Chapter 151
"Food..." Ye Bailing had a sudden flash of inspiration and quickly pulled out a piece of bread from her backpack, swallowing it down. To her delight, she noticed that not only did it restore 30 points of stamina, but her experience pool also increased—though the boost was only 200 experience points compared to the roasted fish.
But no matter how small, the key point was that her experience had grown!
"That's right, it's about eating!" Ye Bailing confirmed this information, and then immediately thought of the influence brought by the aura of the sea god Kraken: "Is it because of... hunger?"
"Exactly," the paper figure nodded. "The aura of the sea god is incredibly powerful. This kind of 'hunger' might be a hunger in the sense of the laws of nature. Under its influence, if you satisfy your hunger, you will receive a kind of 'reward.'"
"Wow..." Ye Bailing took a deep breath, feeling enlightened.
The thrill of archaeological experience was great, but one still had to find the ruins. Where could she find such a good thing as getting stronger just by eating? Shouldn't she seize the opportunity?!
Previously, Ye Bailing had felt that the doubled consumption of stamina was a burden, and food was scarce. Now, she thought the Kraken people... no, the fish were actually quite nice!
Moreover, from the comparison between the roasted fish and the bread, it was clear that the higher the level of food she consumed, the more experience points she could gain.
After feeding the freshly roasted fish to Ottofis, Ye Bailing immediately returned to her fishing stool.
In this deep sea, existing in the cracks of the abyss, there was no day and night. Ye Bailing transformed into the most fervent fisherman, losing track of time as she sat there—
Electric eels, into the fish basket!
Four-meter-long black catfish, into the fish basket!
Rainbow koi with colorful halos, into the fish basket!
Translucent glowing jellyfish, into the fish basket!
I fish, fish, fish!
I eat, eat, eat!
...
[Your 'Fishing' skill has leveled up to 'Fishing IV.']
All she caught were high-level fish, the lowest being rare grade. Two days passed, and while Ye Bailing initially focused on gaining experience, her fishing level was also steadily rising, getting closer to the highest level with just a bit more proficiency.
On this day, after casting her line countless times, Ye Bailing once again felt a disturbance from beneath the water.
"Splash!"
With a skilled lift of the rod, Ye Bailing's gaze sharpened. The large fish she had anticipated did not appear; instead, a small mass flew over her head.
This was quite unusual, as Ye Bailing had not caught a fish smaller than one meter in this clearly high-level sea area.
"Thud." Accompanied by the sound of something dropping to the ground.
Just as Ye Bailing turned around, she heard a clear, youthful voice shout, "Hungry, hungry, hungry!!!"
Chapter 108
As that white figure swept through the air with the fishing rod, before Ye Bailing could even turn her head, she heard the voice—a distinctly crisp and youthful girl's voice.
"Hungry, hungry, hungry—!"
Confused, Ye Bailing quickly turned to look in the direction where the fishing line had flown, and there she saw a small figure sitting on the ground behind her.
Upon seeing the true form of that figure, Ye Bailing couldn't help but freeze: So, so cute...
What was this, a young version of a little mermaid?
On the ground lay a little girl who looked to be only three or four years old, her round face framed by a pair of bright green eyes, exquisitely adorable. However, the first thing that caught one's attention was her long red hair, which almost covered half her body, soft and flowing like seaweed.
As Ye Bailing turned around, the little girl’s eyes lit up upon seeing her. She stretched out her short, chubby limbs, excitedly waving her arms and legs as she crawled toward her.
As she crawled, her expression was eager, like a child who had found a family, but the only words that came out were:
"Hungry! Hungry, hungry, hungry..."
"...Uh?" Ye Bailing was completely bewildered by this scene. What was going on?
There was no doubt that this little girl was a deep-sea dweller—similar to the concept of mermaids, deep-sea dwellers would lose their fish-like traits upon coming ashore, naturally developing arms and legs, looking no different from ordinary land-dwelling humans.
Of course, they would also suffer a 20% reduction in attributes, unable to fully exert their strength, especially in deep-sea magic.
But how could Ye Bailing catch a deep-sea child while fishing?
This feeling of incongruity with her surroundings was akin to the shock she felt when she first discovered the magical fishing gear set on the island. Ye Bailing instinctively thought: Surely she didn't just reel in the sea god Kraken, did she?
With that thought, Ye Bailing used a skill to gain insight into the deep-sea child crawling toward her:
[???]
Level: 1
"…"
No other attributes were displayed, just a level 1.
This was clearly unusual. If it were a normal level 1 NPC, more detailed attribute information should not be hidden from Ye Bailing. Even if it were a higher level than her, it would show a string of question marks, not simply not displaying anything at all.
She had only seen this kind of situation with special characters, like Ottofis and the paper figure.
Speaking of special characters... Ye Bailing's earlier thought resurfaced: Surely the sea god Kraken isn't a little girl like this?
This 'little' didn't refer to her age, but rather her size.
Deep-sea dwellers, or all deep-sea creatures, have a notable characteristic: strength is proportional to size. The larger they grow, the stronger they become; the stronger they are, the larger they grow.
Ye Bailing turned to look at Ottofis and the paper figure, both equally bewildered by the appearance of the little girl. The paper figure's visual information had not provided any more details.
Then Ye Bailing looked at the devil Alisio, who was serving as bait: "What did you see underwater?"
"Ha! I don't know anything," Alisio crossed his arms. "I'm just an ordinary piece of bait."
Seeing that Alisio was unwilling to answer how this little girl had been caught, Ye Bailing didn't press further. Asking a devil would only lead to conditional answers, which might not even be truthful.
At this moment, the little girl had crawled all the way to within five or six meters of Ye Bailing.
Then she stopped.
Not because she wanted to stop, but because the fish hook had snagged her.
With the fishing rod still in her hand, Ye Bailing noticed that on the other end of the rod, the fishing line was connected to a hook, which had caught onto the 'clothes' of the little girl.
Indeed, this had been obscured by the little girl's striking red hair, and now Ye Bailing could see that she was wearing what seemed to be a vest skirt woven from seaweed. Upon closer inspection, the craftsmanship was quite rough; it was unclear who had made it.
So, the reason for catching a deep-sea dweller was solved. It turned out that this little girl hadn't bitten the bait like a fish but had been hooked by her clothing.
So... the earlier situation couldn't be that Alisio had discovered the deep-sea dweller underwater and lured the little girl, could it?
Ye Bailing cast a skeptical glance at Alisio, feeling she had pieced together what had happened underwater, leaving him looking confused.
"Wah! Hungry! Hungry, hungry, wah wah wah..."
At that moment, the little girl's clear cries interrupted Ye Bailing's thoughts.
Deep-sea dwellers were also recognized by the system as 'fish,' and since the fishing rod couldn't be damaged, as long as Ye Bailing didn't remove the rod from her equipment, no matter how much the little girl struggled, she couldn't break free.
Seeing that she couldn't escape, the little girl suddenly burst into tears.
The tears on her face were normal; although many deep-sea dwellers followed the mermaid concept, they did not possess the ability to cry pearls. Ye Bailing considered that the true 'final boss' of the game was the players. If there were such a pearl-crying ability, it was likely that as players leveled up, deep-sea dwellers would be farmed for pearls.
"Uh... don't cry, don't cry."
Seeing this scene, Ye Bailing paused for a moment, then finally released the fishing rod and put it back into her backpack.
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