Chapter 15: The Irresistible Fish Bait: What Shark Meat Was Good For

“I’m trying it right now! I’m not counting on killing ten in a day like the Big Shot, but I’m finishing the kill quest today!”

“Come to me, black-iron chest!”

“Big Shot, when are you putting another iron sword up for sale? I feel like all I need to finish the kill quest is a weapon!”

Speaking of weapons, someone remembered the Pearl Bracelet Yu Tang had just listed and quietly sent him a private message.

“Big Shot, where did the pearl in that bracelet come from? Man-eating sharks don’t drop pearls, do they? Did you get it from a chest?”

Yu Tang: “No. I found it in the sea.”

“??? Big Shot, I’m asking seriously.”

Yu Tang: “So am I.”

“…Big Shot, that’s no fun. There are so many players. You can’t supply everyone on your own. I’m not trying to steal your business.”

Yu Tang rolled his eyes. “Believe what you want.”

What a sorry state the world’s in. These days, no one believes the truth.

Yu Tang couldn’t be bothered to argue. He closed the Game Panel, put the new iron ingot on the Weapon Forge, and started working it. Then he left the wooden house to continue his afternoon treasure hunt.

The raft had been drifting while he ate lunch and watched Regional Chat. By now, new resource patches must have formed on the seafloor.

Sea urchins, seaweed, pearls, iron ore…

Yu Tang thought about all the riches he’d stashed on the seafloor. He couldn’t wait to transform his legs into a fish tail, and he eagerly plunged into the water. He casually killed the man-eating shark that swam his way, then dove straight down.

Whether this was good luck or bad, the first patch he found that afternoon had more sea urchins than anything else. There were fewer materials.

Yu Tang didn’t mind in the slightest. Sea urchins were so delicious that he could never have too many. A hundred or two hundred wouldn’t be too much!

He gathered every enormous urchin in sight.

At one point, while he was resting after digging for a while, he opened Regional Chat and saw that Shen Jia had found a very interesting recipe.

[Irresistible Fish Bait: Delicious bait loved by all fish. Fish will bite 100% of the time when it’s used.]

The anglers who hadn’t caught a single fish in three days saw the words “100% bite” and went wild.

“Brother Shen—no, Big Brother Shen! Hurry and make this miracle bait! I’ll pay a high price for it! Name whatever materials you want, and I’ll find them! (screaming myself hoarse)”

“Exactly! Whether I get a proper meal today is in your hands!”

“I really can’t fish, Shen-gege. Save me QAQ!”

Shen Jia was proud of himself at first. Then he looked at the materials listed in the recipe and grew a little embarrassed.

“I’d love to make some, but, uh, the main ingredient is shark meat. Anyone have any?”

“…”

The players fell silent.

Well…

No. Nobody did.

At first, not every player knew how awful shark meat tasted. Yu Tang and Big Shot Su hadn’t bothered to tell anyone else.

But Jiang Xing, the third person to complete the kill quest, knew. He’d mentioned it in passing while telling everyone how to make Molotov cocktails.

So far, everyone who’d completed the kill quest had chosen ordinary fish meat as their drop. Food was precious. Nobody was going to choose shark meat just for the sake of being adventurous when their life was on the line.

And now they were being told that shark meat was actually useful. Things got awkward in a hurry.

“Actually, I’ve always wondered: Is shark meat really that bad? Has anyone tried it?”

“I haven’t, but sharks pee through their whole bodies. You can figure out what the meat tastes like.”

“…Thanks. Just imagining it makes me want to throw up.”

“Then what do we do now? I really need this bait!”

Shen Jia was at a loss, too.

It had been hard enough for him to finish the kill quest. Something had gone wrong during the fight, and he’d lost nearly half his Health. Now he was lying in his Simple Bed, waiting to recover.

There was no way he could kill another shark. He could only hope someone else had materials to spare.

“Is anyone doing the kill quest right now? Or maybe Yu Tang, Big Shot Su, or Sister Wen Yin can kill another shark. Could you choose shark meat for the drop just once? Please!”

“Yeah, yeah! Big Shots, please! I swear I’m not trying to guilt-trip you. We’ll trade you for other materials. You won’t lose out!”

Shen Jia added, “I can trade you the bait once I’ve made it!”

A moment later, Wen Yin appeared.

“I still have some energy, but the next man-eating shark won’t spawn for another half hour.”

Before Yu Tang or Big Shot Su could say anything, a player named He Chong spoke up. “I just killed one and chose shark meat. Message me to trade, @Shen Jia.”

Shen Jia and the other players were overjoyed.

“Thanks, man!”

“Shen Jia, hurry up and make that bait!”

“He-ge, could you put some shark meat on the Trading Market? I want to try it for myself and see if it’s really that awful.”

“By the way, does shark meat drop in the same amount as regular fish meat?”

He Chong had just finished the kill and was lying on his much-expanded raft, catching his breath. He casually replied, “Shark meat comes in a ten-jin drop.”

“!!! That’s twice as much as ordinary fish meat!”

“If shark meat isn’t really that bad, choosing it means you never have to worry about starving again!”

He Chong glanced at the shark meat he’d tossed onto the raft. It gave off a strange smell, and he hadn’t even wanted to put it in his Inventory. His expression turned odd.

Still, so many players wanted to try it that he listed twenty-five portions of about three-quarters of an ounce each on the Trading Market.

He’d expected most people to be all talk. Instead, every portion vanished the moment he listed it.

He Chong: “…”

He could already guess what would happen next.

Sure enough, it took less than half a minute for several players in Regional Chat to lose their minds.

“Aaaaaaah! Why was I so curious?! It really is disgusting! Yuck—”

“It’s awful! It’s so awful! How can anything taste worse than fermented herring?!”

“I can’t use this mouth anymore. It stinks! Gag! Give me back the mouth I had before I tried shark meat!”

“This isn’t meat. It tastes like congealed pee. Ugh—”

The other players who’d been curious but hadn’t had time to try it stared at the carnage, feeling relieved and a little frightened.

They were even more baffled now. How could something no dog would eat be a fish’s favorite food?

They didn’t get it. But, well…they’d respect it.

The players who’d been considering shark meat as a way to keep their food supply steady gave up on that stupid idea and started urging Shen Jia to hurry up and make the bait.

“Don’t rush me! It’ll be up in a minute!”

Shen Jia sent He Chong the materials he’d pay for the shark meat, then hurried to process it at the Tool Bench.

Soon, he’d made ten portions of Irresistible Fish Bait, then twenty, and then more and more.

Each portion weighed 10 grams, just like bait made from ordinary fish meat, but it took twice as many materials to make.

Aside from the pound or so he’d sold on the Trading Market to players who wanted to try it, He Chong traded the rest to Shen Jia.

The remaining shark meat made 225 portions of Irresistible Fish Bait.

Shen Jia sent He Chong 30 portions, kept 25 for himself, and listed all the rest on the Trading Market.

[Irresistible Fish Bait: Trade 30g shark meat or 2 planks. Limit 3 per person per day.]

Of the 170 portions, 100 could only be traded for shark meat. The remaining 70 could be traded for planks.

Almost as soon as Shen Jia set the terms, all 170 portions were snapped up. He received about six pounds of shark meat and 140 planks.

And it would take only half an hour to turn that shark meat into another 150 portions of bait.

It wasn’t even three in the afternoon yet.

If Shen Jia kept going until midnight, he could sell another 2,700 portions of bait and get 1,800 planks. Even after setting aside the 1,000 planks he needed for a wooden house, he could still expand his raft by 80 square meters!

Add in the planks he’d earned from the first two batches of bait, and he could expand his raft by well over 100 square meters in a single day!

As far as combat power went, Shen Jia still wasn’t anywhere near the top of the region. But now that he had the Irresistible Fish Bait recipe, there was no doubt his wealth would end up near the top.

Now that was what getting rich looked like!

And all because of one good recipe.

—

The players who’d bought the bait couldn’t wait to replace their ordinary fish bait and cast their lines again. They were already imagining all the delicious things they’d make with their catch.

But when they tried it for real, they found a catch.

The fish were supposed to bite every time. So why were they still getting away?!

A few players complained to Shen Jia as if they’d bought a defective product.

Shen Jia argued back, “Getting a bite and reeling in a fish are two different things. The bait description never said it guaranteed a catch.”

Players: “…” It sounded like a lame excuse, but when they thought about it, he did have a point.

Shen Jia didn’t feel the slightest bit guilty. “That’s why I set the limit at three. You get three tries. Unless you’re really unlucky, you’re bound to catch something.”

The players who’d gotten three bites and lost three fish while lurking in the chat: “…Sure.”

Even though the fish could still get away, the bait greatly increased their chances of catching one. Plenty of players were still grateful to Shen Jia.

And because demand for shark meat had gone up, some of the stronger players began choosing shark meat as their drop every so often to keep bait ingredients in supply. Before long, the whole thing had become a nice little cycle.

—

The afternoon passed quickly, with Yu Tang diving for supplies, keeping an eye on Regional Chat, and listing newly forged iron swords.

A little after five, all ten of the day’s man-eating sharks had been taken care of.

Over the course of the afternoon, Yu Tang found ten more wooden chests. Added to the twelve from that morning, his total came to twenty-two—about as much as four days’ worth of supply drops.

The chests didn’t disappoint. Along with several kinds of basic materials, they held plenty of food, water, and household goods.

One pack of sliced toast (10 slices), one 500-gram brown-sugar sponge cake, one chicken wrap, one roujiamo, one five-pack of pork-bone ramen, one ten-pack of smooth chocolate, five 500-milliliter bottles of mineral water, one 200-gram strawberry yogurt with fruit, one 500-milliliter peach soda, and 100 grams of chili powder;

one white plastic washbasin, one five-pack of hydrating face masks, one bath towel, and two throw pillows;

four blueprints: two Campfire Blueprints, a wooden shovel, and a stone pickaxe.

Breaking down the twenty-two chests also gave him 88 planks and 44 nails.

Yu Tang couldn’t stop grinning at how much his food supply had grown.

He had no idea where the chests came from. Maybe the System had planted them as a little surprise. Or maybe they were ones the players had missed in the supply drops and that had sunk to the bottom.

Either way, they were his now.

Yu Tang unwrapped a piece of chocolate and popped it into his mouth. He sorted the rest of the supplies into his storage cabinets.

He put the duplicate Campfire Blueprints up for trade and copied the wooden shovel and stone pickaxe blueprints at the Tool Bench. They’d come in handy on the seafloor.

Once he’d sorted through the basic supplies, he moved on to the main event.

Opening the black-iron chests!

Yu Tang had saved every black-iron chest that day. Opening ten of them at once felt incredible.

Even better, there were lots of new supplies!

One 500-gram bag of frozen mini milk buns, one 500-gram bag of dried beef, one 500-gram pack of breakfast biscuits, 300 grams of white sugar, two 500-gram packs of dried noodles, two kilograms of rice, 500 grams of soybeans, one 300-milliliter bottle of erguotou, one liter of cooking oil, one 500-milliliter bottle of white wine, and six 500-milliliter bottles of mineral water.

Free Attribute Points x5, Constitution Points x2, Attack Points x3, Defense Points x3, Planks x20, Clay x4, Glass x6, Cotton x4, Angelica Root x4, White Peony Root x8, Iron Ore x8, Copper Ore x6, one pack of 100 wet wipes, and one packet of scallion seeds (50 seeds).

A Bathtub Blueprint, a Basic Crop Plot Blueprint, a Small Storage Cabinet Blueprint, a Weapon Forging Bench Blueprint, a Level 1 Wooden House Blueprint, a common-grade Fishbone Crossbow Blueprint, a common-grade Iron Spear Blueprint, a common-grade Fish-Skin Top Blueprint, and a Low-Grade Healing Pill Recipe.

The biggest surprises among the food were the rice and soybeans. One was a staple food, and the other could be sprouted to make fresh vegetables. They’d add some much-needed variety to his meals.

The white wine was good, too. It would pair perfectly with sea urchins and other seafood.

But the biggest surprise, and the most valuable find of all, was the new set of blueprints.

An iron spear, a fishbone crossbow, a fish-skin top, a healing pill recipe, and—most of all—a Basic Crop Plot!