Amy hurried to the beach hut with her money and finally bought the fishing rod she had long desired.
Nancy looked at her, holding the rod reverently, and asked, “You’ve been working so hard to save money all this time just for this?”
“Exactly.” Amy nodded repeatedly.
The fiberglass rod in her hands was being touched over and over again, her expression showing she couldn’t bear to part with it.
Nancy then asked, “But do you know how to fish?”
That indeed stumped Amy.
In her previous life, she had always lived in inland cities. Not to mention fishing, she had rarely even seen rivers or the ocean. She had no friends or elders who knew how to fish. All her fishing experience came from games—casting the line, waiting for fish to bite, reeling in. That was it.
Could that really be considered knowing how to fish?
Clearly not.
So Amy said the one thing you should never say in an interview: “No, but I can learn.”
Fortunately, Nancy was a merciful interviewer. She kindly accepted Amy’s words. “Alright, I can teach you.”
Amy was overjoyed. “Really? Thank you!”
The interviewer Nancy continued, “Tell me, what’s the first thing to do when fishing?”
Amy tried cautiously, “Uh… cast the line?”
“No,” Nancy gave her a helpless look. “The first step is to put bait on the hook.”
Amy laughed awkwardly. “Right, how could I forget that?”
The games she used to play didn’t require bait when fishing—just cast the line directly.
Time in Hot Spring Town really was close to real life.
Nancy pulled out a small bag of sticky, dark-brown stuff from the bottom of the cabinet, handed it over, and let Amy hold it.
The bag of unidentifiable substance looked like some kind of dark matter that only appeared in sci-fi films. Amy felt a bit disgusted, but since Nancy gave it to her, she obediently accepted it.
She held up the bag and frowned. “What is this?”
Ether particles, dark clusters, microwave radiation… none of these, of course.
“This is bait—earthworms, just dug up from the soil not long ago,” Nancy said.
As soon as she spoke, a dark red worm wriggled out of the soil, full of vitality, making this clump of “dark matter” look a little less dark.
But Amy still felt a bit disgusted and asked, “Isn’t there a more decent kind of bait?”
“There is—shrimp bait. It has a higher bite rate, and sometimes you can even catch big fish with it. But it’s more expensive,” Nancy explained. “By comparison, earthworms are the cheapest and most practical bait with the best value for money.”
Hearing it was more expensive, Amy immediately gave up the idea of decent bait.
Decency was not as important as money, especially since after spending a fortune (a real fortune this time) on the fiberglass rod, Amy was completely penniless.
In the end, she chose the more cost-effective earthworm bait.
After all, she had caught butterflies before, and the feel of butterflies wasn’t too different from earthworms. Amy comforted herself this way.
Driven by her lack of money, she quickly accepted the fact that earthworms would be her fishing partners in the future.
The little pink creatures were actually kind of cute… maybe.
The two of them went to the seaside together.
Facing the sea, Amy sighed. “I really wish we were here on vacation.”
Nancy only curved her lips slightly and didn’t respond. She reached into the bag, grabbed a worm, and skillfully threaded it onto the hook. “This is the first step of fishing. You try.”
To help Amy keep up, Nancy didn’t use her usual carbon-fiber rod but deliberately switched to the same kind of fiberglass rod as Amy.
“Nothing to be afraid of, the worm won’t eat you.”
Amy nodded, took a deep breath, and copied Nancy’s actions. She quickly took a worm from the bag and threaded it onto the hook.
The bait was successfully in place.
“Good,” Nancy praised from the side. “Much faster than I thought you’d manage.”
Amy smiled at her. “That’s because I have such a good teacher that I can progress so quickly.”
Nancy ignored the flattery and pointed toward the sea not far away. “See those splashes?”
Following her finger, Amy stretched her neck.
Not far away, a few faint clusters of ripples appeared on the surface—indeed, there were splashes.
“Are those fish?”
“Splashes mean fish are swimming nearby. We usually cast in those spots.” Nancy spoke as she cast her rod out.
Splashes meant fish were passing by… Amy thought about this line. Maybe it was just a game setting? She had never seen such splashes in real life.
While thinking about the differences between reality and games, she cast her first line.
The float landed right in the center of the splashes.
Nancy commented, “Looks like you’ve already graduated.”
“Just luck, pure luck,” Amy stayed modest.
“Now what we do is wait,” Nancy said. “Wait for the fish to bite.”
Aside from the small psychological barrier of threading the worm, the fishing process had gone smoothly—of course, this was just a game. Real fishing wasn’t so simple.
After about seven or eight minutes, there was still no sign of fish biting. Amy grew bored and chatted with Nancy. “Do you always have to fish where there are splashes? What happens if you cast where there aren’t any?”
Nancy replied, “You can still catch fish, but it takes longer for them to bite.”
Amy gave a small “ah.”
She was already casting where the splashes were, and more than ten minutes had passed with no catch. And this was considered “faster”? Amy felt a little disappointed—after all, ten minutes was enough for her to chop down a small redwood tree.
So this was the limitation of having only level 1 fishing skill?
Two or three minutes later, there was movement on Nancy’s side.
A cod about thirty centimeters long was pulled up.
“Wow!” Amy exclaimed. “Nancy, you’re amazing!”
She couldn’t help but think, if Nancy were the main player of Time in Hot Spring Town, then her fishing skill must be maxed out.
Amy’s desire to level up grew even stronger.
Nancy tossed the cod into the fish box and said lightly, “Nothing amazing about it. You can do it too.”
Amy laughed twice but inwardly shook her head frantically: with her level 1 skill, there was no way she could.
“We’re in a shallow-water area right now. The fish here are common. Once you get good at fishing, you can take a boat out to the deep sea.”
Take a boat to the deep sea… that sounded like high difficulty.
Sure enough, Nancy added, “At that point, you’ll need a carbon-fiber rod.”
The legendary rod worth 4,000 gold.
Amy admitted honestly, “That might take a long time.”
Before long, Nancy had a second catch.
This time it was smaller, but it was a beautiful pollock.
Amy’s eyes were practically glowing with envy.
Nancy, however, wasn’t satisfied. She muttered softly, “Why always cod?” and casually tossed the pollock into the box behind her.
Human joys and sorrows truly aren’t the same. Some are dissatisfied because both catches were cod, while others haven’t even caught a single small fish.
Amy stared at the float bobbing on the sea, silently praying: “Bite, please bite. Even a little fish is fine.”
Perhaps God heard her prayer. The next moment, Amy felt a faint tug from the depths of the water. She instinctively gave a strong pull—and a fish was hooked.
The game’s prompt appeared as expected:
【You have unlocked the Fish Encyclopedia entry: ‘Sardine’】
The sardine she caught was long and flat, its body covered with round scales. It was only the length of Amy’s palm. Compared to Nancy’s cod, it looked like a shrimp.
It really was a small fish.
Amy regretted a little—if she had known, she would’ve prayed for a big fish.
Still, it was her very first catch. Amy was delighted nonetheless. Sardines could be grilled, pan-fried, braised, or made into canned food—they were all delicious.
Before the fish even made it into the box, she had already thought of a dozen recipes.
The commotion drew Nancy’s attention. She glanced over. “Oh? You caught a sardine. Not bad. I can give you a good price for it.”
Amy was eager. “I’ll catch a few more nice fish later and let you give me some good prices.”
“That’ll depend on how you perform next.”
Perhaps this sardine opened the door to Amy’s fishing career. Over the next two hours, she caught five fish in total, unlocking three new encyclopedia entries: herring, bass, and anchovy.
Though it couldn’t compare to Nancy’s dozen or so catches, as a beginner, Amy was quite content.
The herrings, anchovies, plus her very first sardine, earned her a total of 235 gold.
The only bass was kept by Amy—for tonight’s dinner.