Chapter 126 - 127: The Expert’s Collapse

Chapter 126: Chapter 127: The Expert’s Collapse

"Well, look at you, Boss Chen. Enjoying a little fishing trip. Do the customers in your group chat know about this?"

An angler sat down at the spot next to Chen Yuan, greeting him with a cheerful laugh.

There were plenty of fishing spots here. You could pick and choose, sit wherever you wanted.

"If you want to grow, you have to learn. I’m just here to learn a thing or two from the competition."

Chen Yuan pulled out a pack of cigarettes and gestured with it.

His own fishing ground had been packed with newcomers for the past two days, so his regulars had to be lucky to even get a spot. Anyone here at another fishing ground who recognized him must be one of his regulars.

"Whoa, I doubt you’re just here to ’learn’."

The angler walked over to take a cigarette and casually gave the keepnet a tug. He was shocked by the weight.

"Just fishing for fun."

Chen Yuan smiled nonchalantly. Just as he was about to stick a cigarette in his mouth and chat with the fellow angler, his float suddenly shot underwater. With no other choice, he put down the cigarette and yanked his rod.

"Impressive!"

The angler gave him a thumbs-up, grabbed the landing net, and helped Chen Yuan scoop up a six or seven-pound grass carp. When he tossed the fish into the keepnet, a loud, chaotic SPLASHING and thrashing erupted from within, sending ripples across the water’s surface.

’Jeez.’

’Just how many fish are in there?’

The angler gave him another big thumbs-up before returning to his own spot to prepare his bait.

Chen Yuan baited his hook and cast his line back into the water, then glanced over his shoulder. The short, chubby man was standing outside the payment booth, staring at him with an ugly look on his face.

When their eyes met, he started walking toward Chen Yuan.

"You seem to be in good spirits, Boss Chen. What made you decide to come have some fun at my place today?"

The short, chubby man pulled out a cigarette and offered it, a strained, forced smile on his face.

"It’s not easy for a small pond to survive. I’ve got to learn from the veterans."

Chen Yuan gestured with the cigarette he had just set down, then stuck it in his mouth and lit it, not taking the one from the short, chubby man.

"Chen Yuan Fishing Ground is the new hotshot. If anyone should be learning, it ought to be us old-timers on the verge of obsolescence going to your place to learn, Boss Chen."

The short, chubby man clearly didn’t believe a word Chen Yuan said, his tone dripping with sarcasm.

"But didn’t you already go? How did your ’lesson’ turn out today?"

Seeing the look on the short, chubby man’s face, Chen Yuan dropped the pleasantries. He blew a smoke ring and chuckled.

Instantly, the short, chubby man’s face turned the color of liver.

He knew the daytime session at Chen Yuan Fishing Ground ended at three o’clock. The moment it did, he couldn’t resist asking about it in the group chat. The outcome was predictable, and the ugly look on his face moments ago said it all.

...

「Back at Chen Yuan Fishing Ground, around noon.」

"Argh! What the hell is with this pond? Why am I not getting a single bite?"

The pro was going insane.

From seven in the morning until nearly noon—a full five hours—he hadn’t gotten a single bite. It was like his float was welded in place, without the slightest twitch.

He could have accepted it if there were no fish in the pond, but he kept seeing other people setting their hooks.

There were definitely fish; they just weren’t biting for them.

It was downright ghostly.

In his entire fishing career, he’d never encountered anything like it. Even fishing in some random backwater ditch wasn’t this infuriating.

"Let’s eat first, try to reset."

Although the other pro hadn’t completely lost his mind, his face was the picture of utter despair, and he was on the brink of collapse.

The two did their best to regain their composure, taking their boxed lunches to the lounge to eat slowly. Out of sight, out of mind. After eating, they even grabbed a bottle of Coke and lit up a cigarette.

They only went back out once they felt they had calmed down.

But the result was the same: not the slightest reaction. Then they saw another angler land a hundred-pound Daqing, and that feeling of impending breakdown came rushing back.

A stark contrast to the excited anglers from all over the pond who gathered to watch, the two of them just sat in their corner, staring at their floats. Their eyes, whether from staring for too long or something else entirely, slowly turned bloodshot.

"Argh! This is just cruel!"

"Waaaah, I wanna go home..."

When it was nearly time to leave, the two of them finally broke down completely. They clutched their heads and roared like madmen, their hair as disheveled as a street beggar’s, and even took out their frustrations on their fishing rods.

They were one step away from stomping their rods to pieces.

"Is it that serious? So they got skunked. You’d think it was a matter of life and death."

Anglers who didn’t know them couldn’t understand.

Those who did were utterly confused.

In the end, there was only one sentiment to be had:

"Boss Chen was right after all. If your ass isn’t in the right seat, even a pro will start questioning his very existence."

’Looks like those two spots are cursed.’

"How’d the scouting go? Scout your own damn mother!"

"Did you fucking set me up on purpose? You’re trying to destroy my passion for fishing!"

"A refund? Refund my ass! The appearance fee is the appearance fee. I showed up, so I get paid. Hell, I should be asking you for compensation for my emotional distress!"

"Go fuck yourself! I’m blocking you, you fucking idiot!"

"Mark my words, don’t even think about asking anyone in our circle for help ever again!"

A torrent of curses rang out as one of the pros was seen roaring into his phone. Someone was clearly asking about the results of their mission, and it was obvious who.

"Holy shit, so those guys were pros."

The surrounding anglers finally realized the two were experts.

Instantly, they felt sorry for the two of them.

"Son of a bitch..."

The owner of the Fishing King Arena stared at his phone—the call had been hung up, and when he tried to call back, he discovered he’d been blocked. His face went dark, his expression as foul as if he’d just eaten shit.

His WeChat was also dinging nonstop.

The Chong City Fishing Ground group chat was blowing up with messages, and people were even sending him private messages, dying to know the results.

"Why the hell are you all in such a hurry to ask?!"

Old Big Bro’s outburst in the group chat stunned everyone into silence.

’What’s going on? Did Old Big Bro swallow a firecracker or something?’

Before they could ask,

Old Big Bro sent another message.

"This is the response I got from those two bastards. Now they’ve both fucking blocked me. Fuck!"

The meaning was obvious: the two pros had gotten their asses handed to them at Chen Yuan Fishing Ground.

But Wang Heng wasn’t there either.

Who could possibly defeat two top pros at the same time?

Just as the short, chubby man was about to ask, his expression grim, he heard an angler say that Boss Chen had arrived at his fishing ground, which led to the earlier conversation.

"Boss Chen’s secrets aren’t so easy to learn, it seems."

The short, chubby man said with a sneer.

"If they’re so hard to learn, then don’t bother."

Chen Yuan chuckled.

"The pilgrimage has eighty-one trials. You have to overcome every last one of them. Otherwise, how could you obtain the true scriptures?"

"Well then, I can only wish you good luck."

Chen Yuan couldn’t be bothered with him anymore. His float had just shot underwater again; he was busy fishing.

The corner of the short, chubby man’s mouth twitched as he watched.

’We fucking sent people to mess with you. One failed, and two went insane. Yet here you are, at my place, having the time of your life. What kind of justice is that?’

He secretly ground his teeth, but he knew he couldn’t just kick the man out now.

’Just get this over with quickly.’ he hoped.

’Out of sight, out of mind.’

The short, chubby man turned back toward the payment booth, pulling out his phone to brainstorm with the group and come up with a new strategy.

"Does Chen Yuan Fishing Ground have some kind of feng shui protecting it? We’ve failed twice in a row. Today was the strangest yet. There were no outside factors, but it still drove two pros insane."

"It is pretty freaky."

The group was abuzz with discussion.

If there were no fish in the pond, no one would be catching anything. But for only the two pros to get skunked was just bizarre.

If they weren’t all united in their goal of taking down Chen Yuan Fishing Ground, they would have started to suspect Old Big Bro was lying.

"So what do we do now? Find more pros?"

The short, chubby man didn’t care about that. His desire to crush Chen Yuan Fishing Ground was now stronger than ever. That bastard had come in person, showing him up right on his own doorstep.

’So arrogant!’

"Find more pros my ass! I just fucking contacted two of them. The one with the better attitude just mocked me passive-aggressively, and the other one just started chewing me out."

Old Big Bro was fuming.

He had really fucking pissed off their whole circle of contacts. He’d tried to steal the chicken, but ended up losing the rice he’d used for bait.

"Dammit, that Chen Yuan Fishing Ground is really something else."

"This approach isn’t working. We need to think of something else."

"What other way is there?"

The group chat was filled with sighs of despair. For a moment, no one knew what move to make next.

In complete contrast, the smile never left Chen Yuan’s face. He didn’t need to see the results at his fishing ground to know what had happened. Once he activated his "no-bite" ability, even a god of fishing would be left in silent despair.

Meanwhile, he was yanking his own rod so frequently that he had to wait for an opening just to take a break.

The only fly in the ointment was that the sun was scorching, making things a little uncomfortable. That, and his arm was sore.

But compared to his haul, none of that mattered.

Five o’clock sharp.

Chen Yuan tossed the last grass carp into his keepnet, and a series of system prompts sounded in his mind.

"Today’s mission time has ended. Submitting mission results now..."

"Congratulations, Host. You have caught a total of sixty-eight fish with a catch value of 3,400. You have not only successfully broken even but have also completed the mission ten times over. As a reward, your catch will be multiplied one-hundredfold and has been delivered to your reward space. The Host may withdraw it at any time."

"Upgrade rewards will not be distributed at this time. They will be calculated and settled together once the Host has fully completed the mission."

"Please continue to work hard, Host."

The string of system notifications left Chen Yuan’s head spinning, but an ecstatic grin spread across his face, and he couldn’t help but pump his fist in the air.

’A hundredfold multiplier... I’m rich overnight!’