Paper Angler

Fang Xian looked back at the water.

Under the pitch-black night sky, the lake had grown calm again.

Only a fine drizzle remained.

"Jiumi, jiumi."

Xiao Jiu frowned at the lake, her claws raised as if ready for a fight.

"The Human-Faced Fish..."

Fang Xian's eyes turned cold.

That damned thing really had tried to kill him.

If the boat had capsized, he would have been no match for the monster underwater.

With that thought, Fang Xian took a sausage from his backpack.

He peeled off the wrapper and hurled it into the water.

Ripples spread across the surface.

Nothing happened.

The water was even calmer than before.

"A fish with high intelligence."

Fang Xian recalled locking eyes with that face beneath the boat.

Its pale, rotting presence had filled him with an inexplicable chill.

"Still, no matter what, it's only a fish. It probably can't come ashore."

Fang Xian didn't dare sound too certain. For all he knew, the thing might grow legs and climb onto land. There was no telling with urban legends.

For now, though, Fang Xian had no intention of returning to the other shore.

With that eerie giant fish beneath the lake, he might not be so lucky next time.

His shoes crunched over the gravel.

A soft rustling followed.

Fang Xian felt something underfoot. Looking down, he found scraps of food.

"Instant noodles. Meat."

"These scraps weren't leftovers."

"Someone... broke them into pieces."

Someone had been feeding the fish here!

And there was a good chance they had been feeding the monstrous fish that wanted to kill him!

Fang Xian quickly looked around.

It was too dark to see anything.

"Jiumi... jiumi..."

Xiao Jiu didn't look capable of detecting anything either. Fang Xian couldn't help wondering:

Xiao Jiu, why do you keep coming out every day just to drain my game time?

Of course, he couldn't say that to her face.

It might cause a rift between trainer and urban legend.

"Then again, maybe not. The guesthouse owner said plenty of people wanted to catch that monstrous fish. They might be using the food to lure it out and catch it in one go."

If it was a bounty hunter from the auction house, Fang Xian wasn't too concerned.

With that thought, Fang Xian bandaged his wound to stop the bleeding.

Then he took out two condoms and inflated them until they were about the size of his trouser legs.

He tied off their openings and stuffed them into his trouser legs.

Next, he tied the two trouser legs tightly together.

Just like that, he had a makeshift life ring.

"Better prepare now in case I fall in."

Xiao Jiu watched from the side with wide-eyed curiosity, occasionally stroking Fang Xian's wound.

All the preparations were complete.

Fang Xian stood up again.

He glanced at the calm lake.

Just you wait, Carp King. Next time we meet, either I capture you...

Or you die.

Fang Xian followed the shore.

He headed back the way he had come, but on the opposite bank. This time, he intended to find the angler he had seen earlier.

Anyone who could fish peacefully at the reservoir in the middle of the night hardly seemed ordinary. If the angler was a friendly local who could tell him something about the urban legends here, all the better.

As he walked, Fang Xian couldn't shake the feeling that something was watching him.

He just couldn't tell what it was.

The face beneath the water?

Or someone else?

Changzhao Reservoir, with its multiple urban legends, was a bit much.

Fang Xian huffed to himself.

Sooner or later, I'll catch them all.

At last,

a glimmer of light appeared in the distance.

"A glow-in-the-dark float... discreet, portable, and good for catching big fish."

"Could this angler really be here to catch the Human-Faced Fish?"

Fang Xian straightened his clothes a little so he wouldn't look quite so bedraggled.

He approached slowly, ready to strike up a conversation.

It was dark up ahead.

All Fang Xian could make out was a small folding stool.

A breeze blew past.

The figure on it seemed to sway.

"Hey, man."

Fang Xian gave a friendly smile. "You fishing?"

He called out clearly.

Few people could turn down such warmth.

But there was no answer from ahead.

The angler remained seated, clutching the fishing rod and muttering to himself.

It was as though he hadn't heard Fang Xian at all.

Fang Xian didn't mind.

Nothing strange about meeting someone a little shy.

A faint smell of burning hung in the air, mingled with the earthy scent of soil.

Fang Xian walked closer. "Hey, you know what?"

"I ran into a huge fish on the other side of the river just now."

He kept approaching.

When he had almost reached the angler,

his steps suddenly slowed.

Huh?

Fang Xian stopped.

His pupils contracted.

The angler had been so quiet that Fang Xian had already sensed something was wrong.

But only now did he realize

that the figure sitting on the stool

wasn't a living person at all.

It was a paper effigy dressed in red!

The paper figure had no eyes. Two bright red circles marked its pale face.

It stared blankly ahead, its body swaying slightly in the wind.

Its hands held a fishing rod, as if it were a real person fishing in the middle of the night.

"Jiumi?"

Fang Xian took a step back and moved Xiao Jiu in front of him.

He quickly pulled out his phone and opened the Urban Legend Compendium app.

One day, I'm buying a phone without ads, damn it!

Fang Xian fumed.

This time, though, the Urban Legend Compendium was unusually quiet. Nothing appeared.

Not even a single Urban Legend Alert.

"Don't tell me the signal's bad."

"Come on, not now."

Fang Xian looked at the paper figure.

He slowed his movements even more.

As the wind swept along the shore,

the paper figure seemed to notice Fang Xian.

Its blank face turned directly toward him.

It wore an expression that almost looked like a smile. Anyone stumbling upon it at midnight might have had a heart attack.

But Fang Xian

wasn't just anyone.

"Trying to scare me in the middle of the night?"

Without hesitation,

Fang Xian drew the Fire Axe and marched straight toward it.

His steps quickened. He looked every bit like a murderer stalking through the night.

"Hey, friend, say something. It's the middle of the night."

Fang Xian stepped right in front of the paper effigy.

He lowered his head slightly until his face was almost touching its own.

"How's the fishing?"

"Caught nothing, huh?"

The paper figure gave no reply. It remained just as blank.

Fang Xian rubbed the material of its body between his fingers.

Then he opened the bait bucket beside its stool and peered inside.

The bucket held chunks of some kind of meat.

They had already begun to rot, making it impossible to tell what kind of meat it was.

Maggots crawled over them.

Now Fang Xian was even more certain.

"It's not an urban legend."

"This thing... is just an ordinary paper figure."

"Someone deliberately put it here!"

"So this is what's behind the Changzhao Reservoir paper-figure legend?"

Under Xiao Jiu's admiring gaze, Fang Xian kicked the paper figure over.

Then he reeled in its fishing line.

"Nice rod. I'm taking it."

Fang Xian glanced at the paper figure.

It had no objections.

Good.