Back to the Past to Become a Fishing King

Chapter 815 - 553: Huang the Unyielding (Part 2)

"Okay, I’ll talk to Teacher Yu about it later! I’ll get going first, if anything comes up we’ll talk on WeChat!"

"Bye!"

...

Sun Yi had already walked more than ten meters, yet she still felt like there was a little rabbit in her chest thumping away.

As a professional host, strictly speaking Sun Yi should be at a Professional Level when it came to emotional control, but the moment she faced Zhang Yang head‑on, she realized all that training suddenly stopped working.

He clearly didn’t look that handsome, yet he had this hard‑to‑describe special aura that made a girl like Sun Yi’s heart surge and lose control.

Meanwhile, Zhang Yang, the one who’d sent Sun Yi’s emotions on a roller coaster, was wooden as ever, completely oblivious to the subtle emotional shifts. After seeing the pretty host off, he lowered his head again and continued checking the technical stats from Huang Zheng’s previous matches.

A few minutes later, Huang Zheng also arrived at the venue with his people.

After a short break at noon, Huang Zheng’s mental state was also extremely charged. There were tiny beads of water at his temples, and his Hua Clan cap was soaked. No need to guess—he’d clearly doused his head with clean water.

Just from this small detail you could tell Huang Zheng was totally fired up for the afternoon match.

Noticing these details about Huang Zheng, Zhang Yang’s heart gave a slight stir. He’d originally not planned to greet him, but changed his mind.

"Hey! President Huang, big‑spender Huang!!" Zhang Yang waved at him and called out.

There were still close to twenty minutes before entry, and Huang Zheng wasn’t in a rush to head backstage to prep. Hearing Zhang Yang greet him, he strode over.

"What do you want?"

Zhang Yang gave a small smile. "Heh, can’t I say hi if I don’t want anything? Didn’t expect it—when you said you’d sweep two in a row, you really did sweep two. Dominant!"

Huang Zheng curled his lip. "Cut the crap and get to the point. Don’t act all chummy with me here—we’re not exactly friends."

Seeing that small talk wasn’t working, Zhang Yang simply dropped the pretense and went straight in: "There are five rounds in total this afternoon—wanna bet on one more? The side pot I won back in the morning, I already gave it all back to my teammates. I don’t have much oil and water left on hand."

"How big do you want to play?" Huang Zheng had no intention of refusing at all. He stared wide‑eyed at Zhang Yang, gaze burning.

"I’m fine with anything. What about you?" Zhang Yang pressed.

"Let’s put up an extra side bet—stake the runner‑up prize for this event." Huang Zheng said without a second’s hesitation.

Hearing this proposal, Zhang Yang’s heart gave a jolt.

According to the FTT prize structure, at a station event the champion gets 150,000, the runner‑up a bit less, but still 40,000. After 20% tax is deducted, the runner‑up still clears 32,000.

This Huang Zheng was ruthless—opening his mouth with thirty‑two grand, without even blinking.

"Yes or no, give me a straight answer." Seeing that Zhang Yang didn’t agree immediately, Huang Zheng urged him.

"Yes! I’ll take it!" Zhang Yang accepted decisively.

Even though the amount really was huge—borderline brushing up against illegality—once the arrow was nocked it had to be loosed. Right now Zhang Yang couldn’t afford to lose momentum. In a clash between experts, any tiny factor could trigger a chain reaction in the actual fight.

Besides, Zhang Yang had already beaten Huang Zheng twice in their side bets. This time, he still had no reason to refuse.

In fact, Zhang Yang taking the initiative just now to go over to Huang Zheng was very out of character; he’d been intending to stir the pot with a bit of pre‑match psychological warfare. Zhang Yang had thought that since Huang Zheng had already lost to him twice, if he went over to provoke him again, the guy might not dare to accept.

If his opponent showed a hint of cowardice, Zhang Yang would hold an absolute psychological edge.

But unexpectedly, Huang Zheng turned out to be the kind who’d rather break than bend. The moment Zhang Yang brought up betting on the catch again, he just went all‑in, staking his runner‑up prize without considering the consequences.

In the battle for the title, the winner takes the championship, the loser only gets the runner‑up. Add in this catch‑bet side pot, and it means the winner sweeps the board, while the loser is thrown straight back to square one.

In terms of personal technique and mental game, Zhang Yang believed he held an absolute advantage; otherwise, when Sun Yi asked him earlier, he wouldn’t have sounded so confident.

But right now, Zhang Yang did feel a twinge of regret about going over to needle Huang Zheng. It wasn’t that he was being melodramatic; it was just that instead of creating psychological pressure for the other guy, he himself had been affected—if only a little.

Watching Huang Zheng turn and leave, Zhang Yang shook his head again, tossing those odd thoughts out of his mind. He shouldered his tackle box and headed to his own waiting‑area lounge.

For the afternoon’s battle for the championship and runner‑up, the rules were noticeably different from the previous 1v1 PK double‑win advancement rounds.

This was the rule document issued by the event prep committee.

The final for the championship adopts a best‑of‑five, one‑on‑one PK format. Rounds one through four are 15 minutes each; round five is 20 minutes (divided into first and second halves, with 10 minutes per half).

After each round or half‑round, there is a 5‑minute break before the next round or half begins.

For the first round, fishing positions are determined by coin toss. After the round ends, the two sides must switch pegs before starting round two.

For rounds three and four, fishing positions for each round are determined by coin toss.

For round five, fishing positions in the first half are determined by coin toss. After the first half ends, the two sides must switch pegs before the second half begins.

When the time for each round ends, the angler with the higher catch count wins that round.

If the catch count is tied in a round, the match enters a 5‑minute overtime. During overtime, the first to lead by two fish wins immediately, and overtime ends early.

If, when the 5‑minute overtime ends, one side leads by a single fish, that side wins. If overtime still fails to produce a winner, the result will be decided by a 5‑minute "golden fish" sudden‑death: in this 5‑minute period, the first to land a fish wins immediately, and the golden‑fish sudden‑death ends.

If even the 5‑minute golden‑fish sudden‑death cannot determine a winner, the result of that round will be decided by drawing lots.

From these detailed rules, you could see the organizers had worked hard to ensure absolute fairness.

Best‑of‑five, and for the final fifth round, they even extended the time and split it into two halves, with positions all determined randomly by coin toss. They’d practically eliminated every possible hidden factor that could unfairly affect results. Under a ruleset like this, it’s almost impossible to rely on pure luck to place.

The reason the FTT championship carries such weight is already evident from the rules alone.

Fifteen minutes before the official start, Zhang Yang and Huang Zheng were both in their respective prep areas, doing their pre‑match setup.

At this moment, Sun Yi and Yu Wensheng, the two hosts, came by with the filming crew to do a behind‑the‑scenes spot.

In front of the camera, when facing Zhang Yang, Sun Yi was clearly much more composed. "Hello, Teacher Zhang Yang. You don’t mind if we do a quick interview before the match starts, right?"

While kneading the bait in the basin and quickly forming it into balls, Zhang Yang nodded. "Hello, Miss Host, hello Teacher Yu! I don’t mind. I’ve already mixed my bait, and my pre‑match prep is basically done!"

Sun Yi nodded and asked, "There are still just over ten minutes before you go on. You must be at least a little nervous now, right? Tell the viewers watching the live‑stream what’s going through your mind at this moment?"

Facing the camera, Zhang Yang couldn’t just talk nonsense. He grinned, looking very down‑to‑earth. "Saying I’m not nervous would be a lie. My heart’s trembling too right now! But since I’ve made it this far, I’ve got to carry it even if I’m shaking!

Huang Zheng is an opponent with very powerful technique. This morning in our 1v1 PK, I used a little trick to win a round—it was pure luck. He’s not going to fall for the same trap twice, so to be honest, I’m not sure how things will go this afternoon!

I won’t say more. I just hope both of us can perform perfectly and give all the anglers following this event an even more exciting match experience!"