Homo Sapiens

February 19, 2019.

Not long after the Lantern Festival.

Yang Tiancheng, a Soldier who had been training on the Kalaqua Islands for over ten days, finally completed his training program and became a qualified custom-made Soldier.

He quickly took his bodyguards, who had all put on some weight, to Manila to catch a flight back to Borneo, Malaysia.

Meanwhile.

The Qingye Group managers, led by Ma Chi, Liu Zhifan, and Yang Mengjiao, were also studying relevant information.

Ma Chi, in particular, was to impersonate Li Qingye. Although his facial features could be altered with [Parasitic Artificial Skin], he still needed to be aware of certain professional knowledge and personal relationships.

They had been spending the past few days studying and adapting.

Moreover, some of them needed to create fake identities. Yang Mengjiao, for example, was being disguised as a Brazilian of Chinese descent and had also learned Portuguese and American English.

Fortunately, the constantly updated biological chips possessed increasingly powerful data processing and storage capabilities. For the managers and Soldiers, a skill like language posed almost no difficulty.

Yang Mengjiao could even speak Portuguese with an authentic Brazilian accent and had an intimate knowledge of Brazil’s culture and customs. Even a native Brazilian would have a hard time noticing anything unusual when talking to her.

On the same day that Yang Tiancheng returned to Malaysia, Liu Zhifan, Ma Chi, and Yang Mengjiao each took a group of people and headed in separate batches to the southern coastal city of Hongsawaddy—Yangon.

The Security Department also had a deputy director lead a team to Hongsawaddy to secretly support the Qingye Group.

Of course, the Security Department had its own mission: to infiltrate all parts of Hongsawaddy. In the regions where the Qingye Group was establishing itself, for instance, it was best to turn the local powers into ”one of our own,” which would reduce a lot of trouble.

...

「Lima South Bay, on the southern part of Luzon Island.」

The 100,000-mu sea farm previously invested in by Haitian Agriculture now had about 60% of its area ready for production. The supporting refineries were also partially completed, with the carrageenan refinery already finished.

As the company’s cash flow increased, and with the Fernando Clan completely under control and the Lopez Clan mostly consolidated...

Homo Sapiens Company once again expanded its investment, planning to build 600,000 mu of sea farms in three bays in southern Luzon Island by the end of the year.

In addition, there were plans to build three large-scale insect farms: one for crickets, one for locusts, and one for mealworms.

The reason for getting into insect farming was, naturally, to guarantee Luzon’s food supply.

You see, Luzon’s population had already surpassed one hundred million. Such a massive population required a colossal amount of food.

Even though Luzon’s tropical climate allows for three rice harvests a year, its agricultural sector, previously crippled by the combined efforts of the ABCD consortium, had very little land dedicated to rice cultivation—not nearly enough to meet internal demand.

This situation, of course, had little effect on the powerful clans. After all, they had their own plantations and the money to import grain.

But the common people were out of luck. The moment there was any disturbance in international grain prices, Luzon’s food prices would fluctuate accordingly—and usually, they would skyrocket.

Even Old Du was powerless. He wanted to increase food self-sufficiency, but he didn’t have many cards to play.

As soon as Old Du tried to push relevant policies, either opposing factions would come out to stir up trouble, or the ABCD consortium would engage in price dumping.

There were only two ways to go head-to-head with the ABCD.

One was to turn to other Southeast Asian countries and purchase large quantities of grain from them to counter the ABCD’s monopoly in Luzon. This method treated the symptom, not the cause.

The other method was to first stockpile enough grain, then quickly close the doors and simultaneously and drastically increase subsidies for rice cultivation.

Clearly, these measures required immense authority and sufficient capital reserves. It was also clear that Old Du’s will was greater than his ability.

While Homo Sapiens Company had no intention of confronting the ABCD head-on, it wasn’t planning to sit back and wait for doom either.

Their previous move into Hongsawaddy was also for the sake of Luzon’s food security. After all, Hongsawaddy is a major rice-exporting nation, making it a perfect complement to Luzon.

On another front, Li Qingye also planned to use technological means to boost Luzon’s food production.

One part of this layout was the insect farming industry.

It’s a known fact that among all animals currently farmed by humans, insects have the highest feed conversion rate.

For the same amount of feed, insects produce about twelve times more protein than beef cattle.

Insects also produce far less methane and carbon dioxide than pigs, cattle, or sheep.

Broiler chickens, of course, also have a decent feed conversion rate, but they come with two problems.

One, the breeding stock for broiler chickens is controlled by Western corporations, creating the possibility of being strong-armed. Two, broiler chickens are extremely fragile. Antibiotics are practically essential during their upbringing, and poultry are susceptible to many epidemics, some of which can wipe out an entire farm with a single infection.

Insects, however, don’t have these problems.

Homo Sapiens Company can cultivate its own breeding stock, and the insect farming process requires virtually no antibiotics, which significantly reduces costs.

Furthermore, farmed insects are not picky about their feed. Some insects can even digest cellulose and lignin, which are indigestible for pigs, cattle, and sheep.

This expands the source of feed. Luzon might not have a lot of other things, but it has plenty of weeds and trees.

What’s more, Li Qingye planned to modify certain types of algae, using more nutritionally complete, genetically modified seaweed as the main source of feed for the insects. Combined with the dead branches and fallen leaves from Luzon’s various plantations, the insect farms could become completely self-sufficient in their feed supply.

Homo Sapiens Company was also setting up mushroom cultivation plants. This would serve as another food supplement, and the mushrooms could also be used as insect feed.

Meanwhile, waste recycling plants and methane plants could supply gas fuel and some fermented fertilizer.

By using insects for protein, seaweed for starches and sugars, and mushrooms to supplement vegetables—in addition to rice from Hongsawaddy and Luzon’s own local grain and plantations—it would be more than enough to satisfy Luzon’s internal demand.

Once Homo Sapiens Company’s plan is complete, what can the ABCD consortium do? At worst, they can continue to wage a price war.

Li Qingye was even preparing methods to flip the table. If the ABCD consortium dared to play dirty, he wouldn’t mind learning a thing or two from the DuPont Clan’s specialty.

The recently planned sea farms, insect farms, mushroom plants, deep-processing factories, and methane plants were all in service of Homo Sapiens Company’s security strategy.

Through these interconnected industrial layouts, the plan was to complete the construction of these industries over the next two years, forging a supply chain exclusive to Homo Sapiens Company.

As long as food and energy were in their own hands, not even America could shake Homo Sapiens Company’s foundation in Luzon through conventional means.

Unless America decided to just rip off all pretenses. If that happened, Li Qingye would make Hongsawaddy his headquarters, turn Luzon into a grinder of flesh and blood, and make America shed its last drop of blood on the Luzon Islands.

Besides, it wasn’t like he didn’t have an ace up his sleeve.

’If I’m pushed too far, I can easily start an ”Umbrella”-style scenario in North America.’

’I don’t use those trump cards casually only because I still have some bottom lines. But that doesn’t stop me from researching such things. When it comes to technological reserves, the more, the better.’

’Whether to use them is one thing, but whether to have them is another entirely.’