Homo Sapiens

While Gafei was recovering, he remained on Kalaqua Island. Redis returned to his own territory, and Harry became another manager.

They were both intelligent men, and it was precisely because of this intelligence that they cherished their lives.

If they didn’t want to become Soldiers like Mad and Redis, their only option was to submit to Li Qingye and become managers.

Harry and Gafei quickly realized that if Li Qingye’s methods of controlling people were never exposed, all of Luzon would soon become Homo Sapiens Company’s private backyard.

Under these circumstances, both Gafei and Harry understood that their best option was to join him. That way, they might be able to hold on to some of their interests.

As for freedom, that’s a matter of perspective.

Some see it as worthless, while others treasure it. People like Gafei and Harry were classic examples of refined egoists.

The first choice was to lose their freedom but continue to live in wealth, with their families safe and sound. The second was to gain freedom but risk losing their lives, ultimately becoming inhuman Soldiers while their families remained oblivious.

Both Gafei and Harry chose the former.

With Gafei and Harry now on board, and Mad and Redis under control, the only remaining faction within the Fernando Clan was the one loyal to Patriarch Jacques Fernando.

In fact, if one were to quantify the Fernando Clan’s power and resources, Patriarch Jacques controlled only about 20%.

Mad had roughly 10%, Gafei had about 12%, Harry had 15%, and Redis had 8%.

The remaining 35% belonged to various smaller branches. These were either indirectly affiliated with one of the main factions or chose to remain loyal to the Patriarch, effectively a neutral party.

However, the smaller factions loyal to the Patriarch were not necessarily loyal to Jacques himself. They were loyal to the *position* of Patriarch of the Fernando Clan, not the man, which were two entirely different things.

In other words, if Gafei were to seize the title of Patriarch, these minor factions would naturally switch their allegiance to him.

Of course, most of Jacques’s faction was currently in the Manila Region, so it wasn’t the right time to move against him.

They had to wait until the uncle-nephew duo of Gafei and Harry had fully integrated Mad’s and Redis’s forces. Only then would it be time to march on Manila.

While Harry and Gafei were recuperating and undergoing training, they also worked remotely to coordinate with Chen Jianxiong and Phil. At the same time, they spread a cover story: they had managed to wrest some concessions from Mad and needed to stay in Dart Port for a while to negotiate the details.

As Li Qingye devoured the Fernando Clan’s power base on southern Luzon Island in one fell swoop, Homo Sapiens Company began to operate with increasing brazenness in the region.

「December 15, 2018.」

The number of Homo Sapiens Company’s subsidiaries had grown to six: Haitian Agriculture, Coral Building Materials, Coral Construction, Fengrao House, Jade Energy, and Pacific Resources.

Haitian Agriculture focused on oceanic cultivation and aquaculture, as well as the advanced processing of marine products.

Coral Building Materials absorbed the Fernando Clan’s local assets, including one cement plant (annual output of 1.5 million tons), one steel mill (annual output of 500,000 tons), six lumber mills, three brick factories, and two hardware factories.

Coral Construction took over the Fernando Clan’s three local engineering and construction firms, along with eight real estate companies.

Fengrao House swallowed up the Fernando Clan’s 37 supermarkets, 59 produce markets, 5,736 storefronts, 22 office buildings, 127 warehouses, 13 ports, four restaurant chains, and six transportation companies.

Jade Energy annexed the Fernando Clan’s three local thermal power plants and seventeen small-scale hydroelectric stations.

Pacific Resources took over the Fernando Clan’s local mining assets: four copper mines (total reserves of roughly 2.7 million tons), two nickel mines (total reserves of roughly 140,000 tons), one iron mine (reserves of roughly 4.3 million tons), seven gold mines (total reserves of roughly 80 tons), and two coal mines (reserves of roughly 12 million tons).

It was, to put it mildly, a massive windfall.

Although these companies were nominally joint ventures with Homo Sapiens Company, all the shareholders were Li Qingye’s people. In essence, they were no different from wholly-owned subsidiaries.

In addition, there were plans to consolidate 21 rural commercial banks in Luzon and one savings bank, all of which were also Fernando Clan assets.

However, the banking sector is highly scrutinized. Even after consolidation, Homo Sapiens Company would not publicly hold shares in the initial stages.

Clearly, the assets from the Fernando Clan alone were almost more than Homo Sapiens Company could digest.

And in Luzon, there were four other clans, local overlords on the same level as the Fernandos.

This distorted state of affairs had created a terrifying wealth gap in Luzon.

Having swallowed so many assets at once, Homo Sapiens Company was showing clear signs of indigestion. Fortunately, Gafei and the others cooperated fully, and the Soldiers played a crucial role in the process.

Of course, Fang Xincheng had also been run off his feet recently, so much so that he was completely overwhelmed.

Even though these were all subsidiaries, Homo Sapiens Company was acting as the parent company, and there were far too many affairs to sort out.

These included personnel appointments for the subsidiaries, internal integration, and the handover of financial accounts.

Even though Homo Sapiens Company was recruiting simultaneously in Yangcheng, Xiangjiang, and Manila—hiring over a thousand managers in just over three months—the shortage of professionally qualified staff remained immense.

However, this integration process also rapidly tempered a large group of mid-level managers. Li Qingye selected the most suitable candidates from this group and appointed them as executives in the new subsidiaries.

For Homo Sapiens Company, this was not the time for external expansion. The main priority was to complete its internal consolidation.

This didn’t mean, however, that Li Qingye’s ambitions were limited to Luzon.

Over the past three months, Li Qingye had also selected five more individuals suitable to become managers—recruiting them from gangs once controlled by the Fernando Clan and from smaller families in southern Luzon—and inducted them into the Spider Web.

The Spider Web was a special organization that answered directly to Li Qingye. At present, it had only eight official members.

This included people like Chen Jianxiong, Gafei, and Harry.

To counterbalance Chen Jianxiong’s power in the Security Department, Li Qingye appointed two deputies under him, both of whom were also managers from the Spider Web.

He also assigned a deputy to Phil in the Internal Affairs Department.

As for Gafei, his official government position in Luzon made it inappropriate for him to formally join Homo Sapiens Company. Harry, on the other hand, was a suitable candidate and was appointed as the company’s Vice General Manager.

Of the other two new managers, one also held an official post in Luzon, while the other was put in charge of a subsidiary.

With deputies to share the load, the pressure on Chen Jianxiong lessened considerably, and he finally had the energy to focus on improving the intelligence network in other regions.

The Security Department’s capabilities were greatly enhanced. The number of official employees in the department had now reached 473.

Of course, not all of them were Soldiers. In fact, Soldiers only made up about 20% of the total, but they formed the backbone and served as the key nodes in every chain of command.

By employing a system of single-line contact, many of the intelligence agents who joined the Security Department had no idea who they were actually working for.

This was to ensure that intelligence wouldn’t be compromised. Even if an agent was captured or turned traitor, the trail would lead back, at most, to a single Soldier-handler.

As for getting information out of a Soldier, that was little more than a pipe dream.