Homo Sapiens

On the core island of the Moon Islands—Great Moon Island.

This small island country has a population of only about 850,000, which doesn’t seem like much.

But in reality, 850,000 people is a huge number for such a small island nation. After all, the three habitable islands under the Moon Islands’ control have a combined area of just over 1,900 square kilometers.

As a result, this is also one of the most underdeveloped regions in the world.

After establishing a fully authorized branch locally, Homo Sapiens Company quickly launched a massive recruitment drive, absorbing the entire able-bodied workforce from the islands.

To manage its branches in the region, Homo Sapiens Company grouped the Moon Islands, Seven Sisters Islands, and Mad Island into a single major administrative region. They established the temporary Western Ceylon Ocean Regional Branch, with its headquarters on the northern part of Mad Island.

Of course, Mad Island had not yet been fully developed by Homo Sapiens Company at this time. Chen Jianxiong was still ”delivering packages” and ”sending warmth” to uncooperative factions while planting his own people in various positions.

Therefore, the Moon Islands branch served as the public-facing headquarters for the Western Ceylon Ocean Regional Branch.

The people of the Moon Islands are not purely black; they are a mix of West Asian Caucasians, Southeast Asian people, and African blacks, with many being of mixed heritage.

In Moroni, the capital of the Moon Islands.

Large groups of workers, led by their team leaders, were busy upgrading the port’s infrastructure. These team leaders were all New Human employees transferred from Southeast Asia.

”Boss, can we take a break now?” a young man with skin as dark as charcoal asked, panting.

The team leader, Klaka, cursed with a look of contempt, ”In your dreams! The break isn’t for another twenty minutes. Get back to work! Do you still want to eat chicken legs? Want to live in a big villa? Want to get a wife? You wuss!”

The crowd of new probationary workers didn’t dare to complain.

After all, the team leader held immense power and carried an assault rifle on his back, which was a powerful deterrent.

There was no need to be polite with these newly joined natural human employees, especially the low-quality ones. As long as they weren’t permanently crippled, any other form of punishment was permissible.

Spare the rod, spoil the child; wield an iron fist, forge a loyal dog.

If you were too nice to this bunch, they would take a mile if you gave them an inch, slacking off and cutting corners during work and study. Only with a whip in hand would they listen.

When it came to cultivating employee quality and ”correcting” their worldviews, Homo Sapiens Company had accumulated considerable experience over the years.

Take Klaka, for example. He was Javanese and had previously been ”educated” by his old team leader’s iron fist. He had been beaten into complete submission and was now a highly effective New Human employee.

Looking at the group of wusses, Klaka continued in French, ”I know you’re all furious right now, full of resentment for me. But if you want to change your fate, you have to be prepared to work yourselves to death.”

The probationary workers grumbled to themselves, thinking Klaka was just trying to fool them.

Klaka shoveled up some sea sand that had been pumped up from the nearby seabed. ”I was once just like you. Every day, I’d wake up and work the fields in my village, living the same tedious life, day in and day out.”

He shoveled up another scoop of sand. ”As worthless as this sand. We only got to eat a little meat on some holidays. Sometimes, when a natural disaster struck, we’d just have to go hungry.”

Hearing this, the probationary workers couldn’t help but feel a pang of empathy.

One of them, a middle-aged man with a scruffy beard, caught his breath and asked curiously, ”HUFF... PUFF... Team Leader, was your old life really like ours? You’re not lying, are you?”

”Yeah, the Team Leader’s as knowledgeable as those white masters. He must have been educated. People like us have never been to school,” another young man, Curly, said with a look of disbelief on his face.

”I only finished elementary school. I learned everything else at the company,” Klaka said, patting the sand in a wheelbarrow. ”You can haul it away now.”

「Over half an hour later.」

It was finally time for a break.

Under a row of sunshades at the construction site, hundreds of probationary workers were sprawled out in exhaustion. The New Humans, however, were calm and didn’t seem particularly tired.

One reason was that the bodies of the New Humans had been scientifically conditioned.

The other reason was that all New Humans were implanted with a special auxiliary Symbiotic Insect. This insect could effectively regulate their blood sugar, lipids, and inorganic salts. Some of these Symbiotic Insects even had photosynthetic mitochondria, allowing them to directly absorb sunlight for energy.

Therefore, under the scorching sun, the New Human employees didn’t feel uncomfortable. Instead, they felt a warm, energizing sensation throughout their bodies.

After a short rest, Klaka took his subordinates to get food.

A cafeteria had been set up near the construction site using shipping containers.

They could get their work meals for free with their employee cards.

During work, this bunch was listless and weak, but now that it was time to chow down, they were full of life. A few probationary workers who tried to cut in line were immediately smacked on the butt with a thin bamboo stick, making them cry out.

”Get in line! If you cut again, you don’t eat.”

Klaka glanced at the lunch menu for the day.

The staples were flatbread and rice.

The meat dishes were honey-glazed char siu and braised mutton.

The vegetable dishes were blanched celery with salt, scrambled eggs with tomato, cold-dressed cucumber, and stir-fried shredded jicama.

The soups were tomato and egg drop soup, and kelp, soybean, and pork rib soup.

There were also locally grown mangoes and pineapple chunks for dessert.

Klaka chose rice, honey-glazed char siu, scrambled eggs with tomato, and stir-fried shredded jicama. He also got a bowl of kelp, soybean, and pork rib soup and a mango.

The probationary workers also got their food.

Not far from the cafeteria, a large area with sunshades, tables, and chairs had been set up on a concrete floor poured from quick-setting cement. Finding a random table, Klaka began to eat.

The pork belly, from Shan State Wujin pigs (introduced from Yunnan), was a perfect mix of fat and lean meat. Prepared in the classic Cantonese char siu style, it tasted sweet, savory, and fragrant.

Klaka had no reservations about eating pork.

Even though he was from the Javan Region, the moment he became a New Human, he had transcended the boundaries of ordinary natural humans. Those old rules and restrictions meant nothing to New Humans.

His subordinates, on the other hand, all chose the braised mutton.

As he ate, Klaka didn’t forget to brainwash his subordinates. ”Work hard, and you can eat meat every day.”

”Mmmph... this is delicious,” Curly mumbled, wolfing down his food.

The other probationary workers were also busy shoveling food into their mouths.

For the locals of the Moon Islands, eating meat was a true luxury.

After all, this small archipelago had to import grain every year. Its per capita GDP was only around a thousand dollars, and it had no other mineral resources.

The entire Moon Islands had only two small chicken farms, which supplied only foreign tourists and the small local wealthy elite. They couldn’t even produce a few tens of thousands of chickens a year.

Throughout the year, the locals’ main source of meat was near-shore fishing from small boats.

A daily feast of meat and fish like the one at the construction site was something even the wealthy locals couldn’t afford every day.

This was one of the reasons the probationary workers swallowed their anger. After all, if they could eat this well every day, what were a few whacks from a bamboo stick? They could just grit their teeth and endure it.

In truth, Homo Sapiens Company could have easily used construction machinery and new technologies to replace this manual labor, but they chose not to.

This was because every underdeveloped region had a large pool of low-quality labor. These people needed to start with physical labor before they could gradually transition into roles as skilled technical staff.

At the same time, Homo Sapiens Company was using a combination of work-for-relief programs, militarized management, and a mentorship system where veteran New Human employees trained new ones to rapidly assimilate these new temporary workers.

This was the classic three-pronged approach Homo Sapiens Company often used after establishing a fully authorized branch in a new region.