Homo Sapiens

February 24, Year 20.

In Macaron Village, west of Malagondon Town.

Wang Muyi and Julie’s team, assigned to conduct a spot check, had already arrived in the village.

Macaron Village was not a natural village. It was a new one, formed by forcibly merging several others. The small village, which previously had a population of only 1,200, now numbered 5,377.

The local cooperative’s head, Carter, was a meticulous middle-aged man with slicked-back hair. A young man from Wang Muyi’s supervisory team smiled and nodded at him.

In truth, both men knew each other’s identities. Soldiers didn’t need to communicate verbally; they could identify one another simply through the scent of their pheromones.

"Director Carter, please take us to the employee dormitory area," Wang Muyi said directly.

Carter nodded. "Okay, please follow me."

Macaron Village was basically divided into three areas: the old village area, the dormitory area, and the work area.

Cement roads had already been paved in the village. The large influx of people from other villages had turned it into a community resembling a small town.

A young female supervisor asked in a low voice, "Is this the ’village and town consolidation’ the company is pushing for?"

Julie nodded. "Yes. It’s to reduce wasted resources and improve the utilization rate of infrastructure."

Currently, all the cooperatives were implementing village and town consolidation. A standard cooperative started with a population of 5,000 or more.

On one hand, it was to centralize resources and improve infrastructure utilization.

On the other hand, it avoided the proliferation of small villages, which wasted the cooperative’s administrative resources. At the same time, it served to destroy the small circles of clans and strengthen the company’s influence in rural areas.

The cooperative’s structure had been continuously adjusted and had now formed a three-core model: director, manager, and treasurer.

The director was usually a Soldier, responsible for liaising with superiors, managing some personnel matters, training employees, managing the security team, and supervising production and operations. Sometimes, they also served as a technician.

The manager was in charge of economic and production work, while the treasurer handled payroll, subsidies, accounting, and fund management.

In reality, the director was the true core, as he controlled the security team.

According to the cooperative’s internal regulations, the security team generally had 20 to 50 members and was equipped with armored off-road vehicles, assault rifles, and grenades.

Naturally, such a core position could only be held by a Soldier. The company didn’t trust anyone else.

The group observed their surroundings as they walked.

They entered the employee dormitory area, which was enclosed by a wall. Rows of small, ten-story buildings appeared before them.

"A total of 50 buildings are planned for this area, with 2,000 units in all. So far, 20 buildings have been completed, and the occupancy rate is one hundred percent."

Wang Muyi could only give a dry laugh. The employee dormitories were indeed built very well.

The problem was that the company only rented the units out, never selling them. While the rent wasn’t high—only about 1 Peso per square meter per month—the properties ultimately belonged to the company.

Of course, the company wasn’t completely unreasonable. If you worked for the company continuously for 25 years, they would sell you a unit of no more than 200 square meters for about 30% of the market price.

’This decades-long promise feels a bit unreliable,’ Wang Muyi thought.

’If the company goes bankrupt in the future, who are the employees supposed to go to to honor the contract?’

’But there’s nothing to be done about it right now. After all, the employees can’t just conjure up a large sum of cash. Their only option is to live in the low-rent housing the company provides.’

Julie randomly pointed to a building. "Director Carter, unit 302 in this one."

"No problem." Carter led them to unit 302 of that building. After he opened the door, they saw the interior was already finished.

The floors were wood-grain tile, and the walls were coated with white plaster. The counters were all cast as a single piece from bamboo-reinforced concrete, then faced with the same wood-grain tile. The ceiling had no drop panels, featuring a simple, minimalist style of plain white plaster.

The furniture was also very simple, just the company-provided chairs made of iron and bamboo, and tables and beds made of an iron-bamboo composite.

’I know what this is all about,’ Wang Muyi thought. ’It all serves one purpose: cut costs as much as possible by using materials our own company produces.’

Considering the problems with excessive formaldehyde and maintenance in plywood, Coral Construction Company didn’t use materials like plywood at all.

"Team Leader Julie, let’s start the inspection and take samples," Wang Muyi said.

Julie nodded. "Alright, let’s begin."

Since Luzon is on a tectonic plate boundary, it has many volcanoes and earthquakes. It also has a tropical monsoon climate and experiences frequent typhoons.

Therefore, the buildings here have specific requirements for earthquake resistance, fireproofing, typhoon-proofing, and lightning protection.

Coral Construction Company cut costs in other areas, but when it came to disaster prevention design, they not only didn’t skimp but actually spent a lot of extra money.

For example, to resist earthquakes, the entire foundation of this residential complex was integrated. A connected system of underground composite beams was poured from concrete, using a combination of composite bamboo rebar and steel rebar.

The buildings themselves, however, were completely separate from the foundation; there were no components connecting the two.

As for the buildings above ground, they all used a square fortress-like design, connecting four buildings together to enhance overall stability and avoid overly slender structures.

These designs were all for earthquake-proofing.

If an earthquake occurred nearby, the seismic waves traveling through the ground would certainly impact the foundation, perhaps even tearing it apart. However, thanks to the design separating it from the foundation, the integrated above-ground structure would only tilt or subside, not suffer an internal collapse. The shaking might only crack some of the building’s walls.

This design could withstand a magnitude 8 earthquake, and in a magnitude 9 quake, it could still maintain the building’s overall structural integrity.

Wang Muyi’s team was responsible for testing the buildings’ seismic performance. This mainly involved using physical non-destructive testing equipment to check the integrity, density, approximate material composition, material distribution, and thickness of the walls and columns.

Julie’s team, on the other hand, was testing for fire safety, noise levels, formaldehyde, wiring, and plumbing.

They took these inspections very seriously, since their income depended on it. Besides, the company would later dispatch other supervisory teams for random secondary checks. To slack off would be to gamble with their own futures.

After a busy afternoon, the sun was setting outside the window.

Julie closed the window and patted her sore neck. "Let’s call it a day here."

"Mmm. Are we heading back to Malagondon Town tonight? Or should we just make do here?" Wang Muyi asked, sitting on a hard chair.

"Let’s stay here. We can have Director Carter arrange a few rooms for us."

Wang Muyi took out his phone and sent their request to Carter through the internal messaging app. Carter quickly made the arrangements.

After all, the cooperative’s office building had guest rooms, and the large co-op cafeteria was right next door. Food and drink were not a problem.

Wang Muyi and the others were used to this life of running around from place to place.

They strolled under the warm light of the setting sun.

Outside the dormitory area, many villagers were strolling along the village road. Not far away were fields where rice had just been harvested.

Meanwhile, Carter was in a cucumber field with a few technicians, repairing the sprinkler pipes. As Soldiers in charge of rural areas, they were actually jacks-of-all-trades.

Drawing on the knowledge stored in their bio-chips, these Soldiers not only knew scientific farming but could also produce local fertilizers, practice scientific animal husbandry, mix feed, prevent and treat livestock diseases, repair farm machinery, and perform deep processing of agricultural products. On top of all that, they had to be able to fight.

These Soldiers were the true bedrock of the Homo Sapiens Company.

Carter was able to command respect at the Macaron Village cooperative through sheer competence. Even the manager could only find a semblance of relevance in commercial matters.

Furthermore, the benefits of village and town consolidation also enhanced the effectiveness of Carter’s management.

After all, since the villagers were not from the same original village, it wasn’t easy for them to band together.

Coupled with the highly binding nature of the cooperative’s employee contracts, the director wielded immense power. If it weren’t for a Soldier holding this position, the company would never dare to delegate so much authority.

When Carter saw Julie and her team pass by, he merely nodded before burying his head back in his repair work.

Wang Muyi was used to it. The company had its share of mavericks like Carter, who basically didn’t show deference to anyone.

And according to rumors from the company’s upper management, these people were called the "Bedrock" by Chairman Jack Zhang.

Therefore, people like Carter were generally known as the Bedrock Faction, which, along with the Family Faction and the Chinese Faction, formed the three major internal factions of the present-day Homo Sapiens Company.

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