Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

For some reason, I very much felt like I was in trouble even though Gabby did mention that they’d still accept the processing of credits we had even before the world ended but yeah, I had more than double the actual credits I thought I had in my account.

However, I know full well that I haven’t done anything wrong so I confidently followed the lady with Gabby to the Director’s office.

The office was just as I remembered back then though the Director’s name that was carved in the marble thingamajig on the table was now different.

‘It would’ve been easier if it was the one I knew…’𝒐𝓋𝗅xt.𝗇𝓔t

In any case, Gabby looked like she was this close to having a panic attack while the Karen—not her real name yet—was eyeing me like I hacked their system and funneled funds into my account like a fucking idiot.

It was because this Hannes guy gave her a printout of some sort and it seemed like it contained multiple transactions of different people on the campus, whether they were students, faculty, or even just residents, giving me random donations all throughout the year.

I shook my head in disbelief, “Excuse me, but I just arrived here yesterday and—”

“QUIET! We’ll wait for the director and—”

“No. YOU shut the fuck up,” I said in the politest way I could.

“E-Excuse me?! You dare—”

“Bitch, you do know I can fucking lop your head off or empty the whole mag of my pistol in your empty fucking head if I so wanted so don’t accuse me of shit I didn’t do.”

“…!”

‘Damn, that felt so~ fucking good…’

I continued as I released the tiniest bit of pressure to envelop the whole office, “If you want receipts, I have receipts. I made copies of everything as I could the moment I could use a scanner and I can assure you I have more or less twenty-thousand credits in my account!”

She smirked like she caught me in a lie, “Then why do you have fifty—”

“That was what I was about to explain to you before you cut me off, you budget Mrs. Jennifer Coolidge!”

She was just so fucking confused, “W-What Mrs— Don’t talk to me like that! Don’t you have any manners?!”

It took everything for me to not break her head open on the table, “Manners? Why? Just because you’re older than me? For the record, I do have them but it should go both ways. You made me walk into this office and start to piece in your head that I did something wrong even without checking out the facts and gathering evidence like you’re supposed to. Why? Is it the tattoos? The gun? My katana? What is it, huh?”

Before I could say anymore, the new Director came in and took his seat and Washboard Bimbo#1 hurriedly gave him the ‘evidence’ against me.

But yeah, it looked like Gabby was the one who did something wrong because she had shrunk down and was covered in sweat while I was mad-dogging the fuck out of the new challenger.

He didn’t seem to pay much of a mind as to what I was doing to him because he was more focused on checking the pages and pages of my transaction history.

“Hmm…”

“D-Director?” The bitch incarnate tried to call out to him.

“…”

“U-Umm… Director?”

“Hmmm…”

“E-Excuse me, Director—”

The Director suddenly placed the evidence down before taking off his glasses, “Jillian, can you please take Ms. Gabriella with you and—”

Her face suddenly lit up as she cut in, “S-So did he really hack into the system? This rude—”

He suddenly cut her off with a glare, “Jillian. I’m asking you a simple favor so I can talk with our Guest of Honor… Can you do something as simple as that?!”

She couldn’t believe what she was hearing, “B-But Director—”

“Out! Don’t embarrass me any more than you did by calling off— ugh… just get out…”

At this moment, I couldn’t believe the bitch-ass would be the one receiving the talking to but I had to protect my new acquaintance because I’m pretty sure she’d get reprimanded for doing nothing as well.

I cut in, “Excuse me?”

The Director turned to me with a certain level of attentiveness and with a totally different expression, “Yes, young man?”

“Can Gabby— I mean Gabriella stay for the moment so she won’t get yelled out when they go out and can I call you Mr. Celestre?”

He nodded in kind as he smiled, “Alright. She can stay and you can call me whatever you want,” then he glanced momentarily at this Jillian fellow before mouthing, “Out.”

As soon as the door closed behind her, she started yelling at the poor Hannes fellow before it slowly faded and it didn’t take long before Mr. Celestre was just looking at me as a whole(?) if that ever meant anything.

It was quiet for a minute or two but I had to break the ice because I had places to go.

“I’m sorry but if we’re just gonna try and read each others’ minds—”

Mr. Celestre chuckled as he waved me down, “I’m sorry, I didn’t actually think it was you.”

“You know me?”

“Yeah— We all do in name, but—” he cut himself off before he looked like he was trying to choose his words carefully, “You see…”

“Mr. Celestre, I’d appreciate it more if you’d be straight and blunt with me, even add a curse here and there… Because I find those people more trustworthy and honest… no offense if you want to keep kissing your mother with that mouth.”

He tried to hold in a laughter as he smiled, “Alright, I’ll try to be cool? Is that even the word for it? We’ll go with that, shall we? In any case, it seemed like our clerks were a little surprised about the amount of credits stored in your account but upon further inspection from yours truly, everything checks out.”

“Huh? It should’ve—”

“You don’t understand—”

I tried to prompt a reaction, “Then enlighten me.”

He just let out the same smile, “Very well… As not to waste your precious time anymore, let’s just say that these transfers were all legit to the point that if we dragged all of them here to confirm whether they sent five credits to you or a hundred, they’ll probably send you more if they see you in the flesh.”

“And why is that?”

“To put it in a single word: guilt.”

“Guilt?”

“Yes… and to find another word for it… It’s for an apology… I’m pretty sure the only receiver of the Solomon’s Wisdom Award can still remember that awful thing the university did to a certain individual who just wanted to warn everybody of the end of times yet everyone denounced him as one would a false prophet claim they were a son of God or God himself.”

“…”

“Mr. Ishiyama?”

I shrugged my shoulders, “Still, thirty-thousand credits were still a bit much, no? Isn’t a thousand or so credits enough to send waves around campus?”

“Ah… Well, it didn’t come evenly from everybody, I might say… a-and for what it’s worth, the President, Dr. Ganoba, personally sent you— no, doubled your credits because we had no way of sending our apology over to where you were at the time. We do know a credit or two is enough to live for a day but the life given to us by The Almighty is more important than that. If it wasn’t for you, more lives would’ve been lost and taken away by the enemy. For that, anyone who wanted to say their thanks and apologies did it in the form of sending you whatever they could at the time, and by God’s grace, He made it so that you’d be able to see it when you miraculously found your way back to us and—”

I tried my best not to roll my eyes and go on a spiel in case they take it all away if they knew about my current relationship with his holiness, “I would love to hear more about that some other time but what I wanted to know right now is if I can still use ALL of them and if Gabby here can transfer some of them to my friends?”

He nodded with a smile, “O-Of course! Then—”

I returned his smile before I stood up, “Then we’re done here, right?”

“O-Of course,” he nodded again before he turned to Gabby, “Ms. Gabriella, kindly guide Mr. Ishiyama to your station, and if you may do so with a little expedience, help him with his concerns the best way you can. Understood?”

Gabby shakily nodded as she stood up and bowed to Mr. Celestre, “O-Of course, Director—”

“Oh. I’m also concerned about what Jillian might do to you so why don’t you take the rest of the day off or whatever and transfer a couple hundred of credits to your account.”

“D-Director?!”

“Take it from mine, no worries.”

“U-Umm— T-Thank you, Director!”

He let out another smile, “You’re very much welcome! Go on then~”

‘Well that was easy…’

I was just about to open the door in front of us but Mr. Celestre left me some final words:

“Mr. Ishiyama… We… We really are sorry for what we did to you… If there’s anything—”

I cut him off before it became too sappy for my taste, “Yeah? You sure about that? Well~ Let’s just say that if another one like me tries to ruffle some feathers or suggest some changes and whatnot… Why don’t you hear them out for once or check out or examine what they can do for the better of the university so there’s no repeat of what happened last time?”

“…”

“Not everything’s a good idea but shutting everything down like what one of your clerks did to me even without knowing the full story is not up to the university’s standards, no?”

“Of course—” He was about to let out one of his smiles but I cut him off once again.

“I know that it’s disrespectful to tell someone else how to do their job but they also got to stop and think why the other person risked offending someone by doing that, no? They could simply be an asshole like 90% of the time but what if the actual system is failing and some changes are needed to be done? Trust me— no, trust my late parents who were guilty of the fact that they blindly trusted something that was working for decades and counting and they only realized late and lost a few things that are important.”

“May I ask—”

“No, sorry. You’re grown adults, you gotta experience it firsthand or should be aware of it years ago.”