730 Novelty Hunting (1/2)

Chapter 730: Novelty Hunting

Translator: Nyoi-Bo StudioEditor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Piranhas were famous in China due to cheesy American horror movies; people were terrified at the mention of them. The highly aggressive and schooling breed of fish included a few dozen species in and of themselves. They were not a protected species, but as long as people were dumb enough to continually release them into local waters, then they would continue to bring a devastating impact upon the ecosystem.

However, piranhas lived in the tropical forest of the Amazon. The ice-covered, northern part of Germany could not sustain their survival. Even if they escaped unexpectedly from breeders, they would soon freeze to death.

Piranhas were not pretty in shape, thus most owners were either hunting for novelty alone or had a nefarious taste, like Karl. The old man was retired, yet he still greatly enjoyed pranking people. It was no wonder Reina complained about his odd character.

”The first time I came here for an interview, I was terrified, too. I almost called the police,” Paul, the expert in water quality, said.

”You? Call the police?” Karl sneered. ”You screamed like a ten-year-old girl!”

”Absolutely not!” Paul clarified hurriedly.

While the two of them were going back and forth, Zhang Zian was carefully observing the aquarium tank that the piranhas were in. Without considering Karl's nefarious taste, the landscaping within the tank was very successfully designed. The weeds, dry branches, skulls, and the fish––with black backs and red bellies––had created a creepy atmosphere. The novelty hunters would surely want a tank like such at home.

Aquascaping was a new form of entertainment that became quite popular in recent years; it was also an art. There were even stylists that specialized in aquascaping.

The profit of running an aquarium came from two major sources: one was the selling of living creatures, while the other was the selling of the peripherals. Aquascaping was one of the latter and produced a very high profit that was also immune to the impact of online businesses.

Zhang Zian was considering making an aquarium tank similar to this one, but he was afraid it would terrify the children that came into his shop. If he was accused of ”promoting horror and violence,” then it wouldn't be worth the risk.

Karl took out an aluminum container. Inside, there was a dead fish with bulging eyes and slightly open lips.

”It's lunch time, Jeff. Would you like to feed these cute little fish?” he asked.

”Not this time. I'll watch you feed them.” Zhang Zian was not interested in––and was mostly afraid of––getting his fingers bitten off while feeding them. The piranhas in the tanks were quite big––around 10 centimeters in length. He was afraid they might suddenly jump out of the water.

Karl shrugged, opened the lid of the tank, took the dead fish by the tail, then dipped its body into the water.

The moment the fish head hit the water, the piranhas swam away rapidly and hid behind the weeds and branches as if they were startled. However, once they realized there was no danger, they came out of their hiding places, headed straight to the dead fish, opened up their strong lower jaws with their razor-sharp teeth, and took a hard bite into the fish belly––the fattest part of the dead fish. They tore off a piece of meat, swam away slightly, swallowed then meat, then took another hard bite…

One bite after another, the piranhas surrounded the dead fish and shared it. Within a few minutes, the upper body of the dead fish only had bones left and the water had turned slightly turbid.

”These are wild Peruvian piranhas. If they were piranhas after two or three generations in an artificial environment, then they would not eat the fish after it had been dead for hours. The degeneration is quite obvious,” Karl said as he took the remaining half of the dead fish out the water and threw it into the garbage bag.