Han Wu carefully assessed and mapped out his accessible powers. Sacrifice, Replicate, and Avatar Creation could each be used once per day, while Merge could be used thrice per day.

He had four Divine Aspects: Creation, Life, Light, and Harmony. With the strength of his physical body sealed, none of the Divine Skills stemming from these Divine Aspects could be accessed.

His Divine Authority 2 could release a presence embodying the combined essence of Creation, Life, Light, and Harmony, but it too was unusable given his current physical limitations. His Conversion Jurisdiction was also unusable for the same reason.

However, Avatar Creation provided an opportunity, as his Divine Aspects, Divine Authority, and Divine Jurisdiction could each be divided off as separate avatars.

Four Divine Abilities, four Divine Aspects, one Divine Authority, and one Divine Jurisdiction, made for ten avatars in total. Han Wu activated Avatar Creation and became ten, multiplying his work efficiency tenfold.

He set the ten avatars to work. Their priority was dealing with the rats. Everything else became pointless as long as the infestation remained.

The ten avatars spread out and quickly caught over a hundred rats. With nothing else to use them for, Han Wu activated Sacrifice and offered all of them at once.

Sacrifice gave him three options for useful tools: an axe, a hammer, and an iron pickaxe. After careful consideration, Han Wu chose the pickaxe, as it would allow him to clear the land much faster. As he worked the soil, he turned up even more rats hiding underground, including several pregnant females with big bellies. This gave him an idea. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

He caught several pregnant females and used Merge to fuse them into one. The merged rat became dull-witted from the overwhelming combination of memories, but in exchange, it grew substantially larger, and its breeding capability was enhanced.

Dismantling the dilapidated fence, Han Wu built a simple wooden cage from the planks. He then put several male rats together with the merged female rat, then sat back and waited for the breeding to commence.

The ten avatars worked in shifts using the pickaxe, and by the end of the day, they finally cleared all six barren plots. That evening, Han Wu used his remaining coins to buy tomato seedlings, which had the shortest growth cycle, and filled all six plots. He then had his avatars take turns standing guard through the night to protect from outside rats.

The seedlings sprouted successfully by the next morning. The wooden cage was also packed with rats caught the night before. Han Wu sacrificed the male rats and merged the females. The merged female rat grew to the size of a cat with an enormous belly that housed many young rats.

Sacrifice gave him three options: a sack of grain, a millstone, or a small wheelbarrow.

Han Wu chose the grain. He ate some himself, then used a third of it to feed the merged female rat. Despite its dulled wit, the basic instinct to eat remained. Its belly grew ever larger from the impressive amount of grain it consumed, enough to provide plenty of nourishment for the young rats inside.

That afternoon, the female gave birth. There were at least 132 pups, all healthy. Han Wu made sure to feed the pups grain so they could grow quickly.

Throughout the day, outside rats would periodically try to sneak in and steal the nearly ripe tomatoes. Han Wu had his avatars catch every single one of them, adding them to the cage alongside the growing pups.

The tomatoes ripened that evening, and it was time to harvest. Han Wu tasted two, then sold the rest back to the shop for twenty-three gold coins, giving him a total of 111 gold coins. This was pretty good considering his horrendous start.

Before Han Wu could feel any satisfaction, an announcement rang in his mind.

[Farm 666 is the first to accumulate over 200 gold coins. Reward: Level 2 dragon fruit seed. All farm owners are encouraged to keep up their efforts.]

Han Wu scoffed, mentally noting down Farm 666. Over the next five days, he followed the same routine. He would plant crops, catch rats, sacrifice the males, and merge the females each day.

The merged female rat had since grown to the size of a calf. It was near impossible to mistake it for the rat it actually was. Its reproductive capacity had increased to staggering heights after so many rounds of Merge. A single litter had over a thousand pups, and those pups could even move independently after only one day of feeding.

A thousand rats marked disaster for any farm, but Han Wu was still not satisfied. He continued to sacrifice the male rats and merge the female rats each day.

He spent the rest of his time planting. Occasionally, he experimented with using Merge on seeds to develop higher quality plants, though with limited funds and land, he was careful not to spend too many chances on that.

Half a month passed, and Farm 444 still looked bare. The fencing had all been stripped down for the cage, with its only six plots growing tomatoes. Yet, these tomatoes appeared different from the norm. Each plant was heavy with over ten bright red fruits, far more than the three to five promised in the item description.

These were a new variety of tomatoes that Han Wu had selectively bred using Merge. After harvesting and selling another batch, he had 312 gold coins, a far cry from the first-place record of 1245 gold coins.

Despite this, Han Wu wasn’t panicked at all. After all, panic would do nothing for him at this time. He just focused on steadily building up his foundation. The time for him to execute his strategy had yet to arrive.

He fed 300 gold coins into the shop interface and leveled it up. The original two items had expanded into three. The new item was a fertilizer called Gold Droppings.

When spread on the land, crops would grow and mature at twice the normal speed for one month. It cost ten gold each. Han Wu gritted his teeth and bought one. He then spent his last two gold coins on ten tomato seedlings, which he promptly planted.

With that done, Han Wu turned to look at the cage. The merged female inside was on the verge of giving birth and was as large as a full-grown cow.

Tiny squealing soon filled the air as pup after pup emerged. A rough count placed the litter at over three thousand. Han Wu smiled and fed them the grain he had received from Sacrifice.

This time, however, Han Wu did not sacrifice them when they were grown. When darkness fell, he led his ten avatars to the fence of the neighboring Farm 445. One avatar swung their axe and created an opening in their solid fence.

Three thousand rats were driven through the gap into the neighbor's farm. Han Wu then thoughtfully sealed the opening behind them and stood quietly in his own yard, resuming his nightly watch.

Screams rang out from the neighboring farm for half the night. By the next morning, a notice appeared on the fence of Farm 445. The farm owner had died in a rat infestation. The farm had been overrun and was being sold for just fifty gold coins.

Meanwhile, the tomatoes in Han Wu’s plots had just matured. Selling them earned him fifty-three gold coins in total, which he used to buy out the unfortunate farm next door.