The Legend of the Fishermen of Sicily

Every day, Andre's lectures were a good opportunity for Leo to reflect on life.

Hearing the epic naval battles between the Romans and Carthaginians before Christ, he was thinking about how to maximize the use of his upgraded skills.

[Congratulations, host, you have acquired the skill - Weakness Strike!]

[Weakness Strike: Your close-range attack and throwing accuracy are greatly improved, and you have learned to find the weaknesses of your targets—whether they are biological joints or the structure of objects.]

[System Note: Knowing where to type is just as important as knowing how to type.]

[Please continue to increase your influence and acquire more abilities.]

After the upgrade, the latest system panel looks like this:

[Host: Leo Volpe]

[Identity: Anonymous]

[Reputation: 10]

[Faction: 0]

[Skills: Weakness exploitation, torture to extract confessions]

The newly acquired [Weakness Strike] is more similar to what Leo considers a "headlock technique," both of which attack the weakest point of an object, causing immense damage.

[Weakness Strike] also upgrades the attack speed and throwing accuracy, meaning that Leo's efficiency in catching crabs will be improved to some extent.

Then a series of problems arose.

He can't sell the crabs he's catching now, so what's the point of catching more?

Isn't that just plain leveling up the stray cat's affection level...?

If the sales issue cannot be resolved, Leo's next step, going to sea alone, will also be impossible to proceed.

It turns out that there are fishermen in Marzamemi who go out to sea alone, so this route is feasible.

Both Marco and Solberto mentioned that Sicilians rely on hand-eye communication to fish, so there must be some patterns to follow in their fishing methods.

Leo could also use this set of rules, which was simpler and faster than what he could figure out and create himself, and it was also suitable for him as a novice fisherman who had no money for initial investment and was not accepted by the local fleet.

Although Rosalia's voyage was illogical in many ways, a great deal of valuable information can still be deduced by disregarding those details.

The saddletail and rainbow wrasse on her stall are nearshore fish.

Sea urchins, mussels, and scallops mostly grow on rocks.

The small and varied catch indicates that it was not trawled or longlined.

The dripping water from the long-handled mirror shovel indicates a need for underwater operations.

The presence of fins but the absence of scuba gear and oxygen tanks suggests that freediving was used.

Through all of the above, Detective Leo has already constructed a preliminary "model" for a solo voyage in his mind—

Within 1 kilometer of the shore, this range meets the safety requirements for freediving and solo voyages.

Considering the habitat habits of rainbow wrasse and saddletail, the water depth should be in the range of 5-15 meters.

The seabed is a mixed landscape of rocks and seaweed beds, not a sandy beach.

The target species are sea urchins, shellfish, and reef-dwelling fish.

The most important target species for fishing is undoubtedly the sea urchin, which has always been expensive.

Having summarized these key pieces of information, the next steps have become clear.

First, it is necessary to confirm the reliability and authenticity of the above inferences. Solberto has been running a shipyard for decades and must be familiar with this information. He may even be able to provide Rio with more comprehensive and professional supplementary advice.

Once Solberto confirmed that Rio's direction was correct, the next step was to find suitable sea areas and prepare the hardware and software for shallow-water diving harvesting.

And then...

Then comes making money, saving money, upgrading equipment, buying bigger ships, and going to more distant seas!

Leo composed himself and focused on the task at hand.

"It's actually underwater fishing." This answer surprised and excited him.

He had studied scuba diving, so he was no stranger to it.

If you haven't had any experience with this, you really would have had to find another way out. You can only say you're really lucky.

Of course, at the same time, we must not forget to solve the biggest problem—

"We need to solve the problem of how to sell it first."

......

After the fish market closed, Leo first took the crabs back to the shipyard, then went to a café and called Solberto's address in Palermo.

First, to ask if there are any new developments over there; second, to remind the other party not to forget about this matter.

The other party told Leo that, judging by the time, Sorbetto would be back soon, and told him to be patient and wait for two more days.

After hanging up the phone, Leo turned around and went to the ice cream shop next door to buy a double scoop cone ice cream.

Andre bought another crab today.

They've been open for two consecutive days. I can't bear to eat a big meal, but I can still spend a little money.

In Italy, ice cream is a consumable, especially in the hot summer. Sicilians feel that if they don't eat one or two ice creams a day, the day is wasted.

While we were waiting for the owner to make the ice cream, several children rushed into the shop.

Each of them held a handful of change, like hungry baby birds, heads held high and arms outstretched, hoping the shopkeeper would accept their money first and make them the lucky ones to get the ice cream.

Leo automatically retreated to the vicinity of the gate, afraid of being accidentally injured by the group of hungry children. He saw a little girl at the gate who hadn't come in and was looking inside longingly.

This poor child is Monica, the daughter of Elena, the lighthouse owner.

As Leo left, Monica's eyes remained fixed on the ice cream in his hand, just like the last time they met at the restaurant.

Heh, what a little glutton.

Leo walked past her, bent down, and asked:

"Mom won't let you eat it?"

Monica took a step back, hid behind the door frame, and peered out with one eye to observe Leo, her face full of vigilance.

Leo shook the ice cream in his hand:

"If your mother hadn't objected, and you weren't sick, I could have asked you to come."

Leo understands all too well the feeling of wanting to eat something but not being able to.

Monica's eyes visibly widened, and she replied in a weak voice, her lips pursed:

"Mom said I can't eat too much."

Not being able to eat too much means you can eat a lot.

Leo handed over the ice cream he was holding:

"Your mom gave me bread, so I'll give you ice cream to even things out. Here you go."

Monica watched the ice cream being made, and Leo had never tasted it before. She hesitated for a few seconds before saying "thank you."

After the children came out one by one, Leo went in and bought another one.

"Is it still a double ball?" the boss asked.

"Single ball," Leo replied with a smile, watching Monica bounce around.

......

Leo took the ice cream to the small square in Marzamemi, wanting to find a cool place to think about how to smoothly advance the next few things he needed to do.

Just as I was pondering where to get diving equipment, a familiar light blue screen suddenly appeared before my eyes.

Moreover, the text above feels very familiar.

Violent conflict is occurring on your territory!

You have received a time-limited mission: Clear the area.

[Mission Requirement: Please quell the conflict within one hour.]

They assume you're not there or that you can't control them—both are fatal mistakes. Find those bastards who are running wild on your turf without permission, grab them by the neck, and tell them, word by word, that on your turf, no one else has the right to lay a hand on you.

[Quest Reward: Reputation +2]

Leo was speechless and laughed.

You think I won't recognize you just because you changed your identity?

Are you asking me to break up a fight between stray cats again?!

I think you should change your name.

Let's not call it the Godfather System anymore, calling it the Cat King System would be much better.

Years later, I, Leo, led all the wild cats in Sicily to overthrow human tyranny and then invested in making a movie called "Rise of the Catball".

Despite the complaints, Leo was actually quite happy to see this mission.

This task is great; it's practically a godsend for grinding experience points.

You can get 2 reputation points just by shouting a couple of times, which is much easier than those missions where you go to ruins at night to find a psychopathic killer.

......

Leo leisurely returned to the shipyard to deal with the mischievous little creatures.

But his pace quickened, quickened—because he heard no meows.

Seeing that there was no cat at the entrance of the shipyard, he rushed to the shore where the big orange cat often stayed and found it sleeping soundly without a care in the world.

Not only that, he also saw other stray cats along the way, and more than one.

These little creatures were all busy with their own things, showing no signs of fighting or brawling... He started to get anxious.

.......

The fish market was over, and Leo went to the densely populated village center.

The surroundings were still peaceful. Seeing Marco smoking at the door, he went over and asked:

"Malzamemi... Anyone like to fight?"

This aimless searching isn't going to work; he wants to pinpoint a few "dangerous individuals."

This time, Marco didn't brush him off with "How would I know?", but pointed to himself:

"Of course it's me!"

Leo was startled, unsure if he was joking.

But Marco doesn't look like a 'dangerous person' at all.

Several villagers nearby gathered around after hearing Marco's answer, pointing at themselves and shouting.

"You think you can fight as well as I can? I started fighting when I was three years old, what about you?"

"What's three years old? I was already fighting at the docks with my brothers when I was six, against a bunch of adults in their twenties!"

"I can take on three of them by myself, can you?"

"I can take on five of them by myself!!"

Andrei suddenly appeared out of nowhere and kindly explained to Leo:

"Little fox, this is Sicily. You should ask who doesn't like to fight. Here, it's a compliment to say someone is 'good at fighting' or 'knows how to fight,' which is why they want to compete and see who's better."

He spoke animatedly to those around him:

"Speaking of fighting, I have a lot to say about it. Once, some unfamiliar fishing boats came to our waters to fish. Andrei led all the men in the village to confront them, and I went with them. That big melee of hundreds of people was really exciting. I remember it was in April 1963—"

Listening to the local villagers chatting about fighting as casually as if it were an everyday occurrence, Leo finally realized the seriousness of the situation.

There might actually be a fight going on in Malzamemi...

And it's definitely not one of those 'kittens' that stop when you call them.

He ran away quickly, recalling the "starting stance" and "combo" he had designed earlier.