Homo Sapiens

Sandakan City.

Inside the Fengrao House superstore.

Lilith pointed to a vast array of planter trays before them. Each tray was filled with various fresh vegetables, especially leafy greens that didn’t transport well.

”This is our company’s new vegetable-and-planter integrated transport system, which we’re preparing to launch soon. It allows us to bring produce from surrounding farms to our customers in this format, ensuring they receive the freshest possible vegetables.”

The group of reporters began taking pictures of the planter trays.

Lilith then gave them permission to split up and conduct interviews.

It happened to be a Saturday, and many employees and their families, who had the day off, were also in the superstore shopping for daily necessities.

A middle-aged man who had just arrived from East Japan to work spoke in Japanese, ”Excuse me, could I get some of that bok choy?”

The attendant replied in Japanese, ”Yes, one moment. How much would you like?”

”About 500 grams.”

”Coming right up.”

The attendant quickly cut a dozen or so stalks of baby bok choy and placed them on the electronic scale. The display read 473 grams, so the attendant cut one more stalk.

”511 grams. That’s 0.30.”

The attendant took out a special plastic bag, packed the baby bok choy inside, and affixed a price label.

”Thank you...”

Mitsui approached with a smile. ”Hello! I’m Mitsui from the Yomiuri Shimbun. Would you be open to an interview?”

The man from East Japan glanced at Mitsui’s press credentials. ”I can, but I must insist that you don’t quote me out of context. Can you agree to that?”

”No problem.” Mitsui was well aware of the rules for interviews within Homo Sapiens Company: no unauthorized photography, you must get prior consent from the subject, and you absolutely cannot take quotes out of context.

The previous BBC correspondent assigned to Homo Sapiens Company had been sent to ’sing the jailhouse blues’ by the Internal Affairs Division after writing a report full of out-of-context quotes and then refusing to correct it or issue a public apology.

This served as a powerful deterrent to all the resident foreign correspondents.

You could criticize or comment on Homo Sapiens Company’s affairs—that was all permitted by the company. The one thing you couldn’t do was fabricate news, and quoting out of context was considered a form of fabrication.

Mitsui had no desire to end up in Homo Sapiens Company’s private prison.

He nodded to his cameraman, then turned back with a smile and asked, ”And how should I address you?”

”I’m Kudou Mitoshi.”

”Mr. Kudou, from your accent, you’re from Tokyo?”

”Yes, I used to live in the Shibuya District.”

Mitsui asked, ”Mr. Kudou, why did you come to work for Homo Sapiens Company? Was it because of the salary and benefits?”

”Of course. Everyone who comes to work for Homo Sapiens Company is here for the salary and benefits. That’s just the reality of it,” Kudou Mitoshi answered without hesitation.

Mitsui glanced at the items in his shopping cart and noticed there was enough food for four or five people. ”Mr. Kudou, did you come over with your whole family?”

”Yes. My wife, my mother, and our two children all live here now with Homo Sapiens Company.”

Mitsui asked curiously, ”Does your current compensation meet your expectations?”

Kudou picked up a watermelon. ”This eight-kilogram Kirin watermelon only costs 1.60. I make 4,500 a month now, and with my wife’s salary, I can afford to eat a watermelon every day.”

The price of fruits and vegetables was indeed a sore spot back in East Japan.

Kudou used to work at the Fujiship Shipyard in East Japan. Although his income was decent, he was the sole breadwinner, supporting four other family members, and the pressure was immense.

After coming to Homo Sapiens Company, he felt like a weight ten times heavier had been lifted from his shoulders.

His mother was in a nursing home, his two children were in boarding kindergarten and elementary school, his wife worked at a flower shop, and he himself was a ship maintenance technician at Sandakan Port.

He had successfully applied for a 150-square-meter employee apartment. It was an incredibly sweet deal.

He already had a plan. Besides taking time out each month to visit his mother and spend time with his children, he and his wife had four to six vacation days they could use as they pleased, perfect for traveling to other regions.

With a life like this, why wouldn’t he have come?

Mitsui, of course, understood the appeal of Homo Sapiens Company’s system. For ordinary people, it was as irresistible as catnip and dried fish to a cat.

He asked many questions about things like the language barrier, local customs, and the attitude of the local population.

Kudou answered each of them in turn.

Finally, Mitsui asked a more pointed question. ”Mr. Kudou, do you think East Japan still has a future?”

”Mr. Mitsui, do you think you’ll ever be able to collect your pension?” Kudou retorted.

Mitsui fell silent instantly. He was only twenty-eight, a long way from the age he could retire and collect his pension. But with East Japan’s stagnant economic growth, combined with its aging population and Homo Sapiens Company’s siphoning of its labor force, it seemed unlikely that the nation’s future would be anything but difficult.

He himself felt this way, and it was the mainstream view among East Japan’s younger generation.

This pervasive attitude was, in truth, a reflection of the younger generation’s confusion and disillusionment with East Japan’s future prospects.

...

Meanwhile, Wu Qingli and Guan Hongzhi were also examining the applications of various food preservation technologies and marveling at the low prices within Homo Sapiens Company.

Lilith explained to the two of them, ”To reduce waste in the future, our company will be launching a new project.”

”Waste? With preservation technology like this, your company must already have the lowest food waste rate in the world. I can’t imagine there’s any more room for reduction,” Guan Hongzhi said with a wry smile, shaking his head.

But Lilith just smiled and explained, ”Mr. Guan, if we could accurately forecast demand for a quarter, or even an entire year, in advance, couldn’t we reduce waste even further?”

”Forecast in advance?” Guan Hongzhi’s mind raced with the possibilities.

”Fengrao House will soon be launching a supermarket app that includes this very function,” Lilith said with a smile.

Guan Hongzhi fell silent.

For a system like Homo Sapiens Company’s, which possessed such an extremely high level of internal control and precision, this was indeed something they could achieve.

After all, every employee purchase required using Homo Sapiens Company’s banking and settlement system, and the goods being consumed were all sold by the company’s own subsidiaries. Therefore, all the data could be easily integrated.

Combined with Homo Sapiens Company’s one-of-a-kind semiconductor industry, building a high-precision statistical mechanism would be a simple matter.

”Ms. Lilith, this app doesn’t have any identity restrictions, does it?”

”Of course not.”

”It seems your company’s next step is to use this data to precisely regulate all kinds of production. That would indeed be an effective way to reduce waste,” Guan Hongzhi said, a note of admiration and envy in his voice.

Lilith gave a modest laugh and replied, ”This is all based on the lessons of human history. We are merely learning from them and applying them.”

Heh... Guan Hongzhi nearly cringed so hard he could have dug a three-bedroom apartment out of the floor with his toes.

Wu Qingli, who was standing nearby, walked over and saved him from his predicament.

”Ms. Lilith, I’m very curious. Does your company truly not purchase any external products at all?”

Hearing Wu Qingli’s question, Lilith shook her head. ”Of course we purchase things externally! For example, crude steel, crude aluminum, refined copper, and the like. Isn’t our company procuring these in large quantities?”

When it came to certain raw materials, Homo Sapiens Company had indeed recently resumed procurement from the East Asia Region.

You can’t pull the string too tight, or it’s liable to snap.

Homo Sapiens Company didn’t want certain powers to get desperate and do something rash.

As long as they managed the situation properly, allowing the other side to earn a certain amount of hard currency without letting them get too full, while ensuring a continuous supply of high-quality raw materials for themselves—that was Homo Sapiens Company’s true objective.

Homo Sapiens Company was so concerned about the living conditions of its neighbors.

To go to such lengths for them... they were just too kind!