Early the next morning, on the fifth day of Desert Island Survival, the blazing sun was out again.
Yu Hai had suffered from insomnia. He got up with dark circles under his eyes. He had no idea how he had managed to fall asleep over the past few days, but the quality of that sleep had been impeccable. Maybe he had simply been exhausted after grinding his fishing proficiency for two days straight.
Ever since taking a nap yesterday afternoon, he had been unable to sleep last night. He kept worrying that Kyogre might launch a nighttime attack, or that other Wild Pokémon might attack him. The campfire had also gone out once in the middle of the night, and he had seen countless glowing green lanterns.
Those had probably been the eyes of nocturnal Pokémon. They scared him into rebuilding the fire, but afterward, he could not sleep for the rest of the night.
There was no other reason. He was afraid of being attacked at night, and the sound of the waves was too damn loud. His ears had practically grown calluses from listening to them. He had no idea how long it would take before he got used to the sound of the surf.
He also had not seen rain for five days. He suspected that he was somewhere near the equator in the Pokémon World, otherwise it would not be this unbearably hot. This weather reminded him of a saying.
"Life may torment me a thousand times, but I will still treat it like my first love..."
There was nothing he could do. Desert Island Survival had to continue.
Today, one man and one tadpole got up especially early. Their training plan had already been decided, and it concerned their survival. They had no choice but to rise early.
Yu Hai went to the water collection point to switch out the plastic bucket, then carried back a large bucket of freshwater to the shelter. He now had a bucket and a half of freshwater.
That bucket had taken an entire night to fill, and it had even overflowed.
But there was nothing he could do about it. Since he could not see the road at night and did not dare travel in the dark, he had not gone to replace the plastic bucket.
If he accidentally stepped on a Pokémon or ran into one, being chased down was inevitable. With the night so dark that he could not see his own hand, he was not confident he could survive a Pokémon's pursuit.
For safety's sake, he would not switch the water collection bucket at night. He treasured his life.
To put it bluntly, there was nothing wrong with being cautious. It was better than losing his life.
After placing the bucket and a half of freshwater in the shade and covering the plastic buckets with a foam board to prevent evaporation, he picked up his Fishing Rod and headed to yesterday's fishing spot, ready to begin another fishing trip.
Ever since catching that Sharp-toothed Fish last time, he had kept coming up empty. It was honestly a little embarrassing. No matter what, he had to catch something today.
After all, today was different from yesterday. The bait he was using was no longer leaves.
When Poliwag saw him wake up, it woke up as well and followed him to the rocky fishing spot by the sea.
Today, he did not let Poliwag merely watch. Instead, he reached down and picked Poliwag up, stared solemnly into its bright black eyes, and said seriously, "Poliwag..."
"Yoyo? Yoyo?" It was the first time Poliwag had seen Yu Hai this serious, and it could not help becoming more serious too. It stopped acting cute and stared straight into Yu Hai's eyes, wanting to hear what he had to say.
"Poliwag, what comes next will be very hard. I hope you can persevere," Yu Hai said. He did not know whether Poliwag could understand him, but he hoped the little tadpole could.
He needed Poliwag to grow stronger as soon as possible. It was extremely important for both of them. Their survival depended on it.
He would handle the food problem. Poliwag only needed to become stronger.
"Yoyo? Yoyo?" Poliwag truly did not understand Yu Hai's words, but Yu Hai had never been this serious before. Poliwag's little gaze became firmer, and it nodded hard at Yu Hai.
"Good." Seeing Poliwag nod, Yu Hai secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Good, it understood. He then began arranging Poliwag's training plan.
"Poliwag, your training this morning is to use Water Gun. For every one percent increase in Water Gun proficiency, you can rest for one hourglass."
The hourglass was a little trinket Yu Hai had found while scavenging. He had roughly calculated it, and one full cycle lasted five minutes.
In other words, every one percent increase in proficiency earned Poliwag five minutes of rest.
At the start, he had not set the requirement too high. Otherwise, Poliwag might develop resistance toward training.
With the Proficiency Panel, it was enough to proceed step by step. Last night, merely playing in the water for a few minutes had increased its proficiency by 0.5. Increasing proficiency at the beginning should not be difficult.
There was also accuracy. He did not require Water Gun to be accurate yet. As long as Poliwag could use Water Gun, that was enough. Since proficiency would increase either way, they could train its accuracy after the proficiency had risen.
After placing the hourglass beside the reef, he looked at Poliwag again and asked seriously, "Poliwag, do you understand?"
"Yoyo." Poliwag glanced at the hourglass. As the fine sand inside began to fall, Poliwag immediately nodded to show that it understood.
"Good. Go on, use Water Gun by the shore." Yu Hai set Poliwag down and pointed it toward a shallow stretch of beach where the waves were not too strong, letting it go play there.
"Yoyo, yoyo." Poliwag turned to look at the beach Yu Hai had indicated, then hopped over and began gulping down large amounts of seawater in the shallows before spitting it back out.
Every now and then, it even dived into the shallows to look for green seaweed as a snack.
Yu Hai did not say anything about Poliwag treating play as more important than training.
As long as the little foodie was happy, that was fine. There would be plenty of time for the little foodie to suffer later. Letting it enjoy the joys of childhood a little longer was not bad. Otherwise, it would not have such chances in the future. It should cherish the present.
After sending the little guy to the shallows to train Water Gun and play, Yu Hai took out the snail meat he had saved from last night.
After fermenting overnight, the snail meat gave off a perfectly sour, rotten stench. He carefully threaded it onto the fishhook, then cast the bait into the sea.
The smell was indeed revolting to a human like him, but it was different for fish. Many fish were scavengers.
The stinkier the snail meat, the more delicious it was in the eyes of most fish.
After casting the bait, Yu Hai sat on the reef with his Fishing Rod in hand, watching the bobber rise and fall on the water. From time to time, he glanced at Poliwag's Proficiency Panel. The proficiency of its Water Gun move was rising rapidly.
It soon surpassed one percent and continued to climb, but he did not stop Poliwag.
The little foodie was having the time of its life, spitting water in all sorts of fancy ways in the shallows. He could not bring himself to interrupt it. Since it liked playing, he would let it play.
Later, he would let the little foodie know what it meant when city schemes ran deep and going back to the countryside was no longer an option.
As he watched the Proficiency Panel, he also noticed the bobber tip moving. This time, a fish had taken the bait quickly. He had only just cast it when the bobber sank slightly, then soon bounced back up.
He gripped the Fishing Rod tightly with both hands, a trace of excitement stirring in his heart. A fish had finally taken the bait.
But as he watched the bobber tip sink slightly and rebound, repeating several times in a row, he felt that something was wrong.
"Is this... light tapping?"
Light tapping referred to the bobber sinking slightly by one mark before rising by one mark. One mark was a small colored section on the tip of the bobber.
The bobber lightly bounced or swayed on the sea surface as though nodding. This repeated up-and-down movement was what anglers called light tapping.
Of course, he preferred calling it dragonfly dipping. It was also a bobber signal that anglers did not particularly like. A bobber signal was the movement displayed by the float on the water while fishing.
For anglers, the importance of bobber signals went without saying. In truth, only by understanding those signals could they accurately determine whether a fish had taken the bait, what kind of fish it was, and how large it was.
Different fishing methods, fish activity, water conditions, seasons, and other factors could cause bobber signals to change in countless ways.
This was also why anglers often came up empty. Once they changed fishing spots, the bobber signals would show new dynamic changes, leaving them struggling to adapt.
Veterans had plenty of experience and would get the hang of things faster. As for beginners, naturally, they would come up empty.
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