Chapter 511: Chapter 298: Divine Water, Emotional Fish, Emotionless
Hearing someone calling his name, Zhang Yang turned his head to take a look. As soon as he saw the person’s face, Zhang Yang’s lips curled into a smile.
The one greeting Zhang Yang from afar was none other than Wei Song, whose hand was still in the recovery phase.
"Brother Song, how’s the recovery going? Here to watch? Or did you sign up?" Zhang Yang asked enthusiastically.
"I signed up, came with friends! Played a few rounds at our local small pits, feel like the impact is manageable! This isn’t a car grand prix, plus there’s national competition points, so I came! Trying my luck!"
While speaking, Wei Song made a few fist-gripping gestures in front, and it seemed that his movements were quite powerful, not like someone whose hand function was impaired.
"Come, let’s shake hands and see how the strength is recovering!" Zhang Yang extended his right hand, directly grasping the other’s right hand.
The two then tightened their grips, a trick boys often played when young, and Zhang Yang abruptly employed it here.
With his hand caught, Wei Song had to respond, both exerting force, quickly giving Zhang Yang an estimate of Wei Song’s power status.
It was quite different from what Zhang Yang had anticipated; the strength coming from Wei Song’s fingertips could barely grip Zhang Yang’s hand.
As for any pain from squeezing? Not a bit.
"For such a short time, recovering to this state is quite good! Keep training, it will get better and better!" Zhang Yang said with a comforting smile.
"Yeah! You’re right! Real combat is the best way to train!
Recently, when I have free time, I’ve been practicing holding the rod with my left hand too, and I’ve made some progress! When I’m fully mastered my skills, I’ll be able to use both hands!"
Wei Song’s attitude was still very positive.
"Haha, well said! Oh, by the way, a friend of Old Zhao sent him a few sets of handmade titanium alloy fishing box accessories, which can be swapped between left and right hands, I’ll send you a set when I get home!"
Wei Song nodded: "Alright, getting some freebies from you again! I won’t be polite!"
...
The group of buddies stayed outside the competition area chatting for a while and soon ran into a few familiar faces. Shortly after, the loudspeaker began to call for entrance to the opening ceremony, and everyone headed towards the temporarily built dais.
It’s somewhat similar to the opening ceremony of a regular Category Four race, typically involving speeches from event sponsors and organizers, followed by statements from referee representatives and athlete representatives, among other standard procedures.
Nothing much to say about those, what stands out today are the prizes of the pickup race.
Ten brand new Isuzu pickups were already parked on the open ground beside the dais, adorned with big red ribbons.
The lineup of pickup trucks in a row was visually quite impactful.
After the opening ceremony, the next phase was the draw and entry.
Today’s competition rules differ somewhat from the usual mixed weight rules.
The competition lasts four hours, where one must sit still and not change location, with a total of six hundred participants, all slots filled.
Sixty people per group, and the player with the best results in each group can win a pickup truck.
Under this group weight competition’s basic rules, all competing anglers will be ranked based on their total catch weight, deciding the overall champion of the competition.
Given the large number of participants and the significant scale of the competition, today’s overall champion can earn 300 caa competition points, equating to 1.5 times the points reward of a regular Category Four race.
High reward on low investment, along with substantial competition points, has attracted numerous experts from the competitive circle.
Thus, today’s event is bustling with experts in attendance, with famous names from the black pits and competitive circles around Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei present.
Hearing the call from the loudspeaker, the anglers under the dais obediently lined up in front of the draw stage.
Subsequently, staff began calling people to the stage to draw lots based on the order of registration.
Zhang Yang, familiar with such crowded competitions, lowered his head for a quiet chat with his companions, waiting to hear his name.
In the Jinghai Garden fishing pit with plentiful fish, the fishing conditions were very favorable for Zhang Yang, greatly reducing the impact of fishing spot differences on his catch results.
With this mindset, Zhang Yang was very relaxed, occasionally chatting and laughing, and taking the chance to glance around or at familiar faces.
By contrast, other members of the team were not as relaxed.
During the trial and location scouting yesterday, the average catch was two hundred kilograms per person, which sounded decent, but achieving that amidst today’s gathering of experts might not suffice to win a pickup truck.
"What? Not nervous about facing thousands in a live stream, but nervous about a mere few hundred in a black pit competition?"
Zhang Yang glanced around, smiling as he spoke.
Meng Fan pulled out cigarettes and shared them with the teammates, lighting one for himself, taking a puff: "Damn! Everywhere we go, it’s full of masters or kings of fishing!
Now realizing the national competitions we chased before were just the tip of the iceberg in the competitive fishing world!
So many experts, hard to be sure of myself!"
Liu Zi chimed in: "Brother Fan is right, while just making bait earlier, I saw at least two kings of fishing!
And a few top competitive fishing masters! You don’t usually encounter this caliber of experts during regular competitions, but today they’re gathered!"
Zhang Yang continued with a smile: "Haha, look at you two with such little ambition! What’s so great about masters and fishing kings? Didn’t they become so through competitions too? Do they have extra arms or legs? They don’t bite, what’s there to fear!"