The pond wasn’t far from the bamboo grove. After walking for a short while, Zhang Shuguang spotted a shimmering expanse of water.

He raised an eyebrow, glancing at the small waterfall upstream. “Does that mean we can’t go any further?”

Li nodded. “Right. If you go any deeper, you’ll encounter large beasts coming to drink. But they’re afraid of the scent of our tribe’s beastmen, so they rarely come down from the cliffs.”

Zhang Shuguang nodded, understanding. They were clearly scared off by past encounters.

The water in the pool was crystal clear and shallow—it could almost be called a pond.

“How do we fish?” Li flicked the bamboo branch he held. “We’ve always just waded in to catch fish before.”

Zhang Shuguang set his leaf bundle on the ground, pulled out a large earthworm, snapped it in half by hand, and wrapped the tip of the bamboo stick around the worm twice to secure it. After testing to ensure it wouldn’t slip off, he found several thin, sturdy twigs and stuck them horizontally into the loop. “Like this.”

He dipped the bamboo rod into the water. Before long, a fish as long as an arm swam over, swallowing the rod and worm whole in one gulp.

Zhang Shuguang silently counted to three, then flicked the rod backward with force. With a plop, the greedy fish landed on the shore.

Li was thoroughly impressed by his series of actions.

No soaking wet clothes, no standing motionless in cold water—he’d actually caught a fish so effortlessly!

Zhang Shuguang didn’t notice Li’s astonishment. He picked up the fish to inspect it, only to find the thin twig had slipped out of the circle, and the earthworm was gone too.

He frowned. If catching one fish required nearly half a worm, he hadn’t dug up enough. Moreover, this thin twig proved unstable as a hook—small fish would likely swallow the worm whole and swim away.

With that thought, he bent down, evenly split the remaining earthworm with a stone, then sharpened both ends of the twig slightly.

After finishing his adjustments and preparing to cast again, he noticed Li still standing there blankly watching him. “You fish too,” he said. “Fish love these worms. You’ll catch plenty.”

Li nodded blankly, clumsily mimicking the actions he’d just seen. But he didn’t tie the worm securely enough, and it got snatched by fish several times without landing a single catch.

Zhang Shuguang, on the other hand, caught a fish almost every time he cast. He gathered all his catches together and, to prevent them from dying of thirst, dug a shallow pit in the ground, filled it with water, and kept the fish there temporarily.

“This isn’t working. I can’t catch anything,” Li said after repeated failures, giving up. “I’d rather not waste these worms.”

Zhang Shuguang chuckled softly. “Just get familiar with them. These are earthworms. You can easily dig them up in moist soil. They’re nothing special.”

Li shook his head. “I’m really hopeless. You’re so good, catching so many.”

Zhang Shuguang glanced at the fish in the shallow pit—over a dozen, large and small combined.

But he was still far from his goal—not nearly enough for fish jerky.

“Xiao Cai, the fish jerky quest has a bug.”

Xiao Cai: “Master, what kind of bug?”

Zhang Shuguang kept his eyes fixed on the water’s surface, arms motionless, thinking aloud: “The fish jerky quest requires completion on the same day to get the reward, but making fish jerky takes at least three or four days. Don’t you think that’s a bug?”

Xiao Cai: “Master, you’re absolutely right. I’ll immediately request bug compensation.”

Zhang Shuguang was overjoyed inside. He’d only mentioned it on a whim after suddenly realizing the issue—never expecting actual compensation.

After two more fish were reeled in, Xiao Cai’s electronic voice chimed: “Master, the system offers direct mission completion as compensation. No task items required.”

Zhang Shuguang raised an eyebrow. “No other extra compensation? That’s pretty stingy.”

Xiao Cai: “Apologies, Master. The app will fix potential bugs in the next update. There is no additional compensation.”

Fine. He’d only asked out of curiosity anyway. Getting the power, points, and experience rewards without submitting the quest items was already pretty good.

After using up all the earthworms he’d brought to the shallow pond, Zhang Shuguang caught twenty large fish around 40cm long and thirteen smaller ones about 20cm. He didn’t know what kind of fish they were—he’d never seen them before.

Xiao Cai: “Master, your only uncompleted task today is dinner. Please finish it promptly; settlement time is in one hour.”

Zhang Shuguang: “Does eating the dinner count as completing it?”

Xiao Cai: “Yes. This three-meals-a-day task is a special benefit and won’t appear again.”

Zhang Shuguang: “Alright.” Returning to cook now would be impossible—the walk back to the tribe would take over an hour. Better to build a fire and grill the fish here. Besides, Li had helped him greatly today; it only made sense to treat him to a meal.

“Li, let’s grill the fish right here,” he said as he gathered kindling.

Practice makes perfect—he now handled the fire quite smoothly, getting it smoking after just three or four minutes of rubbing.

Li watched his movements and mimicked them. Seeing the flames rise, he exclaimed in surprise, “I think I got it!” Having witnessed fire-starting once before and now seeing it a second time, he felt eager to try it himself.

Zhang Shuguang handed him the stick and small wooden board he’d just used. “Find some dry grass and give it a try. I’ll start grilling the fish first.”

He slit open the fish’s belly with a stone, squatted by the water to clean it, then scraped off the scales.

Li focused on rubbing the sticks together. His movements weren’t smooth—sometimes fast, sometimes slow—and his hands grew sore without producing any smoke.

“I’m so clumsy!” Having failed at both fishing and fire-making, Li felt a bit discouraged.

Zhang Shuguang flipped the fish roasting over the fire, turned to look at him, and offered reassurance: ” I was just like you at first. Don’t rush it—just keep a steady pace.”

Li pressed his lips tightly together, his expression serious and devoid of the earlier lighthearted smile. Staring intently at the stick in his hands, he began rubbing it steadily.

After about ten minutes of rubbing, Zhang Shuguang’s first fish was fully cooked. Finally, Li managed to produce smoke from his stick.

“Shuguang! I got smoke! Look!” His excitement made his hands stop moving. Smoke appeared, but no fire.

“Why no fire?” he stared wide-eyed, utterly incredulous.

Zhang Shuguang smiled as he handed him a fish, explaining, “Just getting smoke isn’t enough. You have to gently blow on it while it’s smoking, then add dry grass to catch fire.”

Li held the fish skewer with a branch in his hand, recalling Zhang Shuguang’s actions after producing smoke. He took a bitter bite of the fish flesh, “!”

He looked down at the fish in his hand, now missing a chunk. “So tender!”

He took another bite, “!! So fragrant!”

Zhang Shuguang grilled the second fish and chuckled, “Tasty, huh? Even Mang Jiu says my fish is delicious, though it could use a bit more salt. With salt, it’d be even better.” Freshwater fish usually lack saltiness and carry a slight earthy taste.

He hadn’t eaten fish from this pond before, so he wasn’t quite sure what it tasted like.

Li nodded vigorously, munching away with gusto, even crunching the bones to eat them: “Sweet and tender. This fish is so good.”

“Sweet?” Zhang Shuguang eyed the fish in his hand suspiciously. How could it be sweet?

“Mm-hmm, it really is sweet. Not overly so, but you’ll see if you try it.” With that, Li tore off a piece of flesh from his remaining fish and offered it to him.

Zhang Shuguang didn’t hesitate, opening his mouth to take it. He paused, startled—there really was a faint sweetness to it.

“Let’s see if this one’s sweet too.” His grilled fish weren’t all the same species. If every type tasted sweet, it might mean the local fish naturally had a hint of sweetness due to the water quality. If not, then the fish Li had eaten earlier was inherently sweet.

Li finished the last few bites of fish in a few mouthfuls, wiped his mouth, and said, “Your cooking is amazing. Way better than my mom’s. My mom only knows how to grill and boil meat, and even her boiled meat broth isn’t as good as yours.“

A faint smile played on Zhang Shuguang’s lips. Truthfully, his cooking skills were merely average by modern standards, but in this primitive, beast-filled world where gourmet cuisine had never existed, he could easily be considered a world-class chef.

In Northeastern Chinese slang, his cooking was ”spot on!”

The second fish grilled to perfection, Li took the third fish to cook herself, letting Zhang Shuguang eat first.

Zhang Shuguang took a bite of his fish. The flesh wasn’t sweet, but it lacked any muddy taste either.

“This one isn’t sweet. The sweet flesh must be from that other kind of fish,” he told Li. “Do you eat raw fish? Why not try it raw?”

Li nodded. “Sure, I’ll eat anything.”

Zhang Shuguang quickly devoured his grilled fish, then grabbed one of the earlier fish from the shallow pool. He took it to the water’s edge to gut and scale it. “Here, try this one.”

Li handed him the grilled fish to continue cooking, then took a bite of the fresh fish. The flesh was indeed sweet.

“Sweet. It’s juicier and sweeter than the grilled fish. Quite tasty.”

Zhang Shuguang nodded. “Then let’s call it Sweetfish. If you like it, take the rest back with you.”

Li smiled and thanked him, “Sure, my mom will love it.”

Zhang Shuguang mentally instructed Xiao Cai: “Xiao Cai, record Sweet Fish: fine scales, fan-shaped tail, slightly sweet flesh, edible raw without muddy taste.”

Xiao Cai: “Understood, Master. You have completed all today’s tasks. Processing rewards now.

Cave-dwelling cleanup task completed. Gained 5% battery power (current: 44%). Earned 5 points (current: 20). Gained 100 experience points (current: 0/800). APP upgraded to Level 2. Unlocked Erjing Tiao chili seeds… Shovel crafting task completed. Gained 15% battery, current battery 89%. Earned 15 points, current points 65. Gained 300 experience, current experience 100/1300. APP upgraded to Level 3, unlocked Bird’s Eye Chili seeds. All daily tasks completed, earning an extra reward of 3 jin of granular fertilizer.”

Zhang Shuguang was thrilled. Was this what they called instant wealth?

Xiao Cai: “Now calculating your daily power consumption…”

Zhang Shuguang: …I’m going broke again!