An active hunter from Hokkaido was thrown into another world

Zombies, Shotguns, and Me – Chapters

Chapter 68 Bad feeling

“Shin, take a look at this.”

Reluctantly, I must undertake the routine shopping for supplies from Saaplast. It’s just something we can’t avoid, as the whole village relies on us for it…

Even Guildmaster Buffalo Bal was eagerly awaiting our arrival, just like this…

“A rotten pigeon.”

“Yes.”

“What happened to this?”

“This one was caught yesterday.”

Well, this is odd.

It’s not just that it’s decayed; most of its feathers have fallen out.

It looks like it’s been dead for about a week already, at least.

“That’s the pigeon from the warehouse, isn’t it? There’s this one elusive creature that keeps escaping my shots even with the gun you gave me.”

It’s the 4.5mm air gun, the Diana M34.

Since I’m repeatedly tasked with pigeon control, I ended up giving one to Bal, so now he deals with them.

“I finally managed to bring it down after hitting it six times. Then it ended up like this.”

“…Guldmaster Bal, do you know about zombies?”

“Naturally.”

“I appreciate your help. We’ll be heading back now.”

“Hold on――――!!”

I can’t help but feel a sense of foreboding.

“So, Guldmaster Bal, what’s your plan?”

“If we leave it be, the people in the town might turn into zombies.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I’ll consult with the lord and then you and I will exterminate all the pigeons in the town.”

“How many do you think there are?”

“About three thousand?”

“It’s not something we can handle on our own. All the hunters should participate.”

“Regular hunters wouldn’t do such embarrassing work.”

So, we were doing embarrassing work.

“…Sorry. Don’t give me that look. Just give me the pellets.”

Sure, sure. I’ll hand over an additional four thousand pellets.

“Two gold coins.”

“For such finely crafted lead, this price might actually be cheap.”

“And this is a bonus.”

“What’s this?”

“It’s oil and cleaning supplies.”

Proper maintenance is essential even for spring-powered air rifles.

First, cylinder oil. This is genuine RWS oil. There’s only one store in Japan that handles it. You can buy it online.

I managed to get it with a magic bag, though.

“Once you’ve fired a thousand rounds, put just two drops from this white bottle, into this hole.”

“Oh… I see. It’s in an unusual bottle…”

There’s no polyethylene packaging in this world, after all. It’s like an eye drop package.

“Next, this green bottle is for the spring. Use a screwdriver to remove the screw here…”

When you remove the stock, you can see the spring. Drip six drops of spring oil on it, and on the link part of the lever arm. Also, the trigger and sear don’t need oiling.

Instructions about oiling the trigger mechanism vary between guns, as some recommend against it due to its delicate nature, while others suggest it. You’ll have to refer to the manual for this.

“I see. Apply oil, huh? It’s the same for any machine.”

“Figured that out from using it, right? It’s just a machine, after all.”

“Yeah, the blacksmith told me to show him something interesting, but he just waved it off saying something like ‘Can’t make something like that.'”

Probably right.

“And this barrel gets dirty too, so after firing a hundred shots, pack some felt or cloth, push it in with a thin rod, and clean it. You do that, right?”

“Oops, forgot about that.”

Well, that can’t be helped.

Shall I show you how it’s done?

The cleaning rod and felt should be available from Bal.

By cleaning this way, the felt turns pitch black from lead residue. Repeat this until it no longer gets dirty. Spring-powered air rifles are delicate, so it’s better to clean them with the rod like this. We won’t use the method of shooting out the felt like with pump or pre-charged air rifles.

“Alright, then let’s head to the Lord’s estate.”

We’ll go to the mansion on horseback, not using the carriage. I can ride horses now too.

Kyrif’s face scrunches up as he gaze at the zombie-fied pigeon.

Its head has been blown apart. Bal must have fired six shots, and one hit the head.

“The pigeons have turned into zombies.”

“That’s right. Well, that seems to be the case.”

“Easy there, Bal-san. Compared to you, I’m like a child.”

This is what’s great about Kyrif. He’s an approachable lord.

“We want to eliminate all the pigeons in the city.”

“That’s the plan.”

“Hmm… How many pigeons do you think there are?”

“I estimate around three thousand.”

“What’s the current reward for each one?”

“Two large copper coins for Shin.”

“That’s cheap! Shin, you were doing it for such a price?”

“Well, being a hunter is like a voluntary service.”

I shrug my shoulders to illustrate.

It seems I’m getting used to this world quite a bit, even though Japanese people wouldn’t do such things.

“Offering two copper coins per pigeon, that’s a total of forty-two gold coins for three thousand pigeons. Will hunters work for such an amount?”

“That’s why we want to pay the hunters a daily wage.”

“I’ve never heard of hunters being hired to exterminate pigeons. Are they reliable? Arrows flying around the city could cause accidents.”

“Now that you mention it, that’s quite valid.”

“Hmm, if only Shin had five more people with him.”

Such an unreasonable request…

“Shin, I’ll cover your stay. You can sleep here in this mansion. The reward is fifty gold coins. The task is to eliminate all the pigeons in the city. Can you do it?”

“Instead of that, how about we try to locate the zombie pigeons and track where they’re coming from?”

“Is that something achievable?”

“I’ll do my best to make it happen.”

With Bal, we go around places like the trading company with the horse stable and large mansions, scouting for clues.

“Look there! Isn’t that one, Bal-san?”

A pigeon on the roof of the Heroic Church!

Its feathers are quite sparse!

“That’s the one!”

We enter the church grounds without permission and, with Bal’s careful aim, I ask him to take the shot…

Thwack!

It comes fluttering down, and Saran swiftly captures it under a net with a long handle.

Bal, hitting a target at a distance of 25 meters with his open sight and no scope, is quite skilled, isn’t he? He might even be better than me by now.

It’s struggling.

Full of life.

Being a zombie pigeon, it won’t die unless you shoot through its head.

My air rifle and bullets should have Nanothesu’ blessing, meaning the zombie should die in a single shot. Killing it won’t leave any trace behind. So, I had Bal use his air rifle and the remaining bullets I gave him to take the shot.

Well, it’s a zombie, so it might already be dead.

The fact that it was in the Heroic Church doesn’t bode well.

“If the Heroic Church is behind this, what could it mean?”

If that’s the case, Bal, it’s quite unsettling.

While the graveyard is outside the city, the church is responsible for its management. This could mean they’re producing zombies without restraint.

Could the church be plotting to unleash these on the city?

“No way, no way, no way! There’s no benefit to this. What does the church gain from doing something like this?”

Come on, the church isn’t that bad, is it?

“We need to confirm.”

Wearing thick leather gloves and tying a red ribbon about a meter long to my ankle, I thrust it into the birdcage.

We’ve arrived at the East Gate.

Bal, Saran, and I each mount separate horses, ready to go.