The Legend of the Fishermen of Sicily

The fishing competition had no impact on Leo's life whatsoever.

The next morning, he went to meet Angie secretly as usual.

After working together for some time, Leo has seen through Angie's true colors.

This child only has one thing on his mind: to become the "great hero of the Mariani family." He is completely oblivious to everything else.

Unexpectedly, Anji brought up fishing today:

Bianchi went out at 4 a.m. this morning.

Leo has learned from Marco who Bianchi is:

"Maybe he went out to make preparations?"

Angie handed the fish basket to Leo, his face etched with lingering worry, making him look like a balding, melancholic prince.

"It shouldn't be, he didn't take the harpoon with him when he left."

Leo comforted him:

"I don't know, there might be other things going on, don't worry."

Angie's worry was so intense it could drip water:

"You must be careful of Ario. You are not Bianchi. Don't let him influence you and make you fight desperately. If you get injured, no one will help me sell seafood. Now is a critical time."

Leo stared in disbelief at himself:

Are you worried about me?

The balding, melancholy prince said with a worried expression:

"There's a type of person who gets stronger the stronger the enemy... I'm talking about Bianchi, so you can't win against him. This kind of person is relatively rare in society, but quite common in the economic field. As Michael Porter said, without competitors, innovation stagnates; the stronger the competitors, the more you are forced to upgrade and reduce costs..."

Angie started spouting those convoluted theories again.

After checking the contents of the fish basket, Leo muttered to himself:

"I understand, your brother is a workaholic."

Marco gave Leo a brief introduction to Bianchi's personality and background yesterday.

Angie shook her head:

"You've got it wrong, Bianchi is actually a cute little kitten."

Leo almost burst out laughing:

"I'm going to the fish market. See you tomorrow."

Angie politely said goodbye to Leo.

Goodbye, but not tomorrow, we should see each other soon.

Leo turned to him and asked:

"Are you going to go fishing?"

Angie shrugs:

"Not just me, my parents and brothers will also go."

.......

The timing of 7 o'clock is brilliant.

It's the "golden time" since the fish market is closing, so you can see the fishing boats that went out to sea during the day before leaving, and the fishing boats that went out to sea at night before resting.

Underwater fishing, an activity that gets people's blood pumping just by hearing about it, is bound to attract a lot of interested people. Bianchi promoted it vigorously for a day, and by 6:30, the area near the dock was already packed with people.

Leo didn't catch many fish yesterday; he only sold them for 100,000.

That's because he did almost nothing yesterday morning, just listened to Enzo introduce his good friend, and then finished early in the evening to go to Andrei's house for dinner.

But to others, this situation seemed more like Leo deliberately conserving his strength yesterday to prepare for today's fishing competition.

On one side is the "daredevil" who gets stronger the stronger the enemy, and on the other side is the "supernova" who has preserved his strength. The whole village is more excited than the two contestants.

Seeing that Leo had sold all the fish, they all came to the dock to wait. Bianchi had disappeared early in the morning, and they planned to follow Leo to the "competition venue".

"Where are we going to compete?" Leo asked Enzo, who had come to pick him up, while fiddling with his trident.

It can't be said that Leo was completely unprepared.

After selling the fish, he wrapped a new layer of anti-slip tape around the trident.

Rosalia's equipment is complete, but too old. Leo only used it for a few days, and the grips started to come loose. They need to be reinforced temporarily; otherwise, they would be difficult to repair if they came loose completely.

Enzo gestured for Leo to follow him:

"A sea area in the southwest."

He then asked Leo:

Do you know the specific rules?

He had someone explain the rules to Leo yesterday; I don't know if Leo remembered them.

Leo held the trident in his hand and brandished it a couple of times to test its feel, then replied without much thought:

"Forget the rules, win and we'll go to Messina."

Leo's words echoed Enzo's statement from yesterday: "Whoever it is, win! Go to Messina!"

But no one else knows what happened between the two of them at sea yesterday.

Leo brandished his trident with great enthusiasm and uttered some startling remarks, igniting the raw passion in the hearts of the fishermen around him.

Regardless of whether he was from out of town or new, he shouted at Leo, "Have a good match!"

This is an inspiration to the brave!

Hearing the encouragement from the stranger, Leo was a little excited.

My heart, which was originally calm, suddenly began to ripple.

You have received a mission: A splendid performance.

Someone has issued a challenge to you, a perfect opportunity for you to make a name for yourself in Sicily. They call it a "fair contest," but the Godfather doesn't need fairness. Fairness is for the dead. What the Godfather wants is a spectacular performance that makes all the spectators forget their opponent's name before it's even over—go for it, become the protagonist, and make sure no one ever dares to stand against you again.

[Quest Reward: Reputation +30]

Leo, holding the trident, looked even more radiant.

Another quest that costs 30 points of [Influence]!

Judging from this reward alone, it certainly deserves the system's description of it as "a great opportunity to make a name for oneself in Sicily".

Leo had been eyeing that new title with ridiculously high unlock requirements, and with these 30 points, the distance to unlocking it was significantly reduced!

While I was excited, I also had some lingering worries.

The difficulty of the quests, which both offer a reward of 30 [Faction] points, should be similar.

He previously completed the 30-fight mission by exploiting a bug.

However, this new task is obviously difficult to complete by exploiting bugs.

The system's appearance at this moment clearly refers to the upcoming diving and fishing competition.

If completed in the normal way, the task of 30 fights would be almost impossible to finish.

So getting those 30 [reputation] points today... probably won't be that easy.

"Get on board," Enzo interrupted Leo's thoughts, urging him to board his fishing boat.

As soon as Leo boarded the boat, the fishing boat immediately started its engine.

The vibrations from the engine traveled through the deck to Leo's body, and his heartbeat resonated with them.

As Marzamemi gradually disappeared into the distance... Leo's mood underwent another magical change.

He felt like a general fully armed and ready to go, his destination being an unknown enemy camp.

Before they could recover from this inexplicable surge of emotion, the sound of engines suddenly came from behind them—it turned out that other fishing boats had caught up with their vessel and were following them away.

This scene, combined with the previous association, is very much like a fleet of iron cavalry following their commander into battle.

This made General Leo even more excited!

The morning sun shone on Leo's head, making his face glow, and the sea breeze flapped his open collar, revealing his youthful spirit.

Leo stood at the bow of the ship and shouted a few times at the azure sea in front of him.

It doesn't contain much content, but it represents his current mood.

Leo originally thought he would face the upcoming competition calmly.

But all signs pointed to him growing increasingly excited, his blood boiling.

Although the road ahead was unknown, Leo was full of confidence.

Aquaman grips his trident tightly, anticipating the arrival of his "performance moment"!