—ever since his rebirth, Lin Jie had a drastic change of mindsets. Simply put, he was determined to just go for the gains than for the name. Unless he were with his family or with his true friends from his previous life, Lin Jie would always be on guard against everyone else.

At this moment, there was a system announcement!

—”System announcement: The 1st Annual Fishing Festival in The New Age has ended!”

—”System announcement: Congratulations to player Bu Yi for winning the 1st place with 39,283 points! She is rewarded with the Epic Fishing Rod Weathered Fishing Rod, and an Epic Gift Bag!”

—”System announcement: Congratulations to player Inksnow for winning the 2nd place with 39,281 points! She is rewarded with the Dark Gold Fishing Rod Dwarf Old Balbo’s Fishing Rod, and a Gold Gift Bag!”

—”System announcement: Congratulations to player Great Precision for winning the 3rd place with 39,192 points! He is rewarded with the Gold Fishing Rod Exquisite Fishing Rod, and a Gold Gift Bag!”

…

The announcements kept popping up!

A tremor ran down Lin Jie’s back. He had focused all his attention on Baili Mei Niang and hence was unaware of the dark horse, Inksnow’s achievements. She had always been around the last of the top 10 highest scoring players. Lin Jie had not expected that she managed to catch up with Bu Yi in the last few moments!

In essence, the competition was so fierce that it all boiled down to the difference of one single fish!

Meanwhile, the players left on the Golden Beach went crazy with excitement!

“I f*ck! An Epic Gift Bag, and an Epic Fishing Rod?! They will be worth millions!”

“Are you silly? Those aren’t the best gifts. Didn’t you see what the clones of the Mermaid Princess gave out? They are all Gold fragments and rare Skill Books—now, that’s what I call real gems.”

“No, all of you are wrong! What matters is that each of them had tens of thousands of points. Just imagine, if they exchange all their points for Advanced fish, they will get thousands of those. That’s where the real riches lie!”

“Oh, they were at the final competition map, Aquatic World. Why would you expect them fishing out anything other than Rare fish?!”

“Don’t make assumptions here, you are not even there in the final competition!”

While the players discussed vehemently, teleportation lights flashed about—all players who had entered the final competition were being teleported out of the space and sent here.

Naturally, these players wanted to make a haul out of their gains at the Golden Beach.

A player by the name of ‘Innocent’ grinned and showcased all of the Rare fish he had caught. He shouted at the top of his voice, “Selling fresh Rare fish from Aquatic World! Miss this chance, and you’ll regret it! There are fish for every occasion, whether you want to use them for making potions, for cooking, eat it raw or barbecued, I have them all! I accept Guaranteed Cash Transaction by the City of Light Central Auction House, do come and take a look!”

“Selling large quantities of Rare fish only with the Cash Exchange System by the Central Auction House. Come and buy speedily!”

“I am collecting large amounts of Rare fish with the Guaranteed Cash Transaction by the Central Auction House. Don’t bother me if you want to keep the fish as treasures!”

With the appearance of these players, the Golden Beach’s trading atmosphere peaked!

Before this, Zheng Ziliang had an inspiration, and he had rolled out the Guaranteed Cash Transaction system at the Auction House. The rules of this system were easy to understand: buyers would deposit a number of coins, known as the ‘guaranteed cash’, at the Auction House in exchange for a credit receipt. They could then use this receipt to make transactions anywhere which accepted this system and get their goods immediately. Meanwhile, the sellers would use the receipts to collect their earnings at the Auction House.

In layman’s terms, this was some sort of a ‘credit card’ system.

After all, who could afford that great amount of expenses to roll out such a credit system? Throughout the whole of The New Age, only the City of Light Central Auction House could do so!

In fact, nowadays, players would just omit the first few words, ‘City of Light’, when they addressed the place. They simply called it the ‘Central Auction House’!

This Auction House had now built up a large base of player customers. It was a sure bet that in the future, it would become one of the greatest establishments in the game. From how players had directly addressed it as the ‘Central Auction House’ now, it was not difficult to see that almost all players had regarded it as the designated place to go to for monetary transactions.

…

At the Aquatic World.

With the announcements, players were being teleported out from this space subsequently. However, it was not totally empty—Lin Jie and Bu Yi had remained in the space.

“Where are the rest?” Bu Yi looked around at the vast Aquatic World and felt a bit unsure.

Lin Jie coughed dryly and joked. “Well, most probably, they are giving us some private space.”

Bu Yi rolled her eyes and chided, “Can you be serious for once?” However, she stopped asking Lin Jie further questions—she felt that Lin Jie was trying to be mysterious again.

“Oh yes, these are the rewards for coming in first. I should give them all to you. In any case, I only got first because of your help.”

She held a fishing rod and an Epic Gift Bag in her hands.

Weathered Fishing Rod (Epic)

Requires: Level 30

Attack: 134-235

Strength: 15

Endurance: 15

Agility: 15

Wisdom: 15

Spirit: 15

Additional effect: Your Attack Speed’s limit is removed. You can attack twice per second.

Additional effect: Each time you launch an attack, the Damage Dealt for your subsequent attack will increase by 5%. At the same time, you will have a 5% chance of causing Binding effect on your target, rendering them unable to move.

Additional effect: Your Fishing Proficiency is increased by 500 points.

Additional effect: There is a 3% chance of you fishing up Rare items using this fishing rod.

There was only one piece of the Weathered Fishing Rod throughout The New Age. Its level would increase accordingly with the player’s Fishing Proficiency—one could see it as the Heritage equipment for players who focused on Fishing!

Lin Jie pushed back the items to Bu Yi. “These are your rewards. In any case, I am too busy to fish… With this fishing rod, it will be much easier for you to become a Legendary Fishing Master.”

Bu Yi blinked and looked at Lin Jie in astonishment. She quipped, “You make it sound like it’s really easy to reach the grade of Legendary?”