Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

As strong as Sebastian was, without prior experience with the real thing, it'd be an arduous task to be able to come out of it alive by himself or to be able to protect Sal and her nieces. Sure, I haven't seen his full capabilities but I was just simply judging from what I've seen because again… as strong as he was, their estate needed more quality fighters, not more grunts to do gruntwork.

'Well~ There's also his "personal" workers I haven't seen so… maybe? Just maybe…'

In any case, his concern for his employers was genuine because I've never seen him this anxious. However, the notion of having a tool that could potentially solve his new-found problem at the same exact time was extremely lucky and unlucky.

"So… If I managed to sink this axe on its head and press this button right after, it'll do it?"

"Yeah, hopefully..."

"But isn't sinking the blade to its head enough? I mean—"

"I think you must've forgotten about its head withstanding rifle rounds."

"What rifle rounds, exactly?"

"5.56s and 7.62s— even a straight slug was caught in its skin that's like the most gnarly jerky you've ever chewed on."

"Then how did you exactly kill it? You don't have it that time, no?"

"Well~ I meant by withstanding bullets as being alive after getting shot because usually—no, almost always, they die with a single shot to the head but that Hulker took plenty."

"Ah, I see…"

"But to answer your question, we tried disabling its movement first—making one of its knees give out—to get more shots in its head, and after a while, like a tough piece of meat, it'll eventually give out given enough pressure."

He let out a bitter smile as he chuckled, "I appreciate you trying to relate to me by using those references but is using this axe the only way to take it down?"

"It's currently the easiest way because Artem managed to test it on a partial Hulker like the one we fought on Mr. Cuervo's games—though he haven't actually used the injection system on the latter—but as I said, enough damage will put it down. The gas it injects into the small cracks from the damage it sustained straight to its head can be the deciding blow if you got close enough."

"Close enough?"

"You see, we've only faced one fully-formed Hulker and it hits harder than a truck AND you don't get Isekai'd after. I'd actually recommend fighting it from afar if you have enough sharpshooters and enough firepower or just simply running away from it, but if worse comes to worst, having one of those axes will save you—"

Sebastian's eyes lit up, "So… You have more of these?"

"Yeah—"

"So—"

"Unfortunately, that's the only one we have right now… the rest of them are on the opposite side from Cuervo Heights… We haven't really tested if .308s could work on it but with Kaley here, we'll just see how fewer bullets we'd use to take it down if we ever see one… It's just that they're as rare as rare goes…"

He nodded a few times, "I see… I see… In any case, may I please ask what would it take to commission—"

I instantly waved him off, "After you send off Edith and Nancy when we go back, I'll give that to you plus a few more when I send over Elsa and Mauro's wedding gifts. My folks back home are trying to improve them bit by bit… if you don't mind a prototype like this, it's only fair to—"

"Are you serious, my lord?!"

I chuckled as I leaned close for a whisper, "As serious as to your will to keep on scaring the cadets of those drop bears you speak of…"

"Ah~! It is entertaining, no?"

"It is, and I don't mind it 'cuz it makes them safer in a way though indirectly."

With that said, Sebastian returned Tatiana's axe before walking back to his group which was now in the process of chopping down a medium-sized tree while my group was more focused on foraging, clearing out small branches and other obstacles, and watching out for threats.

On the other hand, Mauro's group was also chopping down a larger tree further out, but from the corner of my eye, I saw Nancy huddled down on an exposed root of a large tree we weren't supposed to cut.

So, I approached her because everyone else was busy doing their own thing.

"Hey."

"Ah— I wasn't doing anything!"

I chuckled from looking at her shocked to fuck expression, "I didn't say you were, what are you doing over there? We're not far out but you're not supposed to venture out alone, right?"

Nancy nodded a few times before pointing at a bunch of pinkish flowers on the ground, "I-I just found some Red C-Clovers… W-We actually have some growing back h-home but I just wanna r-remember this spot just in case…"

"Oh?" I was surprised at her find but I had to look into an empty space as I accessed my mind palace, "Hmmrhgh… Wait a sec, do you have osteoporosis?"

Nancy cutely tilted her head, "What?"

"Bone disease?"

"W-What?! No! At least I don't think so! Do I?!"

"I think you're just short… How about high cholesterol?"

Her face reddened as her mouth agape, "D-Do I look like I'm fat?! You—"

I tilted my head before I shrugged my shoulders, "So, menopause?"

"IT'S FOR MY COUGHS AND ASTHMA!!!"

As soon as I said the forbidden word, Nancy's face just warped from embarrassment to complete disbelief and it only took a few seconds before she tried to climb on top of me and make me take back what I said to her.

To be completely fair, Red Clovers were being used to treat the first three that I said but it's just that I haven't gotten to coughs and asthma yet.

But yeah, it had more uses than treating those we've mentioned above but with a small shovel in hand, Nancy took it upon herself to take a few from the bunch we saw and replant them a few feet away. That way, it would have the chance to at least multiply the next time she came here though I thought their supply from their estate should be enough on their own.

It's just that I didn't think that Nancy had coughs or even asthma because I've never seen the symptoms, but at this moment, I'm gonna be a little more watchful over her and know more about her condition from Edith, Elsa, or Sal. All I know was that she lacked stamina but that doesn't mean to quit exercising altogether. She could also be suffering from a very mild case of those things but a few precautions while we were outside shouldn't hurt.

'And Edith should definitely take it easy on her knowing that…'

But yeah, it didn't take long before we heard "TIMBER~!" back-to-back followed by a couple of loud thuds when the trees hit the ground. After that, it was followed by constant chopping from clearing out the branches and cutting up the tree into logs and then carrying them over into the same pile before uprooting the stump and filling it up with soil.

The group kept doing the same thing over and over until one got tired, but all they'd do was change up the tasks that person was doing then continuing on with the workload.

As we cut a dozen trees or so, I noticed that even if Sebastian's group had cut down a very large tree that seemed to be at least 20+ years old, we'd been doing "easy" trees that had no curvature and the like, and we were skipping a few trees that were definitely marked for cutting down.

I just assumed that Sebastian deemed it to be either too dangerous for a novice group or he'd like us to skip a few so that the view or path to the log cabin would be clearer.

But yeah, for some reason, Nancy kept spotting usable or edible weeds and flowers on the ground like pigweeds, purslane, and even a wild raspberry bush. It didn't have a single fruit yet but Nancy said—and confirmed by my mind palace—that it was one. However, I almost had to smack her noggin' because more often than not, she'd just wander around like a lost kid when she discovered something.

With her small frame, it'll be very easy to lose sight of her in the woods but I didn't think I'd have to use a rope to tie us together because she was acting like we were still inside their estate.

"T-This…"

"You keep running away, that's why."

"But it's safe—"

"Sure. Until it isn't. You gotta understand, even without drop bears, deadheads, or the like, you might venture further than you think and sprain an ankle or god forbid, hit your fucking head in a log, and it'll be a pain to find you. I'm just looking out for you so I don't actually look out for you, got it?"