Bodega Cat (System Apocalypse, Deck Builder, Litrpg)

"La noche wants to extend you an offer. We have our preliminary map of New York City. We would like to control everything north of Spanish Harlem. We understand that you're going to be expanding north, south and west of your position towards the more populated apartment buildings."

"There's only three directions that we can expand. This is correct." Big'll have to deal with the reality that he was next to the East River and he could not buy up river or stick a claim there nor could he buy up bridges. He could sell bridges and in fact he'd sold a Brooklyn bridge several times. It's what you did when you wanted to make fun of somebody for not understanding the city.

"Very well. Our sources say that land purchased has to be incontiguous blocks. Therefore, our proposal is to split Manhattan to thirds roughly. Well we would ask of the Chelsea pigeons is to envelop the human area as they went East. This way we will have far uptown. Your faction will have midtown and the pigeons will have downtown. This will allow us to remove the mobs from New York City and then we can move on to the other boroughs."

Bagel itched to tell them about what the pigeons were doing on Staten Island. He was pretty sure that if they could do it on Staten Island they would do it on Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx. It was just a matter of time. However those were places the squirrels could easily reach. They were just a bridge away in most cases, especially from Harlem.

"And then what happens after we finish Manhattan? Are we going to allow each other to continue to expand?"

Melpo shrunk back as a human lured in a large golden eagle mob. "None of us know what's going to happen next and we all expect the humans to pull some sort of stupid shit to maintain their their balance of being the number one predator. Or maybe they just want to be the rich ones again, never thinking that the downtrodden could ever rise against them."

They'll try to think of a place where he would be content with just a little bit of Manhattan. And if the whole island was safe then he might be okay with it and then he could start expanding his domain other places. But he'd always have the arena. And if monsters were not spawning anywhere else then they would spawn there and maybe on Roosevelt Island.

"If we don't think about what's going to happen after all this app ends. However, it does then the humans are going to have the initiative. We need to take the initiative from them. As such..." They to look back to Copernicus.

The other cat cleared his throat. " We are prepared to offer initial terms upon which we can come to an agreement. Assuming that you can take us back and they would agree we could coordinate more readily. Again, we've already established a relationship with the Chelsea pigeons. Establishing one with La Noche would be beneficial for both partners."

"And because of Bagels charter with transitional system authority, do you have a working relationship with the city. I believe that we can come to an arrangement."

Bagel smiled. At least one thing would be going well today.

---

The representative of La Noche stayed a little bit longer and they had some food and drank but before long they turned up and left. They surprised Bagel by summoning flying mobs and then getting on, but it made sense to him. They were much faster that way. In this way, he could imagine that they would be able to fly much faster and move much faster.

However this due to the simple fact that they were squirrels and they wanted to to stay low to the ground until their summons unsummoned. Most normal summons can only stay out for four to five minutes, meaning that they would have to be close to the ground. Bagel couldn't imagine All of a sudden losing altitude while being flown around. It was definitely possible but he didn't want to lose one of his nine lives for that reason.

There were other reasons he would trade his lives in but just getting the ability to fly around was not going to cut it for him. He needed more than that. The question was...

Would they hold up their end of the bargain? Melpo was a shifty squirrel but he didn't have anything else to base that off of. He didn't like squirrels, but that was more of a visceral reaction to a potential new meat he could eat.

Bagel had asked Janet to go on the internet and determine what a squirrel would taste like and when he found out that it would taste stringy and gamey, he figured that it might not be in his best interest to go after them.

If he really wanted to eat a squirrel there would be time after. His tendency was to think that there would always be time to track down some squirrels. He just needed to allow himself that opportunity.

---

"The squirrels are trying to do what now?" Kate said, trying to take her eyes away from Ashley.

"They've made a deal. Either that I think that Bagels sucker. I don't think that the squirrels understand who they've just gotten into bed with." Ashley donned the ears.

" I'm just glad you still have that squirrel girl costume because otherwise would have been really weird."

Ashley continued with the brown bodysuit. "This has got to be the weirdest thing you've asked me to do but..."

"Look if your girlfriend has a squirrel girl cosplay you're going to ask her to break it out."

Ashley continued putting on the bodysuit. It was for her after all.

---

"I don't know what they're thinking."

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
"You know exactly what they're thinking. You just don't want it to be true. They're thinking that that can win this on their own."

Janet was displaying the area they had brought up. Including recent purchases, they how had three whole blocks and by three blocks up against the river. It was a square and humans like squares. It was like a big block. The way things were going, they were going to have to start sending people further and further our Fields with the adventures guild which was good for them because now more people wanted to volunteer for the Staten Island mission.

"I'm just saying that we need to expand into Queens and Brooklyn. The fastest ways move there the easier it's going to be for us to snatch up more of that land. Brooklyn is only 20% bought up but Queens? It looks wide open."

"Gladys, do you think that? Who would you want to have the third card. If we pick someone from the Turtle Bay adventurers guild then we have to trust them. Do you think that... What am I? Is there something on my face?"

Gladys sighed. "I think you should probably pick somebody from inside our organization. I would do it if you love me but that would mean I need to go back and forth. There are several bridges between here and queen but they require some travel. If I can get chopped off by the ferry whenever you needed to buy stuff that would also be great."

Bagel didn't know what to do with that. If they're going to expand there then they were going to need to have someone trustworthy. And there was nobody he trusted more than her. If she needed him to get a boat docked on the East River? He could do that. They had the ferry there. Why wouldn't they just use it?

"You want to get a house goal or some sort of boat somebody and bring it over here? And you can commute back and forth to Queens easily?"

Gladys rolled her eyes. "You know me too well boss. I've always wanted to sail in New York city's inland waterways. It's just more expedient. If we're going to have our headquarters here which it seems like we're going to do then it makes more sense for me to be going back and forth or somebody who designated to go back and forth. And I don't know if you want to nominate somebody else from inside jelly side layer?"

Bagel emphatically shook his head no. He hadn't been getting the best feeling from them recently and he wanted to feel better about that. But nothing that Copernicus had done had really made him think that he wanted to grow deeper in their relationship. Copernicus was still doing wacky things trying to get engagement from the adventurers guild and he was not the biggest fan of that.

There was no room for influencers in the apocalypse.

" Maybe we'll find a way to fly over there with the drones or something? You could just Mount one of those large giant eagles. I guess. They have a mount ability it lets you ride them."

Gladys face flashed shock before returning to its normal resting position. " I feel like this is a good idea but I also am afraid of heights. Maybe I should get one of those water ones to carry me across or something. Regardless, I will take care of that on my own time. We need to talk about our next meeting with the pigeons though. Meatball has been hitting a wall."

Bagel nodded. "I heard that she got squished when she hit the wall. But that was second hand."

"They're being really aggressive about what they want her do and she's been going there almost every other day. In fact, it's been a couple days where she's been to. Chelsea Piers every single day recently. And now I'm not saying that this is a bad thing but they're not bringing it enough. And she's not getting a chance to level up. She won't be able to get that perk that you want her to get."

It was a big part of their plans to get both bagel and meatball to be making more out of every purchase. And that will require meatball to. They wanted to take her next thresholds. However, her growth had stalled because she had been working so hard to accommodate the Chelsea Piers pigeons. It was acceptable that this happened but it was also a bit ridiculous.

Meatball had been leveling up the fastest of all the cats. In fact, she'd surpassed all of the core members of the other side layer. She moved on faster than any of them could even anticipate. That was because she just loved going to dungeons and seeing new things and killing dungeon spawns and doing everything the system ask the humans to do.

She was in essence the most human of all the cats.

"I'm worried that they're going to try to keep her there and she won't come back."

Gladys placed a hand over her mouth. "I have utter confidence in her. She's done so much for us and we need to trust her judgment in this matter. I understand that it looks weird but this whole situation is... Look I never expected. I'd be talking to a cat about another cat. Especially not to this level."

"And I never thought that I would be speaking to a human. Well speaking anymore than just a growl."

"But I think what's going to happen if we keep going this way is that City Hall is going to try to start directing us in one way or the other. Mayor Abrams... I think that she's going to want some accountability eventually. We can't be on the back foot forever, this is going to change."

"But what if it didn't change? What if they kept doing what they're doing because they're overwhelmed and nothing can change."

Gladys grabbed a chair and sat down. "Bagel can't just drop shit like that on me. Are we just in another version of late stage capitalism?"