Bodega Cat (System Apocalypse, Deck Builder, Litrpg)

Bagel was able to assign an heir to take over his duties. It was one of those hidden features that he hadn't noticed until recently. He was able to assign a line of secession and it didn't even require the person to show up. Just as long as somebody was responsible for all the land bought up. The shop itself would cease to function without his mantle card, but whoever survived him could use that.

It was a little thought in the back of his head that perhaps somebody would try to kill him for his card. In the back of his mind, he felt like he was the deadliest thing on the block.

"So what you're saying is if Bagel meets an unfortunate end then..." Blue said. "Someone else gets the claim of his land? Is that correct?"

"The controls allow you to toggle monster spawns on and off. I'm not sure if it would permit you to buy more, but my AI said that was unlikely."Bagel did not want to give away to the keys of the city. He didn't even want people to know that he was nominally the president of the TSA as it was a public corporation. But necessity was the mother of subterfuge.

"Officially I am the head of this administration. But unofficially I need you to understand that we have to work around the requirements that are sent upon us.*"

"There's no reason for us to need to require anyone outside of this room to understand the depth of what we're about to do." For the first time in his life, Bagel understood what a serious pigeon looked like as blue laid it out.

"So we both are in agreement that we want to carve out spaces for our respective species. Is that correct?"

There was a round of nods from all of the pigeons.

They didn't have to look to see the meatball was in his side. He could tell that she wanted what he wanted. There was no room for kindness in this. This was just business. If the pigeons wanted to survive they would have to make a deal. The cats were already in a good position and bagel did not need the stress.

They resolved to take a little recess while the pigeons talked over their options. Their handler, Max gave him a little bit of a show of the golfing range for a little bit. Beta was surprised at the open Green space and the consistent sounds of balls being whacked back and forth. He hadn't considered that people would still be doing there special interest hobbies but perhaps this was something that they needed just like he needed that outlet of being able to vent to meatball or Janet.

"I think they're going to try to strong claw us into paying for the warehouse card. Or they're going to try to figure out how to get one for themselves. It sounds like the city's not been getting enough credits to buy up the land around City Hall." Gladys was nose deep in her notes as she tried to figure out something.

The one variable that none of them had considered was how much the city government was putting into its own expansive efforts. To that end, glad that they called it a police. He and Ashley to see if they could dig up that piece of information.

Ashley picked up on the first ring.

"I can see what the city government doesn't want to tell everyone how much they've got secured. They just want people to keep hoping that the area around the city hall is safe. And I think that they had a commitment to getting the downtown residential districts covered, but maybe they hit a snag somewhere."

Bagel was convinced that they were going to find out the city had been not doing the right thing.

"When you say they hit a snag, what are you talking about? What do you think that means?" Bagel said.

Ashley got louder over the speaker. "Probably local city politics about people not wanting to be scooped up by whoever owns that. We can buy it by force but it's easier if people just agree."

"Who is out here protesting us buying up land to make them safer?" Meatball asked.

"We don't talk I'll of those old money private equity guys but uhhh," Ashley said. "Anyway, I'm going to head out now. Call me back if there's any developments"

Gladys hung up the phone. The three of them took a long moment before they all began speaking at once and then they stopped. Then they started speaking again...

"I think there's something going on," Gladys said, finally. "I think that we need to just be aware of the possibility that the city might not be paying attention to what's going on. But that's okay because we're an independent agency, right? We have a charter and we have the thing that we're supposed to be working on."

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

In Bagel's mind, the thing that TSA needed to be working on was getting more money so that you could buy it more land. But of course the city wanted to do things their way a little bit so he could just tell people to fest with him and that eventually he would return their profits one way or the other. But if they didn't invest with him then he wouldn't have the money to buy the things that kept them safe. So really, that was a double-edged dog leash for them.

"I feel like if we go over here and we start working with these pigeons then eventually we're going to have a cordial relationship and I don't know if I want that."

Meatball pounced on an unattended golf ball. "I'm a little suspicious of their motives but they seem to be on the level. I think that we need to consider the possibility that they should just be told where to find these warehouse cards and then they can go send their own people to get them? Maybe then we can direct them to start buying up more?"

Babe had to consider that. It felt like asking your enemy to give you a bubble bath. First of all, no cat wanted a bath, and second off all no cat wanted actual bubbles. Or at least no cat in their right mind. Bagel knew several cats that would pretend want that to appease or humans, but this wasn't the time for that.

"So we need to do is work. A bilateral trade deal with them is what I'm hearing? Is that right boss?"

Bagel groaned. Gladys knew words that had him continually checking on his system given knowledge. He didn't like not knowing things but he would accept it, if he had to. It was more a matter of her trying to outsmart him or at least he thought she was just using bighorn just to try and make herself sound distinguished.

At the very least, she didn't use such words when they were by themselves, but perhaps he was put on performance for Max? Max appeared to be checking his nails for consistency.

That was good. At least he had the appearance of not putting into listed in other conversation. His smell indicated that he was sweating though as if he was nervous about something. Perhaps he was nervous to report back to his pigeon overlords.

He couldn't think of the kind of human that would willingly take up a role as an administrative assistant to a cartel of pigeons, but somebody eventually had because jobs were scarce in the apocalypse and it probably came with fringe benefits like not dying to a random mob spawn.

He wanted at the man's deck composition. And it wasn't the first time that he had thought about asking a man to pull out his deck. It will be easier if men could just send him deck pics or readouts of their decks so that he could just analyze them on the spot. It was part him wanted to know what kind of a threat the man was and also part him wondering what people who came from other neighborhoods would have put together as a deck.

He had never asked what spawned in Chelsea. He was pretty sure that it was a a flying or aquatic mob though. The neighborhood itself looked like a shoe that went in a few blocks and bordered the river for several blocks as well. At least from the overhead map it did. Bagel has a sense that it was almost more densely packed than Turtle Bay. At least it looked like they had made access to the water a central idea for all the residents.

It was only possible to get to the water in Turtle Bay before the highway had been shut down. It definitely hadn't been a priority for whoever had planned that route out.

"Boss?"

"Sorry, I had to check out what bilateral meant. And yes I think we can do that. Provided that the rest of the jelly side layer at large doesn't have a problem with this. But I don't think that it's their business until we go bringing them in."

Gladys turned to Meatball. "You're the one with a card. You're the one that's going to be tied to this place if we do what I think we're about to do."

"This feels really fast but it also feels like we've been trying to set up this for a while. Or at least something like this. It just..."

"McTavish came in clutch at the right time is all," Bagel said. "The city needs more men like him."

"Khaleesi was half of the equation though," Meatball said, curling up next to him.

"Of course I would never suggest anything otherwise. She's done so many great things for us. Do you think that the pigeons use drones or do you think that they just get other pigeons to do that?"

Meatball stirred. "We should ask Max. He would know."

It have been long enough that Max was ready to take them back. Or at least he'd gotten a message that they pigeons had made a decision. And as it turned out, Max knew that the pigeons had been trying to buy up some commercial off the shelf drones. It had not gone well because they wanted to fly them together with the pigeons and they flew differently.

There was something in the air when they returned. It was almost certainly the pigeons. It took a few minutes to settle down. Bagel would have snack or something but it was on the other that he was going to get anything he wanted there. More than that, next time he was going to go to one of these meetings. He would have Gladys spring something for them to sit on if they're going to be on one of those human tables.

"Have we come to an agreement?" Bagel asked.

Blue preened, then looked directly at him. "We would like to do a counter offer. We will allow you to purchase this building using our credits and then expand if you provide us with one Warehouse card or at least the ability to figure out where to get them from."

Bagel nodded. "We expected you would ask us something like that. We are prepared to give her the information on where to obtain your cards but understand that it's going to be a very difficult journey. This is not a local county."

Gladys scribbled something down.

The group paused as their humans caught up.

"We agree to this. It looks like we're going to be trading in some information. Meatball would you do the honors?"

Meatball brought up her hand and swiped. "Of course my first hand wouldn't have the warehouse card did it, she said but now?"

The card appeared in her paw and then disappeared in a shower of sparks.

"Oh wow!" She said. "The system gave me the building for free. Wait why would it give me the building for free?"