“Why no reaction?”
Li Haochen scooped up seawater from his spatial dimension and poured it into the ocean, but there was no change. Although the scene he imagined didn't appear, he wasn't discouraged. He smashed each seashell he'd brought out and tried them one by one. To his surprise, every type of seashell drove the fish wild.
Li Haochen didn't use his fishing net to catch the fish; instead, he fell into deep thought.
A few minutes later, to confirm his hypothesis, Li Haochen entered his spatial dimension again and picked up more seashells, including those he found on the deserted island that day.
The seashells from before still had a strong allure, but the last bag seemed to have lost its efficacy.
“Huh? Why is the effect so much worse this time?”
Li Haochen stroked his chin, pacing back and forth on the deck, racking his brain.
“Only creatures living in the spatial sea have this special effect, and those just brought in don't. It should take a certain amount of time. It seems I’ll need to spend some time sorting this out when I get back.”
This unexpected special function of his spatial sea made Li Haochen ecstatic. He tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep. He hadn't even been this excited when he found ambergris.
It made sense, though. Ambergris was a matter of great luck, almost a one-time thing, unreproducible. But the special nature of the creatures in his spatial sea allowed him to continuously attract fish, and with perfect accuracy. This incredibly powerful side skill was no less impressive than Captain Donkey’s crawfish, and perhaps even surpassed it.
After counting countless sheep, Li Haochen finally drifted off into a hazy sleep. He woke up at noon, roused by his growling stomach.
Waking up brought a smile to his face, like a magpie visiting. Li Haochen hummed a tune as he brushed his teeth, his mood as bright as sunshine.
Li Haochen wanted to start fishing immediately, but his stomach was protesting severely, and his body felt weak. He had to suppress his restless spirit and fill his belly first.
For lunch, he didn't cook rice. He made Zhu Jiang noodles, with lean meat, green vegetables, and an egg. He also pan-fried a few barracuda. The barracuda were particularly plump this season. Fried golden on both sides, their aroma was intoxicating. Each bite was filled with fish oil, making them incredibly delicious.
Barracuda were quite popular, but their price wasn't high, usually just over ten yuan, and at most around twenty yuan when expensive, and that was for retail. Two factors influenced their price.
The first was that barracuda reproduced and grew too quickly. An ordinary school contained at least tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, of fish. Large schools were even more astonishing; a fishing boat tens of meters long might not be able to hold them all.
The second was that the fish was considered "toxic" by some. This wasn't actual toxicity, but rather high protein and a warming nature.
After eating, Li Haochen went into his spatial dimension to get some mussels. Although there were plenty of mussels in the spatial sea, they couldn’t withstand daily consumption. “I need to make some mussel bait when I get back, otherwise, with daily consumption, they’ll be gone in less than half a year.”
He pried open more than ten mussels and began fishing. He still used two rods; fishing with too many would be exhausting.
Less than a minute after casting, the bells on both rods rang. There was a strong pull, and he caught a two-pound grouper and a three-pound sea bass.
He baited the hooks again and cast them out. He still got bites very quickly. This performance completely put Li Haochen’s mind at ease; the mysterious Sea God skill hadn’t disappeared.
An hour later, the rods remained silent for a full ten minutes, which made Li Haochen curious. “Why is there no reaction for so long this time? Could the mussel bait have expired, or is there no fish down there?”
Li Haochen didn't discard the mussels he’d caught. After some thought, he decided to lift anchor and move the boat to test his theory.
The boat moved forward about thirty meters. He cast his hook. Seeing no reaction after five or six minutes, he reeled in his hook and replaced it with fresh mussel bait, then cast again.
But the result disappointed Li Haochen. The newly replaced mussel bait still yielded no reaction, causing him to frown.
“How could this happen? It’s only been a little over an hour. Yesterday, I fished for several hours before there were no more bites. It shouldn't be an issue of the mussel bait having an expiration date.”
Li Haochen paced back and forth on the deck, constantly thinking. Suddenly, inspiration struck, and he shouted, “Right, the area and the fish.”
To confirm his guess, Li Haochen moved the Starship bit by bit. Finally, at sixty to seventy meters, he felt the joy brought by the mussel bait again.
“Hahaha, I guessed correctly, it really is like that.”
An hour later, there were no more bites. Li Haochen moved forward another seventy meters. As two sea bass weighing seven to eight pounds each were reeled in, he became very certain that the divine effect of the spatial creatures had a regional limitation, approximately seventy meters in diameter. Fish within this range couldn't escape the lure of the mussel bait. Beyond this area, even mussel bait with immortal pill effects was useless.
However, not every repositioning resulted in catching fish; you couldn't conjure fish in areas where there were none. In the entire afternoon, he moved ten times, and half of those areas were fishless. Furthermore, some areas had very few fish. In this regard, Captain Donkey's crawfish showed a greater advantage.
Six hours of labor were very tiring, but the harvest was abundant. Li Haochen caught at least forty to fifty fish that afternoon, all weighing over a pound, with the largest weighing at least fifteen to sixteen pounds. The entire live well was almost full.
With this divine skill, Li Haochen didn't want to return so soon. When the live well was full, there was still the ice storage, and if that wasn't enough, there was the spatial sea.
This unexpected discovery made Li Haochen consider pushing for a top-eight finish. The prize money was so generous, and he didn't want his bounty to go to others.
After a short rest, Li Haochen picked out all the species from the live well that were not yet present in his spatial sea and brought them into the spatial sea to strengthen its foundation.
Dinner was also on the deck. The evening temperature in late October was very comfortable. Feeling happy today, Li Haochen took out another bottle of Golden Valley. He didn't hold back this time; there wasn't much, so he wouldn't get drunk.
As Li Haochen enjoyed his fine wine and delicacies, a thirteen to fourteen-meter-long sea fishing boat stopped about a hundred meters away from the Starship.
This distance was very safe. Li Haochen merely glanced at it curiously. At such a distance, he couldn't see clearly without binoculars, so he paid it no mind and continued to enjoy his wine and food.
This boat was the "Fish Abundant"号, belonging to a team of amateur enthusiasts.
On board, several middle-aged men were grumbling with dissatisfaction. “Damn it, after a long fight, at the last moment, that tuna was definitely over three hundred pounds.”
“Never mind, let’s take a break and continue tonight. We’re only tens of thousands away from eighth place. We can’t let go of that five hundred thousand prize money.”