Homo Sapiens

After dealing with Naukam and his men, the former Leech Gang, now renamed the Wolf Spider Gang, experienced no internal turmoil.

This was mainly because the Leech Gang’s mid-to-high-ranking members had either been brought under control or executed, not to mention Naukam and his followers who were sent to Yunnan.

The current mid-to-high-ranking members of the Wolf Spider Gang were all Soldiers, supplemented by a manager transferred from the Hongsawaddy branch. As for the rank-and-file, they were all being sent in batches to a small mountain village for conversion into Soldiers.

After all, not a single one of them was innocent. If they weren’t converted into Soldiers, Domino would find it distasteful to use them.

The Leech Gang had a total of 2,736 members. After accounting for those who were killed or sent to Yunnan, 2,605 remained, all of whom were slated for conversion into Soldiers.

Domino, now in the Golden Triangle, stood with another manager, Sharon, looking at a simple sand table before them.

The sand table depicted the terrain of the Golden Triangle Region.

It was dotted with countless small flags of various colors, each representing a different faction. These ranged from warlords commanding tens of thousands of troops to local kingpins and drug cartels controlling just one or two towns.

In the Golden Triangle, Naukam’s Leech Gang was only considered a mid-tier power. He was infamous only because his actions had such a significant impact.

Sharon explained, "There are two mid-tier factions between us and the Zhang Family Army. I propose we avoid expanding in that direction for the time being. We should focus all our efforts on pushing south and west to completely link our territory with Chiang Mai Province and Kachin State."

"Agreed." Domino had no objection.

By expanding south and west, they could consolidate their territory. In the east, they could use the Mekong River to connect with Chiang Mai Province. In the west, they could use the Salween River to link up with Kachin State, Karen State, Meng State, and other areas.

Besides, the Zhang Family Army was not to be trifled with. They had six divisions. If not for the Hongsawaddy regular army eyeing them menacingly, they would have swallowed the Golden Triangle whole long ago.

Pointing at the sand table, Sharon continued his briefing. "To our south are five small factions and two mid-tier ones. The strongest is Menglin Village, with over two thousand armed combatants. It’s a clan-based power, so we’ll need to pay it special attention."

"Then we’ll launch a full-scale assault. Take the entire village for me," Domino said nonchalantly.

You wouldn’t find any decent people in a place like that. The usual methods of control were difficult to apply to such clan-based villages. Its members were all close-knit relatives who knew each other intimately, making it difficult to lure them out individually; such attempts could easily backfire.

’They’re not good people anyway,’ Domino thought. He planned to conquer them directly and then convert everyone with discernible cognitive abilities.

’In a bandit stronghold like this, everyone deserved to die, save for the young children who didn’t know any better.’

With Domino present to help manage affairs, Sharon decided to personally lead 500 fully converted Soldiers, along with 5 members of the Blood Blade Special Team, to clear out the separatist forces to the south and west.

The first to be made an example of was Menglin Village.

「On a jungle path, in the dead of night.」

Among the marching column of over five hundred men, there was not a single whisper of noise—only the low sounds of breathing and footfalls.

Reconnaissance insects swarmed the surrounding area for several kilometers, ensuring that no disturbance, no matter how slight, could escape the notice of the Blood Blade Special Team.

On a ridge approximately 5.2 kilometers from Menglin Village, a hidden sentry post had been established. Unfortunately for its occupants, such concealment was only effective against ordinary forces.

To the Soldiers, who relied on pheromones as their primary means of reconnaissance, the human scent of the sentries was as conspicuous as a firefly in the dead of night.

Soon, under a surprise attack by toxic mosquitoes, the three men on watch fainted and collapsed. The two who were sleeping were spared, saved by their mosquito nets.

But these two lucky souls were about to face a second wave of attack.

Genetically modified hornets with reinforced stingers instantly tore through the thin mosquito nets, stinging the two soundly sleeping men into unconsciousness.

Sharon and his men proceeded to neutralize five sentry posts in this manner.

It wasn’t until they were closing in on Menglin Village itself that a sentry, who had woken up to relieve himself, noticed something was amiss.

BANG BANG BANG... A few gunshots rang out.

It was like kicking a hornet’s nest. The people inside the stockade reacted instantly. As expected of a faction that could survive in the Golden Triangle, their vigilance was exceptionally high. Even in the middle of the night, no great chaos ensued; men, women, the old, and the young all grabbed the nearest weapon.

But they had underestimated their enemy.

Dense swarms of toxic mosquitoes and hornets poured into the stockade, blotting out the sky.

Behind Sharon, a dozen Soldiers carried a diesel generator and a high-power electromagnetic jammer, which was now broadcasting a powerful jamming signal.

The Golden Triangle might not have 4G or 5G, and there were hardly any phone lines, but satellite phones were common. Nearly every faction, large or small, had them.

To prevent intelligence leaks that might alert other factions in the Golden Triangle, Domino had brought a batch of high-power electromagnetic jammers from Chiang Mai and distributed them to their various outposts.

Inside the stockade, not only were the satellite phones useless, but even the walkie-talkies were jammed.

As for landlines? Sorry, none were installed here.

As a result, the people inside could only rely on runners to pass messages, a tactic that was perfectly countered by the swarms of toxic mosquitoes and hornets.

Many runners collapsed mid-stride, their vision suddenly going black.

Even armed men hiding in pillboxes and bunkers couldn’t escape the pervasive mosquitoes. They had no experience or equipment to counter such a peculiar weapon.

Expecting a bandit stronghold, which lacked even basic protective suits and gas masks, to fight against ultramodern biological weapons was simply asking the impossible.

Watching their comrades and kinsmen fall one by one, many of the bandits finally snapped.

BANG BANG BANG...

A young bandit with an AK-47 charged out of a bunker, screaming in a local dialect, "Die! Just fucking die! Aaaaargh!"

He roared as he sprayed bullets from his rifle wildly into the jungle outside the stockade.

Meanwhile, Sharon and his men, still over a kilometer away, remained hidden behind cover, not exposing themselves in the slightest.

In the pitch-black jungle, he was just wasting ammunition. If they had RPGs or rifle grenades, perhaps a blind barrage might get lucky and hit a poor sod or two.

Unfortunately for them, they didn’t even know the general direction of Sharon’s forces.

The few bandits who had lost their minds were dead within minutes.

The insect assault continued for over an hour, after which the stockade fell mostly silent.

But Sharon didn’t rush in. He knew they might have set traps like landmines or tripwires in a final, desperate act before losing consciousness.

Therefore, he followed standard procedure: send in the reconnaissance insects to carefully scout ahead.

Then, he led the Soldiers in, securing the village area by area.

As Sharon had predicted, some of the bandits had indeed set traps before passing out—and quite a few of them, at that.

But against Sharon, a master of the cautious approach, their efforts were futile. After a night of steady advances, the entirety of Menglin Village was brought under control.

The enemy’s armed garrisons in the dozen or so surrounding villages were also rounded up by dispatched Soldier teams and brought back.

As for the farmers in those small villages—or more accurately, serfs—Sharon paid them no mind for the time being.

He still had a mission to complete. Understanding that speed is paramount in war, Sharon quickly handed over the subsequent cleanup of Menglin Village to Domino and led his men to continue the assault on other factions.

「In less than half a month.」

Sharon had swept through more than a dozen surrounding factions, both large and small.

The territory occupied by the Wolf Spider Gang expanded to roughly one-third of the Golden Triangle Region.

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