Chapter 356 - 353: The Great Migration

The world's major grain-exporting countries were struggling immensely with Homo Sapiens Company's low grain prices.

Meanwhile, a large cruise ship from the Dongba Branch was slowly docking at the upgraded and renovated Hongku Port passenger terminal.

This was a large cruise ship with a displacement of 200,000 tons, 2,500 cabins, and a capacity for 10,000 passengers, including 836 crew members.

It was built by the Ceylon Shipbuilding Group, which had been established just last September. Four cruise ships of this model had been built to date; they were conventionally powered transport vessels.

These four large cruise ships were mainly used for large-scale employee transfers.

This trip to Hongku Port, for instance, was to transport over nine thousand new-human employees transferred from the Dongba Branch. These employees would serve as the main force for developing the coastal agricultural zones of the Red Sea Province.

When it came to rice cultivation, employees from the Dongba Branch were far more skilled than the Suez People.

The reason for transferring so many employees from the Dongba Branch was mainly that the local labor force in the Red Sea Province was too small, with only about 400,000 people.

Even though Xu Yingcheng, the head of the Hongku Port second-tier branch, worked desperately to attract labor from the surrounding areas, Hongku Port currently had only just over eight thousand employees. This number was far too small.

According to the regulations of Homo Sapiens Company's Internal Affairs Division, only city-level branches with over 100,000 employees qualified as second-tier branches. Otherwise, they were considered temporary branches.

Moreover, having too few employees was detrimental to the development of various service industries. The company couldn't possibly build a dedicated hospital and university for just a few thousand people, after all.

The trained employees, dispatched from other regions, disembarked the cruise ship in an orderly fashion. They had all brought their families along. Those who had already become new-human employees were tasked with temporary management duties.

Xu Yingcheng and his team met with the onboard team leader from the Internal Affairs Division, and they completed the handover of the employee data files.

Zhang Kai, the head of the Internal Affairs Section for the Hongku Port Branch, flipped through the summary sheet of the data files and integrated the employee data into the local database.

Zhang Kai said with a hint of resignation, "We finally have 18,000 employees."

"In two weeks, another batch of employees from the Java Branch will arrive by ship. Additionally, about 2,400 workers from the Far East will be flown in in batches," the onboard team leader from the Internal Affairs Division said with a smile.

When it came to diluting the populace, Homo Sapiens Company was extremely professional.

Whenever a new, fully autonomous city-branch was established, the head office would never allow employees from a single region to form an absolute majority. Employees from at least several different regions had to be mixed together.

Clearly, Homo Sapiens Company did not want the old regional and ethnic divisions to persist within its ranks.

New-human employees from various regions were also carrying out extensive assimilation work. They were instilling in everyone concepts like "Homo sapiens" and "Company Person" to replace previous identities like the Luzon people, Thais, or Chinese.

The mindsets of the older generation were harder to change, and they were not the focus of the assimilation efforts. The younger generation, however, was gradually accepting concepts like Homo sapiens and "Company Person."

It was estimated that in less than a couple of decades, the concept of Homo sapiens would become widely accepted.

「At the port's temporary rest area.」

Xu Yingcheng handed over the task of settling the newly arrived employees to Zhang Kai, then returned to his own work of managing local industrial deployment.

Zhang Kai and his deputy, Lida Hinder, quickly requisitioned over a hundred of the new-human employees from the newly arrived group to help with the settlement process.

In terms of work capability, new-human employees could adapt to any kind of job. Moreover, their internal solidarity was very high, and they were happy to help with such temporary assignments.

One of the middle-aged immigrants, dressed in a jute-cloth shirt, held up a housing assignment list. "Zhang Kai, are there enough houses to go around?"

"Don't worry! The construction team has already built 16 dormitory buildings in the last month, which can accommodate 3,200 households. Plus, there are two temporary container housing areas that can hold another 10,000 people," Zhang Kai replied, rattling off the figures with ease.

"It seems the infrastructure here has caught up."

Lida Hinder, however, shook her head. "Not yet. A place starting from scratch like this still has a lot of catching up to do!"

As they spoke, several large buses began to shuttle the newly arrived employees to the dormitory area.

...

Maggie, who had come from a slum in Cairo, was alone in her employee dormitory room.

She was diligently watching instructional videos on her phone to learn English. The main reason she chose English was that many people around Suez spoke it, which made it relatively quick to pick up.

As for Homo Sapiens Company's dozen or so other official languages, Maggie didn't know a single one.

It was truly admirable that she had dared to come here all by herself.

The Suez People in the coastal areas of the Red Sea Province mainly spoke the Beja language, which was different from the standard Arabic spoken back in Cairo.

She only discovered after arriving that very few people here spoke Arabic. To make work and life easier, she had no choice but to learn another language: English.

"Maggie, studying English again?" a woman in her twenties greeted her with a cheerful smile.

Maggie quickly replied in halting English, "Hello! Sister Meng."

Ruan Meng shrugged. "You can speak Arabic, you know. Don't force yourself."

Maggie deeply admired Ruan Meng. The woman was fluent in several languages, which made Maggie feel like a complete idiot in comparison.

"No, I'm determined to learn it."

Looking at the little girl's determined expression, Ruan Meng was reminded of her past. She had been born in a rural village in northern An Nan and came from a family with many siblings. She had left home at a young age to work and earn a living.

Then, the year before last, she was tricked by someone from her hometown and taken to Siam. She was there for the "Siam Mutation," and by a strange twist of fate, ended up working for the Siam Branch.

Later, at work, her team leader recommended her, and she became a new-human employee.

She had voluntarily applied for this transfer to work at the Suez Branch.

Ruan Meng already knew Maggie's story. The girl had grown up in a Cairo slum where her parents made a living by scavenging. After her mother died from an illness last year, she started scavenging for money herself to survive.

A while ago, the personnel department held a job fair in Cairo, and the young girl seized the opportunity to apply. Even though she was only 15, they accepted her.

Ruan Meng stroked her auburn hair. "Make sure you get some rest, and don't overdo it. You can go to the sports field for exercise, or watch movies."

"Thank you..." Maggie said quickly.

Ruan Meng's advice to rest and have fun wasn't meant to be a bad influence on the girl. It was simply that there was no need for her to study so desperately.

Homo Sapiens Company's current internal education system consisted of a nursery (ages 0–3), kindergarten (ages 3–6), elementary school (ages 6–12), junior high (ages 12–15), and high school (ages 15–18).

After that, students could choose a major based on their interests and academic performance and then go on to university.

Homo Sapiens Company had no college entrance exam. This was because in June of their 18th year, high school students would be implanted with biological chips, at which point acquiring knowledge would no longer be a problem.

Therefore, during the 12 years of pre-adult education, the Homo Sapiens Company's model focused on "happy education," "interest-based learning," and "ideological instruction," rather than the score-centric approach of test-oriented systems.

Once the biological chip was implanted, learning anything would become incredibly fast, and the individual would be completely transformed.

That was why the universities run by Homo Sapiens Company were the places where true professional knowledge was taught.

Maggie was only 15, placing her right in the junior high phase. There was no need for her to study anything too specialized. The most important thing was for her to be happy and have fun.

Ruan Meng said with a smile, "I have some good news for you. In a few days, the school run by the Hongku Port Branch will be opening. You'll be able to go to school with other kids your age."

"..." Maggie was silent for a moment. "...But I don't have any money."

Ruan Meng ruffled her hair again. "Don't worry! It's compulsory education provided by the company, free of charge. Room and board are included. You should live a happy life from now on."

"Really...?" An excited flush appeared on Maggie's face.