I Can Turn into a Fish

The night was cool and across the lake wafted a gentle breeze as the sound of jumping fish splashed in the distance.

Chu Xian walked toward the lake wearing black sportswear. It was 11:30 pm and no one was around.

He stopped next to the lake and looked around. Confirming that no one was around, he took off his clothes and walked into the lake.

“Transform!” Chu Xian willed, and he transformed. A strange black fish about a meter long appeared in the water.

He had dark black skin, thick fins, and a gaping mouth. His strong tail beat against the lake and created waves as he cut through the water.

In the water, Chu Xian felt better than good; all the pores in his body breathed deeply, and every motion propelled him quickly and forcefully. He was free.

In the lake, however, Chu Xian’s sight was reduced a lot; the water in Feng Tai Lake wasn’t particularly clear, and he could only see creatures within a five-meter radius.

“Control!” He willed, and a god’s-eye view appeared in his mind. He could “see” his body, and it was as if he were in a game.

Clown Fish, Level 1, Combat Power 0, Innate Talent: None.

Volador, Level 1, Combat Power 0, Innate Talent: None.

Salangid, Level 0, Combat Power 0, Innate Talent: None.

Chu Xian saw some small fish swimming around him and a lot of information appeared in his mind. He wiggled his body and the surrounding fish dodged away in fear.

“This should be the place,” Chu Xian thought to himself as he surfaced, looking at a nearby area enclosed in a net. A menacing light flashed in his eyes and he dived back into the water and rushed forward.

The deepest part of the lake was around twenty meters deep, but because the whole area was regulated and controlled, there weren’t many kinds of fish – they were pretty much limited to three to six catties. (1)

The most prevalent species were bass, black porgy, red drum and other kinds of sea fish easy to breed and raise. The areas were separated and cordoned off by nets, and a gap of ten meters was left between any two fish farms for easy ship access.

In the area surrounding the fish farms the variety was scarce, but Chu Xian still encountered five bass and groupers that were around four or five catties. The small half-meter fish could only face their fate and be swallowed by the meter-long Chu Xian.

“Tsk, tsk. The flavor is pretty nice – much tastier than the fish I buy at the market!” Chu Xian thought with satisfaction as he munched down. He thrust his tail and darted forward toward the area belonging to the Qin family.

Quickly, Chu Xian swam up to the biggest fish farm in FengTai Lake. The area was around 20,000 square meters or 5 acres, and there were tons of sea creatures including crabs, lobsters, striped bass, red drums, etc. (2).

The farm was surrounded by nets that stopped fish from getting through, but Chu Xian wasn’t simply a fish (3). He turned back into a human, lifted the net and crossed inside.

As a fish in the Qin family farm, Chu Xian saw red drums, black dreams, and other bass through his control ability. The density of fish was more than ten times greater than the other areas.

“There’s a lot of fish. I wonder how many levels I can gain when I eat them all?” Chu Xian thought to himself and opened his mouth.

Chu Xian plunged forward into the deepest area, using his control power to gather all the fish within a thirteen-meter radius towards him.

The fish in the farm weren’t very big – at most one or two catties – and the younger fish were even smaller than that.

Chu Xian ignored the fish under one catty and targeted a thick dotted fish around 50 cm long and tore a huge bite out of it.

After swallowing the first one, he bit into a red drum and directly bit it in two. Blood spurted and turned the water red.

“Eh?” After he swallowed another bass, Chu Xian frowned. In the area that he controlled, he could feel a couple of fish struggling, trying to regain their freedom.

Chu Xian focused his will on these fish.

Red drum: Level 8.

Combat Power: 35

Innate Talent: None

Red Drums were imported from America. They grew fast, reproduced quickly, and were priced well. Raised in an average density area, they could reach the weight of one kg in ten to twelve months, and could even weigh up to three kg. It wasn’t hard for them to grow up to 6000kg per acre, which could rake in some sixty thousand RMB.

The fish were usually fifty or sixty RMB for half a kg and were easy to raise. In the Qin’s farm, the red drums took up almost a third of the whole population. Most of them were around thirty or forty cm, but the ones Chu Xian was looking at right now were almost eighty cm, and they were, on average, level 8 with a combat power of 35.

Chu Xian focused on these fish and sped over to one of the forty cm Red Drum and bit off its head.

After this kill, he felt the other Red Drums struggling even harder, fighting like their lives depended on it.

“Seems like this control isn’t absolute, and the higher level fish can sense the danger and try to run,” Chu Xian noted in his heart. He then focused on the fish near him.

Bite after bite and gulp after gulp. Thousands of fish gathered in the small area, churning the water with their bodies as a strange-looking fish attacked them ferociously, spreading and splashing blood in all directions.

In half an hour, the area around Chu Xian had only one fish remaining, and the sea water was dyed red with blood. The other fish began avoiding the area on instinct.

“Amazing!” Chu Xian thought. In half an hour, he swallowed thousands of kg of fish, and although he hadn’t leveled up, he was well on his way.

“I might be able to get three or four levels a night! Haha, it’s all thanks to Qin Zhiyu, providing such a nice place for me to grind.”

Translator’s Thoughts

 Aristophaneso

(1)- The catty is typically measured at around 604 grams, but in mainland china is rounded for a market standard of 500 grams. So 3-6 is 1.5 to 3kg. For now I’ll leave it as jin/catty, but I might just change it to kg in the future. (lul America.)

(2)- So this was originally mu 亩, but there isn’t really easy round number like 500. 30 mu = around 5 acres or 20,000 square meters.

(3)- I thought at first this was going to be something like “but Chu Xian was no ordinary fish.” And then he destroys the net or something. I was all doki doki and excited.