Homo Sapiens

March 3rd, '22.

America.

Columbus City, Georgia.

Inside a shop selling wilderness survival gear, the owner, Paul Columbus, was a typical Latin American. His family had just immigrated from the Redwood Federation in South America last year.

He sat by the counter, polishing his revolver.

Suddenly, the main door was pushed open, and a travel-worn young man walked in. "Hello, Columbus, how have you been?"

"Edward, weren't you off in Florida looking for sunken treasure?" Columbus set down the revolver and pulled a bottle of beer from the refrigerator.

Edward, looking exhausted, called out, "I'll take a Coke."

Columbus casually tossed a Coke over to him.

[Is it urgent?]

Opening the bottle, Edward took a sip. [The City of the Council held a meeting at Mellon Manor in Orlando City yesterday at noon. I have urgent intelligence.]

"You still owe me two hundred dollars. When are you going to pay it back? [Level one? Or level two?]"

Edward scratched his head in embarrassment. "I didn't find the sunken treasure, but I did recently find a lead on an Aztec treasure. [Level one. America has decided to launch a war against Hongsawaddy between May and June, and they've already worked out a plan to carve it up.]"

"Heh, pay up! [Transfer the intel.]" Columbus held out his hand.

A pained look crossed Edward's face. He then pulled a pocket watch from his pocket. "I'll leave this watch with you as collateral. I'll be back next month to redeem it, so don't sell it. [The specific intel is inside.]"

"It's just a beat-up old watch. This is the last time." Columbus took the gold-plated pocket watch with a look of disdain.

Edward took another sip of Coke. [By the way, I picked up something else from their conversation. Thomas Morgan seems to be suspicious of the boss's identity. He thinks the boss is a superhuman.]

As he placed the gold-plated pocket watch into a drawer, Columbus asked using pheromones: [How did he find out?]

[It seems Thomas grew suspicious because of the rapid technological development in Luzon and Hongsawaddy. Should we find a chance to take him out?]

"Finished your drink? Then get the hell out! [Don't complicate things. If we kill him, the rest of the Morgan Clan will still be around. Killing them all would be too obvious.]" Columbus rolled his eyes.

Edward spread his hands. "OK, bye!"

Soon, Columbus was alone in the shop again. He didn't make any sudden moves, but continued watching TV and drinking his beer.

Due to the recent frequent activities of the Three-leaf Oak, the FBI had significantly increased its surveillance of Latin Americans, especially recent immigrants like Columbus.

Even though he had immigrated as an investor, the FBI hadn't let down its guard. His shop and home were bugged with numerous listening devices.

As usual, at five in the evening, Columbus closed up shop and returned to his villa in the suburbs.

Back at his suburban home.

The moment he opened the door, he saw that dinner was already set on the table.

After dinner, he pulled his wife, Hanna, into the bathroom. After an "in-depth exchange," he silently transferred the data to her.

After her shower, Hanna went up to the glass greenhouse on the roof to check on the vegetables and flowers, and also collected a bit of honey.

「Half an hour later.」

In a forested mountain area about three kilometers from Columbus Villa.

Hidden in the canopy of a towering tree was a massive beehive. The temperature of this hive began to fluctuate slightly.

「Meanwhile.」

A satellite at an altitude of 632 kilometers in low Earth orbit was currently over Georgia. This satellite belonged to the Hongshawa Space Service Company.

The Hongshawa Space Service Company currently owned a total of 16 artificial satellites, all of which had been recently launched by the Longge Lang Giant Cannon.

Among these satellites, six were for communications and ten were for monitoring magnetic fields.

Soon, the satellite detected the "magnetic signal point" near Columbus City, which was feeding back a magnetic signal.

The information transfer via the magnetic signal was completed in five minutes.

...

Hongsawaddy.

Benpa Mountain Base, Kachin State.

Chen Jianxiong appeared here in a hurry. He had taken a Qingye Aviation Phoenix Passenger Plane from Colombo Airport in Ceylon this morning, flown to Mandalay Airport in Hongsawaddy, and then rushed to the Benpa Mountain Base without stopping.

Inside the base's classified conference room.

Chen Jianxiong handed over a storage earphone. "Boss! This is an urgent report sent this morning by the director of the North American Region."

Seeing how anxious Chen Jianxiong was, Li Qingye guessed the importance of this intelligence. He picked up the earphone-storage device and inserted it into his ear.

A moment later, he opened his eyes and shook his head with a smile. "The bandits just couldn't hold back any longer."

Li Qingye had actually anticipated this day's arrival. He knew the gang of bandits from the City of the Summit all too well.

The new technologies successively unveiled by Hongsawaddy and Luzon, as well as their gold standard and grain production, were all threatening their global hegemony.

After discovering they couldn't deal with Hongsawaddy and Luzon through conventional means, these bandits were certain to resort to war.

"Boss, do we need to make a preemptive deterrent?"

Li Qingye shook his head with a smile. "It's still too early. Aren't they planning to pin a crime on us at the end of April? We'll respond to them at the end of April, then."

"I understand." Chen Jianxiong nodded.

Li Qingye asked about another matter. "How are things progressing in Java?"

"Very smoothly. We've already established fully authorized branches in many regions." As he spoke, Chen Jianxiong took out a tablet and brought up a holographic map.

The map showed the status of Homo Sapiens Company's fully authorized branches throughout Java. The darker the color of a region, the deeper the company's development there. Green regions represented areas where no formal fully authorized branches had been established.

These so-called fully authorized branches were, as the name implied, branches that held total authority in their local area.

On the holographic map, 92% of Java's Southern Borneo was covered by fully authorized branches, and the branches on Sumatra Island had expanded to cover 83% of the island.

The West Irian Island branch followed close behind, having currently developed 77% of the local area.

The Sulawesi Island branch was at 57%, and the Lu Gu Islands branch was at 52%.

The Java Island branch had comparatively less coverage, with only 28% of the area having established sub-branches of the fully authorized branches. However, the number of company employees on Java Island was massive, reaching 52.79 million.

The new employees of these branches didn't directly become "new human" employees, nor were they absorbed as employees by subsidiaries of the Homo Sapiens Company.

Instead, commercial informants, Converts, or Soldiers would establish agricultural cooperatives in village after village. Through various covert and indirect means, they would invest in plantations and small companies, or secretly support small gangs and families, thereby forming extensive networks.

"Accelerate the Java Branch's expansion. Before the end of April, I want Java to be 'in the company's shape.' Any problems?"

Chen Jianxiong replied immediately, "No problem. I guarantee the mission will be completed."

Li Qingye glanced at the holographic map. "Huh? A fully authorized branch has already been set up on Divine Island?"

"Yes. Just last month, we 'persuaded' them," Chen Jianxiong replied with a grin.

Li Qingye didn't say anything about it. After all, in a small place like that, if the Homo Sapiens Company wanted it, the other party stood no chance of resisting.

After listening to Chen Jianxiong's report, Li Qingye did not linger at the Benpa Mountain Base but chose to take a plane back to Luzon.

He hadn't flown before because Boeing and Airbus planes had backdoors. Now that he had his own company's aircraft, he naturally didn't have to worry as much.

Moreover, the Phoenix plane he was taking was a specially modified version. Even if there was an accident, it could land safely on the nearby sea or on land.

Thus, Li Qingye discreetly took a private plane back to Luzon.

He needed to make some arrangements in advance for the coming upheaval, lest he be caught unprepared.