Homo Sapiens

October 22, 2019.

Borneo, Kota Port.

Xu Yingming, dressed in beach shorts, appeared at the port’s passenger terminal. He leaned against the railing wearing sunglasses, looking like a nonchalant playboy.

A moment later, a BMW pulled up not far from the terminal, and four people got out.

The arrivals were none other than Kens Aquino and a round-faced, middle-aged man. The other two were their assistants.

In addition, twelve bodyguards emerged from three SUVs.

”Yingming, this is my good friend, Mr. Guo Xianfu. Xianfu, this is Xu Yingming, my wife’s nephew.”

Xu Yingming smiled and extended his hand. ”Mr. Guo, I’ve heard so much about you.”

”Haha, you’re quite the accomplished young man,” Guo Xianfu said, extending his own chubby hand.

After shaking hands, the two began to chat warmly, as if they were old friends who hadn’t seen each other in years.

Kens, who was growing impatient, quickly shot Xu Yingming a look. Xu Yingming understood at once and said with a smile, ”Uncle, Uncle Fu, let’s get on board!”

”Yes, yes.” Guo Xianfu’s eyes glinted with a lecherous light.

Soon, the group boarded the cruise ship, the Sapphire.

The Sapphire was fully equipped with all kinds of amenities for entertainment. After boarding, Xu Yingming gave a wave, and a Soldier disguised as an assistant immediately stopped the other people and led them to a different entertainment area.

Kens and Guo Xianfu’s assistants and bodyguards understood perfectly. The bosses were going to have some fun, and it wasn’t appropriate for them to tag along.

Kens and Guo Xianfu also waved their hands, dismissing them.

They passed through a corridor and arrived in a magnificent, golden hall.

As soon as Guo Xianfu entered, his eyes lit up at the sight of several figures as beautiful as flowers, especially the three young Japanese women in kimonos.

Xu Yingming gave a look to a tall, middle-aged woman in a black kimono, then turned to Guo Xianfu with a smile. ”Uncle Fu, this is Mrs. Heize.”

The woman immediately sidled up to him, took his arm, and whispered in a sweet, breathy voice, ”Mr. Guo, shall we go upstairs and discuss the plays of Shakespeare?”

”Er... yes, I love Shakespeare’s plays, especially Romeo and Juliet,” Guo Xianfu said with a grin.

The two of them walked toward a specially prepared room.

Meanwhile, Kens had already lost himself with a woman on each arm.

Xu Yingming said with a smile, ”Uncle, I’ll leave you to it.” He then looked at the two young Japanese women. ”Miss Watanabe, Miss Chukou, please take good care of my uncle.”

”Hai! Mr. Xu!” the two women chirped with flirtatious smiles, nodding.

Kens was already getting impatient. ”Haha, Yingming, see you tomorrow.”

”See you tomorrow.” The smile on Xu Yingming’s face grew even wider.

In a sealed room.

After locking the door from the inside, Guo Xianfu eagerly began to undress, but the tall beauty simply sat on the bed with a strange smile.

”Beauty, let’s have some fun!”

But the tall beauty pushed him onto the bed, then took out handcuffs and cuffed his limbs. At this point, Guo Xianfu still hadn’t realized the gravity of the situation. ”Hehe... so this is what you’re into, beauty...”

But the tall beauty pinched her own cheek, her face reverting to its original appearance. ”I’m still not used to wearing someone else’s face!” she said.

GULP! Cold sweat beaded on Guo Xianfu’s forehead, and below the belt, he went completely limp with fear. He stammered, ”Who... who are you... Help!”

”It’s no use screaming your lungs out. This room is specially soundproofed.” The tall beauty smiled as she took out a syringe, squirting a tiny bit of liquid from the tip.

”You... stay away from me!” Guo Xianfu shrieked in terror.

However, the tall beauty simply smiled and plunged the needle viciously into his vein.

”Aaaah... Help! Beauty! I’m begging you, let me go!... I can give you a million US dollars! No... two million!”

But Guo Xianfu’s promises were useless; the tall beauty was completely unmoved.

Under the effect of the drug, Guo Xianfu quickly fell into a stupor, limp as a dead pig. That certainly saved some trouble.

CLAP CLAP CLAP...

She clapped her hands, and two Soldiers walked in from outside, pushing a special gurney. They moved Guo Xianfu onto it and wheeled him to the cruise ship’s medical bay.

A similar scene played out elsewhere.

After being ’cared for’ by the two young beauties, a now-unconscious Kens was laid out on a gurney, completely exposed, and wheeled to the ship’s medical bay.

「Inside the medical bay.」

Xu Yingming stood outside the window of the sickroom, watching Kens and Guo Xianfu with a cold expression.

The tall beauty offered him a cigarette.

He waved his hand. ”I don’t smoke.”

The tall beauty exhaled a cloud of smoke and said with a laugh, ”You really show no mercy! That guy is your uncle, after all!”

”Great families have little need for sentiment. He doesn’t qualify to be modified into a Spider Web Manager, so he can only be turned into a custom-type Soldier.” Xu Yingming’s tone was as dispassionate as if he were discussing a piece of meat on a cutting board.

”How ruthless! I really can’t stand you rich kids from powerful families,” the tall beauty mocked bluntly.

Xu Yingming was unfazed. ”I’m not a US Dollar, so I don’t need everyone to like me. Besides, things like families are destined to disappear sooner or later. Everything will be subsumed by the company.”

”Disappear? Perhaps!”

Xu Yingming didn’t continue the topic. Instead, he asked curiously, ”I hear you found something on Xing Island?”

The tall beauty, Pandora, blew a few smoke rings, her eyes growing hazy as she spoke. ”An organization called the Black Ship. It seems to be one of the secret agencies from America.”

”The Black Ship? Interesting.” Xu Yingming’s interest was piqued.

Pandora warned him, ”Don’t get careless. The Black Ship has a lot of people in Luzon. We’re investigating them further.”

”It seems they’re very well-hidden.”

Pandora nodded. ”Yes. They use single-line contact in every region. Their lower-ranking Lookouts and Sailors don’t even know the Black Ship exists. They also have members in various regions called Converts and Captains.”

”Lookouts, Sailors, Converts, and Captains?” From the names alone, Xu Yingming could deduce the nature of their roles.

Pandora shared some intelligence with Xu Yingming. ”We’ve confirmed that Victor is the Black Ship’s Governor for the Southeast Asia region, and Li Weixing is a member of the Black Ship on Xing Island.”

”What about the Black Ship members in Luzon?”

”We don’t know. We haven’t identified the specific members yet, but they’re most likely within one of those three families. In any case, you should be careful.”

Xu Yingming understood perfectly. ”Thanks.”

A short while later, Kens and Guo Xianfu, still in the sickroom, had been injected with bio-chips. Genetic modification would follow.

Meanwhile, their assistants and bodyguards were in the other entertainment area, enjoying fine food or gambling.

In Luzon, Li Qingye received a detailed report from Chen Jianxiong. Through it, he learned the full details of the ABCD plan and got his first glimpse of the Black Ship organization. He then issued new directives to Chen Jianxiong, along with arrangements for Xu Yingming and the others.

’A professional intelligence operative like Victor can’t just be captured casually. He’s bound to have some strange devices on him, not to mention internal contact methods that only they would know, like how often they’re supposed to check in. Making a rash move before fully understanding his background would only alert the enemy. It’s better to continue monitoring the already exposed Victor.’