Homo Sapiens

「January 2nd, 2019.」

「Luzon.」

「Manila City.」

South of the Pasi River, in Manila, Li Qingye stood before the floor-to-ceiling windows of the Homo Sapiens Company’s Manila Branch. The view before him was, without a doubt, Heaven:

Soaring skyscrapers, bustling office buildings, dazzling shopping malls, and high-end restaurants—a scene of unquestionable prosperity.

He gently swiveled his ergonomic chair, his calm gaze shifting to the part of Manila north of the Pasi River—the Tangdu District.

Houses haphazardly thrown together with corrugated metal sheets.

There was almost no space between the buildings, making them look like a single, massive pile of garbage.

Inside rooms of less than twenty square meters, at least ten people lived.

The surroundings were nothing but mountains of trash and septic pools.

Separated by a single river, Heaven and Hell were both in full view.

Li Qingye pulled his gaze away. He had brought many people with him to Manila this time. Chen Jianxiong, who had been handling some business, now hurried to his side.

”Boss, this is the intelligence I’ve gathered over the past three months. Please take a look.”

Flipping through the documents, Li Qingye remained expressionless. Even the countless horrifying descriptions within failed to stir his heart in the slightest.

Zhang Wei, who had followed him in, looked rather pale.

Li Qingye glanced at him and casually pulled a single page from the file. ”This is what you wanted.”

With trembling hands and a racing heart, Zhang Wei stared at the contents of the page. A few minutes later, his face grew even paler, and tears streamed uncontrollably down his cheeks.

”Let’s go. Time to see what true darkness is.”

With that, Li Qingye led Phil and Chen Jianxiong out. Zhang Wei also stood up, clutching the paper so tightly it seemed to carry an unbearable weight.

A dozen modified jeeps departed from the branch office’s parking garage, heading northwest toward the Tangdu District.

After crossing the river, all kinds of eyes from the slum’s streets and alleys watched the convoy.

There was greed, envy, and prying curiosity, as well as awe and hostility.

The convoy drove on until it reached a cluster of tin shacks and stopped. A group of security personnel watched the surrounding slum dwellers warily, their pistols already off-safe, ready to fire at a moment’s notice.

Inside one of the jeeps, Li Qingye asked calmly, ”Jianxiong, begin.”

”Yes, sir.” Chen Jianxiong picked up a portable pheromone-based biocomputer and entered a series of commands. Soon, the pheromone hives mounted on the jeeps’ roofs began to steadily release a variety of pheromones in all directions.

「More than twenty minutes passed.」

The biocomputer’s screen displayed some feedback.

Chen Jianxiong immediately reported, ”Boss, the mission is complete.”

”Let’s get out and walk.” Li Qingye opened the car door.

The group walked through the chaotic streets of the slum. Flies buzzed everywhere, and the thick smell of spices and fried food filled the air. It was the scent of a local delicacy known as ”pagpag.”

Many of the shops lining the street were eateries selling ”pagpag.”

Walking on a road overflowing with sewage and covered in trash, Li Qingye felt no discomfort. In his eyes, the rest of the world was just as filthy and dark.

At the end of the street was a compound enclosed by bricks and corrugated metal.

The journey was only just over three hundred meters, but the group walked very, very slowly.

A father and son brushed past Li Qingye.

”Dad, I got first place on my test today! When I grow up and make money, I’ll definitely take you, Mom, and my sister to live in a big house in the south...” the child said, full of hope.

The father, however, forced a smile and ruffled the boy’s hair. ”Haha, just study hard. I’ll treat you to some pagpag today as a reward.”

”Really?” The child couldn’t help but swallow, his mouth watering.

Not far away, a scrawny little girl overheard their conversation, a look of envy in her eyes. The rumbling in her stomach grew louder and louder.

Suddenly, as if she had made a great resolve, she rushed toward Li Qingye. Phil reacted instantly, drawing his pistol without hesitation.

Before Phil could fire, the little girl dropped to her knees and cried out in a voice that was both weak and determined, ”Sir! Please, I’m begging you, take me with you! I’ll do anything, just give me a little food. I don’t eat much...”

Phil lowered his gun toward the ground, seeming to await an order.

The little girl’s eyes were filled with longing and pleading. ”Sir, please, I’ll really do anything...”

It was the light of the will to live. Though faint, it was incredibly tenacious. She knew this was her last chance. If she missed it, what awaited her was likely starvation in some forgotten corner.

”You have good eyes, like stars in the night. I suddenly find myself admiring you.” Li Qingye looked into her eyes, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly.

The moment Li Qingye slowly walked past her, despair completely consumed her eyes.

’Have I been rejected? Is this the end for me? I can’t accept this! But maybe this is my fate... to be like a rotten fruit in a garbage heap, not even worthy of being picked up and made into pagpag...’

”Keep up, if you still have the strength.”

What? The despair in the little girl’s eyes was instantly replaced by an ecstatic light, a light that shone like a supernova.

Although hunger was about to make her lose consciousness, her desire for life sustained her. She forced her already exhausted body to squeeze out one last ounce of strength to follow Li Qingye’s footsteps.

The slum dwellers around them, however, watched with complete indifference.

They reached the end of the street.

It was silent inside the walled compound. Suddenly, several figures in face masks and baseball caps appeared at the entrance and pushed open the closed iron gate.

Li Qingye led his group inside without hesitation.

This was a relatively enclosed block. The dozens of tin shacks were eerily quiet. As the iron gate closed behind them, Chen Jianxiong spoke up. ”Boss, the people are inside.”

When the Soldiers led the group and pushed open the door to one of the rooms, Zhang Wei completely lost control. ”Brother!” he sobbed.

He recognized him at a glance: the dejected, middle-aged man slumped over a computer, a chain locked around his ankle. One of his legs was crippled.

The other people in the room were no better off.

This was one of the Fuzhou Gang’s dens in Manila. More than a hundred Huaguo nationals, who had been tricked into coming here, were imprisoned and forced to work in online gambling operations.

The Fuzhou Gang specialized in luring people from Huaguo with promises of work. What lay before them was merely the tip of the iceberg.

Zhang Wei’s older brother, Zhang Hao, had been deceived in this very way. The gang used the lure of high-paying jobs to specifically target people from Huaguo.

After arriving in Manila, these victims were either extorted for money, locked up in the slums as forced laborers, or compelled to become drug mules. Some even had their organs harvested. The fate of the girls was even more tragic.

Because Zhang Hao was a programmer, his treatment was considered relatively good. He had only had his leg broken at the beginning for being disobedient.

Stepping out of the room, Li Qingye stood in the middle of the block.

Beside him, Chen Jianxiong, despite having witnessed his share of darkness, was still deeply unsettled by the shocking scene.

Li Qingye’s gaze grew even colder. ”This reeking world truly needs to be cleansed.”

”We have the head of the Fuzhou Gang in Manila under control, but their branches in other countries will probably notice the problem here soon,” Chen Jianxiong reminded him.

”It doesn’t matter. I never worry about threats from the dead.”