Chapter 312: Chapter 207: A Swarm of Large Cuttlefish

These fish weren’t worth much either, so Gu Nan had no intention of shooting many of them.

His main goal was still in the coral reef area, searching for valuable coral fish and groupers.

He hadn’t seen any groupers yet, but he did spot three large cuttlefish moving in a triangular formation.

These cuttlefish weren’t small; each one probably weighed over ten pounds.

Judging from the patterns on their bodies, they were likely tiger-striped cuttlefish.

Gu Nan was reasonably interested in cuttlefish. The frozen ones sold online, about two or three pounds each, went for around thirty yuan.

While these ten-plus-pound ones wouldn’t be astronomically more expensive, he could ship them chilled and fresh. Selling them in his shop for fifty or sixty yuan a pound would be no problem.

These three cuttlefish were huge. Each one would fetch at least six or seven hundred yuan, making them worth the effort.

Gu Nan loaded his speargun. Just as he was about to take a shot at one of the cuttlefish, he caught some movement out of the corner of his eye.

He turned his head and saw more cuttlefish, and not just one.

Gu Nan grew curious. He slowly ascended to observe from above. He was shocked to see so many large cuttlefish had appeared in this vast expanse of coral reef.

The cuttlefish were all gathered in groups of two or three, and there were a great many of them.

None of them were small, either. He estimated even the smaller ones weighed five or six pounds.

’Sweet! Even though cuttlefish aren’t that expensive, my haul from this foraging trip definitely won’t be bad.’

He took the opportunity to surface for a breath, then quickly dove back down, aiming for the largest ones first.

He locked onto a target, aimed his speargun, and with a BANG, the sound of the rubber bands snapping echoed through the water. The spear instantly pierced the large cuttlefish.

The attacked cuttlefish immediately spewed ink from its belly and tried to flee, jetting away like a puff of car exhaust.

Its body, originally a deep brown similar to the color of the reef, changed rapidly the moment it shot off. In the blink of an eye, it turned orange.

Of course, that was its color underwater; it would probably look different once it reached the surface.

Gu Nan wasn’t concerned about that. He quickly grabbed the line and started pulling it back. After a couple of tugs, he found the cuttlefish’s struggles were quite weak. Reeling it in was far, far easier than reeling in a fish of the same weight.

Moreover, after jetting away for a short while, the cuttlefish lost most of its pull. Hunting these was clearly much simpler than hunting fish.

As usual, once Gu Nan hit his prey, he began swimming toward the surface, reeling in the line as he went.

Fortunately, the depth here was only about twelve or thirteen meters, so getting back to the surface was easy and didn’t consume much energy.

He put the cuttlefish into his mesh bag. It looked like the live fish stringer wouldn’t be needed for now.

Back in the water, Gu Nan continued searching for large targets. There were simply too many cuttlefish here. Even if he only targeted those over ten pounds, he probably wouldn’t be able to get them all before his three hours were up.

BANG! He hit another one.

The cuttlefish barely moved, making it feel like shooting at a fixed target.

This one, perhaps because it was hit in a vital spot, just squirted out a cloud of ink and then stopped moving entirely. Gu Nan easily reeled it in and placed it in his mesh bag.

The cuttlefish were so large, however, that his mesh bag was nearly full with just two of them inside.

Gu Nan didn’t mind. He could transfer them to his Chilled Storage at any time.

For the next hour, the BANGS underwater were nonstop.

Another benefit of the game map became apparent: he didn’t feel the fatigue of diving.

By now, Gu Nan had pretty much wiped out the especially large cuttlefish. The ones left were all a size smaller.

He counted the large cuttlefish in his Chilled Storage. In just an hour and a half, he had already shot eighty-three of them.

No wonder it was now so hard to find another one of a similar size, when just a moment ago there had seemed to be so many.

Eighty-three large cuttlefish probably weighed around a thousand pounds. At fifty or sixty yuan per pound, that was fifty or sixty thousand yuan.

After calculating the potential value, Gu Nan was instantly satisfied.

Although there were still plenty of cuttlefish left, he decided to change locations and have a look around.

The countdown showed one hour and thirteen minutes remaining. If he found something else good, he could harvest another wave.

The main reason was that Gu Nan had reached the end of this coral reef, which connected to a rocky area. In that rocky area, he immediately spotted several groupers, which was why he was changing targets.

If there were a lot of groupers and parrotfish, the final value of his harvest would be even higher than that of the cuttlefish.

And just like that, Gu Nan moved forward slowly and came to a rock the size of a grown man. He discovered two fish hiding in a crevice.

One was a blue ornamental fish, not worth much. The other was a green parrotfish, also known as a green wrasse, which could sell for 120 or 130 yuan a pound.

Seeing Gu Nan approach, the fish grew a little anxious and tried to shrink deeper into the crevice. But the gap was only so big, and the fish itself weighed four or five pounds, so it couldn’t squeeze in any further.

Gu Nan raised his speargun, aimed at its face, and sent it straight to the afterlife. ’Hopefully, it won’t be so valuable in its next life.’

The speargun made a loud noise, and the blue ornamental fish on the other side shot off in a flash and vanished.

The speared parrotfish thrashed its head and tail, creating a series of THWACKING sounds underwater as its body hit the rocks.

Gu Nan waited a moment for its struggles to weaken before grabbing the spear and pulling out the fish along with it.

’Have to say, spearfishing in these holes and crevices is much easier than out in the open.’

He bled the fish, hung it on his live fish stringer, and then continued his search for the next one.

’I thought the live fish stringer wouldn’t be needed anymore. I guess I really do change my mind on a whim.’

He returned to the surface for a breath and moved to a slightly different spot when he dove back down. His luck was good; as soon as he reached the bottom, he spotted a fiery-red grouper in a rock crevice—a highfin grouper.

Unfortunately, the fish wasn’t big, not even two pounds. ’This one’s a good size for me to have Steamed.’

Ever since he got the game, Gu Nan had no shortage of delicacies from the sea.

’Too bad treasures from the mountains are hard to find. I remember one time the foraging map sent me to the foot of a mountain. Maybe I could try running up the mountain?’

As this thought crossed his mind, Gu Nan had another idea. ’Wait, isn’t my other foraging map a large sea island?’

In reality, that island used to have plenty of rabbits and pheasants on its mountain. There weren’t any wild boars or the like, so it was pretty safe.

’I just don’t know if land animals will appear on the game map. I’ve seen seabirds, anyway.’

Shaking his head, Gu Nan pushed these thoughts aside for now. If he had the chance, he could check it out tonight. For now, he had to continue spearfishing.

An hour passed in the blink of an eye. He used up every last second before being kicked out of the foraging map.

His harvest over that hour was also excellent. Not only did he shoot about fifty valuable fish, but he also found a scallop bed and collected a good hundred of them.

Each one was as big as his palm and would sell for a good price.

The total earnings from this foraging trip should be around 100,000 yuan. Gu Nan immediately arranged for the cuttlefish and scallops to be shipped.

But he didn’t ship everything. He would send a portion first and see how they sold.

The scallops were fine; he shipped all hundred-or-so of them, which weighed about seventy or eighty pounds. The cuttlefish, however, weighed nearly a thousand pounds. Only the new shop’s walk-in freezer could hold that many.

But that freezer also had to store other seafood; he couldn’t just fill it with cuttlefish.

After arranging the shipment—which would be slow, arriving in the evening, since it was chilled—Gu Nan closed his eyes and took a nap, feeling at ease.

He only slept for three hours, but woke up with his Spirit full and his body free of fatigue.

It was just noon. Gu Nan didn’t plan on fishing again tonight, so he started up his fishing boat and headed back.

He had only caught a few higher-priced local fish last night. After returning to shore, he delivered all the fish to the old shop.

Just as he arrived at the shop, Gu Nan saw a figure who was both strange and familiar, cleaning fish at the entrance.

"Sister Xin?"

Gu Xin, Gu Nan’s eldest paternal cousin. She was already forty years old this year. The large age gap, coupled with the fact that she had married and moved to another city, meant the two of them weren’t very close.

They didn’t even necessarily see each other every New Year. The last time they met, he was still a sophomore in college. He never expected to run into her today, much less see her cleaning fish at his own shop.

"Ah Nan? Long time no see. You’ve grown into a handsome man." Gu Xin had naturally noticed someone approaching. She looked up and realized it was her younger cousin, so she greeted him with a smile while continuing her work.

When she looked up, Gu Nan noticed that his cousin, who was only forty, seemed somewhat worn and aged—to a certain extent, she even looked a few years older than his own mother.

It wasn’t about her facial features, but the feeling given off by her spirit and energy.

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