The Fish I Catch Can Level Up-Chapter 153: A Sudden Pain

Chu Mingcheng swam to the waters near the isolated island's cliff, where the current was gentler.
It was the calm period of the receding tide, and the water depth was about fifteen meters. Diving down, he could see many large, deep-water rocks—the kind of terrain perfect for fish to shelter in.
If this were in another country with a better environment, the bottom would be teeming with fish! Unfortunately, the environment here was lacking. He'd have to dive down and see for himself how many fish were around.
After preparing, Chu Mingcheng dove into the water.
At a depth of five meters, he spotted two swallowtail pomfrets five meters to his left.
When swallowtail pomfrets are small, they can be kept as ornamental fish. When they mature, they make good eating—a valuable commercial species that sells for around a hundred yuan.
Unfortunately, these two were only about a jin each. If he'd been rod fishing, they would've been fine catches. But since he was spearfishing today, he couldn't be bothered with such small targets.
Speargun in hand, he continued descending, gradually approaching a massive rock at least the size of a small room.
Beside this boulder, Chu Mingcheng found several parrotfish. From their appearance, they were green-spotted parrotfish—he'd cornered one before in a large coral reef cave.
In reality, this species is extremely wary. They have almost no curiosity about humans and flee the moment they spot them. They wouldn't linger calmly like those two swallowtail pomfrets had at five meters distance. Getting them into shooting range wouldn't be easy.
Chu Mingcheng's speargun had an optimal hunting range of eight meters. Beyond that, accuracy became a gamble unless the target was large.
He approached slowly, and the parrotfish began swimming toward what they considered safer positions. Two approached the massive rock and swam up its slope.
They seemed to have moved above him, but actually, the distance between them had closed to about six meters.
Seeing this, Chu Mingcheng slowly rotated his body, keeping his speargun trained on the target fish. When the fish paused on the rock's slope, he decisively pulled the trigger, and the spear found its mark.
However, the hit wasn't ideal.
The spear pierced the fish's flank. Green-spotted parrotfish have very large scales, so a hit that broke through would create a substantial wound. The fish would struggle, gradually enlarging the wound and reducing its market value.
Given the poor shot placement...
Chu Mingcheng surfaced, retrieved the fish, clipped it to his live fish stringer, then pulled the scale from the spearhead. This scale could be taken home and deep-fried with chopped green onions, salt, and pepper—should turn out nice and crispy.
Sea King appeared to be fishing, but he'd been watching Chu Mingcheng's movements. When he saw him surface, he immediately called out, "Ah Cheng, did you get one?"
Hearing this, Chu Mingcheng turned around, gave a thumbs-up and nodded, then held up the five or six-jin parrotfish on his stringer.
"Holy crap, that efficiency is insane! From when Ah Cheng went under to hitting the fish—seven or eight minutes, right?" Sea King had been calling out casually, not expecting there'd be a fish.
This speed genuinely surprised him. Compared to angling, spearfishing was a guaranteed catch!
"Ah Cheng's swimming is excellent. He seems to have a natural talent for spearfishing. Every time he goes to sea, if the resources are good, he can bring back several hundred jin of fish."
Jiang Luoluo seemed to be explaining, but the little pride on her face was pure showing off!
Jiang Yuqi chimed in, "I completely agree. When I met Ming-ge in Xisha, he'd just returned from spearfishing. Not only did he catch loads of fish, but he also caught over a dozen hairy lobsters with just a fishing line and hook—no boat needed. I even bought two from him!"
'Hairy lobster?'
When Jiang Luoluo heard that Jiang Yuqi had bought some, her heart stirred. Thinking of the two Chu Mingcheng had specially brought for her back then, a beautiful smile appeared on her face—perfectly captured by the cameraman nearby.
The three on the boat were leisurely getting skunked while Chu Mingcheng continued working hard underwater.
He went back down and encountered those two swallowtail pomfrets again. Swimming over, he found they weren't afraid of him—they swam right up and didn't flee.
So he reached out to touch one. This made the swallowtail pomfret a bit shy. It dodged away and picked up speed.
But that speed... left Chu Mingcheng somewhat speechless.
He suspected that if he wanted to catch this type of fish, he could easily chase it down and grab it by hand.
So he tried, pursuing it and reaching out to grab it. But the swallowtail pomfret was surprisingly agile. Though it didn't swim fast, it wasn't easy to catch one-handed either.
He was about to release his speargun and catch one first when the swallowtail pomfret led him astray. After passing beyond the massive reef's range, he discovered many huge rocks scattered along the bottom beside the main formation.
These boulders created gaps between them, forming "highways" that fish could navigate. Fish instinctively followed these traffic patterns, driving safely along these underwater "roads."
In these areas, not only were there schools of small fish, but he also spotted many painted sweetlips mixed among them.
Chu Mingcheng had caught this species before while bottom fishing—it sold for over a hundred yuan, so he remembered it well. There were quite a few in this bottom group, mixed with the smaller fish. At least dozens, possibly hundreds—a proper school.
This was excellent sashimi fish, perfect for spearfishing. Compared to angling, fish destined for sashimi were better hunted directly with a speargun.
Sashimi fish need immediate bleeding after capture. If you hook them, they'll thrash around, causing lactic acid buildup in their muscles, which affects the taste. Spearfishing delivers an almost instant kill—resistance and struggle last only moments.
For sashimi fish, spearfishing was the optimal choice.
Chu Mingcheng immediately abandoned the swallowtail pomfret and approached with his speargun ready. This species didn't seem particularly wary—he was five meters away and they were still swimming leisurely.
He moved closer. At three meters, the fish finally grew uneasy and shifted away slightly.
Chu Mingcheng didn't press further. He selected the largest one, fired, and the spear pierced its belly just behind the gills.
Perfect shot placement. The wounded painted sweetlips spun a few times, then went still.
Chu Mingcheng surfaced, clipped the fish to his stringer, reeled in his speargun line, reloaded, and without pausing to interact with Sea King and the others, dove back down immediately.
Jiang Luoluo knew his behavior patterns well. Seeing this reaction, her eyes lit up. "Ah Cheng seems to have found a school. Look—he didn't even rest at the surface. Loaded his speargun and went straight back down."
"Really?" Sea King looked at her doubtfully, slightly suspicious that she was embellishing Chu Mingcheng's abilities.
"Give it half an hour," Jiang Luoluo said confidently.
Underwater, Chu Mingcheng was indeed frantically hunting the painted sweetlips school, just as she'd predicted.
The first had been the largest at ten jin. The rest were mostly five to six jin each. Anything over five jin was definitely worth harvesting.
He'd been underwater a while on that last dive, so he'd had to surface. But this time, he landed another painted sweetlips in under a minute, so he stayed down.
He reeled in the line, pulled the rubber bands to reload, aimed at another painted sweetlips, and fired again.
Three hits in a row before he surfaced for a quick breath through his snorkel, then dove back down.
His live fish stringer now held one green-spotted parrotfish and four painted sweetlips. Seven clips remained. After one more breath, every clip on his stringer was filled.
Twelve fish total—the large ones ten jin, the smaller ones five to six jin—eighty to ninety jin altogether. Even underwater, the weight was becoming noticeable.
Chu Mingcheng reeled in his fishing line and spear, preparing to return these catches to the boat. But just as he was about to swim back to the surface, he spotted an enormous red snapper swimming slowly from the distance.
With so many small fish here, this was clearly a regular visitor—probably came daily to feed.
The red snapper hadn't expected to encounter a customer today whose size exceeded its own. Startled, it immediately hid beneath a massive reef nearby, hoping the creature across from it hadn't noticed.
But this was obviously impossible. The red snapper was seventy to eighty centimeters long—even during his Xisha trips, Chu Mingcheng hadn't encountered many this size.
Seeing the red snapper tucked into a hole at the rock's base, Chu Mingcheng moved closer. But in that moment, he temporarily forgot he'd already been underwater for two minutes.
He didn't chase after it or try digging it from the hole—that would spook the red snapper, triggering its flight response and sending it fleeing quickly.
Chu Mingcheng could pursue it, but that seemed unnecessary. Though it was hiding now, it wasn't actually frightened.
Chu Mingcheng positioned himself on a massive reef five meters from the hole and waited.
As time passed, Sea King kept staring at the water, his brow furrowed. He checked his watch. "Ah Cheng's been under for more than two minutes, right? Could he be in danger?"
"Yeah, it's been over two minutes. What if something's wrong?" Jiang Yuqi said worriedly.
Jiang Luoluo looked at the two cameramen filming. "Can you pause recording for the next part?"
Sea King and Jiang Yuqi sensed there was a reason. They had their cameramen stop filming.
Once Jiang Luoluo saw the cameras were off, she explained, "Ah Cheng's swimming ability is much better than you think. He once rescued a drowning firefighter from the turbulent Ou River. His dynamic apnea time reaches five minutes.
"I used to worry about accidents too, but I've watched him spearfishing—he surfaces every five minutes, and with that efficiency, he catches several hundred jin of fish.
"We can keep this between us. If it got online, it would definitely attract unwanted attention. Ah Cheng values his freedom. If he wanted fame, I think he would've become a competitive swimmer long ago!"
Jiang Luoluo said this partly to reassure Sea King and the others, and partly because future cooperation depended on whether they'd keep this open secret.
Good swimming, dynamic apnea over five minutes—there were people worldwide who could do this, some even more impressively. Though surprising, it wasn't superhuman.
Still, as Jiang Luoluo noted, exposure might bring unwanted attention and some trouble for Chu Mingcheng—invitations from diving clubs, for instance—though nothing too serious.
Sea King nodded in understanding and exclaimed, "No wonder Ah Cheng's so good at spearfishing. He was born for this!"
Jiang Yuqi pulled out her phone, opened the stopwatch, and tried holding her breath. Sixty-one seconds—just over a minute. She couldn't last longer and started breathing heavily. "My god, how does Ming-ge hold his breath for five minutes? I barely made it past one."
Sea King laughed. "Breath-holding can be trained. Many people reach over two minutes with short practice periods—just not as extreme as Ah Cheng."
Meanwhile, the subject of their conversation had waited underwater for just over a minute when he finally saw the red snapper emerge.
Obviously, the red snapper couldn't stay in the hole indefinitely. Sensing no movement outside, it tentatively emerged to look around.
But the moment it appeared, it spotted that massive creature directly across from the hole. Just as it turned to retreat, its body suddenly erupted in pain.