Chapter 175 Thousand Ring Islands
Thousand Ring Islands is an archipelago at the south of the ‘Sakura Country’. This archipelago consists of dozens of islands, but most of them are small.
Among these islands, Qinghuan island has the widest area and the largest number of people, about 10,000 people.
Most of the residents of Qianhuan Island make a living by fishing. Some do some businesses such as hotels or small restaurants, mainly for tourists who come here.
Unfortunately, the scenery here isn’t that beautiful or unique, so not many people come here.
The Kanzaki family also operates a small hotel, but most of their income comes from fishing.
The Kanzaki family has 5 family members. Hirota Kanzaki, his wife, his parents and his 7-years old son.
In the past, the income from fishing every year, plus the money earned by the hotel caused them to live an easy and fulfilling life.
However, all of this came to an end a year ago.
There are all kinds of ancient creatures in the ocean, all of which are huge and aggressive. They don’t shy away from attacking fishing boats, especially small ones.
But this is not the worst. The worst is the mutant creatures.
These monsters are much bigger and violent than normal ancient creatures.
In order to avoid these monsters, they can only fish along the coast. Furthermore, they were forced to give up on the small boats. Most of the current fishermen gather together and buy big boats. Riding small boats to the sea is suicide.
Most ancient and mutant creatures consider big boats a very big creature, so they avoid it most of the time. This caused the safety factor of big boats to skyrocket.
Of course, the premise is not to encounter those top-level and even king-level mutant creatures. Encounters like that have a very high death rate.
Hirota is very lucky. During this year. He has taken a lot of risks to fish in the Pacific, but he has never encountered the Kraken.
Even more fortunate is that the North Pacific is now unlikely to have any King-level mutant creature. Anyway, the Kraken appeared in the Antarctic Sea.
The only thing to worry about is that serpent.
However, it’s very likely that the Serpent has died in the sea. After all, according to the habit of these King and Top-level mutant creatures, they like to attack human ships or climb on the sh.o.r.e and attack them.
Without the threat of the Kraken, they are prepared to go deeper into the sea this time.
They have been out for three days, far away from Qianhuan Island.
The days in the sea are very boring. That’s without mentioning the constant stress and tension they are in.
Hirota has deliberated several times on whether they should go back.
However, the temptation of money supports them to move on.
”If we catch even a small mutant creature, we’ll get rich.”
This fantasy is filling their mind.
Since the outbreak of ancient and mutant creatures, the price of fish has increased tremendously, but due to the ferocious creatures in the ocean, it became incredibly hard to catch fish and go back alive.
At the rear of their fishing boat, a huge fishing net is dragged. At the same time, Hiroki and his companions are leaning on the rails of the ship and fishing with fishing rods
These fishing rods are quite special. The string used for fishing is a large iron string connected to an iron hook with a large piece of meat on it.
The fishing rods are connected to a pulley. The moment a fish bite on the hook, the pulley will pull them up.
Catching small mutants creatures in this way is possible.
Someone has already done so.
A man caught a mutated strange shrimp using this method. The mutated shrimp was seven meters long. Its two huge claws could pinch a man in two.
It’s said that the fisherman was frightened at first after seeing the shrimp. However, he immediately cheered up, greeted his companion, and killed the shrimp using some tools.
In the end, he sold that shrimp for hundreds of millions of yen. Becoming rich overnight.
This story is widely circulated among fishermen like Hirota, encouraging all fisherman, and causing them to fantasize about catching a mutant every day.
Unfortunately, most of the time, the situation goes the wrong way.
Even if someone managed to catch an ancient or mutant creature. If not handled properly, it can have disastrous consequences.
In some cases, the people who caught the small mutant creatures will be attacked by the big ones.
Those monsters are usually over 40 or 50 meters in length. Even large ships over 100 meters in length can be capsized by them.
However, the profits of catching mutant creatures make a lot of people take risks despite the dangers.
Hirota and several of his companions stood in front of the three fishing rods, observing the water movement. They chated from time to time to relieve the tension in their hearts.
Suddenly, the fish rod next to Hirota moved.
”Well……”
Hirota was surprised at first, then an excited look emerged on his face. A bit of nervousness was mixed in that excitement though.
It’s exciting that a fish finally bit the bait, but he didn’t know if it was a mutant or ancient creature. Whether they are able to catch it or not.
He looked at the crew next to him and nodded.
Hirota held a sharp metal spear in his hand, ready to puncture the creature that will show up.
Other people also held weapons in their hands, mostly spears like Hirota.
Some people held hot weapons like shotguns in their hands.
”Splash!”
The creature underwater struggled madly, pulling the iron cable down and making a lot of noise.
”It’s hooked, it’s a big guy.”
Hirota made this judgment, then began to issue instructions to the crew.
”Hurry up, pull the pulley up, give this fish a bit of pressure.”
After hearing him, two of the crew members immediately pulled up the iron cable using the pulley. The iron cable began to tighten, causing the fish to struggle even harder.
”Release the cable a bit more.”
The iron cable has a length of 100 meters. After releasing it a bit, he told the two men to pull the pulley up.
As time pa.s.sed, the fish underwater started to get exhausted. In fact, they put a bit of stimulant in the beef, causing the fish to get very excited. However, after the wave of excitement, it will eventually get exhausted.
Hirota’s companions began to pull the iron cable, dragging the big fish below.
Gradually, a large black shadow appeared next to their ship. Its shadow is huge.
”It’s a big fish!”
A man next to Hirota yelled.
”It looks like a swordfish, but it is much larger, about 15 to 16 meters long. It must be a mutant!”
This is indeed a mutant swordfish.
”I have to record this historic moment!”
Hirota thought excitedly. He took his phone out, pointed the camera at the shadow next to the ship, then started taking a video.
However, Hirota suddenly noticed another shadow from the corner of his eyes, turning to look there, he didn’t find anything.
”Is it a reflection of the sun?”