Chapter 13: Eight Fish

Thinking on his feet, Ari suddenly smiled. Since this area was the best place to be for winning prizes, why don’t they stay here? Seeing how enamored Ji-Hye was with this booth, it should be easy and he wouldn’t have to explain his thought process for only playing these games.  

 

“Hey, Ji-Hye, what if we stay in this location? We can play every game and in 30 minutes we would wind back here,” Ari suggested. “If we do that, we can hit this stand about 3 times before the main event begins.”

 

“That’s a great idea, but are you sure you want to stay here and play these games? After all, there are so many better ones,” Ji-Hye asked, a tad concerned she was forcing her wishes onto him. 

 

Ari just secretly grinned before reassuring her that it was fine. “I don’t mind playing these games. I feel like it would be a novel experience for me, anyway. Plus, it’ll be fun to see how good we are at these games.”

 

“Well, if you insist,” Ji-Hye chuckled before nodding toward the NPC to start her round.

 

As Ari watched his cousin try her hand at the fish scooping game, he realized it was much harder than it appeared to be. The net that was given was covered with a thin paper that would break when coming in contact with water. So, Ji-Hye had to time her scooping motion just right so that the net would be submerged for a few seconds and then quickly bring it back up to catch as many fish as possible. 

 

Even if a person is aware of the right course of action, taking decisive steps to implement their plan can be challenging, as showcased by Ji-Hye breaking both of her nets capturing no fish. Just when Ari thought things were going south and she would break the last one, things started to look up. Ji-Hye managed to capture 2 fish. 

 

“Nice!” Ari cheered before patting his cousin on the back in congratulations. 

 

“Lucky,” she sang, grabbing the jar with the fish, and holding it up to the booth operator. “What do I win?”

 

The NPC didn’t reply. Instead, he pressed a golden button that was in front of him. The button summoned a silver scale that was used to collaborate the prize. 

 

“Place your fish here, please,” he said, gesturing to the scale.

 

Giddy, Ji-Hye quickly did what the man said and placed her jar on top of the scale as soon as she did a transparent prize list for the amount of fish she caught popped up.  

 

Moving closer, Ari started skimming the list. It seemed the planners would not make any game truly easy. The two fish that his cousin worked so hard to get was barely worth anything.

 

The only skills she could get were Hop, Bash, Knee Jab, and two others, and since something easily learned inside of the game, so selling them would be pointless.

 

“Would you like to cash out your prize now?” The NPC asked after they stood there for a couple of seconds gaping at the prize list. 

 

Ji-Hye turned to the booth operator as if she had just realized something and asked, “Can I hold on to my fish and merge them with the fish I win later?”

 

“You can, but you need to pick a prize before the main event begins.”

 

Ari sighed. If one thing that VR was better at the NPCs were more human. These NPCs were basically robots. They would not give out useful information unless people squeezed it out of them. 

 

“Awesome,” Ji-Hye replied, taking the jar off the scale and putting it away into her inventory. “Now I can save up for a better prize.”

 

“Not if you fail your other turns,” Ari responded jokingly. 

 

“Which is why I will perfect my technique through you, my little guinea pig.”

 

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Giving her a questioning glance, Ari said, “What do you mean, guinea pig? I going to win using my own technique, not some convoluted way you come up with.”

 

“I know, I’m only using you for your failure,” Ji-Hye smirked. “I want to know what not to do.”

 

Ari was really close to throwing one of his paper nets at her. He forgot how annoying she could be sometimes. No wonder she always felt like a little sister to him.   

 

Ari was just about to reply immaturely when the booth operator interrupted him.

 

“Sir, would you like to take your turn now?”

 

“Yes, I would. I need to show this loser how it’s done,” Ari replied, grinning as Ji-Hye stuck her tongue at him.

 

“Don’t act like you could do better than me,” Ji-Hye huffed. “I have seen your eye-hand coordination.”

 

Ari just smirked in response. If he was the same boy, he was in his first life. Her words would be true, but things have changed after years of working for the Black Company. Many things have.

 

However, despite all the unwelcome changes in his life, the ones he made to himself were positive. And one of those changes was having a better awareness of his body. 

 

In response to Ji-Hye’s earlier statement, he just let out a light laugh. “Just sit back and watch a master at work.”

 

“If you say so,” snarked Ji-Hye as she came over to watch him. 

 

“Just wait and see.” 

 

With those words, Ari placed the jar the NPC gave him on one of the glass holders just above the small pond. Then, after studying the fish’s movements, he carefully placed the net directly beneath the fish's belly and followed its movement with his net. But because of his overeagerness, during his first attempt, he broke the paper net, provoking Ji-Hye’s laughter.  

 

However, on his second try, he finally got the hang of it. Staring intently at the goldfish he was targeting, he lowered his net underneath it. Once he saw it was about to flee, he gradually lifted his net at an angle, catching the goldfish, before placing it into his glass jar. 

 

He repeated this five times before his second net was destroyed. Realizing he needed to be a little faster on his last turn, he sped up his pace, only to do worse than before. He only gained an extra three fish because of it. 

 

It seemed an important thing to remember when playing this game was to never hurry or lose patience. 

 

Ji-Hye, who had been silent once he had started capturing fish, suddenly gushed over his achievements. “OMG, Ari, when did you get so good at this game? I can’t believe you got eight fish on your first time.”

 

“Well," Ari began, picking his jar up. “I did have a guinea pig to study.” 

 

“Y-you...,” Ji-Hye stuttered humorously, punching him gently on his arm.

 

 Laughing, he put the jar in his inventory before saying, “So, what game should we play next?” 

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