Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

After a few seconds of silence, Edith and I just started laughing though she was more entertained from cutting off Sal mid-sentence. While it was true that she was also on the fence about having kids—like most of the women in our circle—she, herself, said that she didn't feel like it at the time, and in addition, she already had her eggs frozen and stored in my cool-ass freezer.

But yeah, after my discussion with my agriculturists, I decided to call the President of the Philippines, Rod, the Mayor of Manila, Iskoh, my other business partners, and more importantly, part of the people who consumed said "enhanced" crops, the people from the US Military.

All of them had differing times of availability but discovering this particular fact a few days ago aligned our interests.

Long story short, they conducted their own experiments—as we did—but for the people who fed said crops to their prisoners or some other brave soul, their bloodwork still needed some time to process and more tests would be conducted in the remaining days.

It included testing if various stages of plant growth could affect the effectiveness or much more likely, the existence of the virus in them, and if anything, if this was the silver lining among clouds as the quote says.

I've said it way, way~ back before: if we couldn't make an antidote or a vaccine for the virus, we should just learn a way to live with them—or in the most realistic sense—have them stay dormant inside our bodies despite consuming organic material that still had them since it was already known that we were all infected one way or another.

Though it gave us another headache to think about:

This virus had been living in us all this time and it never appeared in clinical tests and trials—even if checking our bloodwork—but the moment it "activates" or turns a human into an infected or a walking sack of flesh, it's suddenly circulating in our bodies—even appearing in this dark-red hue visible to the naked eye.

That was one of the reasons I was so afraid and so fucking against consuming them because what if there was a "cap" or much more importantly, what if the remnants of the virus in the crop we ate were from a different strand and it causes a mutation albeit being dormant?

The president then joked at my point:

[Heh. If anything, we'd just know more since I'm feeding my prisoners with vegetables and slop since time immemorial. Ain't no way they're touching meat after crossing me. I'm more of a carnivore myself anyway.]

"That's… assuring, in a way."

[Heh. If our scientists—or our imported scientists can't crack it, we can always opt for trial and error. I have plenty of test subjects, so do they. Send me some more if you don't need them.]

"Really? Didn't you just send me people who'd get picked by the end of the line if we're playing a sport? I wouldn't mind if you send the whole family pack but you picked through them, no?"

[Yes, and?]

"...you fucker."

[Look where it got ya, kid. Ya got Marines backing you up. Some of 'em answer to me, the ones who got here first, at least. But they mostly answer to themselves and have Oscar and Johnny as their liaison.]

"I mean… They'd part of 'em. What do you expect?"

[They're still in our land.]

"Finder's Keeper's now. Besides, who fucking cares since they're our allies?"

[That's… That's something you'd learn about when you're in power. We're in a crisis now so it's different but you can't just fucking do that normally.]

"Then why didn't you say anything when they arrived?"

[Because they're our allies, you numbnut.] Continue your adventure at empire

"You—"

[Hah! I did say some things but not to you. It all worked out in the end but we'll see where it goes. At least they owe me a few more favors after that broadcast. I heard they've been cleaning up as of late.]

On that note, almost every conversation was like to that end—except, of course, from the people who was wearing the same uniform as the ones in Japan. While they technically didn't have to worry because they had also not consumed anything with that type of fertilizer, they couldn't help but fear for their comrades.

I said to Mitch, "I mean— if anything, umm— this is just a theory but what if they just turn to specials the moment they, you know… turn? It doesn't make it better but as long as they don't trigger the virus in 'em to activate, right?"

[Hmm… I think we're just seeing too much of the negatives here. What if it really was a good thing?]

"Then all is well. I mean— We're okay as it is but better safe than sorry, no? And what do you expect? All that came out of this shit was negative, why would we expect something positive out of it?"

[Well~ Every nation united, for one.]

"Really? I mean, with fewer people out the way, I guess it really was possible."

[You— I was just trying to see the good in things, alright? Gimme a break…]

With that said, I eventually concluded the call with everyone else and decided to hit the gym to somehow catch up with my dailies. Because despite sitting around most of the day from the past few days, it does get tiring and draining at the same time—and for some reason, doing something strenuous like exercise somehow resolves it.

It could be the dopamine rush right after finishing a workout but I really can't complain.

But yeah, right as I changed my clothes and went up my private space, I discovered that Kaley seemed to be locked in extra, extra hard—evident by Tatiana giving me a glance, because I discovered that right as Kaley finished her workouts plus the supplementation for her forearms, she picked up one of my wooden practice swords and was sparring with everyone willing to entertain her.

There was a fine line between being locked in and overtraining so I decided to intervene by stepping in with my wooden sword.

"Alright, this will be your final match and then you'll rest right after—"

"No! H-Ha… Haa…"

I shook my head, "If you won't, I'll just make you—"

"Fine by me!"

At that point, Kaley just lunged at me without even taking a short break from a rough spar with Tatiana—and if this was any other day, I would've nipped it in the bud, but since she had some concerns concerning my childhood friend and family, I decided to humor her for a bit and give her an image of who she was up against.

With a quick flourish, I disarmed her wide-swinging ass by striking her wrists but as soon as she rushed to get her bokken back, I was now using a wooden staff a bit longer than what Rin was using to practice with.

I would've preferred if I could wear a long-ass wig up to my calves and Aoi's "assets" but I guess it would be enough to use Aoi's techniques against her.

"What gives?!"

"You tryin' to practice against Aoi, right? I'll show you a few moves—"

"THANK YOU—"

Surprisingly enough and almost catching me off-guard, Kaley let out one of her smiles that would stun me before she rushed in with both hands gripping her weapon just right. Closing in was the most obvious thing to do if she was disadvantaged due to reach but reality couldn't be more depressing as she saw my staff disappear from view.

"AH—"

And in an instant, it suddenly turned into a circle which promptly made a mark on her forehead which also stopped her in her tracks and kept her a good distance away.

I've shown this move once or twice but the gist was it was akin to a billiard player going for a break. And the trick with thrusts was to make the weapon as small as possible—by positioning it in a way where it's perfectly aligned with my opponent's vision—before making it fly off at break-neck speeds.

It would've been totally different if viewed from the side but from a frontal view, it would look like I was just holding a quarter.

This move wouldn't be possible with Aoi's naginata but in practice spars, I ate more than a million of this than I could count.

At this point, Kaley was just trying to endure the pain of getting her forehead struck but before she could even formulate a plan to fight against it, I took the initiative by holding the staff at one end and then swinging it on a wide arc.

Kaley was so used to sparring with people with weapons with almost the same reach as hers, she didn't even think I'd swing wide—or even initiate an attack—but this time's fucking different.

Still, she was able to duck down and avoid a blow to her temple but not only to her fucking surprise, the "attack" was actually a flick of the wrist to make the staff spin on its own as I let go of it and caught the other end.

"Ah, fuck—"

Even Kaley knew she fucked up right as the veins on my forearm protruded—right as I caught the staff after it spun once in the air—since she was still on the process of squatting while I was in the process of swinging down on her with a maniacal look on my face.

And lemme tell ya, I didn't fucking hold back as everyone grimaced the moment I made contact with her right shoulder.