“Heh heh heh...”
Ten minutes had passed since my encounter with that monstrous fish. I sold all the scales, bones, and meat in my possession, and bought a new Worn-Out Rod before returning to the beach. Incidentally, I even bought some bait this time. This put my life’s savings at a pitiful sixty-five Serin.
But regardless, I was going to eat that fish no matter what. I was the sort of person who would hold a grudge. I’d often find myself getting heated over multiplayer versus games with Tsumugi—albeit, my win ratio wasn’t as high as I wanted it to be.
That girl’s just really good at competitive games, I reminded myself, if it was any consolation. After all, she was strong enough to win the right to play this game through a gaming tournament. Her specialty was FPS games, where she was so adept you’d think she was the war god’s gift to the world.
I know I’m not one to speak, but a girl who laughs fearlessly at the ocean is a bit off-putting... But whatever. I’m going after that fish... The Lord (my temporary name for it) will be mine. That would be my reason for existing in this world. A shoddy reason, perhaps, but there was no way I’d stay still after what I’d been through.
“All right, let’s attach the bait...”
I fastened bait to the hook that I’d previously left empty—paste, not a worm, by the way. Perhaps this was because it was the cheapest bait I could buy. I swore I’d buy something better once I had money, but I had to put up with it for now. The shop also sold lures, but I had to forgo those as well. I cast my line onto the surface of the water and concentrated hard on the tip of the pole.
Like hell I’m going to blankly stare at the clouds! I don’t have time for that!
“Here it comes!”
Herring Acquired
Presumably due to the bait, the fish were taking to the hook a lot better than before. I guess there aren’t too many stupid fish who’ll get caught without any bait.
I had thirty bits of bait in stock, so once I’d fished up thirty fish, I’d have to go to the tool shop again.
But the next time there was a tug at the rod, I felt a different sensation than I had before. Is this some mechanic I’m not aware of? I wondered. I might be imagining it, but let’s concentrate and pull it up. It’ll be a huge find if this affects the quality of the fish I can catch.
A mechanic regarding item quality had to exist, even if it wasn’t displayed anywhere. When I sold my drops at the shop, each individual one had a different price. They were all small fries, so none of them went for too much, but the smaller ones ranged from one to three Serin, while the relatively larger ones went from ten to thirty Serin. It was quite a discrepancy.
I’m definitely getting Fishing Mastery the instant I reach Energy Production III.
“Here we go...”
Instead of pulling the rod up straightaway, I decide to watch and wait a bit.
Yes, there’s definitely something different. The tug is alternating. Sometimes it’s stronger, sometimes it’s weaker. It was like feeling an aura, an indescribable ebb and flow I struggled to put into words conveyed through the rod, and through my arms. The period when the tug was strong would last a little longer than when it was weak.
“Now!”
Sardine Acquired
Sure, it was only a sardine, but it was the biggest sardine I’d ever caught. I could vaguely tell that it was a bit livelier too—there had to be some sort of variable determined by the fishing process.
Game mechanics like these really get me going.
“Oh?”
The next bite wasn’t comparable to The Lord (temp), but it wasn’t as weak as the one’s before it. The tug was strong enough to actually bend the rod this time.
No, well, this might just be because the rod is too worn-out.
I knew it would be a waste to let it get away. Again, I concentrated on the strength of the tug as I pulled up.
Killer Fish Acquired
Err... What? All of a sudden, my catch reeked of RPG monster. It had been nothing but herrings and sardines—fish that actually existed—but it seemed that wasn’t everything. Furthermore, Mr. Killer Fish was thrashing and gnashing with sharp fangs as I tucked him into my inventory. That’s clearly a monster. No two ways about it.
Had I actually been out in a hunting ground, I got the feeling I’d encounter him as a normal monster. In any case, I was getting the hang of it now. Let’s keep this up and catch a boatload of fish.
In the end, I used up thirty bait to catch twenty-six fish. Four of them got away while I was trying to measure out the right moment to pull. The species probably determined the time it took for a fish to get away.
My haul consisted of fourteen herrings, six sardines, three horse mackerel, one killer fish, and two bone fish. The last two were clearly monsters. I mean, the bone fish was not a bonefish, but was literally made of nothing but bone; I was a bit creeped out when I first fished one up. It was a bit unsettling to know that these bone organisms lived in the sea.
“All right, then, I’ll dismantle everything besides one herring.”
There was something I wanted to test out—whether I’d get more Serin if I sold a fish whole or if it was dismantled. Even if selling them whole got me more money, I still had to work toward getting the dismantling skill. But having more money was never a bad thing.
I carefully turned my Beginner’s Dismantling Knife on my spoils of war.
†
“I’m hungry.”
From there, it was an endless loop of fish→dismantle→sell→buy bait→repeat. That took up a few hours of my time. Getting straight to the conclusion, I generally made more money if I dismantled the fish first. I also managed to buy the next level of bait: earthworms.
More importantly, the number of fish I reeled in surpassed a hundred, so I’d fulfilled the conditions to upgrade Fishing Mastery I to Fishing Mastery II. That is, if I actually had Fishing Mastery I. That would have to wait until I upgraded my Energy Production.
But as I found myself immersed in fishing, I suddenly felt an emptiness in my belly. This was supposed to be a complete second life, after all, and thus hunger existed. If I had to describe it in real terms, it was like the sensation of being struck by sudden hunger pangs at 2 a.m.
“I should get something to eat.”
Luckily, I had some money to spare. I didn’t know how much the restaurants were charging, but it was unlikely they would demand too much Serin in the first town.
I returned the fishing rod to my inventory and started off from the beach I’d set up as my base of operations. There were a few fish I still had to dismantle, but that could wait. For now, I needed food.
“Oh.”
Down the road, I could see the same square where we—the players—had first spawned in. The crowd had died down significantly by now, and there were only around ten to twenty people left. Among them were a Human and a Jewel who seemed to be negotiating over items.
How can you run a business when it hasn’t been a day since the game began? I wondered. I approached, casually as I could, to eavesdrop on their conversation.
“I’ll give you five copper for three hundred seventy-five Serin.”
“Thanks. You’re a huge help—it’s way too expensive at the shop.”
They were both wearing their initial equipment, so it was hard to judge, but the one selling seemed to be a merchant, and the one buying, a blacksmith. That was the vibe I was getting.
“Ah, excuse me, ma’am.”
I tried to pass by just as they finished up their negotiations, but at that moment, the merchant took a step toward me.
What’s this about? I wondered, turning around. There was no “ma’am” to be found.
“No, I mean you.”
“Wait, you’re talking to me?”
“Yeah, yeah. You. You’ve got a boyish way of talking.”
Oh, now that you mention it, I’m a girl.
The voice that had felt so incredibly wrong at first had quite quickly become normal to me, so I’d completely forgotten about it.
“Well, one thing led to another, and I ended up using a female character.”
“I see. So you’re an open nekama, huh? More power to you.”
Nekama... This was a term referring to real-world men who used female avatars in game. And open...in short, I wasn’t hiding it. There were plenty of people who just liked looking at female characters more than they liked looking at male characters, so there wasn’t really any deeper meaning to it.
On that note, the merchant who called out to me was playing a handsome man whose looks were on the cool side of the spectrum. He was taller than me. Had I been in my real body, I would have been able to estimate a rough number, but that was off the table—I didn’t actually know how tall my game self was. Regardless, I had to look up to see him; the first thing that caught my eye was his hair. It was colored a dull goldish color, one that I could see a real person actually having.