Homo Sapiens

Manila.

Two tourists, a man and a woman, checked into the Austin Hotel.

The man was white, in his twenties, with black hair and an earring in one ear. He sat on the sofa, a look of resignation on his face as he stared at his phone screen.

”Luzon is planning to implement a restriction order starting tomorrow. It’ll last for three months.”

The blonde woman, who had just finished her shower and was drying her hair, looked unconcerned. ”Then we’ll just treat it as a vacation here.”

”Christine, the tourist spots might be temporarily closed. We can’t just stay in the hotel the whole time, can we?”

Christine turned off the hairdryer. Her eyes were sultry as she asked, ”Are you not satisfied with being cooped up in a hotel with me, my dear Anthony?”

”No, it’s just... being stuck in a hotel all the time feels like being in prison.” Anthony seemed to be recalling an unpleasant memory.

Christine pulled out a slim cigarette, lit it, and lay back on the sofa, scrolling through YouTube for Luzon travel guides.

Meanwhile, Anthony sat on the sofa with his eyes closed, his ears twitching slightly as if he were listening for something. More than ten minutes later, he opened his eyes.

”There are so many cockroaches here.”

Christine was completely unfazed. ”Hah... Where aren’t there cockroaches? Besides Antarctica and the Arctic.”

”Anywhere you want to go?” Anthony changed the subject.

”Let’s go to Bonifacio Street first! I hear there are a lot of buildings from the Western colonial period, and it’s a famous commercial street.”

”Okay!”

「A little after three in the afternoon.」

The pair, dressed in shorts and short-sleeved shirts, appeared on Bonifacio Street with their arms slung around each other.

Anthony, camera in hand, took pictures everywhere until they arrived at the entrance of Saint Augustine Church, a church built during the Western colonial period.

They went straight inside the church.

Inside, many locals were praying in the rows of pews.

Anthony and Christine sat on a pew in the back, quietly listening to the hymns playing from a tape recorder while a few priests baptized some newborn babies.

They made no other moves. Half an hour later, they quietly left the church and continued to tour Manila’s various attractions.

In a small toy shop.

Like a little girl, Christine picked up a small, woven bamboo cat and asked with a smile, ”Anthony, isn’t this little cat adorable!”

Leaning against the checkout counter with a resigned look, Anthony said, ”I can barely carry all this.”

Christine seemed not to hear Anthony’s complaint, continuing to pick up various small toys and play with them in her hands.

The toy shop owner was a middle-aged man with a constant smile on his face. There were also two employees, a man and a woman, in the shop.

Anthony asked with a smile, ”These toys are really nice. It’s a shame we don’t have this kind in California.”

The owner replied with a grin, ”These toys are all hand-woven or carved locally. They’re quite rare.”

”Oh my god, are these all handmade works of art?” Anthony asked in surprise.

”Haha, not entirely. Many of the bamboo and wood products are handmade, but the plastic and resin ones are factory-produced,” the owner explained.

Anthony picked up a woven bamboo cat bed. ”What a shame. If you sold this cat bed in California, you could probably get 100 bucks for it.”

”Is that so? That is a bit of a shame.” The owner’s expression didn’t change much.

Anthony didn’t continue the conversation. Instead, he glanced at his watch and called out, ”Honey, it’s almost dinnertime.”

Hearing it was time for dinner, Christine could only reluctantly bring her three favorite woven bamboo toys to the counter to pay.

After the two left, the owner remained busy, his head bowed over his work.

Back in their room at the Austin Hotel.

Having eaten dinner, the two were lying on the sofa again.

Through the floor-to-ceiling windows, they could see the night view of Manila Port.

”Find anything?”

Christine shook her head. ”The church was clean. The jewelry store didn’t have any styles I liked. The toy shop was just so-so.”

”How about Lima South City tomorrow, then? I hear they have a lot of beach activities there,” Anthony suggested.

”By plane?”

Anthony shook his head and pointed at a tourist map. ”We’ll take the train. We can see the sights along the way.”

”Okay, you arrange it.”

The next day, the pair bought train tickets to Lima South City.

The slow-moving train wasn’t too different from the ones back in America. The entire journey was about 300 kilometers and would take around four to five hours.

Sitting by the window, Christine observed the scenery and cities along the route.

As the train passed through San Pablo City, the scenery on both sides began to change noticeably. They were entering the Fernando Clan’s territory.

Around Manila, both the cities and the countryside were densely populated areas.

But after passing San Pablo City, there was a sense of disconnect.

The countryside here wasn’t very populated, but the cities were even more densely packed than Manila.

The pair made a last-minute decision to cancel their trip to Lima South City, planning to stay for a day in the upcoming city of Lucena Port instead.

After exiting the train station, Christine stretched lazily while Anthony looked for a taxi. The situation here was different from what they had encountered at Manila Airport; there was no swarm of taxi drivers surrounding them.

It wasn’t until they walked out of the station and onto the service street that they saw green taxis lined up by the roadside, with the drivers all waiting inside their cars.

Many customers simply pulled open a car door, got in, and the taxi would drive off.

Anthony, pulling a suitcase, walked over to a taxi and tapped on the window. ”Hello, driver. How much to a good hotel nearby?”

The driver, who had tattoos of a green dragon on his left arm and a white tiger on his right, revealed a set of large yellow teeth. ”A good hotel nearby? That’d be the Fengrao Hotel. 86 Pesos.”

Anthony glanced at the other taxis and saw that none of the drivers seemed interested in poaching his fare, so he nodded. ”Okay.”

The two of them got into the taxi.

Big Yellow Teeth stepped on the gas, speeding toward the Fengrao Hotel.

Anthony asked curiously, ”The taxis here are a bit different from Manila, huh?”

”More or less,” Big Yellow Teeth replied perfunctorily.

Anthony didn’t press the matter. After all, asking too many questions could easily arouse suspicion.

Besides, 86 Pesos really wasn’t much; they had been charged 500 Pesos at Manila Airport.

At a traffic light, Anthony noticed that the streets here were very new on both sides. The road surface was smooth, with no potholes, and no one was jaywalking or running red lights.

Of course, that might have been because of the several traffic wardens on duty, who were carrying assault rifles.

Anthony’s first impression of this place was that the infrastructure was quite good, followed by a sense of orderliness that was absent in the chaos of Manila.

His other impression was that a large portion of the people in the city were extremely busy.

A short while later, after passing the traffic light, the taxi stopped in front of a hotel with a respectable-looking exterior.

”Here we are. 86 Pesos.”

Anthony paid the fare, and he and Christine entered the lobby of the Fengrao Hotel.

Anthony was quite satisfied with the hotel’s interior. At least the taxi driver hadn’t just dropped them off at some cheap motel.

What the two of them didn’t know was that the taxi company and the Fengrao Hotel were owned by the same group. When drumming up business, drivers would naturally prioritize bringing customers to their own properties.

If Anthony had asked for a restaurant, a guesthouse, a hospital, a coffee shop, a bar, or a supermarket, Big Yellow Teeth could have just as easily matched him with one of their own businesses.

Once you entered a zone fully operated by the Homo Sapiens Company, it was basically impossible to avoid its businesses.

Anthony and Christine quickly checked into the Fengrao Hotel.