Homo Sapiens

A major metropolis in the south.

A small town on the outskirts.

The July sun blazed relentlessly.

The streets and alleys were mostly empty, perhaps due to the oppressive heat.

Inside a generic chain convenience store.

A bored clerk was staring at their phone when a man in a mask slowly pushed the door open. The clerk glanced up at him.

Unkempt hair, bloodshot eyes, and dark circles that could pass for smoky-eye makeup.

’Another slob,’ the clerk thought. ’What an eyesore.’ They went back to their phone.

Catching his reflection in the glass of the freezer door, the man shook his head with a self-deprecating smile. He then opened the freezer and grabbed two bottles of nerd fuel.

He wandered through the other aisles, picking up a box of chocolate pies and two boxes of tomato-flavored soda crackers.

He placed the items on the checkout counter.

The clerk scanned them. The register displayed 26 yuan.

The man simply pulled out his payment QR code.

BEEP!

”Payment of 26 yuan received...”

Picking up the small bag, the man left without a word. With his social anxiety, he didn’t mind the clerk’s indifference; in fact, he was more afraid of them being overly friendly.

He glanced at the balance on his phone.

[Balance: 573 yuan]

He wandered aimlessly down the empty street, cracked open one of his sodas, and took a long, satisfying gulp. ”Ahh... BURP...”

He passed by the rice noodle roll shop he used to frequent. He was about to go in and buy a portion, but he found the metal security gate pulled down.

A red ”For Rent” sign was taped to the entrance.

’Closed down? It tasted awful anyway, so I’m not surprised.’ He stood there for a dozen seconds, his gaze distant.

After college, he had chosen to stay and work here.

Things went smoothly at first. He was hired as an artist at a game company, but it went bankrupt in 2017. He then started a private studio with a few old colleagues, getting freelance commissions from various websites.

But the good times didn’t last. Starting in 2020, the studio’s commissions dwindled. Disagreements arose among the partners, and by June 2021, they finally went their separate ways.

He moved from the bustling city center to this cheaper suburban town, using his personal accounts to find freelance illustration gigs online.

He returned to his small rented apartment.

He splashed some water on his face and casually made a packet of instant noodles.

Sitting at his computer, he checked his accounts on various artist commission sites, illustration forums, Weibo, and Bilibili. After scrolling through his private messages, he found no new inquiries.

He hadn’t gotten a commission in over two months. The illustration industry was fiercely competitive now, flooded with newcomers who were constantly driving down prices in a race to the bottom.

On top of that, AI art technology was constantly improving. A huge chunk of the market for simple character portraits and headshots was now dominated by AI.

”Sigh...” He let out a breath and slurped his noodles.

Opening Bilibili, he saw that a creator named Khan had just uploaded a new video. The title was: [The History of Li Qingye and the Homo Sapiens Company].

He didn’t watch the video because he was interested in international affairs, but rather to broaden his horizons and keep from becoming completely detached from society.

The age where a man is supposed to be established.

An awkward and helpless age.

Legally a young person, but a middle-aged man in the eyes of most. He had no idea when this awkward, in-between stage of life would end.

By the time the video was over, he had finished his noodles.

He patted his slightly bulging paunch, leaned back in his computer chair, and stared at the off-white ceiling. His gaze unfocused, his mind seemed to drift a thousand miles away.

’Should I go back home?’

A face from his memory instantly became clear, its wrinkles like the countless ravines of the Loess Plateau.

Before he knew it, tears were rolling down his cheeks.

He wiped them away and patted his cheeks. ”Get it together. There’s no obstacle you can’t overcome.”

After resetting his mindset, he went back to searching for commissions on various websites, while also looking for other ways to make money.

「Half an hour later」

He suddenly stopped moving his mouse, his eyes fixed on a particular webpage.

[The Dream Country Company is hiring comic scriptwriters. This position is responsible for writing comic scripts...

Base salary of 500 Jin per month, 3-month probation period. Promotion to a Class C employee automatically grants an internal contract invitation from the Homo Sapiens Company (requires immediate family to relocate to the Southeast Asia Headquarters to work). For employee levels and compensation benefits, please see the attached files...]

The Homo Sapiens Company? Of course he knew about the corporate behemoth that held sway over all of Southeast Asia. After all, it was the entity that had forced America to back down.

Although the Homo Sapiens Company claimed to accept all foreign workers, it wasn’t as if they accepted just anyone.

First, they didn’t accept individual foreign workers; applicants had to apply as a family unit.

Second, applicants could not have a history of actions or statements that undermined or slandered the Homo Sapiens Company, nor could they have certain criminal records.

Finally, there was a special review by the Homo Sapiens Company’s personnel department, which was really a secret investigation conducted by the Foreign Affairs Division.

Ever since the Homo Sapiens Company opened up its foreign worker program, large numbers of people from the neighboring regions of South Asia, West Asia, and East Asia had flocked to its personnel department to apply for jobs.

The workers from the East Asia Region were of acceptable quality, but the labor force from South and West Asia presented a host of problems.

For instance, there were suicide bombers with ulterior motives, and young people whose families were controlled by gangs. The gangs would send them to work for the Homo Sapiens Company and demand they send back a constant stream of money, or they were simply intelligence assets for various factions.

This screening process didn’t trouble the Foreign Affairs Division in the slightest; on the contrary, they seemed to relish it.

For example, a dozen or so ”hyenas” from Samoed were turned around and brought under the control of the Foreign Affairs Division, who then converted them into Soldiers.

As for the gangs that tried to threaten workers by kidnapping their families, the Foreign Affairs Division simply followed the clues back to the source and wiped them out completely.

This led many factions to believe they had succeeded, when in reality, they were just exposing themselves for all to see.

However, these incidents didn’t affect ordinary people.

In fact, the largest contingent of workers heading to the Homo Sapiens Company came from all over East Asia.

This July, about 720,000 people from the Three Kingdoms of East Asia received temporary work visas from the Homo Sapiens Company, and that number didn’t even include their families.

The temporary visas were only valid for six months. After that, those who didn’t want to stay could leave on their own. Those who wished to remain had to bring their immediate family over within one month.

According to the regulations of the Homo Sapiens Company’s personnel department, the standard process was divided into three stages: a six-month probationary period, a six-month internship period, and the official period—which was split between ”Natural Human” employees and the non-public ”New Human” employees.

If someone was already a ”New Human” employee (working undercover externally), they could skip the probationary and internship periods and directly become an official ”New Human” employee.

For those without great ambitions who simply wanted a decent life, choosing to work for the Homo Sapiens Company was naturally the best option.

Those who dreamed of becoming billionaires or came from families with some assets would certainly not choose the Homo Sapiens Company.

After all, there was no way to ”buy your way in” at the Homo Sapiens Company. From the very beginning, the company’s original shares have had only one owner: Li Qingye.

Since there was no way to buy shares in the Homo Sapiens Company, many people wouldn’t choose to join it.

The current wave of people coming to work for the Homo Sapiens Company consisted mostly of young people from ordinary backgrounds.