Novice Protection Period

The yacht cut through the waves, cruising steadily toward the open sea.

As far as the eye could see, there was nothing but the rolling deep-blue ocean and a faint layer of pale clouds along the horizon.

For someone who spent most of their time at sea, scenery like this could easily become monotonous and dull after a while.

But Su Bai stood by the railing on the flybridge deck, one hand resting on the rail as he faced the moist sea breeze. His mood was remarkably calm.

He had grown up inland.

Whenever he went on vacation in the past, all he could see were reinforced-concrete apartment buildings, congested roads, and campus paths lined with trees that ended within a single glance.

Later, after he became wealthy, he moved into a spacious apartment overlooking the river and gained access to Donghu Club, but he was still surrounded by the bustle and clamor of the city.

Now, with nothing but vast open water stretching in every direction, it felt as though the world contained only the boat beneath his feet and the endless ocean. The contrast was overwhelming.

That sense of boundlessness and emptiness naturally put him at ease.

Zhou Jialu came up to the flybridge carrying a plate of fruit and stopped beside Su Bai. Without a hint of hesitation, she offered him a peeled grape.

“Junior, lost in the view?”

Su Bai opened his mouth and ate the grape, then smiled.

“Growing up inland, this is my first time coming this far out to see the ocean. It’s definitely a novelty.”

“Me too.”

Ke Yujia poked her little head out from behind them, a small packet of dried meat still in her hand as she nibbled on it.

“I’d only ever seen the ocean on television before. Now that I’m actually out here, I feel incredibly tiny.”

Just then, the hatch leading from the lower helm to the flybridge opened.

Yu Ou took off her sunglasses and casually tucked them into the collar of her sports vest before stepping up onto the deck on a pair of long, straight, evenly toned legs the color of sun-kissed wheat.

The sea breeze had tousled the hair tied at the back of her head, giving her an untamed yet capable energy.

“Boss Su, we’re almost at the edge of the reef zone up ahead.”

Yu Ou raised a hand to shade her eyes and looked out over the waters ahead before turning to Su Bai.

“There’s a warm current running beneath this area. There are plenty of reefs, the water quality is excellent, and the fish are densely packed. If you want to try deep-sea fishing, this is the perfect place to stop and drop a line.”

“Deep-sea fishing?”

Ke Yujia’s eyes lit up at once.

“Fishing in the ocean? Can you catch big fish?”

“That’s hard to say.”

Yu Ou laughed heartily, revealing a neat row of pearly white teeth.

“Deep-sea fishing is thirty percent skill and seventy percent luck. Sometimes you can sit there all day and catch only a few palm-sized rockfish. But if you’re lucky enough to run into a passing tuna or a big grouper, that’s possible too.”

Zhou Jialu turned to Su Bai, a smile playing at the corners of her lips.

“Junior, weren’t you pretty good at fishing in reservoirs before? Want to see how you fare against the ocean?”

“Sure. Let’s give it a try.”

Su Bai nodded.

He knew exactly how good his fishing skills were.

The master-level fishing ability granted by the system covered not only freshwater fishing, but also various tides, currents, bait combinations, and techniques for sea fishing. All of it had long since become second nature to him.

He simply hadn’t had a chance to cast a line in the deep sea before.

“All right, I’ll have the deckhands slow down and deploy the drift anchor. We’ll fish from the stern deck.”

Yu Ou agreed briskly before turning and heading downstairs to make the arrangements.

A few minutes later, the yacht came to a gentle stop, rising and falling slightly with the waves.

The spacious stern diving platform and fishing area had already been prepared.

Two professionally trained deckhands efficiently brought out four top-of-the-line heavy deep-sea boat rods. Electric reels, braided carbon lines, various metal jigs, and live bait were all neatly arranged inside the tackle boxes.

Yu Ou stepped forward, picked up a rod with a relatively soft action, and expertly baited it with a live prawn before handing it to Ke Yujia.

“Little one, use this rod. It’s light and easy to control. Let the line drop all the way to the bottom, then reel it up three or four turns. The moment you feel a heavy tug, set the hook immediately.”

Ke Yujia accepted it carefully, her small hands gripping the rod handle as her expression filled with both nervousness and excitement.

Zhou Jialu also eagerly chose a lightweight rod with a pink finish. After receiving some guidance from one of the deckhands, she baited her hook and moved to the opposite side of the boat to lower her line.

Yu Ou turned and looked at Su Bai, who was examining the fishing gear.

“Boss Su, have you ever tried sea fishing before?”

Su Bai casually selected a finely crafted heavy deep-sea lure rod and weighed its balance in his hand. His expression remained calm as he said, “I’m a beginner when it comes to sea fishing. Before this, I only cast a few lines now and then in freshwater reservoirs.”

“Freshwater and saltwater fishing are completely different.”

As she helped him choose a lure, Yu Ou casually explained, “Fish in the sea fight much harder than freshwater fish, especially deepwater bottom feeders and migratory species. The force of a strike can be tremendous. If you can’t hold on to the rod, it can easily be ripped right out of your hands. And there are hidden currents in the sea, so detecting a bite takes experience. Getting skunked is normal for beginners. Just keep your expectations in check.”

“Got it. I’ll take my time and learn.”

Su Bai smiled without offering any further explanation.

He casually selected a silver-and-white metal jig with an excellent weight balance. With a slight movement of his fingers, he tied an incredibly secure GT knot with smooth, practiced precision.

Yu Ou happened to glance over and a trace of surprise flashed through her eyes.

His knot-tying technique was crisp and decisive, the knot tight and perfectly even. Without thousands of casts under his belt, no one could achieve that level of proficiency.

Still, she assumed Su Bai was simply an experienced freshwater angler and didn’t think much more of it.

Su Bai walked to the very center of the stern. Holding the rod in one hand, he lightly pressed his thumb against the spool and gave a casual flick of his wrist.

The heavy metal jig, glowing faintly, traced an extremely low arc through the air before landing with a splash in the deep water dozens of meters away.

He let out the line until the lure reached the bottom.

Su Bai slowly closed his eyes. Relying on his master-level fishing instincts, he followed the faint vibrations traveling up the line and instantly reconstructed the underwater terrain in his mind.

The current flowed from west to east. The water was roughly sixty-five meters deep, and below lay an expanse of uneven, rolling reefs.

In the shadows beneath the reefs, several enormous, dark silhouettes were slowly gliding with the current.

Su Bai applied force with his wrist and began rhythmically working the rod tip.

A jerk, then a pause.

Underwater, the metal jig immediately darted through the current like a wounded fish struggling on the verge of death, its movements astonishingly lifelike.

Nearby, Zhou Jialu and Ke Yujia were still fumbling with their gear and watching the surface, occasionally exchanging a few quiet words.

Yu Ou leaned against the railing and took a sip from a can of ice-cold cola, preparing to see how long Su Bai could keep jigging.

After all, deep-sea jigging was extremely demanding physically. For an ordinary adult man, ten minutes of continuous jigging was usually enough to leave his arms aching and too weak to lift.

Yet Su Bai had made fewer than seven jigs.

The lure had just leaped over a raised section of reef.

Then—

Bzzzz!

Without warning, the main line beneath the surface snapped taut, straight as a steel wire.

The heavy carbon-fiber rod, which had been slightly curved, was suddenly yanked downward by an immense and terrifying force. In an instant, it bent into a full-moon arc so dramatic that it made the heart pound.

The electric reel’s drag began screaming, producing a sharp, grating whine.

“What the hell? You’ve got one?”

She surged forward in a single stride. The moment she saw the rod tip, almost dipping into the water, the color drained from her face.

“A big fish! Definitely a monster! Loosen the drag a little and let it run, or the line will snap!”

When deep-sea fish made their first dive, the explosive force was comparable to a charging wild bull. One careless move was enough to snap the line or shatter the rod.

Zhou Jialu and Ke Yujia were startled as well. They quickly reeled in their own lines and gathered around.

“Watch out, junior!”

“Hold on tight, Brother Su Bai!”

Faced with a violent pull powerful enough to drag an ordinary person straight into the sea, Su Bai stood as steady as a rock, his feet planted firmly on the deck without shifting an inch.

With a physique of 170 points—far beyond that of an ordinary human—and master-level control over his movements, he handled the situation with ease.

Rather than panic and loosen the drag, he kept one hand firmly around the rod grip while pressing the edge of the spool with the other. Using the slightest amount of friction, he forcibly checked the underwater monster’s first savage sprint.

“Ziii—ziii—”

The drag’s frantic screech gradually slowed.

The fish clearly hadn’t expected such powerful resistance. After its charge was stopped, it began thrashing its head from side to side, trying to burrow back into the cracks between the reefs.

Su Bai’s gaze remained calm. The muscles in his arms bulged faintly beneath his sleeves.

Lift the rod, lean back, lower it, then reel in quickly.

The sequence flowed as smoothly as water, with every movement timed to perfection. Each turn of the reel came precisely during the brief pauses between the fish’s bursts of strength.

Yu Ou stood to the side, utterly dumbfounded.

What part of this looked like a sea-fishing novice?

Even a seasoned local fisherman who had spent twenty or thirty years going out to sea would need to brace himself against a harness and use his stomach for leverage when fighting a deep-sea monster of this size. He would be exhausted and gasping for breath.

Yet Su Bai wasn’t even wearing a fishing belt. He was relying entirely on the strength of his arms and core to fight the fish head-on, and his expression hadn’t changed in the slightest.

The tug-of-war lasted nearly ten full minutes.

At last, the fish’s struggles began to weaken.

With one final, steady lift and retrieve, a massive shadow shimmering with deep red and dark-gold hues slowly emerged from the clear water below.

“It’s coming up!”

The deckhands had already been standing by with a huge landing net and a gaff. When they saw the outline beneath the surface, one of them couldn’t help shouting.

“My God… It’s a big amberjack! No, it’s a gigantic wild amberjack!”

Working together, the two experienced deckhands used a large rubber landing net and a gaff. After an enormous struggle, they finally hauled the thrashing monster onto the stern deck.

“Smack! Smack! Smack!”

Its broad tail slammed heavily against the teak deck, each blow producing a deep, powerful thud.

The fish was a beautiful reddish-brown from head to tail, with an exceptionally thick back and a plump, rounded body. It was well over 1.3 meters long, and its weight was clearly more than sixty pounds.

Under the sunlight, its scales gleamed with a remarkably healthy, lustrous sheen.

Ke Yujia took half a step back in fright, covering her small mouth as her round eyes widened.

“It’s huge… This fish weighs more than I do, right?”

Zhou Jialu was equally astonished. She couldn’t resist stepping forward and touching the fish’s thick back with one finger.

“This is ridiculous. Junior, you’re really not cheating, are you?”

Yu Ou stood there blankly. He looked down at the rare, magnificent amberjack on the deck, then up at Su Bai, who wasn’t even flushed or out of breath and was casually slotting his fishing rod back into its holder.

In these offshore reef waters, catching a fish weighing twenty or thirty pounds was already enough to brag about for quite some time.

A wild amberjack weighing more than sixty pounds usually only appeared when people followed professional deep-sea vessels several hundred nautical miles offshore to the oil rigs, and even then, the odds of encountering one were slim.

This guy had stopped the boat less than ten minutes ago, and on his very first cast, he had hauled up a prize specimen like this.

And yet, when he boarded the boat, he had personally claimed to be a sea-fishing novice.

Yu Ou swallowed, his expression dazed as he murmured to himself:

“Such incredible luck… Is this the legendary beginner’s protection period?”