I Can Fish Up Everything!

Chapter 338: Chapter 225: Beachcombing Map 2.0

I had to admit, the kidneys, sprinkled with a bit of cumin and grilled until they were crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, were actually delicious. Yi Chen had prepped them, so they only had a hint of that gamey taste, which Gu Nan could tolerate.

As for the testicles... forget it. He hadn’t reached the point where he’d eat those.

That evening, the group gathered around the grill, feasting on a whole roasted lamb. The lamb from the Western Border was indeed much tastier than the local variety.

Yangjiang Port wasn’t known for its lamb, so it was no surprise it couldn’t compare.

After dinner and cleanup, the older folks chatted in the small villa, while the younger ones ran off to the beach to play, riding jet skis.

Gu Nan, with Yi Chen riding behind him, even pulled off several sharp drifts on the water, which made him want to buy a jet ski to keep on his own big boat.

Then, when he got bored on long trips out to sea, he could zip around. Street racing was dangerous, but the ocean was wide open—he could go as fast as he wanted.

Gu Nan even wondered if he could rig up a bracket on the front of the jet ski to hold a fishing rod. Could he go trolling by himself then?

’But that’s probably dangerous. For the sake of my own life, it’s better not to mess with something like that.’

As the night deepened, everyone who had been playing on the beach returned to their rooms to rest.

Gu Nan and the other young people were in a separate villa. Watching An Jun and Ye Jing each take their girlfriends back to their rooms, he eagerly anticipated pulling his own girlfriend inside.

’Her period is over. Nothing can stop me tonight.’

But Yi Chen pulled her hand away, looking helpless but clearly holding back a laugh. "Grandma told me to sleep over in her villa tonight," she said.

Gu Nan: "Abababa..."

If it had been anyone else, he wouldn’t have cared. But this was Zhao Chunlan, and he was too embarrassed to be overly forward with her granddaughter right in front of her.

This was also why Gu Nan never stayed the night at Yi Chen’s family home. After all, they weren’t truly married, not even engaged yet.

Yi Chen stepped forward apologetically and gave him a quick kiss. "Next time, okay? Your parents are here, and so is my grandma. It wouldn’t be right for me to stay here."

There was nothing Gu Nan could do; he knew she was right. He hugged her gently, but put on a fierce expression and said, "Then you’d better make it up to me in a few days!"

"I know, I know. I’ll do whatever you want then." Yi Chen immediately thought of the huge pile of "disposable items" someone had bought. With a look that was part shy, part pouty, she playfully slapped his chest, blew him a kiss, and returned to the other villa.

Gu Nan watched her go inside, then returned to his own room.

He showered and lay down on the bed. It was only a little past ten. What young person could fall asleep at this hour? Don’t they all stay up until two in the morning?

He’d been so busy fishing lately that he hadn’t played any games. He picked up his phone to play for a bit but found he had no interest.

Resigned, Gu Nan entered the game bound to him. He remembered he still hadn’t used this week’s beachcombing sessions.

Just as he was about to enter the beachcombing map, he noticed the other map nearby—the one opened with Gold Coins. Its progress was already at 43%, and it would close once it reached 50%.

Ever since this map had been activated, Gu Nan hadn’t triggered any other maps. He suspected he could only have one open at a time.

Since he had time tonight, he decided to enter this map and max out the progress bar. Maybe then he could trigger a new map somewhere else.

Entering the map, Gu Nan didn’t go diving like he usually did. Instead, he started gathering razor clams on the beach. For now, the razor clams from this map sold the best.

After just over an hour, the beachcombing map’s progress hit 50%, and he was automatically ejected from it.

It had only been an hour, so back in the real world, Gu Nan didn’t feel very sleepy.

In fact, he felt quite energetic. Just as he was about to use up this week’s regular beachcombing sessions, the game’s metallic voice, which he hadn’t heard in a while, rang out.

[Ding! The beachcombing map has closed. Host’s location detected. You can spend 5,000 Gold Coins to reopen the map or 10,000 Gold Coins to upgrade the map’s resources. Do you wish to reopen the beachcombing map?]

Huh?

Gu Nan thought the beachcombing map would be gone for good once it closed. He didn’t expect it could be reopened.

The Gold Coin cost was a bit high, but he could afford the 10,000 right now.

The map didn’t have many amazing things, but the razor clams alone made it worth reopening for Gu Nan.

Plus, he could continue to dive and spearfish, honing his skills and making his real-world expeditions safer.

So, Gu Nan decisively spent 10,000 Gold Coins and chose to upgrade the beachcombing map.

[Ding! Host has chosen to upgrade the map’s resources and open it. Fengqi Island is now fully unlocked. When the resource progress drops to zero, the Fengqi Island beachcombing map will be permanently closed.]

"Fengqi Island?" Gu Nan hadn’t expected that upgrading the game map would reveal a beachcombing map related to the very first one.

’Interesting. My weekly beachcombing sessions can be saved for another five days, so I’ll just go into this upgraded Fengqi Island today.’

Upon entering Fengqi Island, Gu Nan opened his eyes and looked around, discovering the environment was completely different from before.

The previous environment had mainly simulated the real-life island he was currently on. But this version of Fengqi Island looked more like the island from the game’s first map screen.

This time, Gu Nan didn’t appear on a sandy beach but in an open reef area.

But this stretch of reef wasn’t jagged. Just two meters ahead lay crystal-clear water, through which he could see beautiful, colorful coral.

This was a rare "glass sea." The scenery might not be any worse than what you’d find in Xisha.

Too bad Gu Nan had never been to Xisha, or he could have made a comparison.

His vantage point wasn’t high enough to see what was in the water farther out.

But he knew one thing for sure: just based on this environment, Fengqi Island was an absolute paradise for beachcombing, spearfishing, and angling.

However, it was still a beachcombing map, so Gu Nan couldn’t use his own fishing rod. And just like before, the in-game tool rental shop didn’t offer fishing rods.

Since it was his first time on Fengqi Island, he didn’t plan on getting into the water right away. He wanted to check the shore first to see if there was anything good.

In particular, there was a patch of sand on the outer edge of the reef area to his left. Maybe there were razor clams there, too.

Gu Nan turned and had just taken a single step when he saw a pile of horse-dung sea urchins in a hollow before him. His mouth twitched. With a thought, a bucket and a pair of beachcombing tongs appeared in his hands.

A single hollow yielded half a bucket of horse-dung sea urchins. The resources here were truly insane. As expected of a one-time-use map that would disappear after being depleted.

One bucket, two buckets, three buckets... In just a short while, Gu Nan had gathered a huge amount of sea urchins.

Unfortunately, the sea urchins were only in that one small patch. He searched for a while longer but found no more.

It wasn’t hot on Fengqi Island, which made beachcombing very comfortable.

Gu Nan straightened up and stretched his back, when his expression suddenly froze. When the last wave receded, had he just seen a dense carpet of oysters?

Ordinary oysters weren’t as expensive as sea urchins, and farmed ones were often bigger and meatier than wild ones.

It’s not always true that wild seafood is better; in fact, for a small number of species, the farmed version is superior.

With good aquaculture techniques and high investment costs, farmed seafood can indeed surpass its wild counterpart.

Take bluefin tuna, for example. There are rumors now that farmed ones are even fattier than wild ones, with fat content reaching top-tier levels.

But in some cases, high-investment aquaculture can actually make the product more expensive than its wild version. In any case, it has nothing to do with ordinary people.

But since he had already spotted the oysters, Gu Nan decided to go over and take a look.

After all, these were oysters from Fengqi Island. Perhaps their price would be very nice.

When he reached the water’s edge, the sight of densely packed oysters made his scalp tingle. He finally had a clear understanding of what the game meant by "upgraded resources."

If he brought all these oysters back to his aquarium to sell slowly, he could make a massive profit even if the price was just average.

’But these oysters are a little small.’ Gu Nan crouched down to get a closer look and saw that even the largest ones were only about ten centimeters long.

He didn’t recognize the species, so he used the appraisal function.

[South African Oyster. Native to the pristine waters of South Africa. The clear water results in high-quality oysters. Flavor rating: six stars. Market price: up to sixteen yuan each. Recycle price: five Gold Coins.]

Sixteen yuan each wasn’t cheap, but it wasn’t excessively high either. If they were delicious, it was a pretty good price.

The only problem was that prying oysters off rocks was troublesome, and the collection speed wouldn’t be fast.

After some thought, he decided to gather a batch anyway. He could enter Fengqi Island whenever he wanted, after all.

Everything he’d found so far was good stuff. It would be nice to bring some back just to taste them.

The next moment, he stored the beachcombing tongs in his inventory space and an oyster knife appeared in his hand.

This was a specialized tool for harvesting oysters; the collection speed wouldn’t be too slow.

Gu Nan waded directly into the water and began harvesting the South African Oysters.

The seawater submerged his calves. It was slightly cool but very comfortable.

Gu Nan held the oyster knife, hooked an oyster on the reef, and with a light flick, it popped off into his other hand.

Just from that one motion, his eyes lit up. Prying these oysters off was incredibly easy—much easier than any he’d harvested before.

Gu Nan quickly began harvesting. It was practically one oyster per flick. The reef was carpeted with them, allowing him to work at an incredible speed. He could get forty to fifty a minute, most of them around ten centimeters in size.

Even at a rate of forty a minute, that was 640 yuan. In an hour, that was nearly 40,000 yuan. The efficiency was superb.

As for the oysters themselves, they were absurdly abundant. Gu Nan figured it would take him at least a few days to clear out just the area he could see.

Soon, the bucket hanging from his arm was full. With a thought, Gu Nan transferred its entire contents to the aquarium.

The batch of oysters immediately appeared in a corner of the aquarium. After a short while, the oysters began to open and close slightly, spitting out some impurities.

This way, when they were shipped out, the oysters would be even purer and more delicious.

After harvesting for half an hour, Gu Nan grew curious about how these oysters tasted.

So he used his oyster knife to shuck one open, revealing the plump meat inside.

It was surprisingly large. Was this what they called being compact but powerful?

Unlike some palm-sized oysters where the shell looks huge but the meat inside is disappointingly small and not very plump.

This South African Oyster was a creamy white, its adductor muscle slightly translucent.

Gu Nan couldn’t wait and popped it directly into his mouth. He took a bite and found it was quite crisp.

This was followed by a distinct taste of saltwater—the taste of the ocean. Oysters like this usually needed to be rinsed in ice water to be at their most delicious.

Fortunately, once the saltiness passed, it became increasingly fresh and sweet, with a unique, creamy aftertaste.