Homo Sapiens

The areas controlled by Homo Sapiens Company, such as South Lima and Dart Port, had undergone significant changes.

In fact, other parts of Luzon had also changed dramatically.

Take Negros Island, for example, which lies across the sea from Panay Island. Although the island was considered the territory of the Xu-Aquino Clan alliance, that didn’t mean they controlled the entire island.

Negros Island has a land area of over 10,000 square kilometers. The major clans could only hold sway over some of the cities and towns, while the remaining areas were controlled by numerous mid-sized and smaller families.

Barse Town on Negros Island was one such example.

The Barse Clan were the local overlords.

A common feature of island regions is that towns are typically situated along the coast, and Barse Town was no exception.

Master Barse, fan in hand, was personally at the port to welcome Captain Nord of Jade Energy.

"Captain Nord, my friend! It’s been too long. Let’s head to the restaurant and talk over a meal."

Nord didn’t refuse. "Sounds good! But let me give my crew some orders first."

"Of course," Master Barse replied, not daring to put on any airs.

Following Nord’s arrangements, the ship’s gas pipelines were swiftly connected to the port’s intake valves. The vessel, a methane tanker converted from a 5,000-ton bulk carrier, was transporting 4,000 tons of methane—approximately 2 million cubic meters.

The Barse Clan handled methane gas sales for Barse Town and its surrounding areas, and through their partnership, the two sides had monopolized the town’s gas industry.

In addition, the Barse Clan had also opened a local food wholesale market in partnership with Haitian Agriculture and Fengrao House.

However, this cooperation was not unconditional. The Barse Clan had to obey the Lopez Clan.

In essence, the various families of Luzon could be seen as feudal lords. After being groomed into a comprador, the Barse Clan lost its autonomy and had to align its stance completely with the Lopez Clan.

It wasn’t that the Barse Clan was unaware of the implications. They simply understood a fundamental principle: you win some, you lose some.

After taking over the local gas, food, and construction material businesses, their family’s income from plantations and land rent paled in comparison.

However, not all families were willing to cooperate. Some were highly resistant and wary.

But they couldn’t hold back the tide of the new era.

Once the surrounding areas joined the Homo Sapiens Company’s system, a noticeable gap would emerge between them and the regions that hadn’t.

It might not be apparent at first, but as time went on, this gap would only grow wider.

Furthermore, the Homo Sapiens Company’s Security Department and its external intelligence forces were far from saints. They would use any means necessary to relentlessly pursue those hostile to the company, hounding them until they were either eliminated or forced to retreat.

Through such methods, the Lopez Clan had already brought 42% of Negros Island under its control. Even though the Xu-Aquino Clan alliance had caught on, they were still unable to withstand the Lopez Clan’s offensive.

When profits were on the line, even blood brothers could be sold out, to say nothing of a loose alliance of different families.

Many of the smaller families previously aligned with the Xu-Aquino Clan alliance had wisely switched their allegiance.

The Barse Clan was one of them.

This was one of the reasons Master Barse was so eager to please Nord. After all, Jade Energy not only represented the Lopez Clan but was also his own family’s ticket to wealth.

The methane gas flowed rapidly through the pipelines, pumped into the storage tanks of the filling stations controlled by the Barse Clan.

Seeing that Nord had finished instructing his crew, Master Barse quickly lowered his voice and asked,

"Captain Nord, this month’s 100,000 cubic meters sold out a little quickly. Do you think you could ask the higher-ups to allocate another 100,000-cubic-meter storage tank for Barse Town?"

"Well..." Nord put on a troubled expression.

Master Barse quickly slipped an envelope into his hand. "This is a formal petition from all the residents of our town."

Nord felt the thickness of the envelope, and a broad smile instantly spread across his face. "Haha, well, since it’s a request from the entire town, I’ll be sure to explain the situation to the company and get things arranged for Barse Town as soon as possible."

"Thank you so much, Captain Nord! Tonight, we’ll drink until we drop!" Master Barse said, beaming.

But Nord shook his head. "I can’t. I have to make a trip to Bayawan this afternoon to deliver the rest of the gas, so no drinking for me."

"What a shame."

"Next time, for sure."

Exchanging pleasantries, the two men arrived at Barse Town’s biomass compression plant. This was another one of the Barse Clan’s enterprises, specializing in producing compressed biomass blocks.

These were essentially just dried twigs and dead leaves that were pulverized and compressed into one-cubic-meter blocks. The biomass blocks would then be shipped back to the methane plant on Panay Island.

This wasn’t because Panay Island lacked its own timber or hay; it was done to save fuel.

Jade Energy and its fellow subsidiaries had even retrofitted some of their transport ships to burn methane, reducing their dependence on external fuel oil supplies.

However, because Homo Sapiens Company had not yet perfected its large-scale gas turbine technology, only a few vessels under a thousand tons were equipped with their in-house gas turbines. Ships over a thousand tons could only use gas for auxiliary combustion and couldn’t completely replace heavy fuel oil.

Therefore, cost-effectiveness was a crucial consideration in ship operations.

For instance, after a methane tanker delivered its cargo, its return voyage would be highly uneconomical if the ship sailed empty. Yet, it still had to return.

Thus, figuring out how to utilize these deadhead voyages became a key challenge.

After validating a series of techniques and proposals, they finally opted to add the task of transporting raw materials during these return trips.

Nord’s ship, for instance, would load up on biomass blocks at ports along its route after unloading its methane, minimizing the time spent sailing empty on its return journey.

This need to handle different types of cargo meant that the ship’s design had to be versatile.

On Nord’s transport ship, the methane tanks were situated in the center and bottom of the vessel, leaving the side decks free as loading and unloading zones for small containers.

This approach significantly slashed the shipping costs for the various subsidiaries that relied on maritime transport.

Besides supplying biomass blocks, Barse Town also provided timber, rice, and tobacco.

For the Archipelago Region, transportation was a persistent and awkward problem.

On the mid-sized islands in particular, the cost and traffic volume made building cross-sea bridges or airports unfeasible, meaning they had to rely solely on maritime shipping.

For these small islands, the influence of Homo Sapiens Company and its tightly integrated system was spreading rapidly, riding the waves of its maritime logistics, gas and food supplies, and raw material procurement to blanket the islands.

The major clans could only hunker down and defend their positions on the larger islands.

But their time was running out. An invisible, giant net was tightening around them, bit by bit, until it would finally strangle them completely.

As Nord departed from Barse Town, the Xu Clan was holding an internal meeting in Bacolod City, one of the capitals of Negros Island, to discuss the Lopez Clan’s recent infiltration of the island.

As an alliance of clans, the relationship between the Xu Clan and the Aquino Clan was not particularly strong. Though bound by marriage, such ties, after all, didn’t make them one true family.

Now, facing the relentless pressure from the Lopez Clan, the Xu Family sensed the direness of their situation. To make matters worse, the Aquino Clan over in Manila had also recently come under fire.

This led some members of the clan to begin questioning whether they should continue to maintain the alliance.

Meanwhile, the faction advocating for cooperation with the Fernando Clan and the Lopez Clan was becoming increasingly assertive.

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