Li Haochen walked to the driver's seat and checked the instruments. Fortunately, nothing was damaged. It would have been a huge loss if it had malfunctioned.
This giant marlin was probably not much lighter than that big fatty. The three-meter-long cabin only accommodated two-thirds of its body, with the tail and head exposed. It was estimated to be over five meters long. With this length and its thick, long body, it could definitely weigh over 1000 pounds.
Without further speculation, he would know when they returned. The most important thing now was to hurry. Time was running out.
"I'll drive the boat. You guys tidy up inside."
Li Haochen climbed over the marlin and sat in the driver's seat. After a short while, the boat slowly started to move. The speed gradually increased, and it soon disappeared from the sea area.
At the same time, on the other side, the American team had just finished their battle. This time, their harvest was beyond their wildest expectations. They were already celebrating their catch of a 1275-pound bluefin tuna.
"Well done, this championship is ours," Arthur said happily, even taking out his private reserve champagne. "Cheers, everyone. I'll pay for everything when we get back to the service department, hahaha!"
"Captain, you said it yourself! I want a few!"
"Cruz, with your scrawny body, you want a few? Don't let us bring you flowers, hahaha!"
"Get lost, am I that bad?"
"Alright, Brook, hurry up and get back. Time is a bit tight."
After speaking, Arthur sat on a small chair beside him and started drinking, looking very content.
Arthur was not the only one who was content. In the secret monitoring room on the shore of the dock, Robert was also excited and happy. He had watched the entire process of their team fishing for the big bluefin tuna.
During the process, he had to take heart medicine several times and almost kicked the bucket. Especially at the moment they hooked the fish, oh man, the gasping sound was quite unpleasant, like that thing. Judging by his flushed face, it was possible that his brain had a surge of excitement and everything came out at once.
"Boss, everything has been tallied. We should be first."
Robert, who was waiting for Jones to tally the results, was not happy to hear this. He had already prepared to buy a new yacht to celebrate, and now he was being told they "should" be first?
"Should? What the hell is 'should'? I want 100% certainty!" Robert roared.
"Boss, for the Chinese team, we couldn't obtain effective data. We can only make a rough estimate," Jones said helplessly. He truly couldn't obtain the data, and it was too incredible. Even he felt it was somewhat fantastical.
"Why can't we get the data? Our technology is so advanced, and you're telling me we can't get it? Is your brain made of paste?"
"Come over and see for yourself. I don't even know how to explain it."
Robert walked over with a displeased expression and looked at the video. Huh, there was nothing? He saw nothing? Just as he was about to get angry, Jones, who was standing next to him, called out, "Boss, you need to watch it in slow motion to see clearly. I only noticed something was wrong after watching it a few times."
"Hmph, you should have said so earlier!"
Robert snorted coldly and played the video in slow motion. Soon, he saw a dark shadow flash by and then disappear.
"What the heck?"
He rewound the video to the slowest speed and saw a large fish rush into the cabin at high speed. Seeing this, Robert froze for a while. He watched it again. "Shit, what incredible luck. Why didn't it just ram them to death."
"Boss, we've verified it repeatedly. This should be a marlin."
"A marlin?" Robert was also a little worried. Judging by the tail, this fish was not small. It was hard to tell how much it weighed.
"Jones, is there any way to estimate it?"
"Uh, this..."
Robert knew he was asking for the impossible, but he didn't believe this marlin could be as heavy as their 1275-pound bluefin tuna. After all, marlins generally didn't have very large weights. It was rare to see one over a thousand pounds even once in eight or ten years. He felt both worried and happy, but mostly happy.
At this moment, the sea surface gradually showed the participating boats returning fully loaded. Everyone on the boats was beaming with joy, as if they had already won the championship.
On the beach dock where they had set off, tourists and staff members from the competition were already gathered, as were the uncrowned kings, with their long and short lenses already set up. The main stage remained empty, as it was the big shots, and it didn't matter if they arrived later.
"Beep~!"
Around 1 PM, a deep and loud whistle sounded, immediately attracting countless eyes. The uncrowned kings had already seen it clearly through their high-powered binoculars. "Maple Leaf Country is back."
The atmosphere on the Maple Leaf Country's boat was one of jubilation. Several of them were full of confidence for this competition, expecting a very fruitful harvest.
Relevant staff members had made the necessary preparations. As soon as their boat docked, they boarded to conduct checks.
The four contestants from Maple Leaf Country stood at the bow of the boat, basking in the glow of numerous flashes. This was their moment of glory.
Indeed, it was glorious. As the fish were lifted out of the ice hold one by one, the entire venue erupted in cheers. They had caught a total of 13 fish. Although none of them exceeded 500 pounds, having more than a dozen large fish weighing three to four hundred pounds piled together was still very impressive.
Their score was also quite good, totaling 4308 points. This score was among the top five in the previous competition.
As soon as the calculation here ended, two more boats returned. The staff who had just finished weighing and calculating for Maple Leaf Country rushed over again to await boarding.
While the dock was bustling with excitement, Li Haochen and his team were becoming a little anxious, as the end of the competition was fast approaching.
With the addition of this life-threatening marlin, their boat's waterline was even deeper. Although the boat was at its maximum speed, it was only about twenty-three to twenty-four knots.
Li Haochen, who was driving the boat, regretted catching the marlin. He should have given up earlier. Now they were in a passive situation, which made him feel somewhat self-reproachful.
"But it's no use blaming myself now. I should focus on driving the boat. As long as there are no accidents, it should be fine," Li Haochen consoled himself and concentrated on steering the boat.
Meanwhile, the dock was a scene of great excitement, with more and more boats returning. The happiest ones were naturally the "Little Sunny Day" team, as their current score was at the top of the leaderboard, and only a few boats had returned so far.
They were very confident in their 8756 points and believed the championship was theirs.