I Can Turn into a Fish

120 Scomber Japonicus was about 15 kg, and since few people bought this type of fish, the price was only 1 RMB for half a kg. Altogether, Chu Xian only paid around 30 RMB.

Chu Xian loaded the fish onto his moped, drove back to his shop, locked the door and poured the fish into a tank.

“Ka ba ka ba(1)!”

Fish Chu Xian was already inside the tank, eating fish like mad. Due to the nature of the system, no matter how much he ate, he would never feel full. It was as if his stomach was a bottomless hole.

“Ding. Congratulations. Host has leveled up (20cm). Strength, speed, toughness, and bite force has been upgraded. Host can choose an additional attribute to power up.”

After around 10 minutes, as Chu Xian was eating the hundred and fifth fish, the system sounded out again.

Chu Xian was delighted and quickly finished eating the rest of the fish. He chose to power up his bite force again.

“A hundred plus 10cm fish is enough to level up once, increasing my body size to 20cm and combat power to 4. If I’m not wrong, I will also need a hundred plus fish just under 20cm to increase my size another 10cm,” Chu Xian thought, as he rode back to the same shop at the market. In front of the confused shop owner, Chu Xian scooped out 240 fish, 120 each of fish under 20cm and under 30cm.

This purchase cost him 500+ RMB—not too expensive, well within his range. If it weren’t for the inability of his moped to load any more fish, he would’ve bought another 120 of the 40cm range fish. As he jumped on his moped and prepared to leave, a group of excited people came down the street, the leading two holding an iron bucket.

“Chinese Bahaha, it’s actually the Chinese Bahaha. It’s at least 50kg!”

exclaimed a shocked middle-aged passerby as he looked at the big fish in the iron bucket.

“Chinese Bahaha?” Chu Xian said, stunned.

“Heavens, it really is a Chinese Bahaha! This size is at least 60000 RMB(2)!”

yelled a shop owner who heard the middle-aged man’s shout. This shop owner looked over and shouted excitedly as well.

One voice after another exclaimed, and more and more people were drawn by the noise and came to investigate.

“Come, come. Everybody move aside. We are going to the Yu Bao (3) Yard to hold an auction. Anyone interested can come and look!” shouted a young man.

“Let’s go, let’s go. Let’s watch.” The group of noisy people made way and followed behind; Chu Xian hesitated for a second and also decided to follow.

Yu Bao Yard was a place in the fish market catered to high-end sea products. They had three-head and even two-head Abalones (4), Australian lobsters, Chinese Three-striped Box Turtle, Sea Cucumbers, Red Arowana, Flowerhorn Fish, and all kinds of precious fish and seafood.

Anyone who came here was either wealthy or a buyer from a big restaurant; any normal person definitely couldn’t afford anything here. The auction platform was a high platform at the center of the yard, used to introduce new products and accept bids. Only products with a value higher than 10,000 RMB were allowed.

Very quickly, news that someone caught a Chinese Bahaha spread and more and more people came. Chu Xian followed the flow of people walking to Yu Bao Yard.

This was the first time he came to the Yu Bao Yard. The environment here was much better than the other markets that had only twenty or so sellers and fewer products. Here, the price of each fish or seafood was in the hundreds or thousands for half a kg.

All the bosses who were inside buying things saw the flood of people coming in and watched expectantly – they could all guess that good stuff was coming.

“Oh? An auction?” said a boss in an expensive suit, as he watched the people carrying the bucket walking towards the platform. The boss followed with interest.

Everyone who had already been in the yard selling and buying also gathered around, and very quickly the platform was surrounded by two to three hundred people.

“Ladies and gentlemen, please quiet down. Today us brothers caught a precious, 49kg Chinese Bahaha. I won’t say more about the price; if there is any boss here who’s interested in buying, the highest bidder will win.”

The two brothers took out the Chinese Bahaha and turned it towards the spectators.

Chu Xian looked curiously at the long body, flat side, and the long and thin tail of this one-meter long Chinese Bahaha. An approximately 50 kg fish could be sold for a couple hundred thousand? That’s crazy!

“One million!”

Just as Chu Xian marveled at the price of a couple hundred thousand, a sound from the crowd amazed him.

“One million? A f**king million? Ten thousand for half a kg? Are you kidding me, is he insane?”

Chu Xian turned to look at the middle-aged man who placed the bid with shock and amazement.

“A million and fifty! This fish is mine!”

Immediately after the first bid came another shout. The bystanders all gathered around excitedly – one million and fifty thousand for a fish; this was too exciting.

The two brothers on the platform were also excited and loudly yelled, “Is there any bid higher than one million and fifty thousand? Anyone?

“One million and a hundred thousand!” shouted an old man some tens of seconds later.

Chu Xian’s heart was beating through his chest. 1.1 million RMB – he probably couldn’t earn this much money in his entire life, yet a mere fish could be sold for this price.

In the end, this fish was sold to the old man to the price of one million and two hundred thousand. The old man excitedly touched the fish and immediately called for the two young men at his side.

“Chinese Bahaha, ah. In all these years, this is only the second time I’ve seen one. Ah, more than ten thousand RMB for half a kilo—when can I catch one?”

“Yeah, if we catch one it’d be worth years of income.”

Chu Xian listened to these two fishermen’s jealousy and felt the same. When he thought of the Big Fish Eat Little Fish system inside of him, his blood started boiling.

“One day I’ll turn into a huge fish and roam the entire ocean, catching precious fish, and then I’ll become a rich man with expensive cars and fancy houses!(5)”

Chu Xian yearned and dreamed, but he still had a long way to go before he could see that day. He was now only 20 cm long; he had to be careful of big rivers lest he face tragedy and get eaten by other fish, not to mention the conditions of the sea.

Obviously, Chu Xian decided, he would not go out to the sea before he was two or three meters long.

But, growing to two or three meters would be difficult. It was easy for him to level up right now, but if he wanted to level up once he reached one meter, his need for food would be terrifying.

One 4 to 6 kg fish’s price was at least three to four hundred, possibly up to five or six hundred. A hundred of these would be worth thirty to forty thousand, and if he wanted to use the money to grow his size to two or three meters, he would need at least five million or even more.

“Let’s just take it one step at a time. There will definitely be a way,” Chu Xian said while shaking his head.

Translator’s Thoughts

 Aristophaneso

(1)- Similar to ka cha ka cha, no kappa

(2)- So with an approx. 6 RMB – 1 USD conversion rate, this estimate is around 10,000 USD. Given that the average cost of living is also lower in China compared to the US, if this situation was transplanted to NA would the estimate be much more? I have no idea if the fishing market in China is similar to the US or if fish are actually this expensive.

(3)- 鱼宝 – fish treasure. Your ubiquitous hundred treasure pavilion etc. would be the same character.

(4)- Huge Abalones. Head is a measurement unit in Chinese for abalones. Three Heads abalone simply means three of these abalones weight half a kilo. Consequently, Two Heads abalone means two of these abalones weight half a kilo.

(5)- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBHZFYpQ6nc