Chapter 1089 - Picking Peaches From The Giant’s Shoulder
Every giant leader’s eyes locked on Han Wu with intense focus. He knew he had struck a nerve, so he laid out his proposal without hesitation. “The giant species could invade other civilizations and secure more food sources.”
Every giant leader scoffed.
One of the Giant Emperors spoke up. “I thought you had some brilliant plan. We’ve tried that. Never worked.
“I once got hold of a treasure map we stole from the Great Dragons. It pinpointed a Spirit Stone vein. I spent a huge amount of resources to open a gate and sent one of our most promising Progenitor Giants through.
“Guess what happened? Some passing bastard kidnapped him. I didn’t get the Spirit Stone mine or any resources, and I lost a fortune on top of a subordinate with limitless potential!”
The Giant Emperor’s voice shook with fury.
As Han Wu listened, something stirred in his memory. This sounds way too familiar.
“The civilization with that Spirit Stone mine wouldn’t happen to be called Giant Shadow Civilization, would it?” Han Wu asked cautiously.
“Might’ve been that name. I can’t remember exactly. They had an energy system called Ninjutsu, though. Shame giants can’t learn it,” The Giant Emperor sighed, then turned to stare at Han Wu, “How do you know the name of that civilization? Have you been there before?”
“Heard about it,” Han Wu said casually. Meanwhile, his back was drenched in cold sweat.
Before that Giant Emperor could finish venting, another chimed in, “That’s nothing. I had it worse. I discovered the Sprite Civilization’s energy system and sent one of my Mountain Giants to invade.
“Then the Divine Civilization butted in out of nowhere. My subordinate hasn’t sent word since. I’m ninety percent sure that he’s dead.”
Han Wu was drenched in sweat now. He could say with absolute certainty that the Giant Emperor’s subordinate wasn’t merely likely dead. He was most certainly dead, because Han Wu was the one who had killed him.[1]
Several more Giant Emperors and Giant Kings recounted similar stories of sending their people to other civilizations, only for them to vanish without a trace.
Han Wu realized that many of those cases were tied to him personally, and even more were connected to the Divine Civilization. It had been intercepting giant operations for years. It was like standing on a giant’s shoulders to pick the peaches first.
No wonder the Divine Civilization has developed so well. There was a reason for it, Han Wu marvelled.
The discussion was spiraling into a group therapy session, so Han Wu steered it back on track and offered a different approach. “If invasion doesn’t work, what about mercenary work? The pay from other civilizations shouldn’t be bad.”
Given the giants’ terrible luck and poor intelligence gathering when it came to invasions, advertising their strength for hire seemed like the safer option. At least they could earn money for food.
𝘧𝙧𝘦𝖊𝕨𝐞𝘣𝖓𝘰𝕧𝚎𝖑.𝚌𝐨𝚖
The giant leadership erupted. “Giants will never be slaves!”
“I said mercenaries. Mercenary contracts!” Han Wu corrected.
“Mercenary my ass! It’s just using giants as cannon fodder. How is that different from slavery?” the giant leaders roared in unison.
Han Wu was at a loss for words. The giant leadership was too stubborn and thickheaded. No amount of reasoning could get through them. He was starting to understand why a species this powerful still couldn’t feed itself. Their intelligence definitely had something to do with it.
Both Invasion and mercenary work are off the tables. What else do the giants have that they can trade for resources? After thinking it over, Han Wu concluded the answer was strength, or pure physical strength to be exact. The question was what they could do with strength alone.
Seeing that Han Wu had nothing else to offer, the giant leaders didn’t push him further. If the food crisis were that easy to solve, their species wouldn’t have gone hungry for so long.
“Feral child, you didn’t come up with a real solution, but the fact that you care enough to help the giant species already warms our hearts,” the Heavenreach Titan said consolingly.
Then his tone shifted. “Last time we fought the Great Dragons, we nearly broke through their defensive wall. This time, let’s double down and smash that wall to pieces. We’ll storm into their territory and take their food, resources, and treasures!”
The giant leaders erupted into battle cries. Raiding the Great Dragons was the easiest invasion they could pull off. They were closer than any other civilization, which meant less effort and better returns.
Just as they were about to rally their forces and march to the Great Dragons, Han Wu scrambled to stop them. “I’ve got it! I have a solution!”
While the giant leaders had been making their war declarations, the avatar Han Wu had left outside had been frantically contacting the Commerce God King. He asked what kind of work the giants could actually do.
Commerce quickly listed the giants’ strengths and weaknesses, along with suitable types of work. After stripping out anything related to invasion or mercenary work, Han Wu found one viable path: processing.
𝕗𝕣𝗲𝚎𝚠𝖾𝔟𝗇𝔬𝔳ℯ𝐥.𝒄ℴ𝓶
The Treesea Civilization was home to a species of tree known as the Suosuo Tree. It produced Suosuo Fruits, each of which was massive, with diameters of up to 100 meters. The pit had excellent nurturing effects on avian life forms, and the Divine Civilization had enormous demands for them.
The problem was the shell, which was extremely hard and required immense force to crack open. The Divine Civilization had built specialized mechanical processing plants to handle the task, but each machine cost over 1 million Divine Essence.
Han Wu’s idea was simple: let the giants crack them open instead.
He presented the plan and pulled out a Suosuo Fruit that the Wealth Faction had just mailed to his divine realm.
The giant leaders examined it. Most of them were 100,000-meter powerhouses, so a puny Suosuo Fruit barely registered as a challenge. After confirming the task, a Subcosm giant pulled a massive stone club made from some unknown material out of its Microcosm and brought it crashing down on the Suosuo Fruit.
Crack.
The fruit shattered, and the pit inside crumbled along with it. Thankfully, breaking a Suosuo Fruit pit didn’t affect its sale value.
For a giant, crushing one Suosuo Fruit was nothing. To Han Wu, it was a gold mine, so he immediately contacted the Wealth Faction. With his own reputation as collateral, he purchased a bulk shipment of Suosuo Fruits, dumped the entire haul in front of the giants, and explained what they needed to do.
He promised them one kilogram of food for every kilogram of pit they produced. This first batch alone contained hundreds of billions of Suosuo Fruits, each weighing more than five tons. Even after removing the shell, a single fruit’s pit weighed at least two and a half tons.
The Heavenreach Titan carefully ran the numbers and decided the deal was worth taking. After all, this would determine whether they could ever eat their fill again.
1. The Petrified Mountain Giant to be exact, chapter 915 ☜