Chapter 55: A Five Hundred and Fifty-Eight-Pound Mekong Giant Catfish! 1,200x Multiplier! Reached the Title of Fishing Emperor!

Jiang Fan took out his two-meter-wide large landing net and hoisted the Mekong giant catfish up.

Mekong Giant Catfish: It's over, it's totally, completely over for me!

[Ding-ding-ding! Congratulations to the host for catching a 558-jin Mekong giant catfish! The system cash payout has triggered a 1,200x multiplier!]

[Mekong Giant Catfish: 558 jin, Market Price: 8 RMB per jin]

[Ding! Congratulations to the host for obtaining 558 × 8 × 1,200 = 5,356,800 RMB!]

[Ding! Congratulations to the host for obtaining 6,000 points of emotional value!]

Jackpot! 5.3568 million! That is almost the sum of all the money Jiang Fan made from every fish he had caught before!

Well, of course, that didn't include those one-plus million US dollars.

As expected, the bigger the fish, the more money it brings in!

Even though such a massive fish would definitely be worth much more than 8 RMB per jin on the market, the system's 1,200x multiplier made him earn more than selling it outright.

This made Jiang Fan feel a lot better about the slightly lower market price.

What excited him even more was that he had unlocked a new title!

[Ding! Congratulations to the host for reaching the 50,000 emotional value milestone and unlocking the "Fishing Emperor" title!]

[Ding! Congratulations to the host for beginning to unlock the "Fishing Aura"!]

[Ding! Congratulations to the host for unlocking two apprentice angler slots!]

[Apprentice Anglers (5/7), two slots remain unbound... Please bind more anglers quickly to help you make money, host!]

"Fishing Aura? What on earth is this?"

The suddenly unlocked "Fishing Aura" left Jiang Fan baffled, yet no matter how many times he tapped on it, the description refused to pop up.

"System, what is this Fishing Aura?"

[Since the host has not yet acquired Fishing Aura, no further explanation can be provided.]

"..."

Damn it! Then why did you unlock it in the first place?!

[Do not be anxious, host. Once you catch a behemoth weighing over a thousand jin in the future, you will acquire Fishing Aura. You will naturally understand the wonders of Fishing Aura by then!]

"I have to catch a behemoth over a thousand jin to fully activate it?"

Oh well, I suppose I'll just have to wait and see when the time comes.

[Host: Jiang Fan]

[Title: Fishing Emperor] (Chance of catching large fish +25%)

[Fishing Aura: 0!]

[Emotional Value: 41,600 (41,600 / 51,600)]

[Cash Amount: 11,156,800 RMB; $1,037,250 USD]

[Fishing Gear: Rebar Fishing Rod; Ordinary Hand Pole...]

[Boat: One Inflatable Kayak]

The Fishing Emperor title grants a 25% chance of catching large fish, which is 10% higher than the Fishing King title.

Don't underestimate that mere 10%; to put it simply, it's roughly double the probability of the Fishing King.

With that in mind, Jiang Fan tapped on the title descriptions to check out the other titles.

Angler (500), Effect: Chance of catching large fish +3%

...

Fishing King (25,000), Effect: Chance of catching large fish +15%

Fishing Emperor (50,000), Effect: Chance of catching large fish +25%

Fishing Grandmaster (100,000), Effect: Chance of catching large fish +40%

Fishing Venerable (250,000), Effect: Chance of catching large fish +60%

Fishing Saint (500,000), Effect: Chance of catching large fish +80%

Fishing Emperor... wait, Fishing Sovereign...

There were still quite a few titles further down, and the probability of catching large fish increased significantly once the Fishing Emperor title was reached!

At this rate, wouldn't every cast practically guarantee a giant fish biting the hook?

It's just that the emotional value required for titles beyond Fishing Emperor was exceptionally high, so for now, he could only dream about them.

Meanwhile, the tens of thousands of viewers in Blondie’s livestreaming room were staring at the five-hundred-plus-jin Mekong giant catfish, and the bullet comments completely exploded.

: Five hundred jin, oh five hundred jin, you couldn't finish eating it in three days and three nights!

: Truly a plump fish rivaling an elephant, except its nose is short. One bite for the whole village, and it's enough to feed everyone for half a year!

: The bravery of this young man is beyond description by outsiders!

: Extremely awesome!

: Bullish to the max!

: O-K to the max!

: This is already who-knows-what-number giant fish handsome Xia has hauled up. With this kind of fishing skill, if he starts a class, I'd be willing to kneel and listen!

: He's so handsome, this big sister is willing to lie down and listen.

: Sigh, maybe I've reached that age, but every time I see this handsome fisherman, it all suddenly makes sense to me.

: To the beauty above, this... "makes sense"... is it decent and proper?!

: Ah! I so want to have a Battle of Red Cliffs with him!

: ???

: So amazing, truly too amazing! I really hope to have such a handsome and charming husband who can shine on my face like the morning sun every day.

: Why don't you find one that's like both the sun and the moon? He can shine on you in the morning and keep shining all night long?

: Wait, I’d like to ask, is this a fisherman's livestreaming room?

These looks-obsessed fans were one more repressed than the last.

: I'm going to fight you bunch of naturally gifted players to the death!

...

Jiang Fan reaped another wave of male and female fans once again. Guided by Blondie’s livestream introduction, these fans all rushed over to follow Jiang Fan's Douyin account.

As of today, the follower count on Jiang Fan's Douyin account had already surpassed three hundred thousand.

Liu Zhoucheng and He Qiang paced back and forth, sizing up the Mekong giant catfish.

The former stroked his chin. "Kiddo, I'm thrilled that you caught a big fish, but not letting me reel it in makes me very unhappy!"

"I sentence you to parade this fish around the streets for three days as punishment!"

He Qiang chimed in, "Chairman Liu, you're not being fair here. This is a fish caught by Brother Fan. If anyone gets to parade it, shouldn't it be me?"

Liu Zhoucheng said, "I'll give you one chance to rephrase that!"

(*・ω・)✄╰ひ╯

He Qiang: ⊙﹏⊙∥

Just as Liu Zhoucheng and He Qiang were bickering over who gets to parade the fish, Zhou Hong, Blondie, and Ma Dongdong had already stepped forward to wrap their arms around the giant fish for a group photo.

"This giant catfish is huge! What kind of species is it anyway, and why would it appear in a place like the Water Curtain Cave?"

"Yeah, could this be a European wels catfish? I've heard European wels catfish get super huge!"

Liu Zhoucheng stroked his chin. "This should be a Mekong giant catfish... But they generally live in the Mekong River and various Southeast Asian countries. There are some in regions of our country bordering Southeast Asia, but Yuanshan Town isn't even close to there. How could such a massive Mekong giant catfish exist here?"

Zhou Hong said, "Maybe it was set free by some kind-hearted philanthropist again."

He Qiang, puffing on a cigarette, remarked, "That possibility can't be ruled out, but it won't stop us from running into ghosts on the way back tonight."

"By the way, Brother Fan, I'll put up 100,000 RMB, sell it to me! Ghost encounters are terrifying, and I was born with a constitution that suppresses yin—I'm not afraid of ghosts blocking the path. This fish is best suited for me!"

"I was born with a yin-suppressing constitution too, I'll bid 300,000!" Zhou Hong held up two fingers, determined to claim this big fish.

Liu Zhoucheng snapped, "You two are talking nonsense! This fish has got to go to me!"

"Ahem, kiddo, you're marrying my daughter without asking for a bride price; let this fish count as the bride price from earlier, how about that?"

"Huh? Wait, where's the kiddo? Where'd he run off to?"

Blondie pointed toward Jiang Fan, who was not far away. "Brother Fan went to take a call. He uses an Apple phone, bad signal."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Fan turned his head and cursed angrily, "I switched to a Huawei! I ran over here just so I didn't have to listen to you guys arguing!"

"Hehe, gotta admit, Huawei's signal really is better than Apple's!"

This couldn't help but remind Jiang Fan of a question a manager had asked him during a job interview once.

That is: An ox weighs 800 kilograms, and a bridge can support a weight of 700 kilograms. How does the ox cross the bridge?

Jiang Fan had instinctively blurted out: Sell the ox, buy a Huawei phone, and walk across, because Huawei phones are the ox!

And the result, without any surprise... he was kicked out by the manager!

Simply because he had forgotten that the company he was interviewing with was called Xiaomi!