Homo Sapiens

Lingnan Province.

A small town in Puning.

Having just returned to his hometown from Yangcheng, Luo Xuan gazed at the familiar scenery with a sense of trepidation.

In November, the weather in Lingnan was still a bit hot.

Luo Xuan wore a mask and avoided contact with passersby. He quickly navigated the familiar streets and alleys, arriving before a two-story house.

The two-story house, situated in a narrow alley, had its main gate shut tight. He took out his key and opened the iron gate.

The rusty iron gate let out a grating CREAK that set his teeth on edge.

He casually flipped the light switch, and the dim little living room brightened considerably. He glanced at the plastic food covers on the dining table; there were some leftover braised meat and stir-fried green beans.

After changing into slippers, he went up to his small room on the second floor.

The room wasn’t too dusty. The old-fashioned desktop computer was covered with a lace cloth. He booted it up; it still worked, but its specs were a bit dated.

He plugged the network cable into his laptop.

Luo Xuan started checking his email. He could have done it on his phone, but the screen was too small to conveniently view and edit images.

He had returned to his hometown this time because he felt living in the Pearl River Delta was no longer cost-effective.

As an external employee of the Dream Country Company, his current base salary was at the Ding-4 level: 500 Jin Yuan, plus a comprehensive subsidy of 150 Jin Yuan.

Over the past few months of work, he had not only created the comic ”Mirror Country” but also used his spare time to create illustrations for the company’s web novels.

This month alone, he earned 1,132 Jin Yuan. After deducting processing fees, he exchanged it at the Bank of China for 17,130 Huayuan, an indirect exchange rate of 15.2.

As for gold, which was previously 420 Huayuan per gram, its price had now soared to 7,600 Huayuan per gram. Hardly anyone on the market was willing to sell their gold.

The reason for such a dramatic surge was, on one hand, that a large portion of the Homo Sapiens Company’s products and services were irreplaceable.

For example, their services for the Malacca Strait, Kra Canal, and Lombok Strait.

Whether it was the Far East Region or the West Asia Region, as long as the two sides wanted to trade, they couldn’t avoid the transit hub of Southeast Asia.

Bypassing Southeast Asia meant passing through the waters between the Malay Archipelago and Kangaroo Country, which would add about 10,000 kilometers to the journey.

The shipping companies would have to be crazy to choose to bypass Southeast Asia, especially those from the Far East Region.

Thus, the Homo Sapiens Company’s shipping services had become indispensable.

In terms of products, not to mention their pharmaceuticals—be it Lanf Anning Antibiotics, Meisheng preventative medicine, or the Artificial Cornea for treating vision problems—all were in high demand and short supply worldwide.

On top of that, grain and food products had recently been added to the list.

Even for non-essentials like optoelectronic chips, new-type methane tankers, and natural gas vehicles, the Homo Sapiens Company was extremely competitive.

Furthermore, the special rule pegging the Jin Yuan to gold, precious metals, and rare metals was forcing the global prices of gold and precious metals to rise.

They had no choice but to increase prices.

Take the Far East Region for example. If prices didn’t rise, the Homo Sapiens Company would quickly drain the public’s gold reserves through private trade channels at the rate of 420 Huayuan per gram.

According to statistics from the Precious Metals Bank, 243 tons of gold had flowed from the private sector in the Far East Region to the Homo Sapiens Company over the last three months. Adding the 200 tons sold by the Bank of China International, the total inflow had reached 443 tons.

Under these circumstances, the Huayuan had to be drastically devalued against gold to prevent an accelerated outflow of domestic gold reserves.

Regions like East Japan, South Korea, Tianzhu, the South American Redwood Federation, and An Nan were all in similar situations. With insufficient Jin Yuan foreign exchange reserves, they could only use precious metals to purchase Jin Yuan.

But their internal reserves of precious metals were very limited, making a rise in the price of gold inevitable.

If prices didn’t increase, people in the private sector would surely resort to desperate measures.

Therefore, Luo Xuan’s 1,132 Jin Yuan could now be exchanged for 17,000 Huayuan. If he went through the black market, he could even get around 18,000.

This level of income was only considered average in the Pearl River Delta Region at this time.

Of course, that was the average level before the global economic crisis. Now, under the impact of the crisis, foreign trade in the Pearl River Delta Region had been significantly affected.

But Luo Xuan still chose to return to his hometown. After all, his job didn’t require a fixed office location; he could work just as well from home.

At home, he wouldn’t have to pay rent or inflated sublet utility fees, and he could eat with his parents. All told, he could save several thousand Huayuan.

A monthly income of 17,000 Huayuan was definitely considered high for a small town in Puning.

As Luo Xuan was modifying an illustration, his phone suddenly rang. He saw it was a colleague.

”Hey, Xuanzi, have you made it to Puning yet?”

”I’m here. At home now.”

”That’s good. I’ll treat you to dinner tonight. A few of our other colleagues here will come too. I’ll share the location with you in a bit.”

”Brother Huang, you shouldn’t have.”

”Don’t be so polite. We’re all on the same team.”

After hanging up, Luo Xuan, despite his social anxiety, braced himself to attend the gathering.

The Homo Sapiens Company didn’t just let its branch employees outside the Southeast Asia Headquarters fend for themselves. Instead, it established small groups and managed them collectively under the banner of ”Employee Mutual Aid Associations.”

Luo Xuan, for instance, belonged to the Homo Sapiens Company—Far East Division—Lingnan Region Branch—Puning Group.

The work of the Employee Mutual Aid Association involved fostering camaraderie, assisting employees, distributing benefits, organizing training, and the like.

The Brother Huang who had just called Luo Xuan was the person in charge of the Puning Group.

When Luo Xuan decided to return to Puning, the Yangcheng Group proactively contacted him and had him transferred to the Puning Group for easier management by the association.

He didn’t have a particularly negative view of the Employee Mutual Aid Association, because the Yangcheng Group had indeed helped him out quite a bit before.

What he didn’t know was that the leaders of these regional mutual aid associations were all ”New Human” employees, handpicked by the Homo Sapiens Company for their excellent work capabilities and professional ethics.

After all, to grow and thrive in other regions, the Homo Sapiens Company’s employees certainly needed to stick together for support. At the same time, it required regional leaders to be highly capable and completely loyal to the company.

”New Human” employees were the best choice.

Luo Xuan checked the time and buried himself in work again, modifying the illustration while communicating with the novel’s author to see if they were satisfied.

This type of work was usually paid per job. One job consisted of 10 illustrations, for which the company paid 20 Jin Yuan—it was basically a way to earn extra cash.

This was because the AI could also generate novel illustrations directly, but there might be issues with the details. That’s when professionals like Luo Xuan were needed to help with revisions.

The main hassle with this job was communicating with the novel’s author. If he ran into a particularly demanding client, it could take several days to produce the final images.

Of course, Luo Xuan had now learned to clock out on time. He only worked five to six hours a day, spending the rest of his time doing things he enjoyed.

Modifying illustrations to earn extra money was actually counted as part of his work hours.

Among the script editors, Luo Xuan was already considered one of the more diligent ones. Some people didn’t take on illustration jobs at all, focusing solely on designing comic plots.

They left all the drawing to the AI, only providing the plot, inspiration, and revisions. Their work was incredibly easy, especially for those editors working on hit serialized comics. They wouldn’t even look twice at the 20 Jin Yuan from an illustration job.

Luo Xuan was only putting in a little extra effort because he wanted to buy a house.

Before he knew it, the sun was already setting outside his window.