Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

While it was theoretically possible to create color-coded cartridges for Tatiana's shotgun and Ibarra's M203, all of us— I mean, all of us had effing flare guns in our pack for emergencies, and even though we haven't used them since time immemorial and were acting as paperweights, they were there for a reason and we shouldn't use our other tools even if we had the option to make them act like swiss army knives.

In any case, with that particular part out of the way, another thing we had been cooking was to produce an actual map for the Yamamoto Mountain.

Knowing it from memory only benefitted me—though I was still a little worried about doxxing my extended family's home so I omitted certain parts of it just to you know… umm… give it a little bit of spice and mystery.

But yeah, the key places were the residential area, the training grounds, the beach cave, the hotsprings, the forge, the peak, and the entrance to the mine where a volcano was sitting underneath—and besides the places where we farm crops and take care of animals, one of the important parts of the map was the paths which could lead to said places mentioned above or to areas where we could forage resources given by the mountain.

Because aside from the things we grew ourselves, there were food items that could be found or captured in the mountain—because one, it could save us some time and manpower since they could live and grow on their own, and two, there was just something different from a wild boar compared to a farm pig and an edible mushroom found in the wild compared to mushrooms grown in a fruiting bag.

With that said, another point to mention was that I had to give the people who would come with me a class and a take home booklet containing all the edible food items that could be found in the mountain and some other things they should be careful of or should just completely stay away from.

While getting stranded in the mountain was less than 1% and it could be alleviated by firing one of our flare guns, it'd be a 100% fatality if they somehow put the wrong thing in their mouth.

Tatiana then raised her hand while, for some reason, after she wiped her mouth, "Question!"

"Shoot."

"You mentioned wild boars… what else is in there?"

"Yes."

"Huh?"

"I just said yes—"

"Hold up—"

"I mean, not the entire zoo but let's just say that Kaiseki Ojii-san adopted more than just humans to inhabit the mountain…"

"L-Like what then?" Kaley cut in.

"You know all sorts of animals—"

"Like what? Birds, fishes— H-How about bugs?! Please say no!"

"I mean… I can say no but I'm not entirely sure. Everyone pitched in to increase our collection but it's like playing Pokemon completely single player."

"Now you've lost me—"

Cynthia cut in, "Oh! Oh! I know! If I answer, can you finally fuck me in my sleep after I took sleeping pills?!"

"WOAH! WOAH! Chill~ Ms. Depravity, I can just say the reference without a deal with a succubus, alright? That was way~ of a fucking curveball, ya know? But yeah, was still fucking funny, heh."

She shook her head, chuckling, "Fine, fine! It just means it's right up there but not a 100% complete collection. Not to mention if you're stuck in just one region and you have to complete the WHOLE collection, am I right?"

I nodded, "Exactly. But yeah, as long as you follow the path I've drawn on the map, you'd be 80% safe even if you walk buck-ass naked."

Dr. Nichols then raised her hand, "Question, how… how many people are living in the mountain?"

I thought for a bit, "Concurrently? Less than a hundred but if we're talking about the number of people Ojii-san took in and later on led their own lives, I wouldn't be able to give you an exact number. I'm not even entirely sure how old he is…"

"If that's the case, would it be a far-fetched idea to say that the mountain could be housing everyone from your extended family? Unless they found someplace else that's safer, it would be a better choice to stick together, right?"

"Ah, fuck— FUCK!"

"D-Did I say something wrong?"

"N-No… Pretty spot-on actually… It's just…"

"It's just…?" Everyone else trailed with me.

"You know… I-If that's the case, it's not like everyone the Old Man took in were good people… you know… when they grew up… It's not for lack of trying— and there were even a few who umm… Who went the wrong path after graduating."

"Graduating?"

I raised my arm with the tattoo sleeve, "This," then I drooped my head low, "Fuck, I haven't even thought about the fucking rogues… That's Mashiro-san and Arashi-kun's job…"

As soon as I said that, I didn't even notice that almost everyone else was ready for another tidbit from my life—or more specifically, my adoptive uncle and older brother's life—from overseas. Because yeah, I only mentioned a handful of people from Japan but in actuality, it was safe to say that we could've been a Yakuza family of our own if we were a criminal organization.

'We do have the tattoos for it already, heh…'

But yeah, to explain it as much as I could—since it wasn't my department—there was basically a group of "Repo Men" tasked to retrieve Ojii-san's works if they went against the family, died in an accident, sold them off for money, or basically lost part of their souls one way or another.

Cynthia excitedly raised her hand, "Q-Question!"

"No more sex-related queries tonight—"

"It's for something else! It's on topic!"

"Fiiine~ Shoot."

"How would they know if the sword they repossessed is the real thing?"

I thought for a bit, looking up, "Hmmrghh… Aside from instinct?"

"Y-You can actually do that?"

"Yeah?"

"Uh-huh…"

"I mean— I can just take one look at a blade but if it's dressed-up—"

Quinn cut in, "Hold up, whaddayoumean by dressed-up?"

"You know, if you use body kits or something similar."

"Ah. Got it. Continue."

"Right… Heh, that was fast. But yeah, if the blade was put into a different scabbard or handle, I'd have to inspect it more closely or try to make it clash with mine just to be sure," I turned to Tatiana, "Remember when I tried to break your sword?"

"Yeah? So, it's something like that?"

"Yep— But it still depends. They've collected generations of swords and let's just say that the older it was, the less ductile it was. Even now, Ojii-san is still perfecting his craft, incorporating different forging techniques, and using different combinations of materials to find out what works best."

Cynthia raised her hand again, "Ooh! Ooh! One more question please!"

"Shoot."

"D-Do you have a graveyard of swords or something?"

"Yes? Why do you ask?"

"Wooooow~! You mean you just stick them all to the ground once you find them?! That's so cool!"

I then waved her off, "N-No… While that would've been cool as fuck, I would have a picture of that in my albums and my social media profiles."

"T-Then what kind of g-graveyard is it?"

"Like an actual graveyard. But with the person's swords buried right next to them."

"Oh…"

"And before you ask, some people have tried digging them up and it had become another task for whoever's assigned to retrieve them."

"Do… Do you kill them o-or something?"

I chuckled, "No. Why?"

"B-Because, isn't that taboo?"

"It is. Very."

"Then."

"Remember this if you want to punish someone… It's a little different now given the circumstances but wouldn't it be nice to have your limbs intact or your nerves still connected? While we do have free reign on whatever happens on that mountain, we don't kill unless we really have to."

"So it did happen?"

"Yes. And before you ask, while I have killed people before the world ended, it was a different story altogether and the only thing I had to do in the mountain was scare off a few grave diggers."

"What happened there?"

"I mean— We built better graves. High walls, more security, stone tombs, the works…"

"..."

"What? It's a pain to keep watch over my ancestors, ya know?"

At that point, it seemed like they had more questions than answers but we once again ended the night with the usual activities and post activities. We can only do so much in the time given to us but it didn't take long before we woke up and had another 24 hours to take advantage of. Discover hidden tales at My Virtual Library Empire

However, our breakfast table seemed to have another entree and it was several heads—seemingly waterlogged and came from the Manila Bay, and whaddayouknow, even though the important thing inside their heads was taken out due to severe brain hemorrhaging, it seemed like their thick fucking skulls—yeah, thick fucking skulls had another story to tell us.