Back to the Past to Become a Fishing King

Chapter 823 - 557: Feigning Weakness to Deceive the Enemy, All’s Fair in War (2)

Zhang Yang’s judgment was quite accurate. After Huang Zheng won two consecutive matches, his personal emotions were completely led by the competition. He played very excitedly and didn’t realize there was any problem.

But by the second half of the fourth match, Zhang Yang no longer held back, fired with full power, and finally won the fourth match with a slight advantage of one fish.

When Zhang Yang won the first match, the live commentary was still in favor of Zhang Yang, but after losing the next two matches, Yu Wensheng’s evaluation of Zhang Yang had lowered.

The original words were, "After all, Zhang Yang, as an angler, lacks sufficient competitive experience, gets caught up in the competition, and his tactical adaptability is not timely. He still needs some honing."

When it came to the fourth match, Yu Wensheng saw that Zhang Yang was still sticking to the bottom-dwelling technique he used for three matches, and was completely disappointed.

"This Zhang Yang, even after losing two matches, went back to the rest area without summarizing his failures. The team was formed too recently and lacks top players, still insufficient foundation! What a pity!" Yu Wensheng said, shaking his head at Sun Yi.

"Yes, such a pity! His teammates don’t seem to be doing anything, they could have watched our live commentary and given Zhang Yang some advice, it’s not considered against the rules!" Sun Yi said anxiously.

After two matches, Sun Yi was already very anxious inside, but with the live broadcast in progress, she had to maintain a relatively objective stance, which caused her to be somewhat distractive, and there were a few times when her responses were a bit stiff.

Commentating alongside Yu Wensheng, Sun Yi didn’t notice that in the fourth match, although Zhang Yang did not switch to the bottom eight knot lead method, he did make some adjustments.

To relieve some pressure off himself, Zhang Yang secretly changed to a heavier bobber he tested in a wild river the previous day.

With the change of the bobber, the time it took for the line to enter the water and settle was a bit faster than before. Although it still couldn’t catch up with Huang Zheng, the time difference for each double hook drop was not as big as before.

With the gap in time shortened, Zhang Yang felt significantly less pressured and could focus on steady baiting near the bottom, and the pressure on the fish catch was greatly reduced.

With Zhang Yang’s deliberate control of the rhythm, the fourth match ended with a 39:38 score, and Zhang Yang once again won by a difference of one fish.

"Wow, Zhang Yang’s performance in this match was much better than the previous two, currently at a 2:2 tie, Zhang Yang has evened it up, it seems like there’s a chance of winning again!" Sun Yi said excitedly to Yu Wensheng.

Yu Wensheng nodded, "Zhang Yang’s performance in this match was almost flawless from start to finish!

Winning against the bottom eight knot method with conventional technique shows Zhang Yang’s basic skills are terrifyingly solid!"

Sun Yi nodded, her eyes filled with excitement, "Looking at it this way, the result of the fifth match still seems quite uncertain.

What do you think, if Zhang Yang maintains the same performance as the previous match and finishes the decisive fifth match, what are the chances of winning?"

"Winning chance? I’d say fifty-fifty!

Didn’t you notice in the fourth match that Zhang Yang was trailing almost the entire time and only clinched it with a series of double tails at the end, which suggests there was an element of luck in winning!

I’m still not entirely convinced!"

You can’t blame Yu Wensheng for doubting Zhang Yang, when Zhang Yang deliberately acted weak to catch his opponent off guard.

However, after all that maneuvering, the outcome was good. After the fourth match, Huang Zheng had his usual post-match call with his mentor, and Zhang Yang’s performance not only fooled Huang Zheng but also deceived Deng Gang.

Huang and his mentor discussed maintaining a winning attitude and believing in victory, even Deng Gang thought based on the current performance, Huang Zheng’s chances of winning the fifth match were at least 60%.

Under the gaze of everyone on and off the stage, the fifth match began.

After choosing the angling position by coin toss, Zhang Yang had no reason to hide his tactics under the high-definition close-up lens, boldly switching to the small lead setup and larger bobber he had prepared beforehand.

"Wow, Teacher Yu, look! Zhang Yang has also switched to a short leader line in the final death match!" Sun Yi exclaimed upon seeing Zhang Yang’s setup.

"This..." Yu Wensheng was stunned, missing Zhang Yang’s onsite preparation and adjustment but saw him merely measure the depth and use it.

What does this mean? It simply shows that Zhang Yang was already secretly prepared before going on stage.

Why didn’t he immediately adjust and apply when he found the tactical issue?

Yu Wensheng, seeing things deeply, couldn’t help but think further.

In contemplation, Yu soon guessed a possibility, feeling a jolt inside.

Could it be...

Yu Wensheng forced himself to calm down. If his guess was correct, then Zhang Yang’s understanding of tactics reached a terrifying level.

With solid basic skills, comprehensive angling techniques, and tactical application almost magical, this angler might not fall behind Huang Zheng’s mentor Deng Gang in various aspects, and Zhang Yang is still so young.

Is there about to be a new genius in the continental angling scene?

The camera shifted back to the competition site.

With the change in tactics, the bobber Zhang Yang used was slightly larger, and the line’s time to settle was not only caught up but even surpassed by a second.

In previous matches, Zhang Yang was clearly half a beat slower than Huang Zheng but managed to level up the score with his excellent bite rate, let alone now.

Using the words of Li Yunlong from the TV series "Drawing Sword," this is a war we’ve never fought so richly.

Watching Zhang Yang enter the combat state, his eyes half-open, concentrating fully on the center of the bobber, every cast, set hook, and retrieve was flawless.

Slowly, the biting frequency in the feeding area increased, the fast pace of gathering fish ended, and fish after fish was quickly put into the net by Zhang Yang.

Zhang Yang was having a blast, while next door, Huang Zheng was panicking. Just over three minutes into the fishing, Zhang Yang was already leading by two fish, and his pace was even faster than Huang Zheng’s.

If this happened in the third or fourth match, Huang Zheng would still have a break to ask his mentor for advice.

Now in the crucial finals, the angler on stage can’t call for outside help during the match.

Even if he could call, it would have to wait until the first half of the fifth match was over for a short break.

If Huang Zheng’s mindset were a bit better, the speed of falling behind might slow down. Originally feeling confident, he realized it was all wishful thinking as he watched the gap in the number widen, and Huang Zheng panicked.

Once an angler loses composure in a match, the outcome of the match is predictable.

As the match progressed, the gap between the catches of Huang Zheng and Zhang Yang gradually widened.

Two fish, three fish, four fish, five fish...

By the end of the first ten minutes of the fifth match, Zhang Yang led by as many as six fish. Even if Zhang Yang did nothing in the second half, just following whatever Huang Zheng did, he would remain undefeated.

At the end of the first half of the finals, Huang Zheng’s mind was completely blank. Calling his mentor in despair, Deng Gang on the phone provided no new tactics.

The only thing Huang Zheng got from his mentor was a long sigh.

No need to make it explicit, that sigh was essentially Deng Gang handing his apprentice a death sentence. In ten minutes, it was unsolvable to catch up six fish in Zhang Yang’s prime!