Chapter 131 - 132: Anglers’ Carnival

Chapter 131: Chapter 132: Anglers’ Carnival

Chen Yuan lay in bed, exceptionally excited.

According to the system’s estimate, the value of his catch was 3,400. After a hundredfold increase, that would be 340,000. Just thinking about that number made Chen Yuan feel like he was basking in a spring breeze, his eyes closed in blissful intoxication.

He had been yanking his rod like crazy all day, and his arms were incredibly sore, but the thought of such a generous reward made all his fatigue vanish in an instant.

He was just looking forward to having massive hauls over the next few days. Not to mention the millions in potential value from the catches, the room for new strategies would be immense.

’I could even run some events and rake in a ton of points~’

’First, I’ll post the fish stocking announcement~’

Suppressing his excitement, Chen Yuan prepared to write the stocking announcement and give the anglers a real party.

As soon as he opened his fishing ground’s group chat, he saw the anglers enthusiastically discussing fish stocking—not for Chen Yuan Fishing Ground, but for Fisherman and Jiangyuan Fishing Ground.

"Did you guys see the stocking announcement from Fisherman?"

"Fisherman is stocking fish?"

"That shorty fatty is really splashing out this time. The announcement says he ordered fifty silver carp and fifty black carp, all over thirty jin each. They’re stocking Pond #3 tomorrow morning."

"Whoa, a hundred giants! That’s a huge move~"

"Knowing that shorty fatty, I wouldn’t take his word for it. If he says he’s stocking a hundred, it’ll be a miracle if there are even sixty."

"All the pay lakes are like that. Getting sixty percent is already a passing grade~"

The anglers all knew that the biggest lie in the world was a pay lake owner’s claim about how many fish they stocked. The numbers, the weights—it was all lies.

If you get sixty percent of the promised number, that’s considered passing. Eighty percent means the owner actually has a conscience.

"Never mind the quantity, that shorty fatty will definitely fudge the weights. He’ll say 30+ jin, but they’ll probably all be around twenty-seven or twenty-eight. He does it to keep you from hitting the big prize for a 30+ jin fish. And don’t even think about a 40+ jin one. He’ll stock them in the morning and net them out himself that night. Catching one would be like winning the lottery~"

The anglers were all wise to these tricks.

"Well, at least we can go fish there tomorrow, right?~"

"Hard to say. That shorty fatty likes to use fish from the high-stakes competition lakes. If he’s in a good mood, he might let them recover in a holding pond for a while. If he’s in a bad mood, he’ll dump them straight into the main pond. You can imagine what the bite will be like~"

"Where would he even get that many fresh, unhooked fish?~"

That’s just how the pay lake business worked. The fish from the high-stakes lakes get caught over and over, then the owners sell them to the cheaper, lower-stakes lakes.

An owner with a conscience would move the fish to a holding pond to let them recover for a while before stocking them. Those rested fish would at least bite, so you could still have some fun.

But if they were dumped straight in, the bite would be terrible.

What’s the point of even going then?

"Jiangyuan Fishing Ground posted a stocking announcement too~"

An angler noticed another fishing ground was also planning to stock fish and posted a screenshot of the announcement in the group chat.

"Damn, I don’t even want to look at Jiangyuan Fishing Ground’s announcement. They’re the biggest rip-off of them all. Early this year, the owner almost got beaten so bad he ended up in the hospital."

"Whoa, three thousand jin of large crucian carp. If they actually do it, that’s a pretty big deal. But knowing the owner of Jiangyuan, I doubt it’ll be more than fifteen hundred."

If Fisherman’s petty tricks were considered normal—after all, many fishing grounds secretly net out the best fish and the big prize-winners—then Jiangyuan Fishing Ground was just plain disgusting. Especially that time early in the year when they played word games, stocking a bunch of tiny, palm-sized crucian carp that wouldn’t bite for shit. You could tell at a glance they’d been bought from some other pond.

This time, it seemed like they weren’t playing word games; the quantity and weight were clearly stated. But they would definitely shortchange everyone. If Old Wang even stocked half the promised amount, it would be a sign he’d grown a conscience.

"Holy crap, the main-day fishing fee is doubled tomorrow! Looks like Jiangyuan Fishing Ground might be serious this time."

"Same with Fisherman. The main-day fee is doubled. This time they might actually stock sixty, maybe even eighty percent."

"Should we go give it a try?"

You get what you pay for. The fee on a stocking day was always different from the off-day "clean-up" sessions, but daring to double the price meant they were very confident in the fish they were stocking. Otherwise, if the catch rate was poor, the customers would curse them to death.

"I’m just worried they’re fish bought from other lakes, and the bite will be tough~"

Some anglers were tempted, while others hesitated.

After all, with double the fee, it would be a huge loss if the fish weren’t biting~

"Gotta say, Boss Chen’s kind of pond is still the best. It was converted directly from a fish farm, so it’s full of native, unhooked fish. The bite is amazing."

"They’re almost all gone, though."

"It’s time for Boss Chen to stock more fish~"

The anglers’ topic of conversation shifted quickly, jumping straight to the matter of stocking fish at Chen Yuan Fishing Ground.

Although the service and environment there were impeccable, anglers came to fish. If there were few fish and no new ones were being stocked, then what was the point of going?

If it weren’t for the Fish King holding down the fort, providing some excitement and passion, his business probably wouldn’t be much better than the other fishing grounds.

’Good thing I don’t have to worry about stocking fish right now. Otherwise, this move by Fisherman and Jiangyuan Fishing Ground would have definitely hurt Chen Yuan Fishing Ground.’

Chen Yuan muttered softly to himself as he watched the discussion in the group chat.

But even without this system mission, he would have ordered a batch of fish to stock anyway.

The system mission had just delayed him by a couple of days.

’I definitely have to stock fish. The question is, how?’

Chen Yuan didn’t rush to post an announcement. If Fisherman and Jiangyuan Fishing Ground weren’t stocking fish, he could do it however he pleased.

But now that he had competition, he had to identify his advantages to seize this opportunity and completely crush his rivals.

’When it comes to stocking fish, the customers’ biggest concerns are the actual quantity of fish and the bite rate. I can guarantee both of those.’

With tens of thousands of jin of fish in his reward space, whatever amount Chen Yuan said he’d stock, he would stock. It would be 100% accurate.

As for the bite.

Anything produced by the system was guaranteed to be top-quality. Purely natural, unhooked fish were no problem at all.

’But these two points alone aren’t enough to be a game-changer. A real game-changer needs to erupt from within the customer base itself. Only then can I completely crush my opponents.’

Chen Yuan began to ponder.

He was confident he could win a fish-stocking competition, but with such a massive potential catch on the line, just winning wasn’t enough. He wanted a resounding, crushing victory.

He was missing that one explosive element.

"DING! Detecting the fishing ground’s current situation. As the host is temporarily unable to fully activate the new pond, initiating a pre-opening warm-up event for the new pond~"

Just as Chen Yuan was racking his brain trying to find that crushing game-changer, the system’s voice suddenly rang out in his mind, nearly making him jump.

’A warm-up event.’

A moment later, Chen Yuan’s face lit up with joy.

A warm-up event, not a mission. There was a fundamental difference.

He immediately summoned the system, and sure enough, a fourth "Events" page appeared.

The entire page had only one warm-up event, followed by a note in parentheses that read "Mission 1 Event," indicating it was related to his current mission.

Without hesitation, he clicked on it to read the description.

"Event Name: Angler’s Carnival (Ten-Day Frenzy)."

"Event Summary: A fishing ground cannot be run by the book. It needs a constant stream of events to excite the anglers. The host currently possesses a large quantity of fish and can initiate a pre-opening warm-up event for the new pond."

"Event Details: The host stocks fish like crazy, the customers achieve success like crazy, building a reputation for Chen Yuan Fishing Ground as having an extremely high success rate."

"Event Reward: Convert the value of caught fish into points."

HOLY SHIT~

Chen Yuan shot up from the bed, his eyes wide as saucers. His face was a complex mixture of joy, shock, and utter disbelief.

What was the one thing he wanted most right now?

Points. Absolutely.

The frustration of having acquired the Old Pond but being unable to activate it was simply indescribable.

And now, the system had just delivered a huge gift right to his doorstep.

Talk about a godsend.

"System, I could just kiss you!~"

Chen Yuan was overjoyed. If the system were a beautiful woman, he would have definitely gone over and planted a couple of kisses on her.

’How is the value of the catch converted?’

Suppressing his joy, Chen Yuan clicked the symbol next to the event reward.

"Points are converted based on the success rate. Whatever the session’s success rate is, that percentage of the value of the fish caught will be converted. The better the catch, the higher the conversion ratio. If the entire venue achieves a 100% success rate, an additional 10% of the points will be awarded."

HISS~

Reading the description, Chen Yuan couldn’t help but suck in a sharp breath.

His whole body trembled with excitement.

His hand was shaking so much as he reached for a cigarette that he almost dropped his phone on the floor.

"This is insane! Absolutely insane! System, how did you come up with such a mind-blowing event?!~"

Chen Yuan was so excited he really wanted to spam the "like" button for the system.

This was the game-changer he had been looking for.

A trigger point that would ignite directly from within the customer base. Combined with his advantages in fish stocking and bite rate, it would absolutely annihilate Fisherman and Jiangyuan Fishing Ground.

And on top of that, he would get the points he had been dreaming of.

The more fish caught, the more points he would get.

One word: awesome~