Nothing. Nothing. Still nothing...
On a small-to-medium-sized sailboat bound for Jaya, Yang Cheng stared at the fishing rod in his hands and seriously suspected there were no fish in these waters at all!
He had spent several days of their voyage to Jaya fishing with his breath held and his attention focused. Yet not only had nothing bitten, the float hadn't even twitched once in all that time.
Their boat wasn't large, and with Nico Robin joining the crew, the supplies they had stocked weren't enough to go around.
At first, seeing how intently Yang Cheng fished, Miss Valentine and Robin had assumed he was an expert and placed high hopes in him.
After several days, however, they realized Yang Cheng was just a lousy angler with an enormous fishing addiction.
Fortunately, Yang Cheng's battle with Crocodile had greatly boosted his fame, bringing plenty of challengers hoping to make a name for themselves.
Those challengers ended up dropping plenty of supplies for them, which was the only reason they hadn't starved along the way.
"Yang Cheng, why don't you give it a rest? We've got plenty of supplies now. It really doesn't matter whether you catch anything..."
Seeing Yang Cheng stare at the float on the sea with bloodshot eyes, Miss Valentine couldn't help feeling sorry for him.
"No! An angler never goes home empty-handed! As long as I don't reel in my line, I haven't struck out.
"I stake my title as the greatest angler on this! Unless there are no fish in this sea, I'm going to catch one!"
Miss Valentine was speechless at his stubborn expression, but soon sighed. "Well, even the greatest angler needs to eat, right?
"How about this? Go have something to eat, and I'll hold your rod for you.
"As long as I don't reel it in, that means you still haven't struck out, right?"
After a moment's hesitation, Yang Cheng gladly accepted Miss Valentine's suggestion.
As the greatest angler, if he had gone this long without catching anything, it could only mean the fish in these waters weren't biting.
In that case, there was nothing wrong with having Miss Valentine serve as his stand-in for a while.
He handed her the rod, explained a few basics, then turned and went into the cabin to get something to eat.
Yet just as Yang Cheng walked into the cabin, Miss Valentine saw the float on the surface get dragged straight underwater in one go.
"Yang Cheng just said I should lift the rod when this happens, didn't he...?"
A dozen minutes later, Yang Cheng finished wolfing down his food and prepared to resume his grand fishing endeavor.
When he returned to the deck and saw Miss Valentine hauling aboard a huge fish weighing at least several dozen pounds, he froze in utter disbelief.
"Yang Cheng, you're back! I never knew fishing could be so much fun.
"You said it really tested your patience, but I don't think patience has much to do with it.
"Every time I cast, I barely have to wait before a fish bites.
"Look how many I've caught in the little time you spent eating."
As she spoke, Miss Valentine gestured for Yang Cheng to look at the bucket beside her.
It was already filled to the brim with fish...
"The chum I put down earlier must finally be working. Hurry up and give me the rod. It's my time to shine!"
Five minutes. Ten minutes...
As he stared at the float sitting motionless on the sea, as though someone had cast a paralysis spell on it, Yang Cheng began to lose his composure.
Yang Cheng glanced at Miss Valentine beside him, then at Nico Robin, who was reading in a beach chair nearby.
"Robin, don't just sit there reading all day. It's bad for your eyes. Want to try fishing?"
"Fishing? But I don't know how."
"That's fine. I can teach you."
The greatest angler firmly believed that his failure to catch a fish definitely wasn't a problem with his technique. The fish here were the problem!
Miss Valentine's string of catches had to be a fluke!
His earlier chumming had drawn the fish over, but Miss Valentine's rough jerking of the rod had scared them all away again.
That was why he had gone back to catching nothing when he took over.
Firmly convinced of this, Yang Cheng handed his rod to Robin to prove his theory.
Yet a few minutes later, watching Nico Robin use the Flower-Flower Fruit to put her fishing on autopilot and reel in fish after fish, the greatest angler fell completely silent.
He couldn't even beat a bot...
What the hell? Were the fish in these waters horny bastards too?
Screw being a goddamn angler! Not even a dog would do this!
Seeing Yang Cheng throw down the rod and storm into the cabin, Robin and Miss Valentine covered their mouths and giggled.
Meanwhile, the greatest angler, whose convictions had been shattered, entered the Mysterious Space again to heal his wounded heart.
Yang Cheng believed there were generally two effective ways to shake off a bad mood quickly.
One was to make other people suffer with you. As long as everyone shouldered the burden together, you wouldn't be the most miserable one anymore.
The other was to find someone even more unfortunate than yourself and build your happiness on his suffering.
Clearly, One Piece Yang Cheng thought the guys in the Mysterious Space were perfect for both approaches.
Upon entering the Mysterious Space, One Piece Yang Cheng found Naruto Yang Cheng and Devimon Yang Cheng talking to a Yang Cheng in a high school uniform.
"Yo, got another newcomer?"
As a regular visitor to the Mysterious Space, One Piece Yang Cheng was thoroughly familiar with its usual faces, but this was indeed his first time seeing the high school student Yang Cheng.
"He is a newcomer, but unfortunately, he's no powerhouse. Just an ordinary high school student."
Unlike the Yang Cheng in Shana's world, the Yang Chengs in the other worlds weren't yet strong enough to be completely safe in their respective worlds.
Although their stories hadn't officially begun, who would want to lie low if they had the strength to smash through everything in their path?
"Are you kidding me? These days, is there even such a thing as an ordinary high school student in an anime crossover setting? High school students have practically taken over other worlds!"
Everyone knew that in anime crossover settings, ordinary high school students were anything but ordinary.
As one of the main demographics getting transported to other worlds, high school students were the strongest fighters, unlike those college students with their clear-eyed,
idiotic looks and fragile bodies. They were two entirely different groups.
Naruto Yang Cheng didn't say much in response to One Piece Yang Cheng's rant. After all, he had thought the same thing when the newcomer first arrived.
But once Naruto Yang Cheng stepped forward and shared his memories and power with One Piece Yang Cheng, the look One Piece Yang Cheng gave High School Student Yang Cheng quickly filled with envy.
He had come to find his fellow Yang Chengs from other worlds and make them share his suffering as an angler, but seeing High School Student Yang Cheng's memories only made him feel worse...
Because, just as Naruto Yang Cheng had said, the newcomer really was an ordinary high school student, not some overpowered big shot in another world.
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