Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

Chapter 1034 I don't like your tone...

As of this moment, Jomar and I were in the same place I interrogated Tim and the rest of the crazy fucks who invaded Woodlands, an annex of our main base that wasn't a part of us before, but it wasn't even a few seconds of intense eye contact when the motherfucker sang like a bird.

He absolutely told me everything he could like his life— no, because his life literally depended on it, and the most important bits were as follows:

Benjamin Crisologo, their head honcho of sorts was actually presumed dead the moment the horde we cleared at their place got in, but ever since then, he successfully managed to get into contact with his friends right by the City of San Jose Del Monte—a place still part of Bulacan located furthest east from Marilao.

And as he mentioned, Benjamin had very powerful friends before the world ended and a select few still survived to this day, and one of them was living in that same city and decided to lend him a hand.

It made him bring back his property to its feet without the help of yours truly, unlike the other community where we found Roi's belongings, but as the two touched base and started exchanging war stories, it seemed like I came up and the motherfucker was still harboring a grudge for not giving him half of my guns.

However, what Benjamin Crisologo failed to tell his buddy was that the person he was trying to get information from was actually indebted to me.

I obviously haven't gotten into much detail about this particular bit of info from the past, but the two people we rescued from Benjamin's grasp were Darelle and Trisha, who I put in charge of scouting ahead and getting into places to gather all sorts of information—very similar to what Bordz and Jomar were doing—but the purpose was to make friends, not to figure out the weakness of the enemy.

One of the reasons he was indebted to me was because I helped him and the DDR Camp located in their city with my troops and some of my supplies to build them back up though they did pay us back several times what we've given them because they had the monopoly of all the resources and other failed DDR Camps that place had to offer.

It was one of the better ROIs I've had up to date and Benjamin Crisologo wouldn't see the shit that was about to blow up in his face in a few hours.

And yeah, Jomar's story completely checked out.

This powerful buddy of his was Christian Felix Garciano, a political figure from a neutral party before the world ended—but not on the same level as Iskoh—and the reason he was helping Benjamin Crisologo was he owed him tons of cash when he was starting to climb the political ladder, and it was one of those things where a bit of lying, guilt, and gaslighting was involved in order for him to be convinced to wage war with one of his enemies.

But Jomar doesn't know a single fucking thing about my connection to the guy because and neither did Benjamin.

And right now, they were still in the information-gathering stage of their plan while I was already planning on how to turn that piece of territory into something useful once I was done with that asshole.

At this moment, Jomar who was sitting right in front of me never looked happy because I never looked happy myself once Mr. Garciano picked up the call for me because the number Jomar gave me worked. Furthermore, I was singing Jomar praises for finally bridging the connection between us because back then, we were just talking through a proxy and he really wanted to meet with the person who Darelle and Trisha were working with.

But yeah, the moment we ended the call on a high note, Jomar breathed a sigh of relief as he started to apologize and tell me all sorts of things that could benefit "us" with our new partnership, but all the lights in his eyes dimmed down right when my knife went through our table while his right hand was right between them.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! W-WHAT— F-FUCK! FUCK! W-WHAT DID I— I TOLD YOU EVERYTHING! I-I FUCKING TOLD YOU EVERYTHING, D-DIDN'T I?! W-WHY— W-WHY DID YOU—"

I cut him off with an eerie smile, "Put my knife through your hand?"

"Y-YES! FUCK YOU— NO, I-I— W-WHY'D YOU HAVE TO DO THIS, YOU F— AHHH! SHIT! D-DO I PULL IT OUT OR—"

"You're being too loud Jomar, did you think you'd come out of this unscathed?"

"Y-YEAH— I-I MEAN NO, B-BUT— HNGH— I-IT REALLY H-HURTS, MAN! FUCK! D-DO— I-I CAN'T EVEN THINK STRAIGHT—"

"Hah! You can't even think straight? For real?! I thought you weren't thinking straight the moment you followed that fuck's orders and tried to mess with me! We offered helping hands to everybody once we got the ball rolling! Aw, gee~ I'm sorry, we didn't help you that time but who's gonna help a fucking asshole that wanted to take half our shit the moment we lent them a hand, huh?! Can you fucking answer that for me, Jomar?!"

"B-BUT I TRIED TO HELP YOU NOW, S-SIR! I-I—"

He stopped whatever he was trying to say when he saw me pull a bandaid from my medpack:

"Here. I'm sorry for stabbing your hand but I'm gonna help you with this bandaid—"

"W-WHAT— I-I—"

"Confused? I am too, Jomar, I'm confused too. You did make things a little bit easier for me but even without your help you fucks stood no chance against us. And to think that some of the resources we handed over to your powerful friend landed over to you guys fucking infuriates me. But yeah, aside from trespassing and bribery among other things you fucks slighted me with, we could probably add petty thievery or even grand larceny into the mix, huh?"

"W-WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO?! I-I DON'T HAVE THE F-FINAL SAY A-AND I'M JUST—"

"What do I want you to do? Quick question: do you wanna walk out of here alive or nah?"

"W-WHAT DO YOU THINK?! I-I'M TRYING MY BEST HERE! C-CAN I GET THE KNIFE OUT O-OR WHAT?!"

"Jomar, I don't like your tone… Better fix that up or I'll have another knife buried in ya— But listen: If you could pull your hand out of that knife without uttering a noise within a certain decibel, I'll let you live. But if you try to pull the knife out, I'll hammer it back in until you satisfy me. Do try to be fucking quick about it though because you're bleeding… Oh! The bandaid might help…"