Homo Sapiens

With the spontaneous ceasefire between Tianzhu and the Rain City District.

The Homo Sapiens Company quickly established its Rain City District branch. Through this new branch, the company began making large-scale investments in the area, accelerating the construction of various infrastructure projects.

「Yunshan Base, at the border of the Darjeeling Region and Jomongxiong State.」

As an engineer pressed the detonation button.

In an instant, a series of deep, muffled explosions echoed from within the nearby mountain. Immediately after, a huge section of the mountainside surged into the canyon like a flood.

About half an hour later, the valley floor was filled by the landslide, forming a debris dam 200 to 400 meters wide and 80 to 120 meters high.

The river that had once flowed through the valley was now cut off by the debris dam. Upstream, the water level began to rise slowly, forming a landslide lake.

Without human intervention, the river would likely swell this summer due to rainfall and glacial melt, eventually bursting the debris dam.

Of course, Yunshan Base was well-prepared for the possibility of a future dam failure.

Bio-modification engineer Wu Fang entered an activation command at the control console. A vast number of genetically recombinant termites emerged from the numerous hollow pipes that had been buried in the valley beforehand.

These genetically recombinant termites had been spliced with genes from organisms like coral polyps and lichens, making them highly adept at constructing underground facilities.

Wu Fang could use a bio-computer and pheromone equipment to direct these engineering termites, precisely constructing the required underground structures.

"Xin Tu, you give it a try."

The young man at his side hurried forward and began manipulating the engineering termites to construct the underground structure.

As a trainee engineer, Xin Tu was still a rookie. Despite having studied civil engineering at a university in Delhi, within the new human system, he was an out-and-out novice.

As for why he had "defected" to the Homo Sapiens Company, Xin Tu had been left with no other choice.

He had once naively believed that if he studied desperately, he could change his fate.

Born in Darjeeling, he was neither one of the Black Indians nor the White India People, but a Yellow India Person. This identity had brought him a great deal of trouble.

Even after finishing university and finding a job that barely allowed him to make ends meet, his family's situation hadn't improved much. After all, they had taken on significant debt to put him through school.

And when he thought of his classmates from Brahman or Kshatriya backgrounds who so easily started life ahead of the pack, Xin Tu admitted he was filled with envy, jealousy, and resentment.

As it happened, Xin Tu had just returned to Darjeeling to visit his parents when his whole family was swept up and taken to Yunshan Base.

At first, he was in a state of constant anxiety, but that changed a few days ago. He saw an internal company news report about the Tianzhu Army's retreat in defeat. Combined with everything he had seen and heard at the base, Xin Tu made a decision.

He proactively approached the block administrator at Yunshan Base, stated his identity and specialization in civil engineering, and expressed his hope to join the company.

The base didn't refuse someone who proactively sought to join, especially one who already had family there. Instead, they gave him a job as a trainee construction engineer.

After joining the construction division and undergoing a few days of rapid training, Xin Tu was now working as Wu Fang's assistant and apprentice, helping to build Yunshan Base's underground hydroelectric station.

He manipulated the bio-computer's interface. To construct a proper dam, one couldn't simply let the engineering termites and bio-computer rigidly execute their tasks. Doing so would not only be much slower but would also result in structural defects.

Therefore, the process required a construction engineer to monitor and make adjustments—which was precisely Xin Tu's job right now.

Wu Fang himself was the designer of the Yunshan Dam, and he was currently supervising the construction of the underground hydroelectric station's stepped culverts.

The Yunshan Dam was to be hidden within the debris dam. The engineering termites were now building up the microstructure, starting from the bottom.

Structures built with engineering termites don't contain steel reinforcements. Instead, they have special structural layers similar to a coral reef. While their rigidity is sufficient, they lack toughness, making the structural layers prone to fracturing during an earthquake.

Therefore, the dam's interior had to be built with enough micro-tunnels to allow repair bacteria or more engineering termites to enter and perform secondary repairs.

Xin Tu meticulously inspected the already completed sections.

He worked for two hours before a notification popped up on the computer screen.

[Engineering termites have worked for a cumulative 2 hours. Now entering rest and feeding period.]

Xin Tu entered a command, authorizing the engineering termites to rest and eat. He also brewed himself a cup of Darjeeling black tea.

The Darjeeling tea industry was one of the few surface-level agricultural operations that had been preserved. All harvested tea was supplied exclusively for internal use within the Rain City District branch.

Since the engineering termites would be resting for an hour, he stepped out of the underground bunker. The engineering control room was situated inside the mountainside on the opposite, un-collapsed side of the dam.

He took an elevator up to the surface.

The elevator brought him to a forest halfway up the mountain. The exit was disguised as a cave, and he stepped out from it.

Outside the cave was a montane evergreen broadleaf forest.

He stood on a large rock, looking out at the distant valley and the nearby debris dam.

In this forest surrounded by mountains, for the first time, Xin Tu found himself quietly appreciating the natural scenery. His heart was filled with an unparalleled serenity.

This serenity didn't stem from the quiet of the towering mountains, nor was it the cleansing effect of chirping insects and birds. It was a peace that originated from the depths of his own heart.

In that moment, he reached an understanding.

'What is the true purpose of life?'

'Before, I had no choice. Now, the opportunity is right in front of me.'

Xin Tu was now completely content with his life. He felt joy, peace, and fulfillment.

As long as the company maintained its current benefits, he was willing to work for it for the rest of his life. He didn't even mind the requirement to be implanted with a bio-chip.

After all, being implanted with a bio-chip meant officially becoming one of the Homo Sapiens Company's new humans. It also meant he could easily find companions he could trust unconditionally.

People have a natural tendency to band together for comfort.

But they also have a tendency to be paranoid and suspicious of one another.

This contradictory behavior is the root cause of internal conflict within human groups.

The moment he became a new human employee, Xin Tu surrendered a great deal of his privacy. But in return, he could form an almost completely transparent social world with other new human employees.

By experiencing the unity and friendliness among the new human employees, his own spirit was gradually undergoing a transformation.

This was why Xin Tu's heart was so incomparably serene at this very moment.

Having companions you can trust unconditionally inevitably gives everyone unprecedented courage and strength. Because they have no fear of being stabbed in the back, they are fearless in facing what's ahead.

Within Xin Tu's serene heart, a fire was blazing.

"If this is the future of humanity, then what is there to fear in death?"

"Contemplating the meaning of life again?" Wu Fang leaned against a nearby pine, smoking a cigar from Hongsawaddy.

Xin Tu gazed at the distant, cloud-shrouded mountains. "Only when people truly understand one another can this world be saved."