Bodega Cat (System Apocalypse, Deck Builder, Litrpg)

"All right so I think that this is going to be the last time that we have to go on daily supply runs. The next time is going to be every other day. Especially when you have the people on the Verrazano bridge who have linked up with you."

Todd a Nick bearded man in his mid to late thirties. Looked ecstatic to see Kate and Ashley but then drooped into a shrimp posture when he was told that he would have to actually talk to other humans about his plans of attack.

"I'm just saying that I didn't think about them when I planned this," Todd said.

"So you've told me repeatedly. Believe me, none of us thought about these guys at all. We are all surprised that they have guns and we are all surprised that they are still there despite it being two months and it's probably due to the fact that they became deck bearers from killing so many shades."

Based on where the land is on Staten Island, initially they had been surrounded by shadowy shade mobs. The ferry which had now four four working machine gun mounts on the exterior had been able to make short work of hundreds of shades.

The combination of Todd having a card that let him buy a land and on Staten Island and their continual pressing into try to reclaim the land had left the city with a state where the people that were there they needed to start clearing out dungeons.

Dungeons were like closets; they had to get regularly cleaned out. Otherwise you might find extra dragons there that you weren't ready to address.

"Again I'm just asking if you could leave the machine guns," Todd said.

Ashley was very pleased that he wasn't asking her on a date. But she was less than enthusiastic about his desire to take away her machine guns. She had won those fair and square and had to recruit the people to to fire them in order to start regaining anything on Staten Island.

"You haven't found anything on that little base there? There's got to be something. The Apocalypse was so instant that no one would have had a chance to bring out what... guns from an armory?" Ashley said.

"Okay look I'm going to level with you. We did find some weapons but we don't have any ammunition.

"We'll hold it right there partner because I know somebody who deals in ammunition. In fact you know somebody that deals with ammunition cuz you bought a cards from him before."

Confusion flitted across Todd's face. "Are you talking about Bagel? I did not know that he was an arms dealer. Do cats even have arms or are those just front legs?"

Above them, a flock of pigeons appeared. They had gotten plenty of notice, as Khaleesi has sent out several warnings.

"Oh there they are," Ashley said. "I wonder if they're going to help us out the way that said they were going to."

There were at least thirty pigeons that passed governor's Island and were flying south toward Staten Island. They weren't directly on intercept with the ferry which was going slightly east. Ashley borrowed the binoculars and watched as they got closer and closer to the shore.

Dozens of summoned cards appeared next to the waters edge. Over two dozen pigeons had pulled their decks.

"Where are they going? Where...do you want me to go see what they're fucking doing..." Todd said.

It was a large group of mobs that were causing a ruckus. The flames and electricity coming up from the group could be seen rising up several stories.

Ashley had never really considered how much damage a flock of pigeons could do. As pigeons, they did not need to land. They weren't hovering there. They kind of circled around, every so often summoning another thing and adding it to The fray. After while, most of them took up spots on some of the larger buildings and that was when they couldn't be seen much anymore individually.

It was far easier to pick out a flock of pigeons from this distance as they flew. Them stopping meant that The adventurous guild wouldn't be able to spot exactly where they were saved for the amount of summons that kept popping up and causing damage.

"This looks very intentional. I think I'm going to have to call Gladys."

---

"Hello?"

"You're going to want to go to drones and scones and see what the heck is going on. The Chelsea pigeons have made a move."

The phone clicked off. Gladys wondered if she needed to put pants on for this. The man that had stayed overnight was still in her bed. His pants looked pretty good. And that would mean that he wouldn't get a chance to leave.

He stirred.

Gladys felt his back. "I'm going to be right back."

The tall dark man grunted. She did not mention that she was wearing his pants.

After all, they fit really well.

---

"Okay but what's up with the pants?" Khaleesi said.

"I had a visitor. They look very comfortable. I took liberties."

Khaleesi huffed. "God that's one of those things that I'm never going to experience, am I?"

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Gladys crossed her arms. "If you're going to sit here and the moan the loss of prom and high school and all those things, then at least offer me a beer. Anyway, show me what Ashley wants me to see."

Khaleesi assumed direct control of the console. She shifted through several drone views before she settled on what she was looking for.

It was a group of mobs fighting against summons but she couldn't place the location.

"I take it that this is Staten Island? What the heck am I seeing?"

"What you're seeing is the pigeons are finally making a move."

Gladys adjusted her glasses. And then hit her.

"Wait. They flew all the way from Chelsea down to here and... They're just killing mobs? Did somebody let it slip that... Wait a second."

It was a open secret that no one could get a mantle card that would allow them to attach it to a shop without a fair bit of travel.

"Fuck what the fuck are they doing. Are these fucking pigeons crazy?" Gladys stomped around for a second trying to figure out why the hell they would be doing this. "Are they trying to help us or are they trying to what started turf war with the adventurers guild? Because the guilds only buying up the land on behalf of the city. Are they trying to fight the city?"

Khaleesi paused the footage and gave Gladys her full attention. "Do you think that the pigeons did this on purpose because they are trying to get more turf. Is that what you think?"

"Well they have to have a reason for doing this right? They're not going to do this out of the goodness of their hearts. See whether they should. I think that they are trying to get at our skin or they're trying to establish a base over there or there could be any a number of things. Now that they know that La Noche has started making moves..."

"What the heck are the squirrels going to do? Get all of Harlem? No come on. They can't be doing that? Can they?"

"You and I both know that we've seen them all the way up to Spanish Harlem. I feel like they are trying to establish a northern boundary."

Khaleesi brought up a map of Manhattan. "If they they buy out a Spanish Harlem. They can have the whole place from the East River to the Hudson River. And then what? We can't go past them? Is that how land purchases works?"

Gladys had heard enough of bagel's musings about his theory of how they bought up land. Her understanding of it was that if they could not buy up the land pass a certain point then they could not extend. All of his land had to be contiguous. He could leave spots inside of it, but it had to be a continual block. If he wanted to establish a second block of area he would have to have a second mantle card or be able to connect it all.

She was not certain if they could buy up the river. Mobs didn't spawn there. It didn't make sense for them not to be about able to buy up the water but there were rules to this and she didn't get a chance to actually do this herself. He controlled money. He controlled the way things were bought. He just had to get out all of it together.

"If they form a full block between the rivers then we can't buy anything past them. There's only four entities buying up land in Manhattan. That would be us the Chelsea pigeons La Noche and then the city government. Hell, I don't even know if the city government is tracking how much we're buying. I'm pretty sure that they're not in league with La Noche."

The idea of La Noche two timing them was not one that gave her a good feeling. She had only met the squirrels a day prior and she was already ready to get the heck off Manhattan. Who in the right mind would give any squirrel access to the magical power of summoning cards in a deck?

But at the same time a bunch of pigeons had done the same thing and had settled on her Island. He just didn't know how much of a deal this was going to be for Bagel. He wanted to keep the piece but eventually there was going to be a point at which they couldn't expand and it looked like within another month and a half. They might be there if the amount of credits coming in kept constant and the amount of people...

"You really think these squirrels are that smart?" Khaleesi said.

"I think it would be foolish to not give them the benefit of the doubt."

All the sudden Bagel wanting to eat the squirrels made a lot more sense. It would be just so easy to eat your enemies.

If only that was an option. Killing and eating somebody's enemies was going to be the most metal way to go but it was not the way for her. And it definitely was not going to be the way to deal with these kind of gang adjacent problems. Were they a street gang? They were about as close as they could be to it.

"I feel the same way about the pigeons," Khaleesi adjusted the zoom so that they could see the row of pigeons each of them holding up one talon which was obviously where they were pulling their hand of cards from.

"Look, I know that Bagel considers them both a delicacy and also a street rat which blows my mind. They're like the lobsters of the sky. But you see that they are literally flying like they are in a specific attack pattern and they've landed and they are just doing a ton of damage to this group of shades here. I wouldn't be surprised if they started clearing dungeons just to get the cards. And getting one mantle card where they could buy up a block here? They could start doing what we're doing here but on Staten Island."

"I don't understand why they don't just go to New Jersey. It's literally right there. They would have to do even less just to go to New Jersey."

"You know New Yorkers like to complicate things. These pigeons are all New Yorkers in the sense that they grew up here or they were born here or in most other cases, awakened here."

"Well, it makes sense that they're trying to work on Staten Island before they even go to Jersey if they're New Yorkers."

---

---

Bagel could feel a growl coming up. It wasn't one of those ones where you was trying to warn somebody away. This was going to be a part of him trying to lash out. He could see what the pigeons were doing. He could see what the squirrels were doing. They were expanding out and they were not abiding by any of these treaties that they said they were so interested in doing.

Oh sure! It have been a good idea for them to formalize their agreement, but practice, that meant that they were going to try to sneak as much as they could in before the formal arrangement started. And them trying to buy up Coast to coast east to west off of 125th Street. Meant that at some point in time their claim would butt up against his claim and he wouldn't be able to go any further north. This is of course if they decided to keep it that way. Then might as well just start moving itself one block at a time. Trying to reclaim as much as I could until it got to Central Park North. If they went further than that? He might have to fight them.

The same was two for Chelsea pigeons even though they relied on meatball to expand there safe zones. But this new patch of land that he saw growing on the Northwest side of Staten Island where it was clear that someone had bought it up shown out against the darkness on the purchase map. Oh we could see everywhere that people had purchased stuff and there were little dots all over the country. Each one was a little safe zone or collection of safe zone's and he could zoom in and out.

But what really got him was seeing how all of a sudden in the middle of Staten Island somebody had bought something and it looked like the culprit was not other than the Chelsea pigeons.

At worst they had done this intentionally just to try and sabotage the humans. At best, they were just trying to help out and wanted to use their ability to fly and get up high and stay away from mobs to casually slaughter as many mobs as possible before creating a safe zone there. This will give them the credits of a nearly overrun borough of the city as well as thousands.

If not that, then the hundreds of thousands of cards that would result.

Did he feel some kind of way about that? Yes, he did.

This was his City and those were his cards and if they wanted that kind of shit, they were going to have to fight for it.

Gladys walked in ringing the bell. There was a violence in her eyes that he had not seen in a long time. He smiled.

Apparently they were now on the same page.